NOW that fake interstate travel permits are slowly becoming a trend, the police must be more vigilant in making sure that nobody with a bogus permit would successfully cross state borders, especially during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration period.
Despite Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob previously announcing that interstate travel is still not allowed as many cases of COVID-19 have resulted from it, there are, no doubt, plenty of unhappy people out there who would go through great lengths just to balik kampung, even if it means breaking the law to do so.
Relating to this matter, the police arrested two female students of a private college on suspicion of using a fake interstate travel permit to enter Pahang.
Preliminary investigations believe that the stamp and signature of the police station chief who approved the journey from Kuala Lumpur to Kuantan on the grounds of attending classes was fake and produced using a scanner.
More recently, police seized 15 stamped and signed conditional movement control order (CMCO) travel permits, believed to be fake, from a man during an inspection on the Seremban-Kuala Lumpur Highway. The police have yet to determine if these fake documents are for personal use or being sold to interested parties.
The idea that these fake travel permits might be available to every Tom, Dick and Harry for a price is indeed worrying, and the police must do all they can to put a stop to this.
What’s worse is the fact that, according to Ismail Sabri, 38 interstate travel clusters involving 5,471 cases were recorded from Dec 20, 2020 to April 20 with seven clusters involving 423 cases were recorded this month alone.
Public health experts have already warned that if the current COVID-19 infection trends continued, the number of active COVID-19 cases could reach 50,000 and beyond by Hari Raya Aidilfitri in mid-May.
And so, all parties must work together to keep the numbers down, even if this means having a quiet Raya at home away from your loved ones. – April 28, 2021
