WITH no definite date in sight for the reconvene of Parliament, an Opposition MP has lashed out at Prime Minister Tan Sri Mahiaddin Md Yassin for having no sincerity in the latter’s guarantee in reopening of Parliament sitting.
In a special announcement by the PM on the National Recovery Plan yesterday, Mahiaddin highlighted that the reconvene of Parliament is likely to happen in September or October on condition that the daily COVID-19 cases fall below 2,000.
“I view this as just a lip service by the PM with no sincere intention to uphold Parliamentary democracy,” Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah opined.
“The Parliament should open immediately, not later, not September. Now.”
Apart from that, Maria also pointed out that the whole purpose of having an Emergency was to curb COVID-19 in which the Perikatan Nasional (PN) Government had failed miserably in doing so.
“Our economy, our health, our education, our social welfare, all are in worse situation than before,” she stressed.
“There’s so much that everyone can help, seek clarification and to correct, thus, opening Parliament after three months will be too late to correct the dire straits that we are already in.”
According to Maria, re-convening Parliament sessions and ending Emergency now does not only enabled a full debate on the Government’s budget but also pave the way for economic recovery, thus allowing the setting up a cross party parliamentary committee immediately to monitor the social and economic recovery
Furthermore, the Petaling Jaya MP said the inclusion of the Opposition with a purpose to save Malaysia from the present crisis will also show the PM’s sincerity in tackling and solving the issues.
“Lives do matter. There must be sincerity and I am sceptical that this is another delay tactic by the PM and his cabinet to ward off pressure to open Parliament and end Emergency,” added Maria.
SME grouping backs recovery plan but …
It wasn’t an all negative feedback to the Prime Minister’s (PM) National Recovery Plan announcement.
The Small and Medium Enterprises Association (SAMENTA) is confident the PM has the welfare of the close to a million SMEs at heart in its unveiling of a four-phase plan which outlines the criteria and stages of the re-opening of the Malaysian economy.
“We have lost two years in this battle against the pandemic, and it will take us up to a whole decade to make back the lost ground,” SAMENTA’s chairman Datuk William Ng said in a statement.
“Any recovery plan must include strategies to navigate the new normal, enhance the productivity and competitiveness of Malaysians and Malaysian businesses, and introduce structural changes that would be needed for the difficult journey ahead.”
As such, it is important that the Government take into consideration the inputs of all segments of the society, including businesses of all sizes, according to Ng.
A national recovery plan that does not prioritise the survival, recovery and growth of our economic sector would be untenable.
Nevertheless, SAMENTA hopes that Mahiaddin will not waver in his commitment to re-open the economy as and when the number of daily infections goes down and vaccination ramps up.
The SME grouping also called on the Government to allow all sectors of the economy to reopen as soon as the number of new daily infections falls below 4,000, except for those ‘blacklisted’ ones.
Ng also urges the Government not to discriminate businesses on the basis of essential and non-essential and to allow other sectors to re-open once it is safe to re-open one sector, unless they involve specific risks.
“Lastly, we once again call upon all members and other SMEs to remain calm, to be patient and wait for further help from the Government,” he concluded. – June 16, 2021
