WHILE many are hurling brickbats against the Government on speculation that a new movement control order (MCO) may be imposed soon, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) has a different take on the matter.
“In my view, as long as a majority of our population is not vaccinated, we need some form of a MCO to keep the pandemic at bay. We don’t need to be rocket scientist to figure that one out,” its chairperson Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj told FocusM.
Malaysia has been reporting four-digit COVID-19 cases since the start of the Emergency back in February, with most of the cases coming from the Klang Valley.
Yesterday, the nation reported over 3,000 new infection cases, alarming health officials both in the public and private sectors.
Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia had said that the private hospitals are getting overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, as they lacked beds and ICU facilities to accommodate patients, with the limited availability of specialists and nurses compounding to the problem.
For now, Kelantan and five of 12 districts in Kedah are under MCO. Generally, MCO bars inter-district travel, social or religious events and mandates school closures.
Touching on the matter, Jeyakumar said that the Government should provide targetted assistance to the underserved, should they impose a new MCO soon.
He added that a lockdown affects the society differently, depending on the nature of work they do.
“Take for example, myself. I’m a pensioner so I’m not that affected economically. The same goes for civil servants and those employed in the formal sectors. It’s just that our mobility gets restricted.
“But a lockdown severely affects daily wage earners, contact workers, taxi drivers and small traders, who depend on daily income for a livelihood.
“They suffer the most, so much so that they even cut down on food intake,” the former Sungai Siput MP stated.
Emergency has failed
With that said, Jeyakumar said the Government should come up with a targetted assistance for this vulnerable groups, perhaps in the form of expanding the Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (Prihatin) aid.
As for the MCO, Jeyakumar, also a trained pulmonologist, opined that lockdown should also be imposed on selected areas, targetting areas with large number of clusters.
“Identify the hotspots and impose a lockdown there for some time. We have no choice. As I said before, until a majority of our population gets inoculated, physical distancing is needed.
“If not, we may end up like India. In my opinion, our hospitals cannot cope having more that 4,000 infections in a day,” he cautioned.
On related matter, Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming urged the Government to not impose MCO in the Klang Valley in a haste, without confirming the standard operating procedures (SOP) first.
He added that by now, the National Security Council (NSC) should have come up with a system to prepare residents with an advance warning before a lockdown is announced.
“A MCO is very disruptive for the people, especially from an economic perspective. The people are still reeling from the after effects of MCO 1.0 and MCO 2.0.
“If MCO 3.0 is announced without proper preparation, the people’s suffering will only increase,” he opined.
The former deputy minister also urged the Government to reconvene the Parliament so that backbenchers could discuss on how to handle the pandemic better.
“The need to have another MCO shows that the Emergency has failed in its objective to control the pandemic and bring down infections,” he remarked. – May 1, 2021
