DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang claims the Putrajaya-Pakatan Harapan memorandum of understanding (MOU) helped slow down the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths.
He said the situation would have been significantly worse if the MOU was not signed last September.
"It is heartening to see that since the signing of the MOU on Sept 13 last year, the daily fatality numbers have been in double-digit figures for the past three months and fluctuating between nine to 31 daily deaths in January 2022.
"If not for the MOU, we might have ended 2021 with five to 10 million (total) Covid-19 cases and 100,000–200,000 (total) Covid-19 deaths instead of 2.75 million Covid-19 cases and 31,500 Covid-19 deaths on Dec 31," he said in a statement today.
He cited how before the MOU was signed, the number of newly reported Covid-19 deaths on Sept 11 was 592.
The Putrajaya-Harapan MOU was aimed at ensuring political stability amid the Covid-19 crisis.
Harapan had rejected a previous offer from Muhyiddin Yassin for a political understanding when the latter was prime minister.
This led to Muhyiddin losing power and Ismail Sabri Yaakob becoming prime minister after a failed attempt by PKR president Anwar Ibrahim to secure enough support to capture Putrajaya.
Daily cases and deaths
Since last Saturday, the number of newly reported Covid-19 deaths has been below 20 per day.
Lim's statement was in contrast to his remarks just about a month ago on Dec 31.
On that day, he lamented how Malaysia had 20 times the number of Covid-19 cases than Indonesia from Dec 1 to Dec 30, and four times the number of Covid-19 fatalities.
"Malaysia ranks 27 and Indonesia ranks 45 in the 2021 Global Health Security Index, which measures the capacities of 195 countries to prepare for epidemics and pandemics.
"Why had Malaysia fallen so badly in the Covid-19 pandemic response?" he had said.
He did note on Dec 31, however, that he supported the MOU in order to prevent a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases.
Meanwhile, in today's statement, Lim questioned whether Malaysia was suffering from a new Covid-19 crisis and losing control of the situation.
However, he said it was too early to tell.
This is amid the recent increase in the daily number of cases, with the number of cases today at 5,522, the highest since Dec 3 last year.
It was also the second day in a row with cases exceeding the 5,000 mark.
Omicron wave
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said on Wednesday that cases were expected to rise as the Omicron wave hit Malaysia.
Khairy was, however, optimistic that vaccines and boosters would help keep the situation under control.
As of Tuesday, the country has detected 601 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in total.
Of this, 90 percent or 545 cases were imported.
However, there have been 56 locally transmitted cases, 34 of which were reported in Sarawak, and 12 in Selangor.
Locally transmitted cases were also reported in Kedah (4), Labuan (4), and Sabah (2).
It is unclear how pervasive Omicron is in Malaysia beyond the sequenced tests. - Mkini
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