The Sound of Silence

And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening…
Silence like a cancer grows…

– The Sound of Silence, Simon & Garfunkel –

The haunting Simon and Garfunkel 1964 hit may not have been written with whistleblowers – and certainly not Malaysia – in mind. But recent troubling events concerning the national Covid-19 immunisation rollout on our shores give these lyrics extra weight.

The trouble, you see, is two-fold – 

1) People talking without speaking…

Since the vaccination programme kicked off on Feb 24, various health ministry (MOH)/ hospital staff (many unnamed) have spoken on social media and to press outlets like Malaysiakini and Malay Mail, claiming that aside from the coronavirus pandemic, a plague of privileged vaccine queue-jumpers has hit the nation.

The tl;dr is that several medical frontliners and health officers have alleged that non-frontliners, including influencers, hospital administrators, politicians’ aides, and even VIPs’ domestic helpers and drivers, were being bumped to the front of the inoculation queue.

Thing is, phase one of the vaccine rollout was only supposed to have involved medical and security frontliners dealing with Covid, along with elected reps and other priority groups identified by the gomen. It was clearly spelt out. Was there fine print we weren’t told about?

2) People hearing without listening…

Despite federal and state governments dismissing the claims, Science Minister and immunisation programme head honcho Khairy Jamaluddin, after calling on whistleblowers to contact him anonymously, then said it wasn’t so much as cutting the line as a “flaw” in the system that allowed some people to get “lucky“. 

Still, the gomen promised that any jumpers found would be heavily fined and/or jailed. Great! Justice was gonna be served! But, then came the goddamned gag over (we covered it in yesterday’s newsletter if you want the extended version).

Essentially, MOH warned staff that unauthorised public statements – even on social media – on the vaccine programme or any other gomen policies, is a major no-no. But the ministry insists (in what seems to be a classic attempt to blow sunshine up our asses) this isn’t meant to silence complaints, since “official channels” are available. 

With such warnings, is it any wonder most whistleblowers are cited as anonymous sources in news reports? 

All of this was immediately followed by a statement from Health Minister Dr Adham Baba, who declared that an exhaustive probe (we paraphrased) into queue-jumping came up bupkis. Neither was there a flaw, apparently. Seems some folk scheduled for shots came late, so their jabs were given to other frontliners (supposedly! supposedly!).

The gag order, followed by the minister’s denial… tbh, it ain’t looking good for le gomen here. Already, accusations that the authorities are out to silence whistleblowers have already begun. And you can see why – with the gag order and the insistence that things are hunky dory, anyone with legitimate grouses would be deterred from coming forward.

And as for public faith in what the authorities are claiming? Well, no offence Baba old boy, but come back to us after an independent body has investigated all the claims, k?