Penang to implement recovery MCO from tomorrow, says CM

Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow says the Penang government had decided to reopen the economy in stages as early as June 2, in tandem with federal policy.

GEORGE TOWN: Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the recovery movement control order (RMCO) will begin in the state tomorrow as scheduled.

On Sunday, after Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had announced the replacement of the conditional movement control order (CMCO) with the RMCO, Chow said the state security council would “look into” its implementation.

This led to senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob saying the RMCO regulations were gazetted and the state government must abide by them. He said that unlike Sarawak, the other states did not have their own infectious diseases Act.

At a press conference today, Chow said the state government did not disagree or decide not to implement the RMCO. He said it had been decided to reopen the economy in stages as early as June 2, in tandem with federal policy.

He said his reaction on Sunday was merely to fine-tune standard operating procedures (SOPs) to reopen sectors of the economy, as allowed for under a federally sanctioned state special security council (JKKN).

“When a decision on the MCO is reached at the federal level, an SOP for the particular MCO would be sent to the respective JKKNs throughout the country, to be studied and customised according to the needs of each state. Penang is no exception.

“All decisions by the state government are based on a balance of health, social and economic needs of Penangites. In other words, a balance of safeguarding our lives and livelihood takes priority.

“What has been put in place in Penang during the MCO had never gone against federal law, even the fine-tuning of SOPs. Hence, the minister’s claim that we were rejecting the RMCO was baseless,” he said. - FMT