Malaysia must devise an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” strategy and approach in the war against Covid-19 pandemic that will enable Malaysians to live with the coronavirus for one to two years as well as to save lives and livelihoods and prepare for a quick post-Covid recovery

In everyone’s perception, the United States of America, with 25 million Covid-19 cases and over 415,000 fatalities, is not only the top country in the world with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, but the country which is the worst performer on the world stage in war against the Covid-19 pandemic.

No Malaysian would believe or could accept that Malaysia is a worse performer than the United States of America in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.

I am no exception, which explain my shock when I look at the numbers and find that in the last two months, from Nov. 18, 2020 to January 20, 2001, the US Inauguration Day when Joe Boden took his oath of office to begin his four-year presidency, Malaysia had performed worse than the United States in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.

On November 18, 2020, the United States recorded 11,695,711 Covid-19 cases, and on January 20, 2021, US recorded 24,998,975 Covid-19 cases – an increase of 2.14 times.

But Malaysia’s cumulative total of Covid-19 cases increased by 3.4 times, as on November 18, 2020, Malaysia had 49,730 cases while on January 20, we have 169,379 cases.

Although the general perception is that United States is the worst performer on the world state in the Covid-19 pandemic, in the last two months, it was Turkey which was the world’s worst performer, with Malaysia second, Germany third, United Kingdom fourth and the United States fifth.

On November 18, 2020, Turkey had 421,413 Covid-19 cases but on January 20, 2021, it had up shot up 5.7 times to 2,406,216 cumulative cases.

That was the position in the last two month, but in totality, Malaysia’s Covid-19 pandemic is not as serious and critical as the countries with the highest rate of total cases per one million population, which is led by United States, as follows:

Total Cases per one million population

United States - 75,279

Israel - 62,608

Belgium - 58,639

Switzerland - 58,105

Bahrain - 56,853

Portugal - 57,132

Netherlands - 54,040

Qatar - 52,710

United Kingdom - 51,491

Spain - 51,584

France - 45,370

Brazil - 40,187

Argentina - 40,057

Italy - 39,737

Singapore 10,075

Malaysia 5,196

Philippines - 4,583

Indonesia - 3,416

Japan 2,691

South Korea 1,433

The grim figure of 4,008 new cases yesterday shows that we are not out of the woods of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Malaysia must devise an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” strategy and approach in the war against Covid-19 pandemic that will enable Malaysians to live with the coronavirus for one to two years as well as to save lives and livelihoods and prepare for a quick post-Covid recovery.

This is why the Yang di Pertuan Agong should convene a Special Parliament on the Covid-19 pandemic, because there cannot be an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” strategy and approach in the war against Covid-19 pandemic if Members of Parliament and State Assembly persons are excluded from the strategy.

This is the time for all Malaysians to unite to save Malaysia from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lim Kit Siang MP for Iskandar Puteri