‘Flip flop’ frustrations boil over on social media

 

PETALING JAYA: Minutes after the prime minister announced movement restrictions across the nation, social media users took to the air in frustration over the government’s inconsistency on lockdown measures.

Politicians were quick to jump in, some demanding a resumption of the loan moratorium, and some raising questions about aid for the poor and for students.

Bandar Kuching MP Kelvin Yii said that it was not the restrictions that were hurting the people and the economy the most, but the uncertainty.

“I think businesses and the public are suffering more from the flip-flops, inconsistencies, and last-minute announcements rather than the MCO itself. If it was properly planned, announced and executed in the first place, we won’t be in such a position,” he wrote on Twitter using the #KerajaanGagal hashtag which began to trend again.

Other netizens responded similarly, many taking aim at the government’s inconsistency.

“So first they said no more nationwide MCO. Then they basically imposed MCO almost all over the country, but not exactly the entire country. Now finally they announce a nationwide MCO. The indecisiveness of this government is astounding,” wrote Jazli Aziz on Twitter.

A user going by the name Faiz, wrote that Malaysia could have been guided through the pandemic if there was adequate leadership.

“People are not mad at #MCO3. People are mad that this decision was made much too late. People are mad that this was sudden. People are mad at incompetent leadership.”

The announcement of the movement control order, the third since March last year, came in a statement by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin today, two months after he said there would be no more “blanket” MCOs. The new MCO comes after a spike in cases around the country with daily infections regularly breaching the 3,000 mark over the past week.

Within hours of the announcement, #KerajaanGagal and #MCO3 began trending with politicians such as Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh coming out with reactions.

Yeoh tweeted that “businesses are dying,” and that the automatic loan moratorium must be reintroduced to stem the bleeding.

She also said that family members in the same district should be allowed to visit the graves of relatives for Hari Raya. Such visits are banned under the new MCO. She said the wearing of masks in an outdoor setting should make such visits a lower-risk activity.

Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman agreed that a loan moratorium was needed immediately, saying that citizens and businesses had borne the brunt of the MCO’s impacts and were in need of help.

He also questioned when students would be receiving the 150,000 laptops the government had promised to distribute in the national budget, which the government has said are to be delivered by September, as online learning is now a necessity with all schools ordered to close.

Ipoh Barat MP M Kula Segaran took aim at the government’s proclamation of a state of emergency in January which was described as necessary for the government to better control the pandemic.

“The emergency was declared to bring down the numbers … is this government so incompetent that even an emergency could not get the job done?” he said. - FMT