Baru Bian
KUCHING (June 21): Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) must provide strong and clear directive in the exercise to vaccinate everyone in the rural community, including those without identity card (IC), said Ba Kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian.
Baru expressed shock and was flabbergasted to read that the indigenous people in Long San who did not have IC were being turned away from walk-in vaccination centres in the interior areas.
“This is another example of what I spoke about last week, the need for clear instructions and guidelines from the SDMC and the need for officers on the ground to exercise discretion with reasonableness and compassion,” he said in a statement.
Baru, who is also Selangau MP, stressed that officers who were sent to administer the vaccinations in the interior areas must be reminded of the objective of their mission.
“Their aim is to protect the vulnerable and these frontliners must be clear on that. It is not for them to separate these villagers into the haves and have-nots and to discriminate against those more unfortunate ones.”
He said the state was at war with an invisible enemy and the Covid-19 virus will not discriminate whether a person possessed IC or not.
“Surely it is not too much to ask that these officers exercise some logic, since they are presumably people of science.”
Baru said those villagers without ICs were living among them as members of their families and failure to vaccinate those people would put the entire community at risk of Covid-19 infection.
He stressed it was common sense that every person living in the ‘kampungs’ and villages be vaccinated and it was not the time now for officers to debate on a person’s IC status.
“By refusing to vaccinate someone, you are actually putting them at risk of infection and death, and you have no right to do that. It is no wonder that cases in Sarawak are not showing significant decrease with these kinds of incidences.”
Furthermore, Baru believed the same situation would arise again with the vaccination teams going into the rural areas as long as there was no immediate clear and firm directive from SDMC to the personnel on the ground.
He added some of the villages in his constituency of Ba Kelalan will begin to receive their vaccinations in the coming weeks.
“I know many in my constituency are not in possession of ICs though they were born and lived here for many years.
“Each village or kampung has a Ketua Kampung or a Ketua Masyarakat. They are able to confirm that each person in their communities is a ‘human being’ who is a potential victim of the Covid-19 virus, even without any documentation in hand. Their word should be good enough.”
Baru remarked the true measure of any society can be found in the way it treats its most vulnerable members and the indigenous communities in the interior are the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the state.
“To be denied this vital lifeline is truly unacceptable. What does this shabby treatment of them say about us as a society and as a government?
“I urge the SDMC to give a strong and clear directive to have everyone vaccinated. Let common sense prevail, please!”