On August 11, Sir Shakib posted a series of Instagram Stories to express his anger and disappointment about the lack of management at the Grand Season Hotel (now known as Rumah Prihatin) PPV.
When he arrived at the scene, he saw many people queuing so close to each other until they were all almost hugging. The standard operating procedures were not followed at all, increasing the risk of everyone there getting the Covid-19 virus.
After leaving the scene, he expressed his disappointment at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) and the police for failing to use their authority when it was needed most.
“Why people in power don't know how to use their power during this period? From ministers to police and patrol officers, why don't they know how to use their power? These people are stupid,“ he said while trying to hold back tears.
“When are you going to realise that people are dying. People’s father, mother, children (are dying).”
Shakib took the issue seriously because he recently lost his father-in-law to Covid-19 and the loss in the family hit him hard.
When he returned to the same PPV 40 minutes later, the queue situation was still the same. Together with his wife, they tried to advise the people queuing there to spread apart and to observe the 1m physical distancing rule.
The next day, Shakib took matters into his own hands with help from his team from MC Plus. The group spent the night marking the ground with barrier tapes and placed traffic cones 1.5m apart from each other to guide the public with physical distancing.
“If the government can’t do it, we will do it,“ Shakib said in an Instagram Story post. He also added that the rakyat protest with tapes and not guns.
They named their initiative Project SOP. The caption of MC Plus’ Instagram Page reads, “Happy! We are happy! This is how MC Plus works. There has never been the term 'sambil lewa' (half-hearted) in our circle. If we do, we do it seriously. Let this be beneficial for many people.”
His proactive effort was noticed by many and his name, ‘Sir Shakib,’ trended on Twitter with more than 21.8k tweets.
On another note, the Rumah Prihatin PPV explained that the crowding incident was due to a misunderstanding.
Apparently, news spread that Rumah Prihatin PPV provides walk-in service for non-citizens while walk-in vaccinations for foreigners is at the Bukit Jalil PPV. According to Malay Mail, the unanticipated ‘rush crowd’ was beyond the expectations of management and enforcement.
“At the initial stage, the Rumah Prihatin took action together with the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) and Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to disperse the crowd, but they still did not want to disperse, despite being given instructions and warnings. The situation was rectified with the help of PDRM and DBKL.”
