Kelvin Yii (standing, holding paper) seen accompanying a disabled persons to get his Covid-19 vaccines at one of the vaccination centres in Kuching recently.
KUCHING (June 17): The Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak team will continue to be on the ground to help transport members of the public especially the elderly and disabled for their vaccination appointment, said Bandar Kuching MP Kelvin Yii.
This was despite being accused of seeking “cheap publicity” by certain quarters, he added.
“Our focus will continue to serve the people the best we can and make sure as many Sarawakians especially the elderly and disabled that are high risk to get severe symptoms if infected get their vaccination as soon as possible and not miss their appointments,” he said in his statement today.
Yii said this was because the initiative was started since the beginning of the National Vaccination Programme to encourage people to sign up and to remove any obstacles for the public especially the elderly from attending their appointments.
Many of those people have no transport as their children are either away in another town or state for work too.
“We have also received call even from children staying in Kuala Lumpur and other parts of Peninsular Malaysia to ask us to help transport their elderly parents living alone here in Kuching,”
“Since then, my office has transported many elderlies daily to all the Covid-19 vaccination centres all around Kuching and accompanied them throughout the process,” he said.
For him, assisting them is especially important, as many may not be familiar with the whole process, some are not fluent in Bahasa Malaysia or English, or some may have special needs or mobility problems.
Apart from that, Yii also said that DAP have helped many that required special help including those suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, different chronic diseases and those requiring wheelchairs too.
Meanwhile Yii also said that DAP have discussed with the Taxi Association here (in Kuching) to help transport those who needs transportation to Covid-19 vaccination centres to get the their vaccines, to-and-fro.
This was due to the fact that there were increase in demands to the services offered by the party who wanted to help people to go to Covid-19 vaccination centres to get the their vaccines by providing them free transportation.
“The fees for taxi will be fully paid by us. Although, for those elderly and disabled that may need special guidance during the whole process, my office will continue to personally transport and accompany them through the process based on our capacity and availability as we have limited drivers,” he said.
He also pointed out that though DAP are the elected representatives of some areas in Kuching, they are not provided with government allocations as the opposition.
DAP nevertheless will try their best to play their part with our their resources and kind donations from the public for the good of the people .
“We may not have much, but we will try to do as much as we can,” he said.