KUALA LUMPUR: The failure of some ministers to adhere to Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) is one of the contributing factors that led to the erosion of people's confidence in the effectiveness of movement control orders (MCO) or lockdown.
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin who admitted this said headlines about government ministers flouting the rules have damaged the credibility of the latest lockdown, saying "leadership by example is very important".
"I think on that score, we have made some errors," he said in a recent interview published on The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age today.
So far, several cabinet members have been fined for flouting the SOP including Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa, Minister in Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Seri Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri and Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali.
Khairy who is also coordinating minister for the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme (NIP) said the government was facing difficulties in ensuring public adherence to the SOP, due to pandemic fatigue.
"Countries which were successful at suppressing and containing cases have seen their bubble burst. And I think if you look at countries which are doing well, now, you can arguably say that they were doing much, much worse before and they've been saved by early arrivals of vaccines.
"Of course, we could have done certain things better. And also, after a while, it's very difficult to get the public to adhere to the (restrictions) simply because of fatigue. And I'm not blaming the public here.
"Because to observe these very, very unnatural limitations and restrictions on your behaviour or your movements (is difficult). Eventually, there will be a time where people just let their guard down," he said.
On NIP, Khairy said the government had been able to accelerate inoculation and two months ago were renegotiating the supply and delivery of the vaccines it had purchased, 70 per cent of which were the Pfizer brand.
"Most of our portfolio is Pfizer and then we spread our bets. We decided early on that it would be dangerous to put our eggs in one or two baskets," he said.
