Controversial donor claims vaccine offer is genuine

KOTA KINABALU: The mysterious donor Yong Chee Kong has claimed that the Penang government came forward to take up his offer to donate two million doses of Sinovac vaccines.

The man claimed that the opposition DAP led state government helped him to draft the letter in offering the donation.

He said that he had initially made the offer to the Sabah government earlier this year but was turned down.

"Sabah turned it down and told me that Sinovac was yet to be approved (at that time) by the government.

"I then offered it to the opposition Penang state government to see if they were keen. And they were, and they helped me draft the letter to be submitted to the Chief Minister," claimed Yong.

Yong said the name of the Hong Kong based company Xintai Enterprise Development Ltd was wrongly named in the letter, which called it Xintai Development Enterprise Ltd.

Yong, who said he was an investment businessman based in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, insisted that his vaccine offer with the Penang government was not a scam.

The Sabahan, who name was in the letter offering the donation to Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, claimed that the matter was being politicised.

"It is a genuine offer by my boss' company based in Hong Kong," said Yong, who did not want to name his "boss."

Yong, who was not prepared to meet up with the media as yet until he consulted his lawyers, claimed his boss' company Xintai Enterprise Development Ltd was prepared to provide the supply of Sinovac Biotech manufactured vaccines but not in cash donation.

Asked why the letter was not written in an official letterhead, Yong said that he was doing it in his personal capacity for his Hong Kong employer who was keen to donate the vaccines to Malaysia.

"It was not from me, I was just helping and facilitating to get it done at personal level for my Hong Kong boss," he added.

He said he would appear in a media conference when the time is right.

Based on the address on the letter of offer to the Penang government, The Star found an elderly woman living at the house. The woman did not deny Yong lived there but asked reporters to go check at 1-Borneo Shopping Mall here.

The telephone number of Yong was obtained later from other sources.

Khairy Jamaluddin, who is in charge of the national immunisation programme, had said the offer by a private company of two million free doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine for Penang was a scam job.

He said an investigation with Sinovac China revealed no proof or documents received by Xintai Development Enterprise Ltd.