Today will be the debate for the amendment of Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease Act 1988 (Act 342).
The Dewan Rakyat sitting was extended for one day just for this single business.
The Amendment Bill was tabled to Parliament for first reading last Monday, 13.12.2021.
The Bill seeks to amend the General Penalty to RM100k fine and/or 7 years imprisonment for individual, RM2mil fine for corporate. The power to compound increased from RM1k to RM10k for individual and RM1mil for corporate.
It faces a lot of objections, particularly on the exorbitant increase of fine. The people are angry with “Antara Dua Darjat” enforcement.
We have seen a former Minister Khairuddin got away with a RM1,000 compound for breaching quarantine rules while a burger seller in Kelantan was slapped with RM50,000 compound for operating outside the hours allowed.
On Wednesday, 15.12.2021, the Government had then seek to amend the Bill itself to reduce the General Penalty for individual to RM50k and/or 3 years imprisonment. The maximum compound allowed for corporate was reduced to RM500k instead of RM1mil.
On Thursday, 16.12.2021, shortly before the postponement of the Bill, the Government had again reduced the General Penalty for individual to RM2000 and/or 2 years imprisonment. Compound for individual reduced to RM1000 and corporate to RM500k.
2 amendments to the Amendment Bill in 2 days. This will only tell us that the Government had never planned well for this piece of legislation. Parliament is not a Pasar Malam that you can simply give some discounts to get the deal done. Parliament is a serious platform to deliberate on the People’s issues.
The issue is not the amount of the fine / compound per se. The power of the “authorised officer” under the Bill, the confusion over the SOPs, the “Antara 2 Darjat” enforcement are those important issues that the Government has failed to acknowledge and address.
The Government simply doesn’t know or doesn’t want to know what’s the problem faced by the SMEs and the People daily.
We were told that the Parliamentary Select Committee for Health, Science, Innovations (PSC) will sit at 8am today to deliberate on the matter, prior to the second reading of the Bill at 10am today.
How much can the PSC do in the short 2 hours meeting? I am sitting in PAC in the past 3 years and don’t tell me 2 hours is sufficient to deliberate on such an important issue.
If the Government is serious in dealing in this matter, they should at least allow 2 weeks time for the PSC to sit and deliberate. The MPs can come back in January for a proper debate of the Bill.
The Bill was rushed last week, being tabled on Monday and expected to be voted on Thursday.
The Bill is being rushed today, with the PSC meeting at 8am and Second Reading at 10am and expected to be voted on today.
Why is there such a rush?