Parliament lockdown a great national disservice as Malaysia is heading towards half-a-million Covid-19 cases and 6,000 Covid-19 deaths in August resulting in Malaysia having a cumulative total exceeding 1.5 million Covid-19 cases and 15,000 Covid-19 deaths on the 64th National Day on August 31

The Parliament lockdown since last Thursday is a great national disservice as Malaysia is heading towards half-a-million Covid-19 cases and 6,000 Covid-19 deaths in August resulting in Malaysia having a cumulative total exceeding 1.5 million Covid-19 cases and 15,000 Covid-19 deaths on the 64th National Day on August 31.

Parliament should be meeting to draft a new policy and strategy to avert these calamitous figures on August 31, but instead Members of Parliament were blocked from Parliament and the Parliament special meeting truncated, after being distracted from focusing on the Covid-19 pandemic with a major constitutional crisis.

The Parliamentary Privileges Committee should meet in urgent session to deal with the obstruction of MPs from reaching Parliament yesterday, in effect, frustrating MPs from carrying out their parliamentary duties.

Section 9(e) of the House of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952 provides for Parliament to punish anyone who obstruct MPs from entering the House with contempt of Parliament.

This is also a criminal offence under Section 124 of the Penal Code, which provides a punishment of up to seven years imprisonment and a fine.

When will the police begin to initiate investigations as police reports have been lodged?

What is most crucial is the resumption of the truncated Parliamentary special meeting to re-focus parliamentary and national attention on the worsening Covid-19 pandemic, which saw daily new Covid-19 cases remain in five-digit figures for three consecutive weeks and a new record of 219 daily Covid-19 deaths yesterday.

Malaysia took more than 13 months on February 17, 2021 to reach the first 1,000 deaths but broke the ninth 1,000 deaths in five days and is expected to break the 10,000-mark for Covid-19 deaths this week.

Parliament should reconvene at the earliest possible date to ensure that by the 64th National Day on August 31, we do not have a cumulative total of over 1.5 million Covid-19 cases and over 15,000 Covid-19 deaths.