Vaccine queue-jumping? Watch this space

 

“I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. That the system would try to be fair and transparent in this one thing,” a friend of mine said.

The poor sap was talking about fairness when it came to the distribution of vaccines, which arrived on our shores a week ago.

“You gotta be kidding me, bro,” I replied.

In a system where everything is about privilege - cronyism, patronage, ill-gotten wealth and false prestige - you are naive if you believe a rubber tapper will be given the same treatment as a VIP.

Do you really believe that? Pull the other leg.

Firstly, this sort of thing extends far beyond Malaysia. Spain’s royal family is facing fierce criticism after it emerged that the daughters of former king Juan Carlos - Cristina and Elena - were vaccinated against Covid-19 while visiting their father in his self-imposed exile in Abu Dhabi last month.

“We want everyone to be equal in this country and this is most disagreeable and unattractive,” said Yolanda Diaz, the Spanish employment minister who happens to be from the Communist Party of Spain.

With over three million cases and 70,000 deaths, Spain is one of the worst-hit countries in the world and this sort of privilege is galling.

Meanwhile, the head of Canada’s largest pension fund was forced to resign after travelling to Dubai for a dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board announced that its CEO Mark Machin stepped down from his position after the Wall Street Journal disclosed that he was jumping queues in both the UAE and Canada.

So there you have it - royalty and corporate figures in other countries feel entitled to special treatment that goes beyond a strict needs-based categorisation.

Such privilege is why elite politicians like ex-US President Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro could walk around denying that Covid-19 was serious - it’s because even if they do get it, they get the best treatment their country can offer. The same does not apply to the common man.

So this was the official plan in Malaysia - the last time I looked.

Phase 1: Will run until April. This will involve medical frontliners, enforcement personnel, welfare officers, elected representatives and teachers with comorbidities.

Phase 2: From April to August, involving 9.4 million people classified as high-risk groups. These groups include the differently-abled, those above 60 years old and those with comorbidities such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Phase 3: This will be from May to February 2022 for all other people living in Malaysia aged 18 and above.

However, beginning last week, some reports of potential vaccine queue-jumping began to surface in Malaysia too.

In fact, Malaysiakini received news from credible sources that a hospital planned to include its senior administrative staff and three influencers in its first batch of Covid-19 vaccine recipients.

When we reported it, there was a quick denial and backlash with Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin saying the news was not true and that people should not be spreading news based on anonymity.

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah also jumped in, saying that the claims are not true and that there will be no queue-cutting and no non-medical influencers included.

Khairy Jamaluddin

But when consultant physician and nephrologist Dr Rafidah Abdullah complained that officials from the Kelantan state secretariat were trying to jump the queue, Khairy suddenly called for whistleblowers to come forward.

"Whistleblowers can email anonymously directly to me at kj@mosti.gov.my and I will investigate," Khairy said on Twitter.

One could argue that this sort of principle, where the public is supposed to trust the government and not the independent media when it comes to exposing wrongdoings, is precisely how the whole 1MDB fraud was kept hidden for so long.

It’s a good thing, however, that this government is taking it seriously now as Health Minister Dr Adham Baba announced yesterday that individuals who jump the queue to receive Covid-19 vaccine jabs can be fined up to RM50,000 or be jailed for six months, or both.

Adham said such action could be taken under Section 31, which is a new provision under the Emergency (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021, which will come into effect on March 11.

He also stressed that there have been no reports regarding the matter, just news on social media.

Yesterday, the Health Ministry warned its staff that they are not allowed to make public statements on government policy, programmes and decisions without consent and that inappropriate statements that were not fact-checked would cause public unease and damage the civil service's reputation.

"(The rules) are not meant to stop (civil servants) from speaking out, but it is designed to ensure that they use the correct channels for feedback and complaints,” it said.

This is all very well if one can trust the system to be fair. Do you?

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MARTIN VENGADESAN is an associate editor in Malaysiakini.