WITH COVID-19 tally hitting the five-digit mark, a veteran unionist urged the Government to decentralise the National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme (PICK) in order to speed up the inoculation process.
“Get rid of all these bureaucracies. Decentralise the vaccination programme and empower our state governments to procure and inoculate our citizens to hasten the process,” UNI-Malaysia Labour Centre (UNI-MLC) president Datuk Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal told FocusM.
For the last three days, the daily COVID-19 tally breached over 10,000, with more clusters appearing across the country, mostly involving workplace clusters.
Despite figures reaching alarming levels with hospitals in the Klang Valley getting overwhelmed, the Government insisted on the National Recovery Plan (NRP), by allowing more economic sectors to reopen.
Putrajaya also lifted the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) imposed on Selangor earlier this month.
Unimpressed with the recent turn of events, Shafie said that the Government should not be blaming the rakyat for the matter, adding it was the Government that allowed many high-risk economic sectors to continue operating despite a nationwide lockdown.
“The data shows that most clusters are appearing at workplace areas. So, why are they still allowed to operate? The International Trade and Industries Ministry (MITI) must answer to this.
“Both employers and employees are suffering due to this confusion. There was too much leeway given to the manufacturing sectors during this critical period of time,” he stated.
Haul up errant companies to court
Shafie opined that the Government should form a special investigation team, comprising of members from the police, Human Resources Ministry (MOHE), Health Ministry (MOH) and the National Security Council (NSC) to investigate errant companies for breaching standard operating procedure (SOP) and haul them up to court.
On that note, the veteran union leader said that Prime Minister Tan Sri Mahiaddin Yassin cannot shirk from responsibility over the matter as he was the “captain of the ship”.
“Mahiaddin is the chairman of NSC, so the buck stops at him. I’m sure he is getting all the data from all the ministries before making a decision.
“For starters, the prime minister should stop painting a rosy picture over the matter and tell everyone the truth. Apologise if you made mistakes and make amends, instead of blaming everyone else.
“If your ministers are giving you bad advise, then Mahiaddin should give them the boot,” Shafie stressed.
Shafie lamented that the PICK programme was still low, adding Malaysia should have had at least half of the population fully vaccinated by September.
“And we should target to complete our vaccination programme by September, not push it to December. The longer you drag this, more people are going to die in the process,” he remarked. – July 17, 2021
