Weekly Highlights

Why were members of Parliament given priority for vaccines if Parliament is still suspended?

DAP Veteran Lim Kit Siang has questioned the intentions behind allowing MPs to be on the priority list for vaccines in a statement released last Wednesday.

“Were MPs given priority for vaccination not to enable them to  perform their constitutional role of check-and-balance of the  Executive to ensure good governance but to provide the excuse for Ministers and Deputy Ministers  to be vaccinated?

Lim Kit Siang

In February it was decided that Members of Parliament (MPs) and state assemblymen from both sides of the political divide will be among earlier recipients of the Covid-19 vaccine under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

Did the federal government really put themselves first during a global health pandemic? Of course, this is par for the course for PN who have yet to put national interests above personal interests.

What’s more heartbreaking is that PN was willing to take advantage of the trust given by the rakyat who understood that there was “collateral benefit” in vaccinating MPs and assemblymen.

The answer to all this is simple. PN can choose to reconvene Parliament as soon as possible. Instead they have chosen to drag this out as long as possible.

It is clear that Mahiaddin has lost his Parliamentary majority and it will be a risky move to face his peers in Parliament, but how long can Malaysians go on like this?

It is also incredibly confusing when PN Ministers like Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin actually insist that Parliament cannot resume until herd immunity is achieved, yet the coordinating minister of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin believes herd immunity is no longer a realistic goal.

For example, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Special Functions, Redzuan Md Yusof, had stated publicly that it is crucial to reconvene Parliament as soon as possible.

The Foreign Minister Hishammudin Hussein seems to also agree with him and has said that Parliament should reconvene but not to be used as a tool to gain political power. However, stating these things in public do not hold much weight, if these ministers do not use their political leverage to convince the Cabinet to convene Parliament immediately,

Kit Siang also questioned how the National Recovery Plan on Parliament convening in September or October during Phase Three square will continue when Home Minister, Hamzah Zainuddin said that Parliament will only reconvene after herd immunity is achieved.

By now, it is clear that herd immunity cannot be achieved in the Third Phase of the National Recovery Plan and according to Khairy Jamaluddin we may never be able to achieve herd immunity at all.

How much more of this confusing mess is PN going to force upon the very people they have promised to lead?

The raykat not only deserve better, they deserve answers.

The Rocket

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