THERE was a brief health scare when Transport Minister Anthony Loke seemingly experienced some breathing difficulties as he began answering questions during Minister’s Question Time.
Loke was scheduled to answer the first question of the day from Wong Chen (PH-Subang) on guidelines to allow persons with disabilities (OKU) with Class A and A1 driving licence holders to work in e-hailing.
He was also asked about possible government plans to change guidelines to allow OKU drivers to get a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence.
After standing to answer the question, Loke immediately seemed to be out of breath as he struggled to deliver the first few lines.
Even after a short break, Loke continued to seemingly struggle to breathe as he patted his chest several times before signalling to Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Hasbi Habibollah to answer in his stead.
Hasbi immediately told Loke to relax as he proceeded to answer the question.
“YB, calm yourself down, and I will answer this first,” said Hasbi.
Other lawmakers also expressed the same concern with Datuk Mohd Isam Mohd Isa (BN-Tampin) calling for Loke to get his health checked at a hospital immediately.
“YB, please calm down first. You need to get yourself checked. It’s dangerous,” he told Loke.
Fortunately, Loke managed to recover before continuing to answer supplementary questions posed by other MPs.
To this, Loke stated that the ministry would continue to advocate for OKU driving licence holders to join the e-hailing industry depending on a case-by-case basis.
“As long as they obtain medical approval and proof that their disabilities would not endanger themselves, other drivers or their passengers, we will give them exemption to obtain a licence,” he said.
He added that his ministry was looking at how to improve the application process for these eligible OKU drivers to obtain an e-hailing or PSV licence.
Later during his ministerial reply to the debates on the Auditor-General’s report, Loke explained that he was not able to properly respond to questions earlier in the day as he was in a rush.
“I would like to apologise to the House for the disruption during the question time earlier in the morning,” he said.
“I was rushing in the morning. Hence, I could not breathe as usual. Hence, there was a bit of a disruption.”
