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Monday, March 29, 2021

Privilege for Minister Santhara, none for compassionate cases

Malaysiakini:

After missing dad’s funeral, man wishes he was given the Santhara treatment



After missing dad’s funeral, man wishes he was given the Santhara treatment

If only he was allowed to undergo home quarantine, Tan KS believes he would have been able to see his father one last time before he was buried.

He will now have to settle for the memory of his last trip home before his father passed.

In late February, the airline pilot travelled from his hometown in Klang, Selangor, to Singapore where he works.

Whilst undergoing a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine on the island state, Tan’s 74-year-old father died of a heart attack on March 6.

He immediately appealed to Singaporean and Malaysian authorities to be allowed to attend the funeral, to be held in two days’ time at his family home.

While Singapore agreed to release him provided he tested negative for Covid-19, Malaysia declined his request to be quarantined at home rather than in a hotel, away from his family.

In an e-mail seen by Malaysiakini, the Health Ministry told Tan he will first need to get to a designated quarantine facility as per standard operating procedure before applying for “time-off” to attend the funeral.


Tan (left) with his dad and family members

The frequency and duration of the time-off, however, was contingent on whether the facility had available transport and personnel.

In the end, Tan chose not to make the trip home as he predicted he would have missed the March 8 morning funeral, anyway.

“By the time they (the quarantine facility team) arrange everything and send a team to take me home, everything would have ended.

“But without the hotel quarantine and if I had been allowed to undergo home quarantine, I would have been able to go directly home from the airport. And reached in time to see my father being sent off from the house,” he rued.

“I feel sad definitely because it was his last journey,” said Tan about not being able to send his father off.

'Why didn’t I qualify?'

Tan shared his experience with Malaysiakini after learning that the ministry had allowed Deputy Federal Territories Minister Edmund Santhara to undergo home quarantine after his controversial New Zealand trip.

He questioned the discrepancy.


A screenshot of Tan checking in on his gravely-ill father

“I think my case was more qualified for home quarantine when compared to the deputy minister.

“As you can see, I was actually in Singapore serving the full 14-day quarantine, with the two negative Covid-19 results. And I had not been in contact with anyone,” he shared.

Yesterday, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah explained that Santhara was allowed to undergo home quarantine because he had returned from a low-risk country and had a “suitable home”.

Like Santhara, Tan said he had also returned from a country with very few Covid-19 cases.

Like the Segamat MP, he believed his house was spacious enough for home quarantine.


Tan's dad during happier times

“Maybe, the deputy minister has the whole mezzanine to himself but I believe mine isn’t that bad,” he said.

Malaysian S Mani Vannan previously criticised the ministry for practising “double standards” after it declined his home quarantine request despite being fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

He said his purpose for travelling home was to care for his mother, a cancer patient.


8 comments:

  1. Dr Noor Hisham became the Obedient Civil Servant the moment he received his TAN SRI title last year, he didn't put up a poop or peep when the Sabah elections was announced and the country went downhill after that. His defence of Santhara's special treatment is so shameful. Even returning his Tan Sri title now will not save his reputation, not in my book anyway.

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  2. y chinese so noisy towards native privilege?

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    1. maybe, those from kerala hv the capability to tansform themselves into msia n new zealand native, very adaptive like cockroaches.

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    2. Sub-continent Natives often much more adaptable than Chinese...all over the world

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    3. Santhara is keeling not a native so where is the privilege?

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    4. the privilege of having 1 vote in a VERY slim-majority PN govt

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  3. It is so common and expected that such double standards treatment is now hardly "earth shaking".

    If Noor Hisham has any sense of justice, he will hang his head in shame and apologise.

    But we know it will NEVER happen because to people like Noor Hisham, this is par for the course.

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