Voon Lee Shan
KUCHING (Oct 8): The State Disaster Management Committee’s (SDMC) directive to prohibit citizens who are not fully vaccinated to travel inter-district is arbitrary and unconstitutional under the Federal Constitution, said Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan.
Aside from that, he said such restriction against those, who for medical reasons could not get vaccinated, was also inconsiderate and unreasonable.
“It seems that the SDMC’s directive did not take into consideration citizens who could not for medical conditions get themselves vaccinated.
“SDMC may need to understand that the law could not be used to simply discriminate citizens.
“The prohibition to disallow them to travel inter-district is against their rights of movements and may affect their livelihood as they are prevented to travel for their business and work,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Voon claimed that PBK had received many public complaints concerning the directive issued by SDMC on October 5.
He suggested that SDMC could require them to adhere to more strict standard operating procedures (SOPs), such as travelling alone or travelling with only family members or with limited people inside their cars with masks.
And if they are to travel by plane, insist that they wear double masks and use hand gloves, he added.
Voon said the SDMC’s directives also failed to take into consideration those who could not be vaccinated due to religious belief.
“This category of people should be allowed to be exempted from vaccination.
“To require someone to be vaccinated against the person’s religious belief is against freedom of religious practice. This could be viewed as unconstitutional,” he said.
Voon pointed to the statement by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin that individuals who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical conditions can obtain their digital exemption certificates (see The Borneo Post October 5, 2021).
He said in spite of what the Health Minister had said, many complained that doctors refused or could not certify their medical conditions for issuance of exemption certificates because doctors told them that they did not have any guidelines from the relevant authorities on how to do it.
He said this clearly showed the incompetency of the authorities in handling this matter affecting the citizens who needed help.
“Without any guidelines those who are eligible for the exemption certificates are discriminated from fair treatment to receive attention and help from the authorities. Such an act could be unconstitutional.
“It is hoped that SDMC will look into the problems of the people who could not receive vaccination for health and religious belief reasons more seriously so that citizens who need help will not suffer physical and mental stress,” he said.
Voon reminded SDMC that activists in the country are monitoring actions and weaknesses of SDMC and other relevant authorities and it will be bad if foreigners come to know of the state’s weakness and ‘apartheid’ policies in handling Covid-19 issues.
from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3lm1WE4
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