AFTER Peter Kallang registered himself for the Covid-19 vaccination early last month, he heard nothing about the status of his registration for three weeks.

“I checked (MySejahtera app) every day. At least once a day. There was nothing,” he said.

Not knowing if his registration has been received or not, this Miri resident did what most people probably never thought of doing.

He registered himself again and this time, he left it at that.

Last Thursday – after more than a month – Kallang was swamped with calls “reminding” him of his vaccination appointment on Friday and the vaccination delivery centre he should go to.

“I had a call from the Resident’s office, the divisional health department and the Eastwood Valley Golf & Country Club vaccination delivery centre,” the 71-year-old related his experience to The Malaysian Insight with a good laugh.

He went to the vaccination centre nearest to his home – Eastwood Valley Golf & Country Club – for his first dose of the vaccine.

“Yes, I was anxious about getting vaccinated. But I was more like thinking ‘they don’t want to vaccinate me. He’s a troublemaker, always lawan perintah (go against the government). Tidak boleh (not him)’.

“Those were my thoughts when I got no response,” he said in reference to his environmental activism, which has always been a thorn on the side of the government and timber companies.

Kallang is the chairman and a founding member of Save Rivers, a Sarawak civil society organisation that supports and empowers rural communities to protect their land, rivers and watersheds.

He led the two-year campaign against the construction of the proposed Baram hydroelectric dam that eventually led to the state government placing a moratorium on the multi-million-ringgit project in 2015.

His wife, who did not follow his double registration antic, is still waiting for her appointment.

The spike in Covid-19 cases has actually made many Sarawakians anxious to get protected as quickly as possible even with the first dose.

One of them is Baharuddin Mokshen.

“Stuck” in red hot Kuala Lumpur after travelling there just before Hari Raya Aidilfitri for business, this 65-year-old opted for the AstraZeneca vaccine to ease his waiting anxiety.

“I volunteered. Just not prepared to wait any longer,” said the former Sarawak PKR deputy president.

He said despite the many negative reports of the vaccine, he placed his faith in it after reading a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which ranked the vaccine as fifth in terms of efficacy.

He received his first jab at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur and said he now feels relieved.

“I’ve been told the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is already a good cover,” he said.

Still checking his MySejahtera every day and wondering when the call would come is 63-year-old civil engineer Abang Mohamad Moasili.

He’s doing it “a few times” a day.

He said the long wait without any kind of response from the authorities is making him not only anxious but also frustrated.

Abang Mohamad said the waiting is also getting to his wife.

Wondering if he will ever get vaccinated too is retired schoolteacher Augustine Maja, who registered himself after responding to a news report that rural folk in the state are lukewarm in getting vaccinated.

This resident of the rural town of Engkilili, 157km from Kuching, said the people there registered themselves after reading the news report in early March.

Maja said to his knowledge, very few people in this small town where everybody knows one another, had been called to be vaccinated.

His elderly mother and younger brother are among the few.

After finding that his younger brother had been called up, this 63-year-old, who had undergone a heart surgery, is wondering why he has not.

He is asking if his surgery had not qualified him as an over 60, high-risk person.

“It’s frustrating,” he said.

Former DAP MP Julian Tan, an aeronautical engineer by training and who considers himself tech savvy, has suggested the Health Ministry tweak the MySejahtera app a little to make it more user-friendly and “dummy proof”.

Tan said there should be some acknowledgement after registration.

He said as those who have registered do not get an immediate response, coupled with the long silence and wait, it has discouraged many of them from constantly checking their MySejahtera for the latest update on vaccination appointments.

Tan, now a special assistant to DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen, said this, in turn, has made many to miss their appointments.

He said the tweak should make the app, with one click, give the user all the important messages he or she should get, like the vaccination appointment. – May 23, 2021.