#kerajaangagal190 – I do not expect any problem with all MPs physically attending Parliament on Monday as Muhyiddin can declare a failed emergency to combat the Covid-19 pandemic but he would not be able to live down the infamy of a “new maths” where 220 is more than 300

I do not expect any problem with all Members of Parliament physically attending the special meeting of Parliament of Monday, as the Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin can declare a failed emergency to combat the Covid-19 pandemic but he would not be able to live down the infamy of a “new maths” where 220 is more than 300.

Yesterday, Muhyiddin joined a congregation of about 300 people to perform the Aidiladha prayer at the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur.

The full capacity for MPs is 220 and it would be a fantastic stretch of the imagination if 220 is more than 300, especially as all MPs and parliamentary staff have been vaccinated.

I do not know why the Dewan Rakyat Deputy Speaker Rashid Hasnon is talking about Parliament limiting the number of MPs at reach sitting to 80, when all MPs and parliamentary staff have been vaccinated.

In any event, it is the height of irony and a reflection of how low Malaysia’s achievements and potential had slumped that we were at one time in the mid-nineties in the very forefront of the information era with the Multi-media Super Corridor (MSC) concept and we should be the first implement a virtual Parliament – but we have lagged so very far behind other countries who were latecomers in the information age.

Let the Parliament Speaker, Azhar Azizan Harun and the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Saifuddin Abdullah explain why Malaysia had slipped so badly on this front and lost out to countries which had been later than Malaysia in embracing the information society.

The real question is to make the Parliamentary meeting on Monday to fulfil two objectives: firstly, the decrees of the Yang di Pertuan Agong and Conference of Rulers special meeting of June 16 to debate the Emergency Proclamation, the Emergency Ordinances and the National Recovery Plan; and secondly, to make a difference in the losing war against the Covid-19 pandemic, where Malaysia has become on the world’s worst performing nations.

This is why I am suggesting that the Cabinet meeting today should set a purpose for the special meeting of Parliament on Monday, and that the Prime Minister should lead the charge when Parliament meets to turn the tides of defeat in the war against Covid-19 pandemic with a truly “all-of-government” and “whole-of-nation” national coalition at all levels of society to bring the Covid-19 pandemic under control, and using the "Roadmap to Recovery from Covid-19" drawn up by the new civil society coalition, the Health Emergency Action Plan (HEAP), as the basis for such a coalition.

The Prime Minister should ask Parliament to endorse HEAP, based on its three guiding principles:

  1. Trust is crucial to fighting the pandemic and this is based on transparency
  2. There must be an all-of-society approach
  3. And we need a set of solutions that are not lockdown-based.

HEAP has warned that the worst in the Covid-19 pandemic is yet to come.

Let the special meeting of Parliament summon the unity, will and commitment of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or politics to end the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia as we already lost enough lives – 7,241 Covid-19 deaths and a spiralling rate of three suicides a day.

Lim Kit Siang MP for Iskandar Puteri