The current illegitimate PN government must act now on the triple crisis of COVID-19, economic recession, and political instability. As long as they still hold power, PN Ministers have a responsibility to act and cannot wait three months, two months or even till September when more lives and livelihoods will be lost. Just as the vote of confidence motion in Parliament on Prime Minister Mahiaddin Md Yassin must be carried out immediately and not wait until September, the government cannot take their own sweet time to resolve the public health and economic crisis.
Malaysia hit a record 19,819 COVID-19 cases and 257 deaths yesterday with a cumulative 1,183,110 cases and death toll to 9,855. Despite agreeing that immunisation is the best form of protection, the government is not willing to spend an additional RM1.5 billion to immediately purchase 11.2 million doses of Sinovac vaccines from Pharmaniaga.
Purchasing 11.2 million doses now can ensure that Malaysia possesses enough vaccines to immunise all the 19 million of the adult population who have registered, without waiting an additional two to three months for the supplies to be delivered. Countless lives and livelihood will be lost if we wait for another two to three months for the Pfizer vaccines to arrive, when we can buy the required Sinovac vaccines now.
The PN government should treat the entire country like the Klang Operation Surge Capacity(OSC) where on 3 August, 97.8% of the adult population received the first dose of vaccine. If the PN government can do for Klang Valley, why not repeat that for the entire country? The essential element is putting professional expertise over political partisanship and a willingness to listen to opposing views as done when former DAP Deputy Minister and MP for Bangi Dr Ong Kian Ming was appointed as the OSC coordinator for Selangor.
The headline IHS Markit Malaysia Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), is at a depressing 40.1 in July 2021 almost unchanged from the record low of 39.9 in June 2021. Malaysia’s performance is even lower than the PMI of 44.6 in July for the ASEAN market. This is a clear warning that Malaysian businesses and workers can no longer bear the strain of the over RM500 billion in economic losses sustained since the first Movement Control Order was imposed in March last year.
Instead of waiting for the National Recovery Plan to be approved in one or two months, act now by injecting an additional RM45 billion in direct funds. This RM45 billion can increase monthly welfare assistance to RM1,000, including the unemployed; RM6 billion in wage and hiring incentives to create 300,000 new jobs; RM30 billion in financial grants, monetary incentives, wage, rent and utility subsidies to help businesses especially the tourism and hospitality industry to survive; RM 4 billion for health support system, hospital beds and facilities as well as enhancing the vaccination programme.
In view of healthy profits, the banking industry must offer corporate social responsibility by sharing the burden with borrowers and instructed to waive interest until the end of the year on the automatic bank loan moratorium, except for the Top 10. These measures together with reopening of the economy should be implemented first to show PN’s sincerity in wanting a whole-of-society effort to manage the economic crisis.