By Lim Kit Siang
FOLLOWING the Umno Supreme Council decision on Wednesday night to immediately retract support to Prime Minister Tan Sri Mahiaddin Yassin, the Mahiaddin government tottered but did not fall yesterday.
The Attorney-General, Idrus Harun said that it was not clear that Mahiaddin had lost the confidence of a majority of MPs and that this must be determined by MPs and not through statements.
A top Umno leader said the party’s withdrawal of support was targeted at Muhyiddin and not the Perikatan Nasional (PN) Government, although the Umno President, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi in his midnight media conference had listed seven major failings of the Mahiaddin Government as the basis for the Umno Supreme Council decision.
It is therefore quite surprising that the vice president of Umno could say that Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who was appointed the deputy prime minister by Mahiaddin earlier on Wednesday, could be acting prime minister if Mahiaddin resigns as the prime minister.
This is considering Ismail’s prominent role in the failed war against the COVID-19 pandemic – apart from the shocking disregard of the constitutional fact that the whole Cabinet ceases to exist when the prime minister resigns.
And the result from this is paralysis of a kakistocratic Government, while the whole country is fighting a losing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic – six months after the declaration of emergency to combat COVID-19 pandemic, some six weeks after the ‘total lockdown’ and a month after implementation of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).
Malaysia overtakes China and the US
This fact is driven home yesterday by the worst news on the COVID-19 front with the country recording a daily fatality of 135 COVID-19 deaths and the second-highest daily record of 8,868 new COVID-19 cases in the past 18 months!
Malaysia now ranks No 34 among nations in the world with the most cumulative total of COVID-19 cases.
Today, we are expected to overtake Japan when less than eight months ago, we were ranked No 85 among nations with the most cumulative total of COVID-19 cases.
Malaysia has also overtaken both China and the US as the worst-performing nation in the COVID-19 pandemic. China previously held the record with 80,025 COVID-19 cases and 2,912 deaths by March 1, 2020.
China was overtaken by the US from March 2020 with a cumulative total of over 34.6 million COVID-19 cases and over 620,000 COVID-19 deaths.
Now Malaysia, with a cumulative total of 808,658 cases and 5,903 deaths, has beaten China in terms of cumulative total of COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Meanwhile, for the past six months in the US, daily increase of new COVID-19 cases has fallen by 70%. In the past five weeks, it has fallen by 95% of its peak of 304,978 cases in January 2021.
COVID-19 deaths in the US, too, fell from its peak of 4,452 deaths in January to triple-digit figures in the last three months.
In contrast, Malaysia is currently facing problems in terms of increasing cases, hospitalisation and deaths.
What Malaysia needs is a new ‘all-of-government’ and ‘whole-of-society’ strategy and approach if we want to win in the war against COVID-19 pandemic – which poses an existential threat not only to the lives of Malaysians, but also to the Malaysian economy and nation.
The Malaysia ship is leaking, and all Malaysians should be on deck to fix the leak to ensure that the ship will not sink.
This is the magnitude of problem that Malaysia is facing today. – July 9, 2021.
Lim Kit Siang is a DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
