#kerajaangagal101 – the series of #kerajaangagal hashtag media statements will end when Parliament is convened

When I started on the #kerajaangagal hashtag media statements on Sunday, 18th April 2021, I had no idea how many such statements I would be writing.

But I found no difficulty whatsoever in writing #kerajaangagal media statements, sometimes two or even three a day, as examples of a failed and kakistocratic administration, especially in the mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic, were aplenty.

In less than eight weeks, I had chalked up 100 #kerajaangagal media statements yesterday.

Should I continue?

I would end the series of #kerajaangagal media statements when Parliament is convened, when Parliament can play its important check-and-balance role of the Executive to ensure that there is good governance, an efficient and effective government and the rule of law as intended by the founders of the nation and as entrenched in the Malaysian Constitution.

I cannot understand how intelligent and even brilliant minds can bring themselves to say that the present government under Muhyiddin Yassin had done relatively well in mitigating the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, when anyone following the 100 #kerajaangagal media statements would have found evidence galore that by whatever measure, whether cumulative total of Covid-19 cases or Covid-19 cases per million of population, Malaysia had failed in the last 18 months to successfully handle the Covid-19 pandemic.

Is it any wonder that Malaysia had dropped 19 rungs from No. 16 in the January 2021 Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking to No. 35 in the May 2021 Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking, and looks set to descend to an even lower ranking in the June 2021 Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking?

Lets take yesterday’s global Covid-19 data. World-wide there has been a daily drop of 52.1% of new Covid-19 cases while the reduction of Covid-19 cases is even more dramatic in countries which were previously regarded as the worst performing nations in the Covid-19 pandemic: United States (down 95.2%), United Kingdom (89.1%), India (78%), France (94.6%). Italy (95%) and Spain (86.5%) from their respective peak daily increase of new Covid-19 cases.

But Malaysia is buckling this downward trend. In the last 23 days since May 19, 2021 there were 20 days when we exceeded the peak of daily increase of new Covid-19 cases set on January 30, 2021, when 5,728 new cases were recorded - establishing a new peak of 9,020 new Covid-19 cases on May 29, 2021.

Malaysia have been warned that the new peak of daily increase of new Covid-19 cases could be in the region of 13,000 cases.

So far, 3,684 people have died of Covid-19 in Malaysia - 3,133 deaths during the five months of the emergency since January 11, 2021 as compared to 551 deaths in the first 12 months of the Covid-19 pandemic before the emergency.

How many avoidable deaths will Malaysia have to face before the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially as the usage of beds at intensive care units (ICU) in Malaysia is in a critical state?

Yesterday, we have 73 Covid-19 deaths as compared to seven deaths in the United Kingdom, which at one time had 1,823 deaths on January 20, 2021.

I am therefore utterly shocked that intelligent and brilliant minds can see redeeming aspects in the government mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But I fully agree that the country’s focus must be to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, which includes a massive and accelerated vaccination programme, and all Malaysians and political parties must unite on this common agenda.

The convening of Parliament is the first step to ensure that Malaysia recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and to save the country from ending up as a kakistocracy.

I started the series of #kerajaangagal media statements with the call on the Health Minister, Adham Baba to stop his game of semantics and to focus on checking the rise in the daily increase of Covid-19 cases and bring it down to double-digit figures or resign! But my advice fell on deaf ears.

Adham had said that the fourth wave of Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia will not happen unless cases involving domestic or local transmission record zero in the current third wave before the number of cases increase sharply the next day.

I had noted that a strong case could be made that Malaysia would have been spared the second and third waves of the Covid-19 pandemic (let alone the fourth wave) if the Sheraton Move conspiracy had not toppled the legitimate, competent and democratic Pakatan Harapan Government at the end of February 2020.

On the occasion of having issued 100 #kerajaangagal media statements, it is apt to return to Adham Baba.

Adham Baba’s appointment to the WHO executive board is not something which caused Malaysians to be overjoyed but one that created a lot of trepidation among Malaysians as he is prone to gaffes like his “warm water” fiasco.

Recently, the Health Ministry even denied a news report which had cited Adham Baba as saying the full movement control order (MCO) nationwide may be extended for another 14 days, as the seven-day average of Covid-19 cases is still high, with more than 5,00 cases reported a day which exceeded the Health Ministry’s target of a seven-day average below 4,000 cases, saying that this was “fake”.

Will the MCO 3.0 be extended on June 14?