Today is the first anniversary since COVID-19 cases were first reported in Malaysia. As at January 24, Malaysia have recorded a total of 183,801 cases, with 40,000 active cases, and 678 deaths, and the number is still rising. DAP extends our deepest condolences to the families of 678 COVID-19 victims.
The COVID-19 public health crisis should not be politicized, like Senior Minister Azmin Ali making the ridiculous claim that Perikatan Nasional (PN) government had saved more lives than Pakatan Harapan (PH). The fact is that there was not a single COVID-19 death under the PH administration before it fell on 25 February 2020.
Instead of suspending Parliament, the PN government should unite the people to fight COVID-19 together. Suspending Parliament has not helped the country address the quintuple crisis of public health, economic, political instability, education and social justice.
Whilst finding the balance between lives and livelihood is not easy, the government should pour resources in both helping the front-liners with manpower and equipment as well as save jobs and businesses. Comprehensive implementation of 3Ts of testing, tracing and treatment of all close contacts of COVID-19 positive patients should be reinstated. Sadly, there is double-standards in that the advocates of the COVID-19 SOPs are themselves the ones who breach them.
The failure to implement automatic extension of bank loan moratorium(except for Top 20 group), the increase in monthly welfare aid to RM1,000 including the unemployed, EPF self-withdrawals and online learning until the end of the COVID-19 crisis is also a failure of crisis management.
For instance the tourism industry in on life-support having lost RM100 billion in revenue last year. And yet, there is no sustainable assistance from the government to help them survive. What about rental relief or subsidies for small businesses who have no income or revenue during this period?
Of greater concern is that prices of essential items, especially food and beverages, have also gone up not just month-on-month(MOM) by 0.5% in December 2020 compared to November 2020 but also year-on-year(YOY) by 1.4 % in 2020 compared to 2019. In other words, Malaysians are paying more compared to last year or last month. This will cause greater suffering to ordinary Malaysians facing declining revenue or loss of income during this economic recession and yet have to pay higher prices.
We can still save both lives and livelihood if we comply with the health protocols and SOPs, focus resources on the front liners, people and small businesses. Suspending Parliament will frustrate highlighting people-centric problems and not facilitate solutions to these national problems.