As expected, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has announced the second extension of the MCO (movement control order), scheduled to start from April 15 to 28, after the present lockdown’s due date on April 14. The government also announced that certain business sectors will be allowed to operate, including professional services from barber shops, car workshops and laundry.
From the beginning, it was a joke to allow tow service, but not car workshops to operate. Exactly what good of allowing tow truck operators to function if trucks or vans break down while transporting essential goods, but cannot be repaired because workshops and spare part shops had been categorised as non-essential service?
Besides car workshops, automotive parts and components are an important part of the supply chain indirectly affecting the transportation and logistic systems. Without the mechanics and spare parts shop dealers, it will further cripple the current half-functioning transportation service. It’s a miracle that the clueless Muhyiddin government has finally realised its mistake now.
Although the government allows barber shops to resume operations, it would be fun to see how barbers and hair stylists can practise social distancing of staying 1-metre away from customers. The only way a barber can ensure hygiene is to wear a PPE (personal protective equipment) suit and sanitize scissors, combs and chairs before servicing the next customer, not to mention the need to change barber cape.
Other sectors allowed to operate again include machinery and equipment industry, tunneling works, maintenance works, sloping works, hardware shops, electrical and electronic shops, construction projects, professional services related to the construction industry (architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, project managers) and science, professional and technical services (legal service and R&D).
Wait a minute. Would not that open up to thousands more motorists and cars on the road? Would not that make “turtle egg” Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob fuming mad after he moaned, whined and bitched about lockdown violations by stubborn people? Would not that worsen the current road traffic due to police road blocks and make life more miserable for essential workers like medical staffs?
Mr. Sabri, who is also the defence minister, said that police detained 1,095 individuals for violating the lockdown yesterday (April 10), despite 97% compliance rate. Apparently, the authorities have conducted checks on 490,249 vehicles. You don’t need a rocket scientist to tell that there would be more violations as a result of more vehicles on the road after the relaxation of the MCO.
In reality, the government of Muhyiddin is trapped between a rock and a hard place. After more than 61 years under the Barisan Nasional regime, the country was not only almost broke due to rampant corruption and incompetency, but also so backwards that under-equipped medical staff had to make their own “DIY” PPEs like face shields and suits.
As much as the Malaysian government likes to, it can neither copy South Korea nor New Zealand. South Korea didn’t need to lockdown because the competent government and knowledgeable health officials have been well-prepared since the SARS epidemic, while New Zealand offered a generous cash of NZ$585 per week per full-time worker (NZ$350 for part-time workers) for up to 12 weeks.
Muhyiddin’s RM250 billion stimulus package might look awesome, but the one-off cash payments to households and individuals in the lower and middle income group – “National Care Assistance” – would cost the government only RM10 billion. That’s the only real hard massive cash being spent. The actual amount of fiscal spending amounts is merely RM25 billion.
Due to lack of transparency, the big numbers – RM128 billion for the people’s welfare and RM100 billion for businesses and SMEs – may or may not be fully enjoyed by the targeted recipients. The fact that PM Muhyiddin had to rush for another round of RM10 billion stimulus package for SMEs shows that the initial numbers looked sexy but lacked actual substance.
The biggest problem is the lack of information of where do the government plans to fund the mind-boggling RM250 billion package. Anyone can irresponsibly throw a big number to impress the people. But the tricky part is to justify the spending of a quarter of a trillion Ringgit when the national debts were already in excess of RM1 trillion, largely thanks to former PM Najib Razak.
Without having a session in the Parliament to clarify the actual source of the declared RM250 billion stimulus package, nobody knows whether PM Muhyiddin and his trusted lieutenant, Azmin Ali, were quietly digging into EPF (Employees Provident Fund) or other public funds, or planned to borrow from foreign financial institutions at an industrial scale, or a combination of both.
While the government deserves a round of applause for its courage to gradually allow certain industries to operate under an extended lockdown, the move can also be seen as a sign that the country is in financial difficulties so much so that quite a substantial sector have been allowed to operate, especially factories and construction companies.
It’s perplexing to learn that the government allows electronic retail shops and construction workers to resume working but not beer brewery Heineken. Exactly why Heineken and Carlsberg factories were stopped from operating, despite the brewers only ran with 10% of its workforce, but electrical appliance shops and construction sector can run at 100% capacity?
Did Muhyiddin and his racist and extremist buddies UMNO and PAS realise that Heikenen paid close to RM100 million (RM98.2 million) in tax while Carlsberg splashed RM74.5 million in tax for the financial year 2018 to the national coffers? The same tax money will eventually be used to pay the fat salaries, allowances and other perks of the almost 100% “Malay-only” Perikatan Nasional government.
The “sin tax” to be paid by non-Muslims on alcoholic beverages in Malaysia will also be utilised to pay the salaries of the 1.71-million bloated civil servants. If the government cannot see the big picture, but continues to play up racial and religious issues, the country will hit a recession – even depression – before they could get rid of the nasty Coronavirus.
Yes, it appears that while the country was desperate for business and commerce to run again, the backdoor government had decided to win people’s hearts by throwing cash at them, money that it didn’t have. Hilariously, it had to flip-flop with an initial permission to beer makers to operate. Did barbers and hair stylists together with laundry shops pay RM174 million in taxes to the government?
If the country had a mighty financial strength, Muhyiddin government didn’t have to announce the relaxation of the lockdown. It could pay every worker RM2000 for the next 12 weeks and waits for the Coronavirus cases to disappear, or at least wait for the current 3-digit infection cases to drop to 2-digit. New taxes, like GST, could be re-introduced to recoup cash given to the people.
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Their moment of creativity and hard work peaked with the Sheraton Move and diminished quickly after.
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