It is unfortunate that the Perikatan Nasional Government has yet again had to implement the movement control order (MCO) on five states.
In his address to the nation, the Prime Minister was not honest enough to admit that it was the blunders of his administration which about the surge of Covid -19 cases nor neither did he articulate a coherent strategy apart from a lockdown, to bring down the infection rate among the population.
We are far behind India, Singapore and Indonesia who have already begun vaccinating millions of its people.
In the first wave of infections, we reached 36 cases in March 3rd 2020, now in the third; it has already reached 131,108 cases as of January 8 2021.
An exorbitant increase reveals an incompetent government that is incapable of strategizing early measures to take and plans to implement it.
The reintroduction of the MCO would create another domino effect and add to the growing number of business closures, unemployment, and underemployment.
It was recently reported that Malaysia’s unemployment rate rose to 4.8% in November 2020 with 764,400 unemployed persons and is expected to grow.
There should have been an emergency session of Parliament to get the views of all MPs regarding measures to take to control the pandemic, protect the livelihood of the people and revive the economy. Parliament is the right forum to obtain broader views of any situation with bi-partisan feedback.
The declaration of emergency till August 2021 which provides the Prime Minister an absolute hand on matters is short sighted because it reveals an unstable minority government which would lead to the country being deemed unattractive to long term investors, whom prefer a Government of a strong majority, for the stability and consistency of policies.
In 2020, we have seen massive retrenchment take place and the implementation of MCO again, this time with four-digit daily cases, could translate into bigger job losses.
Therefore, the first urgent task of the government to mitigate the hardship faced by the rakyat due to possible business closures and retrenchment is to revive the automatic loan moratorium for another 6 months.
Wage subsidies should be broadened up to all industries that are affected irrespective of sizes to retain workers.
It is vital that the emergency declaration be rescinded and Parliament should be convened as soon as possible to seek bi-partisan solutions on ways to address the current crisis.