PKR president Anwar Ibrahim today renewed calls to reimpose a blanket loan repayment moratorium by banks in view of the extension of the movement control order (MCO).
In a statement today, Anwar said that until people can move around, there has to be an extension of debt moratoriums.
Anwar, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and former Umno president Najib Abdul Razak are the three MPs who have been consistently urging Putrajaya to extend debt moratoriums.
It was first imposed for six months from April 1 last year. Following this, Putrajaya brokered a deal with banks to introduce a targeted moratorium scheme where borrowers will have to negotiate with banks.
Anwar said the latest round of MCO, which began on Jan 13, had clearly failed as more people are dying from the virus.
In view of this, Anwar said the government should rightfully be adopting new approaches instead of "hand-to-mouth and reactionary" approaches.
"Few proactive steps have been taken and little evidence has been shown to seek a sustainable longer-term solution that will target the spread and help turn things around in Malaysia," he said.
Noting that most of the Asean countries did not report new cases and had reported zero deaths yesterday, Anwar described Malaysia's predicament as "despicable and embarrassing".
He also demanded that the government engages with Asean to come up with a joint Covid-19 response.
"What is the point of Asean if not to be a place for us to come together and at least find common coordination on this endeavour.
"How many people (and how much of our economy) depend on the opening up between us and Singapore, no way they will allow that in light of our categorical failure," Anwar added. - Mkini
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