Walk the talk, Chong calls upon state govt regarding vaccine purchase for Sarawak

KUCHING: The Sarawak government must put their words into action regarding the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines for all Sarawakians, said Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen.

He observed that since February, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg and several state cabinet ministers have been talking about the state government’s intention of purchasing the vaccines for Sarawakians.

“This is the most welcoming announcement for all. But almost two months have passed, and the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS)-led government is still talking about asking for more vaccine quota from the federal government.

“What happened to Abang Johari’s announcement about Sarawak purchasing our own vaccines?” he said in a statement yesterday.

Chong had also observed that over the past one month, Sarawak had been among the top three states in the country having recorded the highest number of new Covid-19 cases.

“This is despite the more stringent SOP (standard operating procedures) for quarantine, movement control and border control measures imposed by the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), than those imposed by the Ministry of Health in terms of pandemic management.

“While the so-called more relaxed SOP states are now registering a decline in new infection cases, Sarawak, which has more stringent SOP, is recording more new infection cases.

“What has gone wrong?” he questioned.

Chong, who is also Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak chairman, said it was DAP Sarawak as well as PH Sarawak’s position that the sooner the vaccination programme could be rolled out with more than 70 per cent of the population vaccinated, the sooner the state could resume its economic activities covering local businesses, business travels, tourism, and in-flow of investments.

“Therefore, we call upon the state government to ‘walk the talk’, and ‘not just talk the talk’ regarding the purchase of Covid19 vaccines for Sarawakians.

“On our part, as we are not the government of the day, we would do whatever we can to help – by encouraging and helping more people to register for the vaccination programme,” said Chong, who is Stampin MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman.

He said his DAP Kota Sentosa branch had set up a registration booth at Mile 7 Kota Sentosa Bazaar yesterday to help members of the public, especially the senior citizens, to register for the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

“We have received very good response from the public,” he said, adding that all DAP branches across Sarawak had been directed to actively help in registering more people for the programme.