Faulty ventilators bought before my time as health minister - Khairy

 

Khairy Jamaluddin has reminded that the purchase of faulty ventilators from China occurred before his time in office as the health minister.

As such, Khairy urged his critics to get the "facts right" before commenting on the matter.

"The purchase of these ventilators happened in 2020, and I became the health minister in August 2021.

"If you cannot get your facts right, I don't even know why you are talking to me," Khairy said in the latest episode of his podcast “Keluar Sekejap”.

This was in response to the report by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that China companies supplied ventilators to the Health Ministry that did not meet the specifications during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Khairy added that he does not intend to throw another minister "under the bus", but at the same time, he cannot take responsibility for something that did not happen during his stint.

"This is factual. How can I take responsibility when I wasn't even in the seat? I wasn't the health minister then.

"So, if you want to talk about the ventilators, you have to ask 'tuan punya badan' (the person responsible), and not me. I have to make this clear."

Vaccine wastage

Khairy stressed that he would, however, take responsibility for questions related to vaccine procurement, which was "his call" as a minister.

He maintained that the vaccine procurement was done "by the book", as he had stressed in February.

Commenting on claims of wastage pertaining to expired vaccines being destroyed, the former Umno leader said the quantum in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines far outnumbered the amount in Malaysia.

"I do not want to give excuses to justify wastage, but I just want to point out that a lot of other countries also did the same, as what mattered during the pandemic was getting enough supplies, rather than experiencing a shortage.

"In the issue concerning life and death, I take responsibility. You were not there in the room, I was there and I knew what I was doing, and I can answer to the PAC," Khairy added.

At this juncture, Khairy's podcast co-host Shahril Hamdan pointed out that the "excess purchase" problem was not unique to Malaysia, and happened in other countries as well.

Khairy then quipped that purchasing vaccines was not a "trivial matter" like buying Panadol (paracetamol) over the counter, and in addition, there was also the issue of "richer" countries hoarding vaccines at the height of the pandemic.