Survey: Majority of polled MPs find vaccination rollout inefficient

 

A survey has shown that 71 percent out of 58 parliamentarians polled felt that the rollout of vaccines under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) was not efficient, rapid, or impartial.

Only 19 percent felt the rollout has been efficient while the remaining 10 percent were unsure, said Seed Community for a Professional Parliament - the group that conducted the survey.

"Even among the proportion of MPs that the government involved in the implementation or provision of feedback on the NIP, only 43 percent agreed the programme is being run efficiently, rapidly, and impartially, while half disagreed," it said in a statement today.

The group explained that all 220 existing MPs were directly invited to respond to the survey. Some 58 MPs responded within the prescribed time frame representing 26 percent of the total 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat.

Two respondents were deputy ministers, Seed said.

The online survey was conducted by Seed between May 20 and June 12 to get feedback from lawmakers on the implementation of the NIP.

Lawmakers in nine states, including Sabah and Sarawak, have participated in the survey. Thirty-six of them represent urban constituencies while 16 represent sub-urban constituencies and six for rural constituencies.

"They were unanimous in their agreement of the vital role that MPs play in the national Covid-19 immunisation efforts."

Despite this, Seed said the survey showed 81 percent of the polled MPs found themselves receiving insufficient information for them to effectively discharge their constitutional functions.

While noting that the government has taken a fairly impartial approach reaching out to them, the lawmakers, however, largely felt that the government's engagement was only limited to a one-way communication channel for them to provide feedback or seek clarification from the authorities.

"Of greater concern, these shortcomings are affecting the ability of MPs to discharge their role and functions," Seed said. 

Out of 36 MPs who attended the government-led briefing on the NIP, Seed said 76 percent felt that they had received insufficient information to enable them to answer questions raised by their respective constituents.

"They also observed the breakdown in communication between the government and the public in their activities on the ground.

"Most of the MPs reported that their constituents were afraid or uncertain about being vaccinated. Some had highlighted the lack of basic information regarding the location of vaccination centres," Seed added.

The endorsing groups under the Seed Community include the think-tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), Bait Al-Amanah, Bersih 2.0, Engage, Reform and Pusat Komas.

 - Mkini