Malaysia has been in a state of Emergency for the past six months since January. Five months later on 1st June, the PN government placed the whole nation under a total lockdown.
Yet, despite these drastic and disruptive measures, the number of new Covid-19 cases has not fallen nor has the number of deaths. Even worse, they have been rising at a highly alarming rate.
Since 1st June, despite a 17% reduction in testing, Covid-19 cases have risen by 31% while Covid-19 deaths have increased by a whopping 111%.
In November last year, Malaysia was no. 85 out of 205 countries worldwide in terms of total number of Covid-19 cases. However, Malaysia has since fallen 53 spots to no. 32.
Yesterday’s new cases alone exceeded a staggering 11,000, the highest on record ever since the pandemic began. At the rate we’re going, we’re likely to pass the 900k mark next week and hit 1 million cases by the end of July.
Clearly, PN has utterly failed to contain the pandemic. This shocking failure has been aptly reflected in the following international surveys:
- Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking
– From the 16th spot in January 2021, Malaysia fell 35 places to no. 51 out of 53 economies - The Economist’s Global Normalcy Index
– Malaysia came in last, ranking no. 50 out of 50 countries - Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index
– Malaysia ranks no. 114 out of 120 countries based on infection management, vaccine rollouts, and social mobility
While Mahiaddin recently unveiled a National Recovery Plan (NRP), it has been widely criticised for being grossly inadequate, unrealistic, and not based on science or data. In addition, PN’s Covid-19 “strategy” for the past 1.5 years has only cost us more lives and destroyed more livelihood.
Malaysia desperately needs a new strategy to fight back against Covid-19, to save jobs, and to save our economy. Malaysians desperately need help for the present and hope for the future.
But to come up with a holistic approach for the entire nation, the PN government must first be willing to meaningfully engage the opposition and do whatever it takes to beat Covid-19. And the time to do that is NOW.
This article is written based on Lim Kit Siang’s statement dated 12th July 2021.
