SIBU: After several days of speculation about his health, Sibu MP Wong Ho Leng (pix) has announced that he has brain tumour.

“I am a public figure and I have no intention to hide anything from you,” Wong said in a press conference on Saturday to explain that he was currently undergoing a six-week radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

He disclosed that neurosurgeons in Australia found a glioma (brain tumour) in his brain stem on Dec 20 last year.

“The glioma is primary, in the sense it is not spread from elsewhere. It causes a slur in my speech and impaired my swallowing functions,” said Wong, who is also Bukit Assek assemblyman and Sarawak DAP chairman.

He related that before he went to Penang for the party's national convention on Dec 15, he was exhausted and it was after the event that he felt seriously unwell.

“I could not even stand and could not swallow water at the Penang International Airport while trying to board a flight to the Gold Coast in Australia to join my family on vacation there,” Wong said.

He said after arriving in Australia, he immediately went for a medical examination. Wong said he was positive of full recovery, adding that he would be closely involved in the next general election. He said that his illness would not warrant his retirement from politics, at least for now.

On a report saying that Kuching-based cardiologist Dr Tang Sie Hing had put aside RM300,000 of his savings on standby in case the party wanted him to defend Sibu or in any other seat, Wong said he strongly felt the candidate for Sibu seat should be “our own people from Sibu”.

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