Buck stops with you, Guan Eng reminds Perikatan govt
KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng chided Putrajaya for blaming everything except itself for the country's slow National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP), pandemic mismanagement and economic crisis.
Commenting on Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s recent remarks on blaming “bureaucracy” for Malaysia’s pandemic situation, the Bagan MP accused the government of being highly irresponsible and incompetent for pushing the narrative that the Covid-19 health crisis, economic crisis and political crisis have nothing to do with them.
“Continuously blaming the people and now the bureaucracy is shameful. Hishammudin should boldly admit that double-standards in enforcement between VIPs and the ordinary rakyat as well as repeated U-turns in the compliance of MCO’s (movement control order) SOPs have resulted in record daily infections and death toll.
“The policy flip-flops between ministries on the economy and which business can or cannot operate during the MCO total lockdown is devastating to businesses.
“And now the civil service is being made the scapegoat for the snail-pace approval of vaccines and slow rollout of NIP, when it is the government leaders that failed to procure the vaccines early resulting in delivery delays,” he said in a statement today.
Lim also called for the opening of more Vaccine Administration Centres (PPV) by another 2,000 from the current 381 in the country, saying this would bring vaccines to the people instead of the other way around.
“Without increasing the number of PPVs by another 2,000, it will be challenging to achieve the government’s own target of 150,000 daily doses in June, 200,000 daily doses in July and 300,000 daily doses in August.
“Currently, 124,618, 133,804, and 128,912 Covid-19 vaccine doses were administered throughout the nation on June 11, 12 and 13 respectively below the targeted 150,000 daily doses,” he added.
Yesterday, it was reported that Hishammuddin had called for more “agility and flexibility” in Malaysia’s governance to adapt quickly and be more decisive, having weathered the Covid-19 pandemic for at least a year now.
Marking the 450th day since the first movement control order (MCO) was implemented nationwide, Hishammuddin said the greatest tragedy for Malaysia would be if Malaysians were unable to reflect on their own mistakes and weaknesses.
He added that he feared Malaysia might have lost the delicate balance between prioritising public health and its economic interests as pandemic fatigue sets in.
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