Was compound against Khairuddin backdated to avoid court, Kok asks

Seputeh MP Teresa Kok has questioned the validity of the RM1,000 compound against Plantations and Commodities Minister Khairuddin Aman Razali, which was purportedly issued on Aug 7 for breaching mandatory quarantine rules.

Meanwhile, lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla questioned whether Khairuddin was not charged to avoid him being disqualified as the Kuala Nerus MP.

In a text to Malaysiakini, Kok questioned whether the compound was actually backdated to avoid Khairuddin being dragged to court for the offence.

On Aug 13, Defence Ismail Sabri Yaakob had said that those who flouted the quarantine would be brought straight to court instead of being issued a compound.

"Why were all those who did wrong brought to court but this cabinet minister was given special treatment by paying a backdated compound?" she asked in a separate statement.

Khairuddin had gone to Turkey from July 3 to 7and had skipped quarantine upon his return. At that time, the government was enforcing home quarantine for Malaysians returning from overseas.

Kok had raised the matter in Parliament on Aug 18. The next day, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the minister was being investigated.

"So why is it that only today the Health Ministry told the public that the compound had been issued (on Aug 7) and that he had paid it?"

"It is not possible that the minister and the Health director-general did not know the compound was issued on Aug 7 and that Khairuddin had paid it and instead waited four days (until today) to announce it," Kok said.

She also questioned why Khairuddin had not informed the media about this until today.

Meanwhile, lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla said the act of compounding Khairuddin instead of charging him in court was against the rule of law.

He said if Khairuddin had been brought to court, the precedent for punishments in previous cases meant that Khairuddin could be sentenced to jail or fined more than RM2,000.

This would disqualify him as an MP.

"If this was the reason he was not brought to court, then it is not wrong for the people to say the rule of law has been tarnished by the authorities and the government and that is wrong," he said.

Meanwhile, in a call to Malaysiakini, Haniff also questioned whether the government had actually conspired to conceal that Khairuddin had returned from overseas and needed to be quarantined so that he could be in Parliament on July 13.

"He never wore that pink bracelet, so could it be that the government planned for it never to be noticed? It that was actually planned, that would be a major deceit of Parliament," he said.

July 13 was the first sitting of the current Parliament session. On that day, the Perikatan Nasional government voted to remove Mohd Ariff Mohd Yusof as the Dewan Rakyat speaker and succeeded with 111 votes against 109.

Previously, an elderly woman was jailed one day and fined RM8,000 after pleading guilty to breaching the home quarantine by going out to eat.

Meanwhile, a restaurant owner linked to the Sivaganga cluster was sentenced to five months’ jail and fined RM12,000 for also violating home quarantine.

The restaurant owner had been issued a compound three weeks before he was charged in court.

Netizens have pointed out that the RM1,000 compound issued to Khairuddin was cheaper than the cost of undergoing the quarantine at a designated hotel.

The government had abandoned the home quarantine exercise on July 24 due to non-compliance and resumed mandatory quarantine at designated hotels and centres.

For quarantine at hotels, the rate is RM4,700 in total. However, Malaysians need only pay RM2,100 while the government will pay the remaining RM2,600. - Mkini