In tabligh blame game, Dzul queries Muhyiddin’s role

© Provided by Free Malaysia Today Former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad was in a tit for tat exchange with his successor Adham Baba.

PETALING JAYA: Sniping between the health minister and his predecessor over the Sri Petaling Mosque tabligh cluster has now put in question the role of the home minister at the time, Muhyiddin Yassin, who is now prime minister.

Former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad, responding to criticism by his successor, Dr Adham Baba, said Adham should question Muhyiddin why the tabligh gathering had been allowed to take place.

The gathering, on Feb 27 to March 1, has since become the biggest Covid-19 cluster in the country.

Muhyiddin was the home minister in the Pakatan Harapan government at the time, and later became prime minister of the Perikatan Nasional alliance government after PH collapsed.

Adham had said earlier today that the PH government had failed to control the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly the Sri Petaling Mosque cluster. “If this cluster had been stopped earlier, the second wave of infections wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

In response, Dzulkefly said it was generally known that any large gathering, including religious ones such as Thaipusam or the floating chariot festival in Penang, came under the purview of the home ministry.

He wondered if Muhyiddin was focussed on a different agenda at that time.

“The health ministry should ask the prime minister why he allowed the tabligh gathering to take place,” he told FMT.

Dzulkefly said it was unfortunate that Adham chose to raise this issue at a time when the people were looking for strong leadership and a clearer narrative during the crisis.

He questioned if Adham was trying to distract the people from a controversy sparked by his deputy minister who had allegedly failed to observe social distancing at a function in Perak.

Dzulkefly said Adham should focus on Covid-19 instead of playing politics. ‘Now is not the time for politics. It’s the time for everyone to come together to fight Covid-19.”