Call on Ministers at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow to propose the immediate suspension of harsh, disproportionate and ill-considered emergency ordinances raising the maximum fine for breach of MCO to RM10,000 and on fake news

I presume that the omnibus Muhyiddin Cabinet still meets very Wednesday.

If so, I hope there will be Ministers who will propose the immediate suspension of harsh, disproportionate and ill-considered emergency legislation purportedly to combat the Covid-19 pandemic but is doing the very opposite – forfeiting public support for the government’s efforts to bring the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic under control, so that we can return initially to three-digit and then to double-digit daily increase of new Covid-19 cases.

The daily increase of 1,208 new Covid-19 cases reported yesterday, dropping to numbers not seen since early December last year, is a good sign that we may at last be bringing one of the longest waves of Covid-19 pandemic in the world under control.

The third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic had been rampaging the country since September, and for the last seven months, Malaysians had been looking forward to the day when it had turned the corner.

We appeared to have passed this point, with the third wave reaching its peak on January 30 with 5,728 new cases, but it is taking a very long time to return to three-digit and then double-digit daily increase of new Covid-19 cases.

Although we do not want to give way to premature optimism, it is my hope that the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic will recede further and that in the remaining two weeks of March, we will be able to see daily increase of new Covid-19 cases reduced to three-digit followed by double-digit figures.

In the circumstances, I cannot understand the reasons for the enactment of harsh, disproportionate and ill-considered emergency ordinances to combat Covid-19 pandemic when the priority is how to enlist the whole country in a national effort against the Covid-19 pandemic, by accelerating and making a success of the national Covid-19 vaccination campaign, so that the country can return to some normality and begin the effort in economic recovery and national life in the third or fourth quarter of the year!

The enactment of the Emergency (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 which raised the maximum fine for breach of the Movement Control Order to RM10,000 where the Police are required to issue compound fines of RM10,00 which could only be reduced subsequently by a district health officer (without any guidelines) is one example of such harsh, disproportionate and ill-considered emergency legislation.

Another is the emergency ordinance on fake news on Covid-19 and the emergency proclamation.

Have the Ministers heard the cries of outrage at such harsh, disproportionate and ill-considered emergency ordinances purportedly to combat the Covid-19 pandemic?

Is there not a single Minister who will raise this issue in the Cabinet tomorrow?

I hope that the Cabinet meeting tomorrow will have good news for the Malaysian public.