No sense of urgency, Kit Siang's aide says on July tabling of Covid-19 relief bill

Lawyer Syahredzan Johan has shot down Putrajaya's plans to table a draft bill that it said would help minimise the economical impact of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Taking to Facebook, the DAP activist pointed out that the proposed bill would only be tabled at the next Dewan Rakyat session in July - four months after the government first announced the ongoing movement control order (MCO).

"Tabling a ‘temporary relief’ bill four months after the MCO was first announced, and which will only come into force six months after the MCO began, is so very typical of this Muhyiddin-Azmin government.

"Absolutely no sense of urgency when it comes to the rakyat," said Syahredzan (above) who is also political secretary to DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang.

"The only urgency displayed is in dishing out GLC (government-linked company) appointments," he said in a swipe at the recent series of political appointments among Perikatan Nasional backbenchers in Parliament as well as several others from state-level PN ranks.

Syahredzan was responding to de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan's statement yesterday that a proposed draft bill would be tabled to allow amendments to several laws and all ministries had been instructed to identify the relevant legislation by May 28.

Takiyuddin said the formulation of the bill was a temporary relief to prevail over any allocations that were not in line with the relevant Acts during the prescribed period.

Previously, Takiyuddin's predecessor, Liew Vui Keong, had also questioned the move to only table the bill and the necessary amendments in July rather than during the last May 18 session which was cut short to only feature the royal address.

The May Parliament session was initially scheduled to sit until June 26. With the new arrangement, Takiyuddin previously said the Dewan Rakyat will now convene for 15 days from July 13.

The movement control order has been enforced since March 18 and after several extensions, it is currently in the conditional MCO period until June 9. - Mkini