#kerajaangagal61 – Convene Parliament and State Assemblies to form Covid-19 Pandemic Parliamentary and State Assembly United Front with five objectives – (i) national mobilisation (ii) restore public trust and confidence (iii) economic stimulus package to help the poor and vulnerable groups (iv) mass testing and (v) accelerate vaccination rollout
Who won and who lost from the National Security Council (NSC) meeting of Friday not to impose a total lockdown in the war against Covid-19 pandemic?
The people and the nation lost, but the Muhyiddin government thinks it has won, which is most dubious despite several self-seeking opinion polls showing Muhyiddin Yassin head and shoulders above all others in the popularity stakes.
I asked a doctor friend what he thought of the NSC decision as announced by the Senior Defence Minister, Ismail Sabri yesterday.
His answer:
“From medical perspective, total crap.
“From political survival perspective, good for them.
“From public perspective, people are doomed.”
It would appear that the popularity of the witticism “MCO – Making Confusing Orders; CMCO – Continue Making Confusing Orders; EMCO – Even More Confusing Orders; RMCO – Repeatedly Making Confusing Orders” on the social media is not going to be dimmed any time soon.
When the Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah yesterday called on Malaysians to observe a two-week “self-lockdown” to assist the Health Ministry to break the Covid-19 infection chain, it would appear that even he had come to end of the tethers as he could not get his recommendations accepted by the NSC.
One must be very sanguine to believe that the stringent measures decided by the NSC on Friday could break the Covid-19 infection chain and flatten the Covid-19 curve in two weeks.
So now Malaysians are left with self-lockdowns - to avoid the 3Cs and practise the 3Ws - which would have spared Malaysians of MCOs, CMCOs, EMCOs and RMCOs if this is the cure for the Covid-19 pandemic.
But with the fourth consecutive daily increase of new Covid-19 cases exceeding 6,000 cases, with the cumulative total of Covid-19 cases exceeding half-a-million mark, and Covid-19 fatalities reaching 2,199 deaths, the 32 million Malaysians must show the world that they are a highly disciplined people who can practise self-lockdowns based on the 3Cs and 3Ws rule.
However, we must not give up on demands that the government must meet higher standards of expectation of the people to practise appropriate public policies to bring the Covid-19 pandemic under control and to flatten the Covid-19 curve in the country.
I therefore call on Muhyiddin to put aside all other considerations and to advise the Yang di Pertuan Agong to convene Parliament immediately to form a Covid-19 Pandemic Parliamentary United Front with five objectives – (i) national mobilisation; (ii) restore public trust and confidence; (iii) a new economic stimulus package to help the poor and vulnerable; (iv) effective mass testing; and (v) accelerate national vaccination rollout.
Although Parliament and the State Assemblies have been suspended, the Johore Sultan has called on all MPs and SAs in Johore State to meet on the Covid-19 pandemic as it is deteriorating very rapidly.
If the Health Ministry’s revised modelling is right, then we will be seeing more than 8,000 daily increases of new Covid-19 cases by June. Will a daily increase of 10,000 Covid-19 cases become a norm in Malaysia?
Yesterday was the 10th consecutive day that Malaysia’s daily increase of new Covid-19 cases is more than that of Indonesia, justifying the snide remark of the Indonesian authorities that Malaysia and India were two nations which should not be emulated as they had mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic!
Even India yesterday saw its daily increase of new Covid-19 cases fell to 243,777 cases, a sharp 42 per cent drop from its peak of daily increase of 414,433 new cases on May 6 – just 15 days ago.
I would suggest that all states follow the advice of the Johore Sultan and convene a meeting of MPs and SAs in their respective states to review the development of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It would be a good idea to form Covid-19 Pandemic Parliamentary and State Assembly United Front on the five objectives I have mentioned above, guided by the consensus whether formalised through a motion or otherwise that there would be no “no-confidence motion” and that the term of Parliament and the State Assemblies would run to their full term till May 2023 unless the Covid-19 pandemic is sooner brought under control.