By Bernie Yeo
THERE have been plenty of news of politicians breaching the COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) of late.
One minister that is “highly popular” for it now is Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa, who was been photographed dining at a table with six others, during an urban farming programme in Cheras, Selangor recently.
Since then, Annuar has defended himself by insisting that he was only seated there momentarily and left the place after realising that the organisers were breaching SOP.
The event organiser themselves have come forward to take responsibility over the issue, in an attempt to absolve the Ketereh MP of any wrongdoings.
This goes to show that what has been documented and uploaded onto social media is often, a small fraction of what is truly happening behind the scenes.
Let us get straight to the point. Ministers and the elites are not above the law. However, it is worth mentioning that they are a bunch of busy people with responsibilities to serve the community and not to mention, to reach out to the grassroots.
In the course of their duties, they are likely to meet a lot of people who would not hesitate to breach SOP just to get near to them, putting ministers and lawmakers in a very difficult position.
And there is also the issue of badly-organised event, or sometimes, the minister is simply just too polite to ask other people to keep their distance.
Whatever the reason may be, everyone must adhere to the SOPs strictly due to the pandemic. There are no two-ways about it!
More importantly, VIPs need to understand that in this day and age, cameras and smartphones are always ready to capture moments of their indiscretion.
Therefore, it is important for them to remain conscious of their daily conduct in order to set a good example to the people that look up to them and not give them an excuse to breach regulations. – Feb 16, 2021
