The question by the Malaysian Medical Association Dr. Koh Kar Chai whether pushing up the number of Covid-19 cases is part of the KPI for the next 100 days deserves a serious reply from both the Prime Minister Ismail Sabri and the Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
Dr Koh asked the question after the 100-day Malaysian Family Aspirations programme which was launched in KLCC on December 9 and slated to run for 4 days, where there was an “overdrive” to garner publicity but not to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infections, despite Malaysia having the longest Covid-19 wave in the world going back to September last year and repeated Health Ministry warnings about the delta and Omicron variants in the country and encouraging booster shots to stave off a Covid-19 upsurge in the pandemic.
It is the height of the ludicrous to impose a “chicken-feed” fine of RM1,000 for the massive breaches of the Covid-19 SOPs at the 100-Day programme.
The Minister responsible for the programme should be required to resign and the Prime Minister Ismail Sabri should tender a public apology to all Malaysians for the shameful flouting of the Covid-19 SOPs at the event.
The “chicken-feed” fine highlights the total lack of seriousness of the Ismail Sabri government to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, which explained why Malaysia is struggling for seven months to reduce daily new Covid-19 cases to below 4,000 cases and struggling for eight months to reduce daily Covid-19 deaths to single-digit numbers, when Indonesia had been reporting daily new increase of Covid-19 cases in triple-digit numbers for some three months since Oct. 15, 2021 and been reporting single-digit daily Covid-19 deaths for the last two days.
If the Prime Minister does not buck up in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic, how can the Cabinet buck up in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic?
And yet, Ismail Sabri could give a score of 90 pct for the Cabinet’s 100-day performance, making Malaysia the new target of world jokes and humiliation.
(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Miri on Saturday, 11th December 2021)