My head felt like it was exploding, says Hamzah

PUTRAJAYA: For Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin, his experience with Covid-19 was definitely a painful one.

The Home Minister said he not only suffered from high fever and body aches, but also experienced painful headaches.

“My head hurt so much that it felt like it was exploding. The body aches made me feel weak.

“I don’t know how to describe the pain, but I felt it on every part of my body, ” he told the media yesterday.

Hamzah, who was admitted to hospital on Jan 12, said he took a longer time to recover as doctors found his liver enzyme level to be high.

“My liver enzyme reading was more than 900 due to a bacterial infection, so they had to be careful when prescribing medicine for me.

“That was why I took some time to recover, ” he said, adding that although he was discharged on Jan 24, the doctors did not allow him to leave his house for a week.

Prior to testing positive for Covid-19, Hamzah had to undergo home quarantine for 10 days after one of his aides also tested positive.

“For those who say the Covid-19 numbers are not real, I say they are real.

“Those who contracted the coronavirus will say that it is real, and we must ensure that we take all possible measures to stay safe and not be infected, ” he said.

On his first day of work after recovering from the coronavirus, Hamzah called for a press conference to explain why the applications by the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) and Parti Pejuang Tanah Melayu (Pejuang) to be registered as political parties were rejected.

Both had their applications rejected by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) on Jan 6.

Hamzah said Muda had until this Friday to appeal against the decision based on the 30-day period given to an organisation to appeal if their application to be registered was rejected.

“Pejuang submitted its appeal on Jan 8. The Pejuang pro-tem committee had met with ROS to seek its views and to appeal the earlier decision.

“Muda’s pro-tem committee, on the other hand, has not met with ROS for consultation and has not submitted an appeal letter to the Home Minister until now, ” Hamzah said.

While the jurisdiction to approve or reject an application to register a body lies with the ROS, an appeal can be sent to the Home Minister within 30 days of an application being rejected.

Hamzah added that Muda would have to submit a fresh application if no appeal was made by Friday.

“They can always reapply. But for those who had applied and then were rejected but did not appeal, ... this shows that they are not committed or serious, ” he said.

Explaining why the applications were shot down, Hamzah said they were not in line with Schedule 1 of the Societies Act, where items in the parties’ proposed constitution were unclear, questionable or contradictory.

He cited an example in Muda’s proposed constitution that aimed to attract participation from the 15- to 40-year-old age group but its membership was defined as being open to anyone 18 and above with no age limit stated.

As for Pejuang, he said the proposed constitution submitted to ROS was “poorly constructed”.