#kerajaangagal55 – Will the National Security Council give its blessing to the meeting of all Johore MPs and SAs on the Covid-19 pandemic as proposed by the Johore Sultan and will the Prime Minister, as a Johore State Assemblyman, give a report to the meeting?
The Johore Mentri Besar, Hasni Mohammad has acted on the Johore Sultan’s advice to convene a meeting of all Johore MPs and State Assembly representatives next week on the Covid-19 pandemic to discuss efforts to strengthen and improve all Federal and State government measures to curb the pandemic.
Hasni said:
“This (discussion) includes increasing the capacity of the existing Covid-19 quarantine and low-risk treatment centre and vaccination centre in Johor.
“Even though the Emergency Ordinance is in force, the state government will ensure that the Johor state secretary and legal adviser will oversee the smooth running of the discussions.”
He said the state government gave an assurance that matters decided in the meeting would be brought to the National Security Council (NSC).
Will the National Security Council meeting later this morning give its blessing to the meeting of all Johore MPs and SAs on the Covid-19 pandemic as proposed by the Johore Sultan and will the Prime Minister, as a Johore State Assemblyman, give a report to the meeting?
It is most shocking that the NSC meeting later today which would decide on whether to impose a “total lockdown” in the country would exclude the Mentri Besars and Chief Ministers, as revealed by the Selangor Mentri Besar Amirudin Shari yesterday.
Where is the “all-of-government” strategy and approach in the war against Covid-19 pandemic if Mentri Besars and Chief Ministers are excluded from the NSC meeting?
Already the nation’s war against the Covid-19 pandemic is suffering badly from the lack of an “all-of-society” strategy and approach, although I had made such a suggestion as far back as May last year. Twelve months elapsed without the government doing anything on the suggestion!
Ideally, the NSC should undo the mistaken and failed policies in the war against Covid-19 pandemic and propose the immediate convening of Parliament and the State Assemblies to establish a parliamentary and State Assembly united front in the war against Covid-19 pandemic where there will be no “no-confidence” motion so as to spearhead a “whole-of-society” national mobilisation of Malaysians to save lives and livelihoods and to restore the country to normalcy.
The NSC should also end all Covid-19 SOP flip-flops and double standards, including an end to all police investigations into the groups of youths who gathered in front of Parliament on April 30 protesting against the suspension of Parliament and the group of youths who held a protest in Parit Raja, Batu Pahat on May 12 and unfurled a large banner with the words “#kerajaangagal” as well as to end all repression and harassment of journalists, protest leaders and various other critics of the government.
The NSC should also prioritise the restoration of public trust and confidence in the national strategy against the Covid-19 pandemic, as no government had such a humongous deficit of public trust and confidence in the history of Malaysia as the Muhyiddin government.
That Malaysia is facing a very dire situation in the Covid-19 pandemic could be gauged from the shocking announcement by the Kedah State Exco for Health and Local Government, Dr. Mohd Hayati Othman, that the authorities would be playing God to decide who lives and who dies.
Hayati said chronically ill patients with little hope of recovery in Kedah will no longer be placed in intensive care units (ICUs), due to the dwindling number of ICU beds available in the state.
This applies to both Covid-19 patients as well as those without Covid-19.
Yesterday we broke the previous day’s record for daily increase of new Covid-19 cases by recording 6,806 new cases, as well as crashed through the 2,000 mark for total Covid-19 fatalities which now stand at 2040 – a horrifying figure.
For nine consecutive days, Malaysia’s daily increase of new Covid-19 cases has exceeded that of Indonesia, justifying the snide remark of the Indonesian authorities that Malaysia and India are nations which should not be emulated as they had mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic!
Malaysia is witnessing an unprecedented surge of Covid-19 cases. In contrast in the United States, the worst nation in the world with the most Covid-19 cases and fatalities, there is a sharp drop in daily increase of new Covid-19 cases, from the peak of daily increase of 304,190 new cases on January 8 to 28,435 cases yesterday – a humongous drop of 91%!
In fact, in the United States, Covid-19 cases were down in all 50 US states for the first time since the pandemic began, causing the senior White House Covid-19 adviser, Andy Slavitt to declare that America was “winning the war on the virus.”
Imagine, the United States beginning to win the war against Covid-19 pandemic while we in Malaysia are beginning to lose the war!
Even India has fallen sharply from the peak of 414,433 cases on May 6 to 276,261 yesterday (May 20) – a sharp drop of 34% in a matter of a fortnight.
What is more unacceptable to Malaysians is that we are even losing out to UK, Italy and Spain, European countries which had been such catastrophes last year in the Covid-19 pandemic. Yesterday’s daily increase of new Covid-19 cases for UK were 2,696 cases, Italy 5,506 cases and Spain 6,080 cases as compared to Malaysia’s new daily Covid-19 cases of 6,806 cases.
Malaysia holds the dubious record of being ranked No. 42 among nations in the world with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, but we hold the more dubious record of being ranked No. 12 among countries with the most daily increase of new Covid-19 cases – after India (276,261 new cases), Brazil (79,706), Argentina (39,651), USA (28,435), France (19,050), Colombia (16,579). Iran (12,789), Germany (11,881), Turkey (11.553), Nepal (8,604) and Russia (7,920).
Will the NSC meeting later this morning be prepared for a new start and a new strategy in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic?