PETALING JAYA: A DAP MP has questioned how the second movement control order (MCO 2.0) will be effective when most economic sectors are still up and running.
Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim said the current MCO was much looser compared with the lockdown which was imposed between March and May last year, citing how schools, government offices and kindergartens could still operate.
“How does the government plan to attain the efficacy of the first MCO when the standard operating procedures (SOPs) now are far more relaxed?
“In MCO 2.0, many economic sectors, including factories, are still operating when several major clusters involving workplaces like factories had caused an outbreak of Covid-19 in the community.
“What is it that the government really wants to achieve through MCO 2.0?” he asked in a statement today.
Sim, who is a former deputy youth and sports minister, also questioned the necessity to declare an emergency, asking if the current laws under the MCO hindered the government from fighting the pandemic.
“If MCO 2.0 is much more relaxed than MCO 1.0, what’s the necessity to proclaim an emergency throughout the country?”
Acknowledging Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s statement that the emergency was also to prevent a snap election when the pandemic was at its peak, he maintained that none of the opposition MPs and parties wanted a general election now.
He said it appeared that only Umno wanted a snap election to be held as soon as possible and, even then, it was only a few MPs from the party.
With the legislative arm of the government unable to function due to the suspension of Parliament, and with the judiciary and executive still operating as usual, Sim claimed that the emergency was purely to protect the position of the prime minister.
“The prime minister is worried that if Parliament is allowed to convene, his loss of majority support will be exposed. Instead of uniting all MPs to fight Covid-19, the prime minister remains obsessed with playing politics and arranging strategies to stay in power,” he said.
He urged Muhyiddin to immediately call for a special Dewan Rakyat sitting to discuss the Covid-19 situation instead of suspending Parliament, saying the prime minister does not have to worry over MPs disrupting efforts to protect Malaysians from the virus.
“MPs had already unilaterally supported two Covid-19 bills in last year’s sitting. In fact, frontliners are urging the government to further increase allocations to combat Covid-19.
“Several aid measures for the people, such as the loan moratorium, PTPTN moratorium, EPF (Employees Provident Fund) withdrawal and others, had been raised by MPs on both sides of the divide in Parliament,” he said. - FMT
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