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GEORGE TOWN: DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng criticized Putrajaya today for using the excuse of cost to explain the delay in the arrival of the Covid-19 vaccine after those on the other side of the Causeway converted. in the first in Asia to receive it earlier this week.
Federal Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had said that Singapore received the vaccines early as it had “greater financial capacity” to do so.
Lim said the excuse would have made sense if vaccines cost the country more than RM100 billion.
“But what is a measly RM2.1 billion compared to the Perikatan Nasional government’s RM305 billion Prihatin economic stimulus package this year against the negative economic impact of Covid-19?
“I do not believe that the Ministry of Finance has refused to make the funds available for an advance purchase of the vaccines. I hope the Ministry of Finance can clarify this.
“If this is indeed the case, then such a stingy and stingy refusal to make available RM2.1 billion or RM3 billion is a bigger and more incompetent mistake than the recent downgrade of Malaysia’s sovereign credit rating by Fitch Ratings,” said.
The government has committed to buying vaccines to cover 82.8% of the country’s 32 million inhabitants, and the first million doses will be distributed to target groups such as front-line people, the elderly, and people with non-communicable diseases.
The first batch of doses from Malaysia is expected to arrive in February, and Khairy, the minister for science, technology and innovation, said the delay was due to cost.
“Singapore signed (a purchase agreement) a few months before us because its financial capacity is much higher, let’s put it that way,” he said Wednesday.
“We take our time to get the best deal possible. If it’s a two-month variant, I think it’s reasonable. “
