By Datuk Soh Thian Lai
THE recent spike in COVID-19 cases leading to the Government having to declare a nationwide movement control order (MCO) from May 12, 2021 to June 7, 2021 is indeed very concerning and alarming.
With the daily cases having passed the 6,000 mark yesterday, there is no doubt that the current wave could trigger a national crisis if the rate of infection is not controlled and brought down as the overwhelming active cases are reported to be putting the country’s healthcare system at a critical breaking point.
While the industry understands the need for stricter measures to be implemented, the industry is not in favour of a total lockdown such as being called for Selangor as reported in the news because it will cost irreparable damage to our economy.
There is no doubt that the previous MCOs implemented by the Government were effective in bringing down the COVID-19 infections but at the same time, MCO 1.0 had a damaging impact on the economy.
The impact of MCO 1.0, which was an almost full lockdown situation where only essential services were allowed to operate at 50% capacity, was very severe on the economy, resulting in a drop in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to -17.1% in the second quarter of 2020 and loss of jobs hitting 826,100 in May 2020.
The Government had to pump in various financial aids to help the industries as well as individuals to wade through this unprecedented pandemic situation, without which many businesses would have had to fold their operations.
In this regard, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) strongly urges the Government under the MCO 3.0:
- NOT to institute any form of a total lockdown be it a nationwide or for states with high
infection rates such as Selangor. - Continue with the MCO 2.0 model to allow the economic sectors to operate but institute
stricter standard operating procedures (SOPs) to bring down the infection rates
quickly such as:
– Stricter restrictions on mobility of people and encouraged to stay home;
– Reschedule of work shifts in plants by having less people in operations based on
individual company assessment; - Practice full work from home (WFH) for those companies that are able to and have the necessary support facilities to do so.
- Continue with the necessary aid including financial aid such as the loan moratorium, wage subsidy programme, financing assistance, reduction in business cost such as utility costs, statutory contributions, financing rates, etc to assist industries that continue to be seriously impacted by the MCO 3.0 and COVID-19 pandemic.
- Accelerate the immunisation programme including expediting the programme for the economic sectors to achieve faster herd immunity.
In the case of the manufacturing sector, FMM is heartened to know that our constant reminder has helped in the reduction of infection clusters at factories from January 2021 to now as reported by MITI, and we continue to remind our members to remain vigilant in ensuring that our operations are carried out with strict adherence to the SOPs.
All the necessary precautionary measures must continue to be taken to ensure that the employees, the workplace and employees’ living quarters are safe and abide strictly to the SOPs. – May 20, 2021
Datuk Soh Thian Lai is the president of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM).
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
