Khairy: Hard to enforce S.O.P. when some ministers flout them

KUALA LUMPUR: The failure of some ministers to adhere to Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOP) is one of the reasons why people are losing confidence in the effectiveness of movement control orders or lockdowns.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin admitted this in an interview published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age yesterday.

He said headlines about ministers flouting the rules had damaged the credibility of the latest lockdown, saying “leadership by example is very important”.

“I think on that score, we have made some errors there.”

Several cabinet members have been fined for flouting the rules, including Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa, Minister in Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Seri Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri and Plantation Industry and Commodities Minister Datuk

Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali.

Khairy, who is coordinating minister for the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme, said the government was facing difficulties in ensuring public adherence to the SOP due to pandemic fatigue.

“Countries which were successful at suppressing and containing cases have seen their bubble burst.

“And I think if you look at countries which are doing well now, you can arguably say that they were doing much, much worse before and they’ve been saved by early arrivals of vaccines.

“Of course, we could have done certain things better.

“And also, after a while, it’s very difficult to get the public to adhere to the (restrictions) simply because of fatigue. And I’m not blaming the public here.

“Because to observe these very, very unnatural limitations and restrictions on your behaviour or your movements (is difficult).

Eventually, there will be a time where people just let their guard down,” he said.

On the NIP, Khairy said the government had been able to accelerate inoculation after renegotiating the delivery of vaccines it had purchased, 70 per cent of which were made by Pfizer.

“Most of our portfolio is Pfizer and then we spread our bets.

“We decided early on that it would be dangerous to put our eggs in one or two baskets,” he said.