GEORGE TOWN: DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng today criticised Putrajaya for using the cost excuse in explaining the delay in arrival of the Covid-19 vaccine after those across the Causeway became the first in Asia to receive it earlier this week.
Federal minister Khairy Jamaluddin had said Singapore received the vaccines ahead of time as it had a “bigger financial ability” to do so.
Lim said the excuse would have made sense if the vaccines cost the country over RM100 billion.
“But what is a paltry 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 finance ministry refused to make available the funds to make an earlier purchase of the vaccines. I hope the finance ministry can clarify this.
“If this is indeed the case, then such a stingy and miserly refusal to make available RM2.1 billion or RM3 billion is a bigger blunder and more incompetent than Malaysia’s downgrade in sovereign credit ratings by Fitch Ratings recently,” he said.
The government has committed to purchasing vaccines to cover 82.8% of the country’s 32 million population, with the first one million doses set to be given out to target groups such as frontliners, the elderly and those with non-communicable diseases.
Malaysia’s first batch of doses is expected to arrive by February, with Khairy, the science, technology and innovation minister, stating that the delay was due to cost.
“Singapore signed (a purchase agreement) a few months before us because their financial ability is much bigger – let’s put it that way,” he said on Wednesday.
“We took our time to get the best deal possible. If it’s a two-month variant, I think it’s reasonable.”