How can PPVs operate after positive cases but Parliament can’t, asks Najib

 

Monday’s Parliament sitting had been indefinitely postponed by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, in line with the health ministry’s risk analysis of the Covid-19 situation.

PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak has questioned why Parliament should be postponed indefinitely due to Covid-19 when an outbreak at a vaccination centre (PPV) in Shah Alam saw the venue closed for only one day.

“It is very hard for anyone to believe that a PPV involving tens of thousands of civilians was allowed to resume operations just two days after 204 officers tested positive, but Parliament has to be closed for an unknown period,” he said in a Facebook post.

“Does the government believe that the lives of 220 MPs are worth more than the thousands of civilians who visited that PPV every day?”

The Ideal Convention Centre (IDCC) in Shah Alam, which is currently serving as a PPV, was temporarily closed for a day (July 13) after 204 Covid-19 cases were detected among the staff there.

Meanwhile, 11 cases were detected by the health ministry at Parliament after 1,183 tests were done there on Thursday.

Dewan Rakyat secretary Nizam Mydin Bacha Mydin yesterday issued a circular to all MPs stating that Monday’s Parliament sitting had been indefinitely postponed by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, in line with the health ministry’s risk analysis.

Yesterday’s circular comes after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had expressed his displeasure at de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan’s announcement on Monday that the emergency ordinances had been revoked on July 21. The King said this was done without his consent.

Earlier today, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang called on Muhyiddin to lift the Parliament lockdown to allow MPs to address the worsening Covid-19 pandemic and the “major constitutional crisis” in the Dewan Rakyat.

In a statement, the Iskandar Puteri MP said Muhyiddin should not use Covid-19 as an excuse to “shut down parliamentary democracy” in Malaysia.

“It (Parliament’s postponement) is symbolic of the (government’s) lack of credibility and legitimacy, and its failure to bring the Covid-19 pandemic under control,” said Lim.

“The Parliament lockdown on Monday is not only contradictory to the need for a new war policy and strategy to fight the Covid-19 pandemic based on ‘Living with Covid’ instead of ‘Zero Covid’, but also a gross abuse of power.” - FMT