YOURSAY | Minister not only wastes PPE but frontliners’ time

YOURSAY | ‘If politicians want to boost morale, try money and support, not by interrupting the smooth running of the lab.’

Minister courts flak for visiting Covid-19 lab wearing PPE

Anonymous 770241: This is not the time to seek popularity and score political points.

Why are ministers doing the job of others? As the higher education minister, Noraini Ahmad’s focus should be on her portfolio instead of visiting Covid-19 labs.

We already have a problem with the shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) suits for our frontliners.

Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin is the one who started it all by not only wasting public funds by spraying chemicals on the road but by also wasting a dozen or so precious PPE suits worn by her bootlickers.

Whatever the politicians want to do to improve their already ‘dead’ political image, they have to save it for the next elections. Not now, by wasting precious equipment that can help save more lives.

Anonymous_3b6c1f0c: What is going on in the minds of our Perikatan Nasional (PN) ministers?

Noraini is not a frontliner and can’t make any useful contribution towards the healthcare of patients nor the important testing work at a laboratory.

Yet she deigns that it is important for her to waste scarce resources needed by our medical personnel and the time of our laboratory technicians by visiting them and dragging along an entourage with a camera crew to boot.

Noraini has no business being there. She should instead be working from home developing plans and programmes for higher education which has been interrupted.

She should certainly not be breaching the rules against social distancing and heightening the spread of Covid-19 by bringing an entourage with her.

If leaders of PN can’t follow the movement control order (MCO) then why should the rakyat? Senior minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob should first bring his own house into order before asking the police to arrest non-complying members of the public.

After all, they are merely emulating the behaviour of leaders of the PN government.

MS: These government people just can't resist making political capital while wasting precious resources.

It proves time and again the kind of low-thinking people they are - totally bereft of everything ordinary people expect of public servants, which is what they are supposed to be.

We are told of a double amputee sewing PPEs with her legs, and women I know have volunteered to make them, while these government people abuse their usurped power to use the PPE as they wish.

They think they are important and totally oblivious to the contempt they elicit every time they emerge from wherever they are holed up.

As for MMA president Dr N Ganabaskaran, please stop your political correctness. Boosting morale is also possible if those in government personally donate RM1,000 a week to the frontliners to support their needs and send them supportive WhatsApp messages. All without using PPEs.

Anonymous_1404366050: A noble advice to all politicians, especially the publicity craved few - the frontliners do not need your moral support by showing up.

Not that you are able to help, you are wasting their time to entertain you and the few little Napoleons that follow you.

Moral boosting should not be done this way. You can just post some encouraging messages through Twitter, Facebook, etc, and duduk diam diam (stay quietly) in your home or office.

Knockknock: We are all fed up of reading and listening to childish games played by silly politicians during this Covid-19 season.

Ministers, stay put in your own ministries or your homes and stop trying to boost your popularity at this awkward period of time. Let the frontliners do their jobs without meddling.

Dear Mr PM, please see that all your ministers show good examples to the people when the law now says stay at home. The law does not state exceptions for publicity-seeking ministers.

Stand For Truth: Noraini, please tell us what your ministry has done for the thousands of students stranded in the universities.

What online education is being offered? What about the 2021 intake that is going to be disrupted by the delay of the STPM and matriculation examinations?

Mind your own ministry first.

R Venugopal: Indeed, the minister of higher education should focus on the problems of the students and teachers during this period.

Let the doctors do their job. Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah is doing a great job in overcoming Covid-19. The politicians are looking for cheap publicity at the expense of the sick people.

Ali: Government function is an essential service. Noraini’s portfolio is higher education, so it also means visiting universities.

Considering Covid-19 is an issue right now, it is not unreasonable for her to visit the departments conducting research (UiTM Sungai Buloh specialist centre) on the virus with the proper protection in place.

If people want to criticise, do it with merit and not unnecessarily.

Anonymous #13571680: During normal times, we never have any visits by the top medical people, including the health director-general, to boost the morale of the health staff, let alone ministers.

In times like this, the health staff understands the restriction imposed and there is no need for the visits. They can just give words of encouragement over the media and this will be sufficient rather than visiting them when the focus and attention will be diverted.

Also, there will be the tendency to spend time to prepare for the event and to welcome them like the incident in UPSI.

It has become a trend now for MMA presidents to rub shoulders with authorities and to do things for their own advantage rather than speak out without fear or favour for what the profession should stand for.

The Analyser: The idea of a Malaysian politician boosting anyone’s morale is plain stupidity.

If politicians want to boost morale, try money and support, not by interrupting the smooth running of the lab.

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