See (seated second right) speaking during the Facebook live talk show.
KUCHING (June 5): Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) Southern Zone Taskforce urged the state government to devise and effect various incentive schemes to encourage all Sarawakians to take ownership of the vaccination programme.
“(This is) to ensure that we can quickly complete the mass vaccination required to achieve herd immunity, thus allowing Sarawak to embark on economic recovery, growth and to reconnect with the rest of the world, to bring prosperity to all Sarawakians,” said the taskforce head and Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How during their Live Facebook session last night.
See, who is PSB presidential council member, suggested that the state government to look into using the fiscal reserves to offer incentives to Sarawakians who are fully vaccinated.
“I must strongly urge the chief minister to consult the State Financial Secretary to look into the feasibility of dipping into our fiscal reserves to offer cash or saving bonds of RM500 to each fully vaccinated Sarawakian citizen.
“This will cost us RM1.1 billion, to pay the 2.2 million eligible Sarawakians. It is less than the financial support packages of Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang (BKSS) 6.0 which totals to RM1.4 billion. This a worthy investment, considering the losses and damages suffered by Sarawak and all Sarawakians due to the closure and restrictions of our economic and social life,” he reasoned.
See pointed out that the choice is clear, if the B40 families are asked to choose between a monthly subsistence of RM250 for their families’ livelihood or getting back to work as normal, or if the health personnel will prefer the monthly RM300 special allowance to risk their lives fighting the Covid-19 pandemic than normalcy of which all Sarawakians are healthy and healthcare facilities and manpower are able to function normally.
“It is without a doubt that all Sarawakians will choose to be able to get Sarawak and ourselves to be on our own two feet and life returning to normalcy as soon as possible.
“The RM1.1 billion to get all eligible Sarawakians vaccinated will be a worthy investment indeed,” he stressed.
See noted that many developed countries, notably the United States of America, China, the United Kingdom and majority of the European Unions are already moving ahead in their recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said that at differing degrees, these countries are re-opening their economies, putting in places measures to reconnect with others and strategise for growth and prosper.
“The common thread that runs through their feats to get on top of the Covid-19 pandemic is their government’s swift response, willpower and drive to vaccinate their country populace.
“In these countries, they have yet to attain the necessary extent of inoculations to herd immunity but it is sufficient for them to open up certain economic sectors and to ease the loads on the national health care facilities, and be able to focus on testing, tracing, isolating, and treating the cases to bring any probable outbreak under control,” he said.
See believes that Sarawak can actually do better than many of these countries if the federal and state government have shown more political will in the procurement of vaccines and the execution of the inoculation.
“By June 2, we have reportedly 1,246,332 (56.7 percent) of Sarawakians now registered for vaccination, despite having only 201,797 (9.2 percent) being vaccinated on June 3, amongst them 116,399 (5.3 percent) being fully vaccinated.
“The federal government has promised that there will be weekly 380,000 doses of vaccines coming to Sarawak, so that we will have 4.4 million doses of vaccine for all eligible Sarawakians by this August. Reportedly, the first weekly supply has arrived,” he said.
See hopes that this will motivate the state government to look into the necessary efforts to register the one million eligible Sarawakians who have yet to voluntarily register themselves for vaccination, and the needs for facilities to increase capacity to accelerate vaccination in the state, most particularly in the rural interior of Sarawak.
“We must however be minded that not all Sarawakians will be driven by a mere cash incentive. We should lay emphasis on the need to encourage all Sarawakians to drive the vaccination campaign and help Sarawak to achieve herd immunity in the shortest time.
“Elsewhere, many country governments are giving tax incentives to companies that have registered all their employees for vaccination, besides allowing them to go into full operation when these employees are fully vaccinated,” he said.
See pointed out restrictions on use of public facilities are also eased for those who are fully vaccinated.
However, he said, the state will need to instantly scale up the rate of vaccination in Sarawak, by up to five-folds of the daily record high.
He shared that the number of doses of vaccine administered in Sarawak in the past two weeks are as follows:
May 21 (5,345), May 22 (9,308), May 23 (8,159), May 24 (11,818), May 25 (9,108), May 26 (804), May 27 (3,984), May 28 (5,417), May 29 (14,302), May 30 (12,197), May 31 (2,854), June 1 (406), June 2 (543) and June 3 (11,541).
The chart shared by See during the talk on the progress of the vaccination programme in the state.
See said that any efforts by the state administration to organise and put in place the necessary facilities and logistical support to carry out mass vaccination in the villages and longhouses has yet to be seen.
“In the meantime, the state government must encourage and mobilise all Sarawakians to take ownership of the vaccination programme, to ensure that we can quickly complete the mass vaccination required to achieve herd immunity, thus allowing Sarawak to embark on economic recovery, growth and to reconnect with the rest of the world, to bring prosperity to all Sarawakians,” he said.
Also participating in the session were PSB publicity secretary Liu Thian Leong, and Southern Zone Taskforce members Tan Kay Hok and Datuk John Lau Pang Heng.