The National Vaccination Registration Rate is at 52.5% as of June 7th. Almost half of the adult population have not registered. Over the past three months, all states showed a plateau of registration for Covid vaccination according to news reports. Even when the cases worsened significantly lately, the registration just picked up marginally. This is a worrying sign!

Are nearly half of Malaysian adults taking a “wait and see attitude”, or are they influenced by anti-vaxxers? We do not know.

For herd immunity to be successful, registration and rate of vaccination must step up. KKM has done their level best, now it is time for the private sector to join this effort.

In many other countries, the private sector plays an important role to help encourage people to get vaccinated. For example, in Hong Kong, developers gave free condominiums in the form of a lucky draw (cabutan bertuah) to people who have been fully vaccinated. In the US, a few State Governments have a lottery to encourage people to get vaccinated, a few have become instant millionaires! In China, private companies gave free cars as lucky draw to encourage workers get vaccinated. Many smaller companies gave free food and freebies at vaccination centres to encourage people to turn up for vaccination.

I call upon the private sectors in Malaysia to do the same!

First, I call upon REDHA to look into possible house lucky draw to encourage Malaysians to register and complete vaccination. I also call upon factories and private companies to give cash incentives, lucky draw cars, motorbikes, computers to their workers who sign up and completed 2 doses.

Secondly, I also call upon State Governments especially States that have low registration and low turn up rate to give free state housing lucky draw (cabutan bertuah) or other financial incentives to encourage vaccination. The Penang State Government can lead this exercise by giving out State Affordable Housing to those who have completed 2 doses in a state-wide lucky draw program (cabutan bertuah).

Thirdly, I call upon local companies to sponsor food, drinks and freebies at their local PPV to encourage people to turn up to get vaccinated. They will be able to market their product whilst also playing their part in contributing to society, therefore killing two birds with one stone.

To lead by example, Bayan Baru Parliament Service Center will launch a RM1000 lucky draw each month for those people who have completed 2 doses, who registered through my service center and my mobile outreach program.

To achieve herd immunity is a monumental task. It takes societal effort to get it done. I hope my little effort will inspire more private and state Governments to do more in encouraging vaccination across the country.