Prime Minister Mahiaddin Md Yassin is wrong for saying that a change of government at this juncture could do more harm to the nation, citing the negative impact on the National Recovery Plan (NRP) and the vaccination programme. 32 million Malaysians affected by the economic recession and those infected or died from COVID-19 will not agree that Mahiaddin is the solution to the problem but is the problem that must be removed for Malaysians to survive these crises.
Despite an Emergency Proclamation and serial Movement Control Order(MCO), the COVID-19 pandemic has deteriorated alarmingly with daily infections hitting a record 20,889 cases on 6 August and a record 257 deaths on 4 August with a cumulative 1,224,595 cases and a total death toll of 10,179. Mahiaddin bears full responsibility for this whole-of-government failure that has destroyed the lives and livelihood of so many Malaysians.
An earlier and faster procurement of vaccines could have saved countless lives. A whole-of-society effort with the opposition and civil society would also have made a difference in implementing a swift and smooth immunisation programme. Unfortunately, we are witnessing herd immunity by both inoculation and infection. And yet not a single Minister has resigned for the rise in infections and deaths.
If PN’s 8 economic stimulus packages of RM530 billion and the largest Budget in history of RM322.5 billion for 2021, is impotent in pulling the country out of the current economic recession, what can the National Recovery Plan(NRP) do that can make the difference. The biggest obstacle is refusing to spend with only RM83 billion in direct injection of funds out of the RM530 billion stimulus packages. What can RM83 billion do against over RM500 billion in economic losses since the first MCO was implemented last year?
So long as the government clings to one-off aid, fails to reopen the economy or fails to abolish the fictitious difference between essential and non-essential businesses, refuses to waive interest for the 6-month bank loan moratorium and rejects an additional injection of RM45 billion of direct funding till the end of the year, Mahiaddin and the NRP is doomed to fail.
Nothing highlights the economic ruin faced by ordinary Malaysian households than the latest Household Income Estimates and Incidence of Poverty Report, Malaysia, 2020 by the Department of Statistics. 20% of households from the M40 group with income between RM4,850 and RM10,959 have moved to the B40 group. Households in the T20 group were also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic where 12.8 % of T20 has shifted to the M40 group.
The number of poor households have increased to 639,800 in 2020, up from 405,400 in 2019. The incidence of absolute poverty has increased, from 5.6% in 2019 to 8.4% in 2020. The incidence of hardcore poverty is estimated to increase from 0.4% (2019) involving 27,200 households to 1% involving 78,000 households.
Similarly the mean of monthly household gross income decreased by 10.3 % to RM7,089 as compared to RM7,901 in 2019, the median income has reduced by 11.3% to RM5,209 from RM5,873. Malaysians are made poorer by the feeble financial aid offered that has failed to arrest this irrefutable decline of household income of those who have lost their jobs and businesses.
The headline IHS Markit Malaysia Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), is at a depressing 40.1 in July 201 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. And yet Prime Minister Mahiaddin Md Yassin wants to continue to deceive the public that he has a plan to revive the economy when nothing he has done for the last 18 months works.
The people had had enough of being continuously duped by such duplicity. Mahiaddin should stop deceiving the public and the country just as he deceived the King, the country and the people that he still commands support from a majority of MPs, when it is clear that there are at least 13 UMNO MPs who have withdrawn support from him. Mahiaddin and his failed PN government must be removed for failing to handle the COVID-19 and economic crises.