KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — Datuk Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali has issued a public apology today and said he would donate five months’ worth of salary to a fund to fight Covid-19 amid public uproar over his failure to adhere to home quarantine after he returned from a trip abroad.
The apology was issued shortly after the public health authorities this evening slapped the plantation industries and commodities minister with a RM1,000 fine for breaching the regulation, in which the PAS leader had paid.
However, social media users mounted attacks onto the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) Facebook page today, over what they term as an unfair penalty for a Cabinet minister for not following the Covid-19 SOP.
“I would like to say millions of sorries [sic] to all Malaysians for my oversight,” Khairuddin said in an official statement bearing his ministry’s head letter.
“As a way to take responsibility, I will donate all my salaries as a minister from May to August 2020 to the National Disaster Aid Fund (Covid-19 fund),” he added.
Prior to the fine, Khairuddin had been up in arms against his detractors and defended the infringement by saying he had undergone three tests with all the results coming back negative.
The MOH said today it had slapped the plantation industries and commodities minister with a RM1,000 compound for failing to observe rules under Act 342 of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Measures within the Infected Local Areas).
Khairuddin was tested once when returned from Turkey on July 7 and screened twice after, the MOH said in a statement announcing the penalty.
Both screening tests were negative.
But the MOH has enforced the mandatory home-quarantine order for all returnees even if they tested negative for Covid-19, which the PAS leader failed to observe.
An apologetic Khairuddin said today that he would “work harder” to perform his duty as minister.
“I will also work harder and double efforts and my energy to perform my duty as a minister and ensure the welfare of each member of the public involved in the commodity sector, particularly the over one million smallholders, be safeguarded,” he said.
