KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal said today he has not rejected the conditional movement control order (CMCO) outright but is concerned that a hasty implementation will create a mess in Sabah.
This is why he decided to gradually open the state’s economic sector from May 12 and not May 4 as Putrajaya wants.
Shafie said there were many areas that needed to be looked into such as the capacity, readiness, health protocols and procedures which the state government had complete knowledge of but which Putrajaya did not.
“We are not looking to open up everything. The reality is that we cannot open up everything. This is why I said to give us time. We are aware of Phase 5 of the MCO is coming.
“But we must consider our readiness to implement the approaches in accordance with our capacities at the state level.
“This is why we will continue to observe Phase 4 of the MCO and announce which sectors can be open first on May 12,” said Shafie as he continued to defend his stand not to reopen all businesses now.
May 12 marks the end of Phase 4 of the MCO.
He noted there was no point in opening all sectors in haste when many service industries, such as the air transport industry, remained restricted.
Shafie said it was the same with quarantine centres. The state did not have the capacity to cater all at once to the 11,000 Sabah students returning to the state.
“We also need to ensure there are doctors waiting for them when they return. Imagine the biggest quarantine centre, the Indoor Sports Complex, can only cater to about 100 students. Would that be enough?”
This, he said, was the reason the state resolved to have the students quarantined at home and not inside quarantine centres.
That is why, Shafie said, Putrajaya should have consulted the state first before coming up with its plans on the CMCO.
As for students who were abroad, Shafie said the state was leaving it to the higher education ministry to handle them as he did not want to do anything that would go against the ministry’s arrangement.
On another note, Shafie said the opening up of inter-district travel and allowing more than two passengers per vehicle in the state was entirely up to the police.
He, however, wanted the authorities to maintain strict measures in areas declared as red zones.
Earlier, Shafie accepted from the Sabah Land Development Board, on behalf of the 1,533 participants of the board’s ventures, payment of dividends and livelihood allowances of over RM1 million. - FMT
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