Kit Siang urges govt to reconsider conditional MCO for Klang Valley

 

The government should have learned by now that a blanket state movement control order (MCO) is an “economically costly” tool, said Lim Kit Siang.

The DAP veteran said the government should employ targeted lockdowns instead.

This came after Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced earlier today that Putrajaya has decided to re-impose a conditional MCO on Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Putrajaya due to the rising cases of Covid-19.

“This is the time for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to step in and restore some sanity in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.

“He should be aware of the new thinking in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic that draconian measures like conditional MCO and full lockdowns are overly blunt and economically costly tools,” Lim said in a statement today.

It is understandable that during the early days of Covid-19, many governments had employed “draconian” measures such as national or partial lockdowns to handle the pandemic as it was an unprecedented and a poorly understood situation at that time, he said.

However, he said Malaysia must now learn from its “costly mistakes of the past” and employ targeted lockdowns instead of conditional MCO on entire states.

Lim also said the decision to re-impose the conditional MCO on Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya must not be an irrational reaction to the criticisms of negligence with regard to the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in Sabah.

“It will be highly irresponsible to over-react and punish Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya for the valid criticisms about the handling of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Sabah,” he said.

As such, Lim said he agreed with Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari, who had earlier called for the federal government to reconsider the decision to re-impose conditional MCO on Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

Amirudin had responded to Ismail’s announcement with surprise, as the former said only several districts in the Klang Valley were recording a worrying number of Covid-19 cases. - Mkini