Following public outcry, the Ministry of Health has revealed that it has issued a compound to Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin bin Aman Razali. As pointed out by Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, the PAS MP had defied home quarantine orders after returning from Turkey last month.
According to the Ministry of Health, Dr Khairuddin had committed an offence under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 and was issued a compound of RM1,000 on the 7th of August 2020. The announced added that the Minister had settled the compound.
It was stated that Dr Khairuddin had returned from Turkey on 7th July and a swab test taken on the same day had returned negative. The second and third screening had also returned negative for COVID-19.
While the Minister had tested negative three times, many had criticised him for failing to comply with the mandatory 14-day quarantine period. Recently, patient zero of the Sivagangga cluster was fined RM12,000 with a jail sentence of 5 months for deying quarantine orders. Meanwhile, the “pink tag” lady was fined RM8,000 and had spent a day in prison for going out to a cafe while she was placed under home quarantine.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali who was slapped with a compound for defying the MCO by attending a lunch in April, has called upon the government to ensure equal application of the law on all violators. Sinar Harian had quoted the Deputy Minister saying that there’s no ‘dua darjat‘, where there cannot be a situation in which the elites get away while the ones below are penalised.
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