People acting like there's no pandemic is govt success indicator - Annuar

 

The people are no longer afraid of Covid-19, said Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa who claimed that it is an indicator that the government has succeeded in managing the pandemic.

"We are having a problem where the people are not afraid of Covid-19. So when the people are not scared, it means that some think this is not an outbreak.

"(The government) has imposed restrictions but they still flout them. We told them not to cross borders, but they still do it.

"They are not afraid (of Covid-19) to the extent that we have to use policing powers (to take action). When there is an outbreak, the people should be protecting themselves," Annuar said at a forum last night organised by Harakah Daily.

"To me, this is an indication that we have successfully controlled this outbreak, that it is no longer being considered as such by some people. That shows success," he added.  

The Ketereh MP was responding to the forum moderator's request for his take on the government's performance in handling Covid-19 in the country.

In his reply, the Umno member also asked the audience to compare the situation in Malaysia with other countries, especially those which are far superior in terms of technology and medical advancement.

Citing several examples, he said the US to date has recorded close to 35 million positive cases including 615,232 deaths while the UK recorded over 4.5 million cases with 127,000 deaths.

This, according to Annuar, is another indication that Malaysia has been doing relatively well compared to other countries.

"If we want to ask if Malaysia has been successful or not, we have to be grateful to Allah.

"We do not deny that the (pandemic's) threat is big in our country but relatively, we have succeeded enough," he said.

The politician also pointed the audience to the ongoing National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme which he said is another point to weigh.

"How can people say that we failed? Now every four days, a million people are being given free vaccination shots.

"How many countries do this? You calculate, RM100 for each jab. How much have we spent?

"Is that a sign that we have failed?" he posed. - Mkini