In the upcoming parliamentary session, the Perikatan Nasional government is duty bound to explain to the rakyat, why in spite of the emergency proclaimed on 12 January 2021, the country has gone bad to worst with containing the Covid -19 pandemic?
These questions would be in line with the spirit of article 150(3) of the Federal constitution which refers to the requirement for any emergency proclamation and any ordinances promulgated during an emergency to be laid before both the Dewan rakyat and Dewan Negara for them to be debated and passed.
It seems that the emergency has produced nothing except giving the government exclusive and unaccountable powers to manage the country’s economic resources as well as having oppressive measures against dissent.
Is it not for the excuse of containing the virus that the government initiated the state of emergency? Why have such measures failed miserably?
In the coming parliamentary session, the Government has to be more specific on how it has been using billions in allocations, to aid particular industries that were severely affected by the pandemic during the period of emergency? How has such aid prevented these industries from closing down and not retrenching its workers?
How will the government continue to come with aid during the months to come when it finds itself stuck in vicious circles of high daily infections?
If Selangor produces the highest Covid -19 infection rates due to mass testing, will such mass testing also result in higher number of cases in other states? Why are the other states not aggressively testing their population as well?
If these states are not doing mass testing, does that mean Malaysia is recording way more than the already record setting numbers?
The other area that needs to be addressed is the ineffectiveness of the lockdown measures and SOPs. In spite of all the restrictive lock down measures proclaimed, the Covid -19 pandemic has become worse and it has caused a devastating impact on social economic situation in the country.
We have currently reached 11,000 thousand daily cases and the government has to answer why the lock down has been ineffective in containing the spread of the virus? Can we come up with other strategic initiatives in containing the virus?
We have also been slow in vaccinating factory workers where more Covid clusters have been found and migrant workers have not been targeted effectively for vaccination.
It hoped there would be proper time to debate all these issues so that nothing is left unturned. Any attempt to block these questions from being asked would mean the Government has something to hide and also will set a disastrous precedent.