Backdoor PM

COMMENT | Of course, politicians are going to jump the queue and get vaccinated while the rest of us schmucks are going to have to be at the mercy of a bureaucracy which is attempting to navigate this pandemic without any transparency and accountability.

Of course, politicians who engineered a coup think their lives are more important than everyone else's, especially since the system is predicated on privileging their lives, be it in the way they flaunt SOPs or the way how their crimes are handled by the justice system.

What this pandemic has done is merely illustrate how the political elites are cut off from the people they claim to serve. Sure, there have been a few bright spots. There have been politicians and their proxies who attempted to mitigate the ravages that this pandemic has wrought on the average rakyat.

There have been grassroots activists collaborating with politicians who actually want to further their agendas but end up having some positive effects on the ground. But for the most part, politicians have done as much damage to the health security of the rakyat as the virus itself.

Having spent time in the hospital recently, I understand firsthand how dire the situation is. I am not only talking about the doctors and nurses but the various support staff right down to the cleaning service personnel who, if you have been reading the news, have their problems with the management firms that hire them out.

For some people, being infected with Covid-19 means a permanent loss of income at worst, or a reduction of daily income at best. They will also be putting the lives of their families in danger because they do not have the resources to follow the quarantine standard operating procedures (SOPs) easily. This is unlike rich politicians and their families, who can shelter in resorts or have access to state and federal level amenities and funds.

When Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh responds to Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa's SOP violation, saying: “Why is Annuar’s case so different to the point that it needs to go all the way up to the Attorney-General?'', this tells us everything we need to know about why politicians think their lives are more important than the rest of us.

In a political ecosystem such as this, does anyone really think that political operatives were thinking of the Covid-19 virus? Of course not. Their rank and status meant they had other things to think about. But more importantly, they would not be subjected to the same kind of consequences for breaking SOPs because the state is too busy cracking down on the average Joe Rakyat.

What this pandemic has demonstrated is that here, and elsewhere, politicians do not think rules apply to them. The fact that it could reasonably be concluded that the third wave of the virus could be traced to the fallout from the Sabah election fiasco is evidence that politicians really do not give two hoots about the rakyat they claim to serve.

Neither do they care about those whose work the state attempts to spin as "essential" to the running of the country.

It is just laughable that the average rakyat, when it comes to breaking SOPs, are fined on the spot, but when a politician does it, the state security apparatus has to talk to witnesses and go through the rigmarole of an investigation when the average citizen is left to merely complain on social media.

Bukit Tengah assemblyperson Gooi Hsiao Leung correctly points out that the prime minister's rationale for vaccinating MPs because they have to meet their constituents is utter nonsense.

I would add that not many MPs actually meet their constituents, unless it is close to election time and all those supposed "meetings" are a part of the diseased feudalistic mentality that has screwed up this political system for decades.

Gooi said, "As elected representatives, we can still carry on with our daily responsibilities just like everyone else by strictly following the SOPs. Just don't flout the SOPs."

This is absolutely true. I know of one DAP MP who “meets” her constituents through all sorts of innovative ways, either via online chats or calling certain groups and handling their issues through video calls. The latter is especially effective because she gets to see first hand what the issue is and the people will also perceive that she actually is interested in their problems.

This is a state-level political operative, and she has not been caught holding “dinners” or flaunting SOPs but works just as hard as before, when there was no Covid-19.

Honestly, this Perikatan Nasional government is shameless in the way it does not seem to care about queue jumping when it comes to the vaccination process. Maybe they are secure in the knowledge that this feudalistic system can endure the hypocrisy of politicians who claim their lives are more important because of the "work" they do.

If Pakatan Harapan political operatives, or any political operative, believe they should not be jumping the queue, they should sign a public declaration that they will consent to be vaccinated only after everyone else who is determined to be of higher priority is vaccinated.