'Wrong is wrong': a tip on fairness from Malaysia’s health minister

It was only two years ago that Boris Johnson led the British Conservative Party to a thumping victory in the 2019 general election. And yet this week there is feverish speculation about how long or whether Mr Johnson will be able to stay on as prime minister. This is not because his 80 seat majority has mysteriously vanished. No, criticism has crystallised over a series of “unauthorised social gatherings” held by senior Conservatives in November and December 2020 when parties were strictly prohibited.

These included at least two in Downing Street, which houses the premier’s official residence and office – at a time when the law banned gatherings of more than two people inside, unless necessary for work. Denials that one party in particular even occurred were fatally undermined when footage leaked of Mr Johnson’s then spokesperson, Allegra Stratton, laughing nervously and calling it a “fictional party” in response to a question about the event in a practice press conference.

No one was fooled. Mr Johnson is now being held responsible by a public furious that his friends and associates appeared to be exempt from rules under which most of the country had suffered grievously, including the cancellation of a normal family Christmas celebration for many millions. Worse is the allegation that he and others then lied about it.

Contrast that with the announcement this week by Malaysia’s health minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, that the organisers of an event last Friday would be fined for failing to uphold standard operating procedures during Covid-19, such as social distancing and limiting the number of visitors. The gathering was held by an agency under the prime minister’s department, and the occasion was to celebrate the first 100 days of his administration. Surely an exemption might be made? But no, Mr Khairy insisted a fine must be issued. “I informed Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob,” he said. “I told him we had no choice, even though it was odd that a compound was issued to a government agency. Wrong is wrong.”

“When the public sees that the government is breaching SOPs that it enacted, it will lose credibility as well as the public’s trust,” he explained.

That is real leadership by example. And it seems to me that although we can talk about summits for democracy, or competing ideas about individual human rights and the common good, what peoples all around the world really want to see, especially when so many have had such a hard time during the pandemic, is fairness and the idea that our leaders are held to the same rules as the rest of us.

Fairness, or the lack of it, is one reason why vaccine inequity strikes many as so terribly wrong. Arguments by big pharma companies that they need to defend patents fall flat when you learn that less than 5 per cent of adults in Papua New Guinea have been vaccinated – and scientists are warning it could be a breeding ground for lots of new variants.

Perhaps PNG, as it is known, is a remote and little-known country for many. My family lived there for three years when I was a teenager, so I am familiar with its magnificent scenery and fascinating local culture. But at its closest point PNG is only four km from Australian territory and it shares an 824 km land border with Indonesia – a country of 274 million. So if, as Australia’s Lowy Institute predicts, PNG will still only be one third vaccinated by 2026, this has tremendous real-world consequences.

Fairness is also increasingly demanded when it comes to the conduct of our leaders. Most accept that various perks – such as an official residence, a good salary, perhaps a chauffeur-driven car – are reasonable compensation for the rigours of their jobs, as well as being appropriate to the dignity of their offices.

But the idea that “we are not all in this together” in terms of the frequently intolerable restrictions billions of people have gone through over the last nearly two years, is simply unacceptable. This was why New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern was right to demote her health minister, David Clark, after he broke lockdown rules to drive his family to the beach in 2020.

Boris Johnson, on the other hand, has form in being excessively lenient when his subordinates flout the regulations. No one believed that his former adviser, Dominic Cummings, had to make a lockdown-breaking trip to the northern town of Barnard Castle to do an eye test in 2020, but Mr Johnson defended him, saying: “I believe that in every respect he has acted responsibly and legally and with integrity.”

I had many amicable dealings with Mr Johnson in the 2000s, had an enjoyable chat with him on his tour of the Gulf in 2013, and received a thoughtful personal message from him when I later moved back to Malaysia. I like him and wish him well. He is a cheery fellow who would never wish to dampen anyone else’s fun.

But Mr Johnson must now rein in his instinct to be indulgent and insist that regulations – whether they be related to the pandemic, to MPs’ outside business interests, or anything else – must apply and be seen to apply to everyone. In this he could take a tip from his fellow Oxford alumnus, Malaysia’s Khairy Jamaluddin, who sent a strong signal by fining the organisers of an event in honour of his own boss. There cannot be “one rule for us, another rule for them”. Fairness demands nothing less.