Malaysia Prime Minister and cabinet members dropped into a hospital in Singapore to visit Malaysian Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin over the weekend where he is recovering from surgery to remove a pancreatic tumor.
The Home Minister, who is 71, posted photos of the visit by Tun Dr Mahathir and his wife Tun Siti Hasman, Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, Education Minister Maszlee Malik and others who visited him on Saturday, 28 July.
News of the visit has resulted in some cheeky replies from Singaporeans and rejuvenated the age-old banter the two neighbouring countries. On Facebook, there was an abundance of Singaporeans picking up in the fact that the Malaysian government employee sought treatment at a hospital in Singapore instead of Malaysia.
However, as pointed out by a couple of other commenters that judging from the photographs, the hospital in question is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IHH, a Malaysia-Singapore private healthcare group whose majority shareholder is actually Khazanah Nasional Berhad, a state investment agency.
Thus countering the argument that the Malaysian Home Minister sought ‘better treatment’ overseas.
Still, others focused on wishing the Home Minister a speedy recovery and welcoming him to Singapore instead. One person even pointed out that the minister would require some peace and quiet during his recovery which would be easier to grant in Singapore where he wouldn’t likely be hounded by Malaysian press.
The Home Minister’s press secretary, Mr Hafiz Abdul Halim, said in a statement last Thursday that Mr Muhyiddin is now on leave to undergo follow-up medical treatment and “is expected to return to duty within a month”.