RM1,000 fine for PAS Minister to end the growing storm over his Covid-19 SOP breach sounds very fishy and contrived – why Khairuddin did not admit right from the beginning, what is the Health Ministry investigation about and what about others in Khairuddin’s trip to Turkey?

The RM1,000 fine for the PAS Minister for Plantation, Industries and Commodities, Khairuddin Aman Razali to end the growing storm over his Covid-19 SOP breach sounds very fishy and contrived as it raises more questions.

If the Health Ministry had acted as early as August 7 and issued a compound of RM1,000 on August 7 and the Minister had paid the compound, the questions that arises include:

1. Why the Minister had not admitted the SOP breach right from the beginning when the DAP MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok raised it in Parliament on August 18;
2. Why the cock-and-bull story that the Minister’s trip to Turkey had the approval of the Prime Minister, that he had escaped 14-day quarantine because he was found “negative” in a “special test” for Ministers to go in and out of the country and that Turkey was a “green country (zone)” for Covid-19 pandemic!
3. If action had already been taken on August 7, what was all the Health Ministry investigation in the last four days about?
4. Is the payment of the RM1,000 compound fine by Khairudddin on August 7 true?
5. Why didn’t the Health Ministry require Khairruddin to wear the pink wristband, monitor and require him to be quarantined? Did Khairuddin defy such quarantine instructions?
6. What about the others in Khairuddin’s trip to Turkey. How many of them, who are they and were they all compounded?

Or are these “fishy and contrived” answers merely to save the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin from appearing to be a weak Prime Minister and avoid the embarrassment of having to answer questions about Khairuddin’s breach of the Covid-19 SOP, as well as other related questions, like whether there is a “special test” for Ministers, Deputy Ministers and high officials and how many Ministers, Deputy Ministers and top officials had been given permission to leave the country during the Movement Control Order (MCO) from March 18 to May 3, the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) from May 4 to June 9 and the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO from June 10 to August 31, the duration and reasons for their overseas trips, with separate information with regard to Ministers, Deputy Ministers and high officials who were given permission to go overseas and to return on “personal matters” without having to comply with the SOP.

I am reminded of the warning that if you tell a lie, you will have to tell a thousand lies to hide a lie. I do not know whether these are shariah-compliant lies.

The Prime Minister should agree that Khairuddin should be referred to the parliamentary committee of privileges, as Khairuddin had committed a serious breach of parliamentary privileges.