GEORGE TOWN: MCA vice-president Datuk Tan Teik Cheng says affirmations by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) debunked DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang s allegations that Malaysia is paying 20 times more than Belgium for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, which alludes that monetary malpractices were involved. It is discomforting that Lim had exploited the pandemic and vaccines to cast aspersions on the Perikatan Nasional government. However, his fellow party comrade Ipoh Timur MP Wong Kah Woh expressed satisfaction with the clarification given by the government representatives. Now, Lim is switching attention and is inciting the public to question Perikatan as to why Malaysia is purportedly slow in prioritising vaccine by highlighting that while Singapore is the first Asian country to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech shots, Malaysia is only signing an agreement with AstraZeneca for an additional 6.4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
PETALING JAYA: The non-disclosure agreement (NDA) clause between Malaysia and the manufacturers of the Covid-19 vaccine prevents Khairy Jamaluddin from releasing detailed information on the negotiations, says Datuk Chong Sin Woon.
5:29 PM MYT
PETALING JAYA: The non-disclosure agreement (NDA) clause between Malaysia and the manufacturers of the Covid-19 vaccine prevents Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin from releasing detailed information on negotiations over the vaccine, says Datuk Chong Sin Woon.
The MCA secretary-general said a similar situation befell Belgium, reportedly leaving the European Commission embarrassed over the vaccine price leak.
He said Khairy had also extended an invitation to DAP MP Lim Kit Siang to a briefing on the vaccine selection and distribution process.
“He has also offered to brief the PAC regarding the vaccine on condition that its members keep such information under wraps till the time is appropriate to release such details to the public, ” Chong said in a statement on Thursday (Dec 24).
IPOH: Two Perak DAP assemblyman are standing by their statements, saying that they did nothing wrong to be criticised by their own state party leaders.
Malim Nawar assemblyman Leong Cheok Keng said he only questioned Nga Kor Ming on how the state party chief was going to take responsibility if he had made a mistake by working with Umno. They alleged that I made a personal attack on a leader. A personal attack is when I call names or talk bad about his family, which I didn t do, he said when contacted. I only directed some questions to the state chairman, not the leadership. I found no merits in their accusations, he added.
IPOH: Perak DAP has taken to task three of its state assemblymen for criticising its party leadership during the state political impasse.
In a joint statement issued by 17 of its state representatives on their Facebook page, they called out Leong Cheok Keng (Malim Nawar), Leow Thye Yih (Pokok Assam) and Terence Naidu (Pasir Bedamar) for issuing statements without going through the proper channels.
They said all three have violated party discipline for the statements they made, which had hurt its image. We regret that some people have taken the opportunity to criticise the party leadership, when we were working hard to resolve the political crisis. They claim to represent the party, but what they did proved otherwise and to achieve their own political goals, they said.