By Abdul Rashid Hasnol
THE Government has recently passed a law allowing it to dip into the National Trust Fund (KWAN) for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines. Why the Government intends to tap into the RM16.9 bil fund set up with the express purpose of protecting the interests of future generation, is perplexing.
Last year, Parliament approved RM3 bil for the Government to buy enough vaccines to achieve herd immunity. The figure was bumped up to RM5 bil recently under an emergency ordinance.
The Government has a lot of explaining to do over why it is touching a fund, which has hardly been ever used, not even during the 1998 and 2008 financial crises. The timing also raises eyebrows because the funds were approved for use without Parliament oversight due to the Emergency proclamation.
The controversy surrounding the use of KWAN is one of a series of public relations mismanagement and policy missteps surrounding the Government’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Malaysians are restless over the perpetual bungling as well as the glacial progress in the COVID-19 vaccination plan. After five months since inter-state travel was re-imposed, little progress has been made. In fact, new cases are seeing a rebound as it breaches the 2,000-mark over the past weeks.
This culminated in the #KerajaanGagal hashtag that trended recently on Twitter as Malaysians vented their frustration over the Government’s failure to keep COVID-19 numbers down. They are upset that they were promised the new infection numbers will dip once inter-state travel is in place but this has not happened.
They are also upset that VIPs were getting away with flouting COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) while lesser mortals faced the full brunt of the law for similar violations.
They are upset that the vaccine procurement is happening at a glacial speed, holding up the country’s target to reach herd immunity.
They are also upset that the Health Ministry has not yet given the nod for private medical practitioners to assist in the rollout of the vaccination plan.
The sentiment has gotten so bad that Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, whose assuring presence and professionalism earned him widespread respect among Malaysians in the past, had to go on the defensive over allegations that the Health Ministry cooked up COVID-19 numbers. Public rage has truly boiled over.
All these came amid allegations of red-tape and even wrongdoings over the procurement of vaccines and how certain VIPs were said to have benefited from the process, as exposed by an international news portal recently.
Can the Government please get its act together? COVID-19 is literally a matter of life and death. The least the Government can do is not to gamble with the wellbeing of its people, or worse, get embroiled in any scandal concerning the pandemic.
If this Government doesn’t buck up, it’d have to face the wrath of the people at the ballot box. – April 29, 2021
Abdul Rashid Hasnol is a FocusM editorial contributor.
The views expressed here are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
