People will lose faith if govt breaches own SOPs, says KJ

 

In the wake of a crowd-control controversy at a government-related event, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin says the government must manage its own credibility. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: The government’s credibility will erode if it keeps breaching its own Covid-19 rules, says health minister Khairy Jamaluddin in the wake of the recent controversy over crowds at an event marking the first 100 days of the current administration.

The government’s credibility was an important factor in managing the pandemic, he said.

Khairy Jamaluddin.

“When the public sees that the government is breaching SOPs that it enacted, it will lose credibility as well as the public’s trust,” he said in an interview with RTM.

The people would accuse the government of not practising what it preaches and therefore there was no reason for the public to do the same.

The organisers of the 100-Day Aspirasi Keluarga Malaysia event were recently fined RM1,000 for failing to adhere to Covid-19 SOPs such as the lack of physical distancing and failure to control the number of visitors.

Khairy said that even though the organiser of the event last Friday was a government agency, a compound had to be issued as the ministry was steadfast in its belief that “wrong is wrong”.

“Which is why the compound was issued and I informed Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob. I told him we had no choice, even though it was odd that a compound was issued to a government agency, wrong is wrong.”

He also chastised Sepadu which comes under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department for failing to manage the event.

Khairy said he was looking forward to the tabling of amendments to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 on Thursday.

The ministry proposed to raise the maximum compound to RM10,000 for individuals and RM1 million for companies or agencies. The current maximum fine is RM1,000. - FMT