Why the reluctance to come clean and tell all about Khairuddin and his entourage’s trip to Turkey and breaches of Covid-19 quarantine SOP?

The Health director-general Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah had declined to respond to an accusation that the ministry was to be blamed for the failure of cabinet minister Khairuddin Aman Razali to quarantine himself after returning from Turkey.

I support Noor Hisham as this is a political question which should not be answered by any civil servant, but a question to be answered by the political leaders, which is why I had specifically ask the Health Minister, Dr. Adham Baba, to explain whether the Health Ministry was guilty as charged by PAS and whether their silence constituted an admission of guilt.

In my media statement yesterday, I had referred to the accusation levelled by the PAS spiritual leader Hashim Jasin at the PAS Muktamar in Ipoh last weekend that Khairuddin should be considered a hero even though he broke Covid-19 quarantine rules as his trip to Turkey had brought benefits to the oil palm sector.

“He broke the rules but he brought good news, news that brought benefit. He is a hero, like the hoopoe bird that was going to be punished, when it was actually a hero,” he said.

Senator Aiman Athirah Sabu of Amanah has said it was “reckless and outrageous” for Hashim Jasin to come to Khairuddin’s defence by comparing Khairuddin and his quarantine breach to the hoopoe or hudhud bird featured in the Quran.

And she is right or the PAS President, Datuk Hadi Awang, would be shouting from the rooftops and lead a national campaign to sing Khairuddin’s praise as “a hero of the people who saved Malaysia” instead of evading and sidestepping the media on Khairuddin’s quarantine breach issue with the statement about the supreme importance of morals to PAS, declaring: “If they commit a sin that is contrary with Islam and morals, we will fire them”.

Hadi said to reporters at the convention “Half a Year of the PN administration: "In PAS, the first thing is sin, and secondly, if there is any wrongdoing, we leave it to the law."

It is fortunate that no reporter followed up with a question whether the PAS President believes that the entire Cabinet are made up of morally upright people or whether the PAS leadership considers telling lies and falsehoods as moral sins.

Hashim Jasin not only attacked the Health Ministry, but also the Foreign Ministry, for their faults leading the Khairuddin being attacked for his quarantine breach.

This was why I had asked the Health Minister Dr. Adham Baba and the Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein whether they are pleading guilty to the PAS accusation that the Health Ministry and the Foreign Ministry were “negligent” and guilty for Plantation and Commodities Minister Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali’s breach of Covid 19 quarantine SOP and if not, why their silence for the past two weeks.

I reiterate that it is most strange and extraordinary that although two weeks have passed, Malaysians know very little about the Turkey trip of Khairuddin and his entourage and their violation of Covid-19 quarantine SOP, the outcome of police investigation and the status of the many lies told when the subject became a public issue e.g. Turkey was a “green country(zone)” in the Covid-19 pandemic during their visit when it was a “hotspot” of the pandemic.

Is there going to be the fullest disclosure, accountability and transparency on this public interest issue with regard to Khairuddin’s trip to Turkey and his breach of the quarantine SOP?

Is Khairuddin going to come clean on his and his entourage’s trip to Turkey and why the greatest reluctance on his part to tell Malaysians about his trip to Turkey?