By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Oct 7: The Ministry of Health (MOH) has been urged to provide immediate special financial assistance to families of the five victims of the Flying Doctor Service (FDS) helicopter crash at Long Lellang, while reviewing the protection framework for personnel undertaking high-risk missions.
Miri MP Chiew Choon Man said the government’s response should go beyond ex-gratia payments, pensions and existing service benefits, with affected families requiring immediate and medium-term support following the tragedy on Sept 8.
He highlighted this following concerns raised by the families of the late Alexson Adit Henry and Jessie Paya Jok, both from Miri, over the lack of immediate financial assistance and clarity on compensation and benefits available to them.
“I have personally been in contact with the families following this tragedy, and my officers, together with ICU Sarawak, had earlier visited and provided immediate assistance to the families,” he said in a statement today, while noting that similar concerns has been raised publicly by the family of the late Captain Zainol Afiq.
Chiew said he had subsequently visited one of the families following the post-mortem process.
However, he stressed that assistance from individuals, the community or other parties could not replace the institutional responsibility owed to families of personnel who died while carrying out a public service mission.
He said he had formally written to Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, urging MOH to adopt a more comprehensive approach to the welfare and rights of all families affected.
Chiew acknowledged that MOH was working with the Public Service Department (JPA) and Ministry of Finance (MOF) to expedite ex-gratia payments, retirement benefits and other claims.
“But ex-gratia payments, pensions and existing service benefits should not be viewed as the entirety of the government’s response,” he said.
Among his proposals was immediate special financial assistance for every affected family, with temporary cost-of-living or welfare assistance for families that had lost their principal breadwinner and had young children until longer-term benefits were processed.
He also called for MOH to establish a one-stop assistance mechanism for each family.
Under the proposed system, families would receive a written breakdown of the benefits and assistance available to them, including eligibility, estimated amounts where ascertainable, application status and expected processing timeline.
“This would provide certainty and, more importantly, demonstrate that the government is walking alongside the families during this extremely difficult period,” he said.
Chiew also called for a broader review of protection for FDS personnel, who travel by air into remote and difficult terrain to deliver essential medical services to communities with limited access to healthcare.
The review, he said, should cover insurance, death and disability compensation, risk allowances, aviation emergency and survival training, safety procedures and longer-term protection for dependants.
He welcomed the Sarawak government’s announcement of RM100,000 in assistance for each of the five affected families, as well as education assistance for their children.
However, he said this should not absolve the federal government from considering further support.
“I therefore hope that the Ministry of Health will consider a comprehensive package for all affected families encompassing immediate financial assistance, existing statutory and service benefits, medium-term welfare assistance, educational security for their children, and a strengthened protection framework for future FDS personnel.
“This should not merely be about fulfilling administrative requirements. It is about how we, as a government, treat the families of those who gave their lives in the service of the rakyat,” he said. — DayakDaily
