His clarification follows a now-deleted tweet by MAIWP which caused a stir on social media this morning, after it invited Malaysian Muslims who were yet to be immunised to get vaccinated at the Air Panas multipurpose hall.
“A special announcement for those who have not received their vaccination date, MAIWP invites all Malaysian Muslims living in Setiawangsa and Wangsa Maju to come forward and get vaccinated at the Air Panas multipurpose hall,” read the post.
Though it did not explicitly say that non-Muslims could not be vaccinated there, netizens criticised the post and claimed that it discriminated against people of other religious beliefs, with comedian Harith Iskander among those who called out MAIWP over the matter.
Replying to Harith, Zulkifli clarified that there was no ruling barring people of other religions from getting their vaccination at MAIWP PPVs, sharing photos that showed non-Muslims among those waiting for their vaccine.
He said MAIWP would “focus” on vaccinating Muslims registered on MySejahtera in the mornings, while other members of the public may get immunised in the afternoon.
“As the body managing zakat collections and distributions among Muslims in federal territories, of course MAIWP would return benefits to their clients who are Muslims. Our original focus was 7,500 people who were asnaf, senior citizens, disabled and others.
“The deleted Twitter post was simply to publicise to MAIWP clients (zakat donors and recipients) on the vaccination service,” he said, adding that the number of Muslims who have registered for vaccination was not meeting the government’s target.
“I would really appreciate it if we could promote MAIWP’s initiative, especially among the asnaf, disabled and elderly around the designated areas.
“There are still those who have not registered through MySejahtera, and even some who have no idea what MySejahtera is. Our vaccination rate needs to be ramped up,” he said.
MAIWP’s mobile PPVs are operating in four locations in Kuala Lumpur – Bandar Tun Razak, Air Panas Setiawangsa, the Taman Maluri multipurpose hall as well as the Sri Petaling community centre.
The programme started on Aug 4 and will end on Sept 12.