PARLIAMENT | A written parliamentary reply for a question asking for the racial breakdown of Covid-19 deaths among Malaysians citizens has lumped together "lain-lain" Malaysians with non-citizens.
In the reply from the Health Ministry to Ong Kian Ming (Pakatan Harapan-Bangi), it said of the 471 "Malaysians" that died from Covid-19 last year, 273 (57.96 percent) were "lain-lain".
It said 127 (26.96 percent) deaths last year were Malay, Chinese 56 (11.9 percent); and Indians 15 (3.18 percent).
Meanwhile, from Jan 1 to Oct 3 this year, 12,765 (48.7 percent) of the 26,212 reported Covid-19 fatalities were "lain-lain".
Another 8,886 (33.9 percent) reported casualties were Malay; Chinese 2,815 (10.73 percent); and Indians 1,746 (6.67 percent).
"Lain-lain" or others, is the term typically used to refer to Malaysians who are not Malay, Chinese, or Indian.
However, a check by Malaysiakini on the Health Ministry's Github data repository found that in the ministry's written reply, "lain-lain" also included non-citizens.
The check revealed that last year, 77 (16.34 percent) non-citizens died from Covid-19, meaning that the number of "lain-lain" Malaysian fatalities was actually 196 (41.61 percent).
As for this year's data up to Oct 3, the number of non-citizens that died was 3,470 (13.23 percent), meaning that the "lain-lain" Malaysian fatalities were actually 9,295 (35.46 percent).
In a tweet, Ong said he would seek clarification from the Health Ministry regarding the discrepancies in the reply given to him. - Mkini
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