Third wave of Covid 19 pandemic serious and alarming, but we must strike a proper balance as it has not reached a stage to justify a declaration of emergency and the suspension of Parliament

There have been calls for the Yang di Pertuan Agong to declare a state of emergency under Article 150 of the Constitution and suspend Parliament as a result of the third wave of the Covid-19 epidemic in Malaysia.

The third wave of Covid 19 pandemic in Malaysia is serious and alarming, but we must strike a proper balance as it has not reached a stage to justify a declaration of emergency and the suspension of Parliament.

Otherwise, Malaysia will have the dubious honour of having a backdoor government toppling a legitimate government after 22 months of a general election under the blanket of Covid-19 epidemic, sparking a second wave of the epidemic and exploiting the epidemic to present itself as the saviour of the nation as the top concern of all Malaysians was to focus single-mindedly on the war against Covid-19 whicbh the political leadership of the backdoor government did a lousy and atrocious job, sparking a third wave of the epidemic because of its lust for power to control the Sabah state government – and then declaring a state of emergency and suspending Parliament to consolidate its power and crumbling hold of a parliamentary majority.

Under Article 40, the Yang di Pertuan Agong has to act on the advice of the Cabinet in the proclamation of emergency under Article 150, as the Constitution stipulates three situations where the Yang di Pertuan Agong can act on his own discretion, namely:

(a) the appointment of a Prime Minister;

(b) the withholding of consent to a request for the dissolution of Parliament;

(c) the requisition of a meeting of the Conference of Rulers concerned solely with the privileges, position, honours and dignities of Their Royal Highnesses, and any action at such a meeting.

The Covid-19 pandemic third wave in Malaysia is serious and alarming which was why I made three calls when the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was on 14-day home quarantine to summon emergency Cabinet zoom meeting to channel all available resources to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in Sabah, but it fell on deaf ears.

From the latest statistics, the total Covid-19 death toll for Sabah alone over the past 30 days was 58 against five reported in other states (Kedah 2, Selangor 1, Kuala Lumpur 1 and Perak 1).

One can understand the gravity of the Covid-19 pandemic in Sabah when compared to the Covid-19 statistics when the movement control order (MCO) was first imposed throughout Malaysia on March 18 – a cumulative total of 790 Covid-19 cases and two deaths!

Sabah’s cumulative total of Covid-19 cases yesterday registered 8,755 infections, eleven times the cumulative total of Malaysia on March 18; while Sabah’s fatalities of 67 was 33.5 times more than the two deaths when MCO was imposed on Malaysia.

Sabah has now 78.6% of the active Covid-19 cases, i.e. 6,033 out of 7,681 active cases.

The Muhyiddin Cabinet stands condemned for its failure to channel all available resources to Sabah to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, a negligence which is duplicated by the Sabah State Cabinet which has refused to appoint a State Health Minister to be the state commander-in-chief in the war against the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This omission and negligence must be immediately remedied by the Muhyiddin Cabinet and the Hajiji Sabah State Cabinet, but there is no justification for the invocation of Article 150 of the Malaysian Constitution for the Yang di Pertuan Agong to proclaim a state of emergency and to suspend Parliament.

Let us look at the Covid-19 pandemic on the global level. According to the worldometer, over 41 million Covid-19 infections and 1.1 million fatalities have been registered, with the top 20 countries as follows:

Malaysia now rank as world’s No. 88th country in terms of cumulative total of Covid-19 cases and No. 96 in terms of fatalities – which show that we are far from the situation to justify the proclamation of an emergency and the suspension of Parliament.