KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 — A New Zealand Opposition MP has urged his government to explain how Malaysia’s Federal Territories Deputy Minister Datuk Seri Edmund Santhara Kumar secured a place in the country’s highly-limited managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) system to visit family.
Chris Bishop, who is also the National Party Covid-19 Response spokesman, said government authorities have not been forthcoming regarding Edmund’s immigration status or how he secured a place in the MIQ system.
He added that some New Zealanders were still trying to get back into the country, including circumstances such as returning to see dying loved ones.
He added that privacy was not a good enough excuse and the refusal to confirm the circumstances was inconsistent with the New Zealand government’s position on previous cases — including on one of their own MPs.
“I understand the privacy argument, but the government has been pretty forthcoming about how one of its own MPs, Ricardo Menendez March, was able to come back to New Zealand.
“Privacy doesn’t seem particularly important in that case and it shouldn’t be here either.
“The real questions are around how he got into MIQ, there’s a highly limited number of spaces and so people would be pretty concerned if there was special treatment given to him and the government now need to be up front about that,” Bishop was quoted as saying by New Zealand’s news portal Stuff.
The news portal said both the NZ Prime Minister’s Office and Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins have declined to answer questions, while a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment — which oversees MIQ facilities — cited privacy reasons which barred them from disclosing information about individuals in managed isolation facilities.
Furthermore, New Zealand government agencies have also refused to say whether Edmund was a New Zealand resident or citizen, and how long he waited for an MIQ spot.
According to the news portal, diplomats are exempt from paying MIQ fees but it was unclear if Edmund travelled using a personal or diplomatic passport.
After news reports emerged that he was currently abroad, Edmund issued a statement yesterday confirming that he has been in New Zealand since last December.
However, he insisted that his 55-days leave was approved by the Prime Minister’s Department and that his exit from the country followed the procedures set out by the Immigration Department.
Edmund said he was in New Zealand to visit his wife and son, justifying the break by saying he has not taken any leave since his appointment in March 2020.
