Anyone surprised? Najib mocks govt over lockdown extension

 

There wouldn’t be heavy traffic on the roads if the total lockdown is imposed properly, says Najib Razak.

PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak took a sly dig at the Perikatan Nasional-led (PN) government tonight after the lockdown was extended for two more weeks, asking if anyone was surprised by the announcement.

“Is anyone surprised by the PN government’s announcement that the total lockdown, which isn’t that ‘total’, has been extended two more weeks,” he said in a Facebook post.

In a later posting, Najib urged the government to quickly dispense aid to the people, as they brace for another two weeks of lockdown.

He called for Putrajaya to announce extensions to the i-Sinar and i-Lestari Employees Provident Fund (EPF) schemes and for government aid to be expedited and increased in amount.

“Direct banks to give automatic loan moratoriums with no added interest for three months,” he added.

He also urged the government to offer discounts on electricity bills for everyone and for bottled cooking oil to be subsidised to lighten the people’s load during this time.

“Lastly, if you want to do a total lockdown, then make it a total lockdown. Understand what total or full means. It shouldn’t be a lockdown where we have traffic jams, like now,” he said.

Meanwhile, PKR MP Wong Chen said the government has clearly failed to contain the pandemic despite the two-week total lockdown and movement control order (MCO) imposed over the Klang Valley since early May.

The Subang MP said the erratic “yo-yo” Covid-19 cases also suggested that daily infections were linked to the number of tests conducted instead of whether the lockdown has been effective.

“After 11 days of total lockdown and the fact that Selangor and KL have been under MCO since May 3, the data is clear: this PN government has completely failed to contain the pandemic with the MCO.

“Will this PN government buck up and do the total lockdown properly? How can you have a total lockdown when thousands of non-essential companies have been exempted?

“These exemptions are public health risks and highly unfair to the employers who have adhered to the lockdown and closed their businesses. Now the same responsible employers are burdened further by the lockdown extension,” he said in a Facebook post. - FMT