Public health award

It was a good outing this afternoon. Went to Penang Institute for the sixth Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society annual public lecture. Several weeks ago when the invited speaker was revealed as the Director-General of Health Malaysia, Dr Noor Hisham bin Abdullah, the news had caused quite a stir in Penang. Imagine, the DG himself would be turning up in Penang to honour a true Malaysian hero! 

As expected, the Press turned up in full force at the venue to listen to Noor Hisham's updates on the coronavirus situation in the country. Although the Society might have felt a little sidelined by the presence of the DG, my impression was that the occasion had also brought Dr Wu Lien-Teh back into the limelight. Not too late nor too much!

Together with the public lecture, we also held a little ceremony to receive two paintings of Wu Lien-Teh from a lady artist, Lim Guat Eng. She told me later that prior to several months ago, she had never heard of the doctor but after she did, she was inspired enough to interpret Wu Lien-Teh in two paintings. The first one was completed in two weeks but the second one was more complimented and took her about a month to paint. In any case, she decided to give both paintings to the Society. 

In the last few weeks, the paintings had been sent for framing. I had visited the frame maker about a fortnight ago to take pictures of the paintings before they were mounted as I knew that once framed, reflection would be unavoidable if anyone tried to photograph them. But I was only half successful as one of them was already framed. Ah, well....

Anyway, back to the public lecture, we had the Chief Executive of Penang Institute, Ooi Kee Beng, give his welcome address before Anwar Fazal, the President of the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society, took to the floor to enthrall everyone with his customary informative address. Noor Hisham then spent about an hour on the lecturn to give everyone in the room, as well as those who had tuned in on YouTube and facebook, on a journey of the last 27 or 28 months from the time that the Covid-19 virus had surfaced in Wuhan in November 2019 till the present moment. There was also a more interesting Question And Answer session with the inevitable question of Ivermectin cropping up. More of that in a later posting!

Noor Hisham bin Abdullah receiving The Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society Leadership in Public Health Award from Anwar Fazal

The committee members of The Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society with the Director-General of Health and CEO of Penang Institute: (left to right) Cheah Cheng Chua, Ronald Quay, Ooi Geok Ling, myself, Hor Chee Peng, Anwar Fazal, Noor Hisham bin Abdullah, Ooi Kee Beng, Clement Liang, Alison Chong and Chin Poh Chin

The unveiling of the two paintings by Anwar Fazal and Noor Hisham with the artist, Lim Guat Eng (far left) and Ooi Kee Beng (far right) looking on. The two paintings will be on display at the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Room in the Penang Institute building.

Ooi Kee Beng (CEO, Penang Institute), Anwar Fazal (President, The Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society) and Noor Hisham bin Abdullah (Director-General of Health, Malaysia)