Malaysia may overtake China with more cumulative total of Covid-19 cases before Dewan Rakyat adjourns on Thursday, December 17
On December 1, I asked whether Malaysia will overtake China with more cumulative total of Covid-19 cases before or after the end of the present Parliament meeting – Dewan Rakyat on Dec. 17 and Dewan Negara on Dec. 29, 2020.
Yesterday, Malaysia had a daily increase of 1,937 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the cumulative total to 82,246 cases.
Malaysia is now neck-to-neck with China in cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, with Malaysia ranked as No. 80 among countries with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, while China is ranked No. 79 with 86,791 cases.
If Malaysia’s daily increase of new Covid-19 cases next week is in the 2000-region, then Malaysia will overtake China before Dewan Rakyat adjourns on Thursday, December 17, 2020.
Imagine that – Malaysia overtaking China in the cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, when China has over 40 times the population of Malaysia – China’s 1.4 billion population compared to Malaysia’s 32 million.
‘At one time Malaysia was separated from China by over 60 rankings. On Sept 1, for instance, China had 85,058 Covid-19 cases while Malaysia had 9,354 case.
What had gone wrong and what is the remedy?
The surge in Covid-19 cases in Malaysia has added urgency to the need for a Select Committee on Covid-19 pandemic to be set up, and I call on the Speaker, Azhar Azizan Harun, who chairs the Selection Committee, not to fail Malaysians and Malaysia by convening an urgent meeting of the Selection Committee to establish a Select Committee on Covid-19 pandemic so that the Select Committee on Covid-19 pandemic can immediately meet after the adjournment of Parliament on Dec. 17 to conduct public hearings to find out why the country had failed and not adopted an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” approach until Malaysia could overtake China in the Covid-19 pandemic.
The former Health Minister, Dzulkefly Ahmad, the Harapan MP for Kuala Selangor, is the ideal candidate to be the chairman of the Select Committee on Covid-19 Pandemic.
There is growing controversy in Malaysia and the world about the safety of the Covid-19 vaccines which are expected to be made public shortly.
The Select Committee should conduct a public hearing on this issue to help allay public concerns on the matter.
A Select Committee on Corruption and Integrity should also be set up before Parliament adjourns on Dec. 17.
Next month, Transparency International (TI) will be releasing its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2020.
Will Malaysia have reason to be proud or ashamed about corruption when TI releases its CPI 2020?
In the TI CPI 2019, Malaysia is ranked No. 51 with a score of 53, registering a single-year improvement of six points for the TI CPI score and 10 placings in TI CPI ranking, which is the best performance for Malaysia in the past quarter of a century.
I do not expect Malaysia to make such leap of progress in the TI CPI 2020, but will Malaysia be going forwards or regressing backwards?
In the Global Corruption Barometer Asia 2020 released by TI at the end of last month, it found that:
- 71% of Malaysians think that government corruption is a big problem;
- 39% of Malaysians think corruption has increased in the previous 12 months;
- 30% of Malaysians think the government is doing a bad job of fighting corruption;
- Approval rating for the MACC is 74%;
- 36% of Malaysians think that Members of Parliament are corrupt.
Why is Parliament so shy in making the fight against corruption and public integrity a top national priority by setting up a Select Committee on Corruption and Integrity?
The National Integrity Plan (NIP) 2004-2008 launched in 2004 had one of its objectives the placing of Malaysia among the world top 30 countries in public integrity.
Has the Muhyiddin government given up on the challenge to make Malaysia among the world’s top 30 countries in the world on anti-corruption and public integrity?
It is not too late for Parliament to set these two Select Committees, as it is still possible to set up these two Select Committees in the coming week if the Parliament is not to fail the nation in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and to provide leadership in the national fight against corruption and to uphold public integrity.