By Lim Kit Siang
IN response by the query by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council, the Independent Special Committee on Emergency 2021 (SIEC) said it has agreed to several “criteria and threshold” in reviewing whether the state of Emergency should be continued.
However, the committee did not elaborate on the details of the criteria and threshold which they have agreed to.
It said: “The Independent Special Committee on Emergency 2021 has received various presentations in its series of meetings about the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic from various individuals, health experts, and other related fields.
“At this stage, the committee has, by consensus, agreed on setting several criteria and threshold in making reviews about the continued existence of the Emergency or whether to end it.
The committee will continue to meet from time to time to review the continued existence of the Emergency or whether to end it.”
As the chairman of SIEC, Tun Arifin Zakaria (former chief justice) should discuss with SIEC committee members on whether they should advice Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to end the Emergency. This is because not only the Emergency is a failure, it did not serve as a solution to combat COVID-19 pandemic.
Malaysia has become an international poster boy, a country which has failed to address the COVID-19 pandemic, four months after the declaration of emergency.
Even the Health Ministry director-general, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah’s warning that Malaysia must prepare for the worst in the COVID-19 pandemic, has made it to international news.
Although Malaysia is ranked No 41 as a nation with the most cumulative total of COVID-19 cases, the country is ranked No. 11 among countries with the highest daily COVID-19 cases yesterday – after India, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, the US, France, Russia, Iran, Turkey and Chile.
However, based on COVID-19 cases per capita, Malaysia has already overtaken India – with 211.29 cases per million people against India’s 165.28. In contrast, the COVID-19 cases per million for the following countries are: the US (70.71), UK (37.45), Thailand (42.87), South Korea (11.69), Vietnam (2.0) Singapore (5.54) and China (0.01).
Malaysia and India are the two worst performing countries in the recently-released May 2021 Bloomberg COVID Resilience Ranking – with Malaysia falling 14 spots to No 35 and India falling 20 spots to No 50 out of 53 countries with economies of more than US$200 bil.
Meanwhile, for 16 consecutive days, Malaysia has been recording a higher daily new infections cases compared to Indonesia which has almost nine times the population of Malaysia.
I don’t think there is anyone in Malaysia (including the PM and his bloated Cabinet) will argue against the view that the Emergency declared on Jan 11 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is a complete flop.
In fact, it was a wrong solution to handle the COVID-19 pandemic by suspending Parliament and the various state assemblies, resulting in two important failures in the war against COVID-19 pandemic, viz:
- Unprecedented deficit in public trust and confidence in the way the Government is handling of the war against the COVID-19 pandemic; and
- Failure and inability of the Government to launch a national mobilisation effort against the COVID-19 pandemic through an “all-of-Government” and “whole-of-society” strategy and approach.
The question is whether Arifin Zakaria will convene a meeting with the members of the special committee, requesting the Prime Minister to end the Emergency. – May 28, 2021
Lim Kit Siang is the MP for Iskandar Puteri.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
