#kerajaangagal74 – Arifin Zakaria should ask the Independent Special Committee on Emergency 2021 to consider whether it should ask the Prime Minister to end the emergency not only because the emergency is a failure but because it is not a solution to combat Covid-19 pandemic
In response by the query by the Pakatan Harapan presidential council, the Independent Special Committee on Emergency 2021 said it has agreed to several “criteria and threshold” in reviewing whether the state of emergency should be continued or not.
However, the committee did not elaborate on the details of the criteria and threshold they agreed to.
It said: “The Independent Special Committee on Emergency 2021 has received various presentations in its series of meetings about the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic from various individuals, health experts, and other related fields.
“At this stage, the committee has, by consensus, agreed on setting several criteria and threshold in making reviews about the continued existence of the emergency or whether to end it.
“The committee will continue to meet from time to time to review the continued existence of the emergency or whether to end it.”
The chairman of the Independent Special Committee on Emergency 20201, former chief justice Tun Arifin Zakaria should ask the Independent Special Committee on Emergency 2021 to consider whether it should ask the Prime Minister to end the emergency not only because the emergency is a failure but because it is not a solution to combat Covid-19 pandemic.
Malaysia has become an international poster boy as a country which has failed to address the Covid-19 pandemic – four months after the declaration of emergency.
Even the Health director-general, Noor Hisham Abdullah has made international news with his warning that Malaysia must prepare for the worst in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although Malaysia is ranked No. 41 as a nation with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases (having overtaken Morocco and Lebanon, but itself overtaken by Nepal), Malaysia is ranked No. 11 among countries with the highest daily Covid-19 cases yesterday – after India, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, United States, France, Russia, Iran, Turkey and Chile.
But Malaysia continues to overtake India, the worst performing country today in the Covid-19 pandemic, in per capita daily cases – with Malaysia’s 211.29 against India’s 165.28 for Covid-19 cases per million. In contrast, the Covid-19 cases per million for the following countries are: USA (70.71), UK (37.45), Thailand (42.87), South Korea (11.69), Vietnam (2.0) Singapore (5.54) and China (0.01).
Malaysia and India are the two worst performing countries in the recently-released May 2021 Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking – Malaysia falling 14 spots to No. 35 and India falling 20 spots to No. 50 out of 53 countries with economies of more than US$200 billion.
For the 16th consecutive day, Malaysia has a higher daily increase of new Covid-19 cases than Indonesia, which has almost nine times the population of Malaysia.
I don’t think there is anyone in Malaysia (including the Prime Minister and his bloated Cabinet) will argue against the view that the emergency declared on January 11, 2021 to combat the Covid-19 pandemic was a complete flop.
In fact, it was the wrong solution for the Covid-19 pandemic, suspending Parliament and the various State Assemblies, resulting in two important failures in the war against Covid-19 pandemic, viz:
- Unprecedented deficit in public trust and confidence in the government’s handling of the war against the Covid-19 pandemic; and
- Failure and inability of the government to launch a national mobilisation effort against the Covid-19 pandemic through an “all-of-government” and “ whole-of-society” strategy and approach.
The question is whether Ariffin Zakaria will convene a meeting of the Independent Special Committee on Emergency 2021 to consider whether asking the Prime Minister to end the emergency not only because the emergency is a failure but because it is not a solution to combat Covid-19 pandemic.