“Should have held a press conference first” Najib beefs with Khairy over vaccine rollout

Since stepping down, former Prime Minister Najib Razak has successfully built his persona as a political commentator. His critical yet witty remarks have earned him 4.3mil followers on Facebook.

Recently, he has been embroiled in an online tit-for-tat exchange with the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Khairy Jamaluddin, regarding Malaysia’s vaccination rollout program.

Yesterday, Najib published a Facebook post criticizing Malaysia’s vaccination rate, which stood at 0.99 doses for every 100 citizens, even lower than Singapore, India, and Indonesia.

“As of yesterday, Malaysia had successfully administered 321,331 doses since the rollout three weeks ago.”

“At this rate, it will take us 6.4 years before we vaccinate 80% of Malaysia’s population to achieve herd immunity.”

In response to Najib’s remarks, Khairy replied by explaining that in Phase Three of the rollout, a total of 150,000 to 160,000 doses will be distributed daily nationwide.

He also took a swipe at Najib’s cancellation of his vaccination appointment, which was supposed to occur on March 6.

“I hope that you will be present for the next appointment we’ve arranged for you.”

“I also hope that you will visit your constituents and encourage them to get vaccinated instead of promoting it on Facebook.”

Later today, Najib wrote another post, this time reminding Khairy of his previous decision to opt-out of the vaccination so that front-liners could be jabbed first.

“How is it that other people can give way to front-liners but not me? Maybe I should have held a press conference first.”

However, Khairy disagreed with his narrative, writing, “We both know that is not the reason.”

This back-and-forth dispute has garnered more than 2k replies and 8.3k reactions, with netizens spectating gleefully from the sidelines.

Many prodded Khairy to reveal the real reason for him not getting vaccinated earlier.

Others mentioned they were simply there to join the party.

Sources: (FB/ Najib Razak)

Editor: Raymond Chen
Proofreader: Sarah Yeoh