KUCHING: Parti Bumi Kenyalang has labeled the Sarawak government's decision to allow only fully-vaccinated people to work or enter any business premises as discriminatory and going against human rights.
Party president Voon Lee Shan said he was studying the legal implications of the state government's policies concerning controlling citizens' movement in the state.
Voon said he has also discussed the issue with lawyers, medical experts and activists nationwide recently.
"I think it is possible that the state government could be brought to court because the law should not restrict people's liberty and movement.
"The government should not impose any rule to say only those who have been fully-vaccinated against Covid-19 are allowed to work," he said in a statement today.
Voon, a lawyer, said it was unconstitutional to impose such a rule, which affects the people's rights to their lives and livelihood under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution.
He said it could also be unconstitutional under Article 8 of the Federal Constitution because of the issue of equality before the law.
He said such an imposition creates two classes of citizens in the society, where vaccinated individuals will have more rights than the those unvaccinated.
On Monday, the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), in its latest standard operating procedures (SOPs), stated that only individuals who have completed two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine are allowed to work or enter any business premises.
Exceptions, it said, will only be given to those with one dose of the vaccine until the end of August.
Voon said this was an "apartheid policy" because it segregates the population.
Such an action, he said, goes against human rights because citizens are supposed to move and mix around freely with each other. Everyone, he added, should be treated as in the same class and equal to each other.
He said to require an individual to be fully-vaccinated before being allowed to work or to enter certain premises should be viewed as coercion by the government and this could nullify the consent form signed by the vaccine takers.
"It could also be nullified if the consent was not an informed consent and I doubt this was done in most, if not all cases in Sarawak."
Voon said for "informed consent", there were certain procedures that medical staff need to follow in accordance with medical practices.
"Merely satisfying the vaccine takers in answering a few questions, perhaps, may not be able to satisfy this.
"Many who were vaccinated suffered side effects or even death. Besides, there were cases where fully-vaccinated individuals can still be infected by the virus. Hence, the people have the right to reject being vaccinated without restricting their movement," he said.