Record deaths, deceit expose government failure

 

From Ashraf Abdullah

“Don’t even bother sending stories for a week,” News Editor Sulochini Nair told me over the phone about an hour after Block 1 of the Highland Towers in Hulu Kelang collapsed, killing 48 people.

When the tragedy occurred on Dec 11, 1993, I was the staff correspondent of the New Straits Times bureau in Kuantan, Pahang.

As expected, the news reports from the tragedy made headlines for days on end. The stories and pictures also filled almost all the inside local news pages of every newspaper in the country. Insignificant, regional stories from Pahang had no chance of seeing the light of day.

For Malaysians, a tragedy involving even a few deaths was a rare thing. Forty-eight people dying in the Highland Towers was then a nationwide catastrophe. In fact, there were many other tragedies in Malaysia involving fewer deaths, and those news reports too made headlines for days.

But in recent months, we have broken all records. Each day, hundreds of Malaysians die from Covid-19. Sadly, they have become mere numbers. They add to the daily statistics. They are remembered for a day and forgotten the next when new numbers come in.

When this article was being written, 8,408 people had died from Covid-19. On July 26 alone, 207 people died. On June 24,(184 deaths), July 21 (199), July 22 (134) and July 23 (144). The number of infections has surpassed the million mark. And by no means will the number stop there. We have overtaken many countries, even the less-developed ones. Malaysia now tops Asean countries with 300 new cases a day per million people.

These numbers point to one thing – that the government of the day has failed miserably.

Weak policies and poor management have resulted in the collapse of the health system and in an uncontrollable spread of the disease in the community. The government has to be accountable for the steep spike in Covid-19 cases and the deaths which have ensued.

Flip-flopping in the implementation of standard operating procedures, loose enforcement policies, differential treatment for politicians and VIPs on quarantines, SOPs and compounds, are among them.

But even with all these, nothing beats the fact that this government misled the people. On Monday, the de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan announced in the Dewan Rakyat that all six ordinances introduced under the Emergency Proclamation were revoked on July 21.

A day later, when pressed by MPs on whether the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah had given his approval for the revocation, Takiyuddin merely said he would answer all questions on Monday.

His non-committal response sparked speculation that the King may not have agreed to it. Everyone is now anxiously waiting for a statement from Istana Negara.

The statements made by ministers, contradicting one another, also made one wonder if the matter was discussed in the Cabinet. It would appear to the reasonable mind that the government revoked the Ordinances to avoid a debate in Parliament and the subsequent voting process. Its actions, however, were unconstitutional and usurps the powers of the King and both Houses of Parliament.

With the wave of the magic wand, we are now told that existing laws are sufficient to enforce the MCO, issuing of compounds to those who flout the SOPs, etc.

So it has become apparent now that the Emergency Proclamation served no other purpose than to keep the prime minister and the government, already hanging on to their dear lives, in office.

The people would now conclude they were lied to. In fact, even the King, if he was convinced with the reason that an Emergency Proclamation was the only way to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, was also misled.

Takiyuddin’s reply in the Dewan Rakyat had unwittingly opened Pandora’s box. Malaysians are now convinced that the Emergency Proclamation was simply to ensure that Parliament did not sit.

If any motion was put to a vote in the Dewan Rakyat, most likely the government would have been defeated. It will then confirm that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin no longer commands the support of the majority and has to relinquish his post.

The events that took place in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday revealed that our democracy has been undermined.

No Malaysian should tolerate this. Authoritarianism should never be allowed to breed. - FMT

Ashraf Abdullah is the former group managing editor (news and current affairs, television networks) for Media Prima Bhd.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.