KUCHING: The relaxation announced by the state government for vaccinated individuals is discriminatory to those who are not vaccinated, said Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan.
“I see this is a discrimination under the law and against human rights if the Sarawak government only allows individuals who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to work or enter business premises in the state.
“This is apartheid policy because it segregates the population. Such action is against human rights because citizens are supposed to move and mix around freely with each other and all should be treated in the same class and are equal to each other.
“I think the government can be brought to court because the law should not restrict people’s liberty and movement anyhow,” he said in a statement on Thursday (Aug 26).
Voon said the law cannot simply allow the government to impose any rule to say only those who have been fully vaccinated are allowed to work.
“I see this as unconstitutional because to impose such rule affects rights to livelihood and the right to life under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution,” he said.
He added, it could be unconstitutional under Article 8 of the Federal Constitution too because it infringes equality before the law.
“Such an imposition creates two classes of society, with one class classified as ‘vaccinated’ and the other class, ‘not vaccinated’. The vaccinated class has more rights that the unvaccinated class.
“To require people to be vaccinated before being allowed to work or to enter certain premises should be viewed as coercion by the government and this could nullify the consent form signed by the vaccine takers.
“It could also be nullified if the consent was not an informed consent and I doubt this was done in most, if not all cases in Sarawak,” he said.
The PBK chief said for “informed consent”, there were certain procedures that medical staff need to follow in accordance with medical practices in the world.
“Merely by satisfying the vaccine takers in answering a few questions, perhaps, may not be sufficient.
“Many who were vaccinated suffered side effects or even deaths. There are cases that fully vaccinated individuals are carriers of the virus,” he said.
