KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has urged Putrajaya to fully disclose the age profiles of those vaccinated and reassure the public that frontliners and senior citizens get priority and first preference of vaccines.
He said many Western nations provide a complete profile of age groups, giving priority and preference to older and senior citizens as well as vulnerable groups before giving them to the younger and healthier citizens.
“This would also serve to allay concerns that there are younger people and those not in the high-risk or vulnerable groups getting vaccines beforehand, through unethical means,” Lim said in a statement.
The Bagan MP added that failing to give an age profile on a regular basis of those vaccinated, would only deepen the existing trust deficit between the public and Perikatan Nasional.
“Such trust deficit is not helped by the serial policy flip-flops and Covid-19 standard operating procedures, U-turns as well as double-standard in the enforcement of movement control order (MCO) restrictions between the VIPs and the rakyat.
“The delayed delivery of vaccines and spike in the record numbers of Covid-19 daily infections and deaths has struck fear in the hearts of Malaysians who are desperately seeking vaccines,” he said.
Lim noted that despite the explanations given by the government about what happened to the tens of thousands of unused vaccines left by those that fail to turn up for their appointments, the whole-of-government approach has failed and resulted in Malaysia being one of the worst affected countries in the world.
“Defeating Covid-19 requires a whole-of-society effort premised on public trust and confidence. If the PN government cannot trust MPs by refusing to reopen and convene Parliamentary meetings, then PN should not refuse to trust the people.
“Failure to fully disclose information would not help to repair the breakdown of trust towards the PN government that led to an Emergency Proclamation and three MCOs but still failed abjectly to contain and check Covid-19,” he said.
