FORMER Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak lashed out at the Government and its supporters for ignoring calls to impose a total lockdown, until hospitals in the Klang Valley were getting overwhelmed due to sheer number of rising COVID-19 infections.
“Yesterday, some people got upset when I started my post by saying ‘if you know you’re stupid, then start listening to good advice’.
“The objective of a lockdown is to ensure our hospitals don’t get stretched out until we can’t even treat a critically ill patient.
“And that’s what’s happening now. The hospitals in Selangor have reached a point where they have to put patients in parking areas and in front of its emergency wards,” he said, in a Facebook post.
Yesterday, Astro Awani reported Health Ministry (MOH) director general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah as saying that the hospitals in several states were overwhelmed due to the rising number infections.
The states mentioned were Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Labuan.
“Daily cases show no signs of reducing but increasing by 2.6% in the last seven days. If the situation persists, the healthcare system in the states mentioned will be paralysed and its effects will spread to other states too,” he was reported saying.
Despite Noor Hisham’s grim warning, the International Trade and Industries Ministry (MITI) announced that it would allow more sectors to resume operations in areas under enhanced movement control order (EMCO).
An upset Najib accused the Government of not only being half-witted but also cruel for allowing the situation to persist, leaving many to lose their lives in the process.
“The MOH has warned that hospitals in Selangor are on the brink of collapse if infection cases don’t go down. You know factories and the manufacturing sectors report the highest number of clusters.
“And that is why you imposed EMCO in Selangor in the first place but what you do next? Not even five days after that, you allow non-essential factories to operate.
“If this is not foolish and inhuman, then what else?” he retorted.
On that note, Najib said that a caring Government would not allow even one person to die in vain and lock people in their homes for prolonged period of times, without any income.
“And a compassionate leadership will never be this irresponsible towards its citizens,” the Pekan MP remarked. – July 8, 2021.
