Spike in Covid-19 cases: Netizens rip into politicians in anger

 

Twitter users have started placing the blame on politicians for the sudden spike in Covid-19 cases yesterday, expressing their dissatisfaction through the hashtags #KlusterMenteri (Ministers' cluster) and #PoliticianPuncaVirus (Politicians are the source of the virus).

Both hashtags started trending since last night with more than 20,000 tweets in total.

Among the tweets include one that has since been retweeted over 1,000 times from Twitter user @danc1ngcloud, who said: "Dear Malaysians, now we know that the ministers of Malaysia and the politicians never cared about us, the rakyat. We are not their priority, it is all about money and power."

Yesterday saw 260 new Covid-19 cases, the highest number since June 4.

The anger from netizens came after the recent Sabah state election which saw several politicians who had campaigned there become infected with the disease.

Covid-19 cases in Sabah had also been on the rise throughout the campaigning period. To top it, cases from Sabah have also been imported to other states in the country.

SK Permatang Janggus, Penaga in Penang (below) was forced to close yesterday, and its 600 students had to undergo swab tests for Covid-19 after one of their teachers was found to have the disease. The teacher is the wife of a politician who tested positive after returning from Sabah.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has since apologised to all Malaysians and frontliners on behalf of his party members following the increase in cases.

However, some social media users have refused to accept his apology, including Twitter user @derrul who urged for action to be taken against these politicians.

"You were the cause of it all, one day you'll pay for this. We don't accept your apology no matter how sincere it is. We Sabahans will remember Umno and its hunger for power. You and (former chief minister) Musa Aman shall pay for this," the netizen said in a retweet of Zahid's apology.

Some netizens also brought up the incident of Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Khairuddin Aman Razali who flouted the mandatory home quarantine order when he returned from Turkey in July.

Twitter user @izhamkhairu said: "You can talk about tough action or whatever, but there was no action against Khairuddin at all."

Another hashtag which also started trending on Twitter was #MenteriKPTSilaLetakJawatan (higher education minister, please resign).

This came after Higher Education Minister Noraini Ahmad suggested that all higher education institutions postpone their student intake, which was supposed to have taken place yesterday.

Twitter user @miadrianna said many students had spent a lot of money travelling to their campuses but in vain.

"We urge the higher education minister to resign. It is difficult for students to save up money and we were forced to spend it for our education, but you are just creating more problems for us," the netizen tweeted under the #MenteriKPTSilaLetakJawatan hashtag. - Mkini