SHROUDED in mystery till he surfaced yesterday with his side of the story, the Sabah-based mystery vaccine donor has made a shocking revelation of undesirable corrupt motives that the authorities need to swiftly look into.
Aside from dismissing the allegation of “scam and bogus” by Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin on his intention to donate two million doses of Sinovac vaccine to the Penang state government, the man identified as Yong Chee Kong reiterated that this was merely “a kind gesture on the part of his Hong Kong-based boss”.
Interestingly, the 58 year-old who hails from Tawau claimed in an interview with news portal, The Vibes, that a special officer to Khairy had contacted him, advising him on a number of issues, including possibly channelling funds instead to the ministry and holding a ceremony over the contributions.
“Our point is just to donate this (the vaccine). I don’t understand why politicians make it so complicated,” he pointed out, asserting that “the funds are in Hong Kong and that his employer is adamant about only donating vaccines, not money”.
Working as an investor, Yong spends most of his time abroad travelling to many countries, including Australia and Hong Kong where his company, Xingtai Enterprise Development Ltd, operates.
Recounting his frustration, he said the only way for his company to acquire the vaccines was to obtain approval from Malaysia’s Health Ministry which was rejected.
This prompted Yong to e-mail Sinovac Biotech Ltd’s head of international sales, Coco Chang, twice but to no avail.
“So, I contacted an agent to get the vaccines and all my conversations with him have already been sent to the Health Ministry,” Yong said, noting that most of the dealings were undertaken by his colleagues and not him.
Yong’s experience somehow bears similarity with the hardship endured by the PETRA Group which intended to donate 200,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine “with no strings attached” to vulnerable groups in Malaysia.
This has prompted FocusM to highlight that bureaucracy should not be permitted to stand in the way of genuine donors, thus the relevant authorities should swiftly issue specific guidelines/procedures on how corporations can extend their charitable deeds effectively (ie which department or individual in-charge to reach out to).
Likewise, it should also beef up the approval process once it can be confirmed that the donor is genuine or the said vaccine type is safe for inoculation.
This would certainly encourage more corporations or foundations to come forward to help the Government’s cause in its National Immunisation Programme (NIP) initiative, thus expediting the likelihood for Malaysia to break the dreadful COVID-19 chain and eventually enables the country to achieve herd mentality in the shortest time frame possible. – May 21, 2021
