THE Government should reconvene the Parliament to mobilise the whole country and overcome the pandemic.
However, the de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan showed his superficial commitment to parliamentary democracy when he maintained that Parliament will only sit when the Emergency expires in August, trotting out argument that Parliament did not sit for two years during the 1969 Emergency.
He claimed that the Government was functioning well even though Parliament has been suspended through an Emergency proclamation which came into force on Jan 11. This is not true.
Can he explain why despite more than two months of Emergency, the Government is still unable to bring under control the third wave of COVID-19, started by the super spreader event of the Sabah state general election in September last year?
Why is Malaysia having one of the longest waves of the pandemic in the world, lasting seven long months, and even now we are still not able to bring the daily cases to triple-digit and then to double-digit figures?
Yesterday’s daily increase of 1,327 new cases was the 15th day where daily rise of new COVID-19 cases was below 2,000 cases.
Can we ensure that we can register triple-digit cases in March and double-digit figure in April?
On the success of the national COVID-19 vaccination rollout, can we accelerate and complete it by the National Day or Malaysia Day so that normalcy and economic recovery can begin?
Why is Malaysia among the worst performing-nations in East Asia and Southeast Asia, as reflected by the February 2021 Bloomberg COVID Resilience Ranking, which ranked Malaysia as 23rd, lower than Singapore (3rd), China (6th), Taiwan (7th), South Korea (8th), Japan (9th), Thailand (10th), Hong Kong (13th), Israel (14th), UAE (15th), India (16th), Saudi Arabia (17th) and Vietnam (18th)?
Before the Emergency was proclaimed on January 11, Malaysia was ranked 22nd.
Did Singapore, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Israel, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam suspend their Parliaments to fight the pandemic? Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s Government is on the wrong track.
I would assert that an important reason why Malaysia is one of the worst performing nations in fighting COVID-19 is the suspension of Parliament and the inability of Parliament to play its check-and-balance role over the Executive and to mobilise the nation in the fight against the pandemic.
Let us not end up like other virus-denying nations
The second wave of the pandemic should not have happened in Malaysia, and it would not have happened if not for the Sheraton Move that toppled the 22-month Pakatan Harapan Government, shifting all attention from COVID-19 to the conspiracy and toppling the duly-elected Government of Malaysia.
Furthermore, the third wave of the pandemic in Malaysia which we have not brought under control after seven long months, should not have been allowed to happen at all.
The Cabinet should listen to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and advise His Majesty to convene Parliament in April (especially as all Ministers and MPs have been vaccinated).
Let all political parties and MPs reach an agreement that during the Emergency, there will be no no-confidence motion and Parliament will focused on the issue as to how to mobilise the nation as one unit to ensure an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” strategy and approach in the war against COVID-19, enlisting the active support of the entire civil society – organisations and individuals.
The year-long pandemic has given rise to several infamous examples in the world, such as:
- The two nations which scored the highest in the Global Health Security Index and regarded as best positioned to deal with pandemic diseases, the US and UK, proved to be the world’s worst countries in dealing with the pandemic – with the US topping the nations in the world with over 30.5 million COVID-19 cases and 550,000 fatalities while UK is ranked No. 5 among the worst countries in the world with close to 4.3 million COVID-19 cases and over 126,000 fatalities.
- The mystery of the death of the Tanzania’s COVID-19-denying President, John Maqufuli, who suspended nationwide tracking of COVID-19 cases, blaming the country’s infection toll on defective test kits. The last reported figures of 509 cases and 21 deaths were in April last year and many believed that Tanzania is fighting a virulent second wave of COVID-19. Magufuli made no bids for vaccines as he queried its safety and instead promoted the use of prayers, herbal treatments and steam inhalation to combat the disease.
- Brazil has been setting a series of grisly milestones, repeatedly setting new records for most COVID-19 deaths per day. In the past week, it set another record: 14,492 new deaths and more than 511,209 new cases – outpacing even that of the US, the only country in the world harder hit by the pandemic in absolute numbers.
- Europe missed its chance to stop the third wave of the coronavirus before it got out of control. Now it is paying a high price for it, with new lockdowns being imposed across the continent. A more contagious variant of the virus, known as B.1.1.7, seems to be the common culprit behind the chaos and may also be more deadly. The new wave of higher case numbers is not limited to Europe. Case numbers have increased 10% globally over the past week to over three million new reported cases, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO)’s latest situation report.
Let Malaysia not get into this international rogues’ gallery where our Parliament is suspended not to fight the pandemic, but to preserve the regime and prevent Parliament from spearheading a national mobilisation effort for an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” strategy and approach to bring COVID-19 under control, restoring normalcy early as possible. – March 22, 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.
