#kerajaangagal160 -- All Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or politics must unite to win the war against the Covid-19 pandemic
Yesterday, I read a report published on Free Malaysia Today with the title “Covid is a test from God, only Allah’s govt can overcome it, says Hadi”.
When I read the statement, I was under the assumption that “Allah’s government” in the report, attributed to PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang referred to “Kerajaan Islam”, which includes the Perikatan Nasional government. It is no secret that Perikatan Nasional and PAS has always claimed that the PN government is a ‘Malay-Muslim government’.
As a response, I issued a statement which questioned Hadi’s reported statement, with the understanding that Hadi Awang is saying that only a “Kerajaan Islam” such as the PN government can deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
I had no intentions to question any belief, including Islam, but only to respond to what Hadi said as reported.
After the statement was issued, I was told that my understanding of Hadi Awang’s statement was mistaken, that he did not refer to any earthly Government and not any “Kerajaan Islam”.
With this realisation, I retracted my statement and apologise for the statement which was based on my mistaken understanding of what Hadi said.
Be that as it may, PAS, as a party of the Perikatan Nasional government, must bear full responsibility for Malaysia becoming one the world’s worst performing nations in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Malaysia is faced with grave problem with our catapulting to one of the world’s worst performing nations in the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is reflected by the Economist’s global normalcy index, where we are placed No. 50 out of 50 countries losing out not only to Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Taiwan, but also to Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Indonesia.
This is also reflected in the Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking, where we fell 35 places from 16th position in the January 2021 to the 51st ranking in June 2021, losing out not only to United States, New Zealand, Israel, China, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan, but also to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Iraq, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia out of 53 economies of more than US$200 billion.
From yesterday’s Covid-19 statistics, Malaysia is the top 13th country in the world for daily increase of new Covid-19 cases and the top 12th country in the world for daily Covid-19 deaths, viz:
(a) Daily increase of new Covid-19 cases on July 5, 2021:
- India - 34,067 cases
- Indonesia - 29,745
- United Kingdom-27,334
- Colombia - 25,366
- Russia - 24,353
- Brazil – 22,703
- Argentina - 17,277
- Iran - 16,025
- South Africa - 12,513
- Spain - 10,675
- Bangladesh - 9,964
- Iraq - 8,030
- Malaysia - 6,387
(b) Daily increase of new Covid-19 deaths on July 5, 2021
- Brazil - 754
- Russia - 654
- Argentina - 617
- Colombia - 570
- Indonesia - 558
- India - 552
- Bangladesh - 164
- Iran - 157
- Chile - 148
- Tunisia - 105
- Paraguay - 101
- Malaysia - 77
As the coronavirus does not differentiate in terms of race, religion, region or politics when infecting human beings, all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or politics, must unite to win the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.