KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6 — Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng insisted today that the government is capable of getting the money that would speed up delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine for Malaysians.
Now back in the Opposition, the DAP secretary-general accused the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government of getting its priorities mixed, thereby delaying the vaccination process.
“As a former Finance Minister, let me state categorically that Malaysia can definitely find the RM2.1 billion to secure early delivery of the vaccines.
“Such a stingy and miserly refusal to make available RM2.1 billion is a bigger blunder and more incompetent than Malaysia’s downgrade in sovereign credit ratings by Fitch recently,” he said in a statement.
The Bagan MP noted that Malaysians have to wait another two months at least when Singapore had already procured the vaccines against the dreaded coronavirus and started a mass campaign to immunise its population.
“The excuse given that Malaysia does not have the financial resources like Singapore is ridiculous and unacceptable when the cost involved is RM2.1billion,” Lim said.
“Not just the Health Minister but the entire Cabinet should be responsible, especially for the delay in securing the vaccines,” he added.
He claimed the vaccination issue shows the incompetence by the Muhyiddin administration, saying the extension of the bank loan moratorium, pension fund withdrawals and the cancellation of the KL-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project were other earlier examples.
“Poor governance has led to grave doubts about Muhyiddin’s commitment towards accountability and transparency,” he added.
