The Malaysian Insight

THE head of Parliament’s select committee on health has called Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin a coward for halting Monday’s Parliament meeting due to Covid-19 fears.

Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said Muhyiddin was acting based on political needs rather than science.

“This adjournment is absurd when only 11 people (0.9%) have tested positive out of 1,138 samples taken,” the medical doctor told The Malaysian Insight today after a notice on the postponement was sent to all MPs.

“Fact of matter is the World Health Organization recommends a 5% positivity rate to gauge that the pandemic is under control and when we compare that to the 0.9% in Parliament itself, there is no excuse to say that there is an outbreak.

“More than that, many essential sectors also experience daily cases, but as long as proper standard operating procedures are adhered to, their daily business are not drastically disrupted.

“That is why this is absolute nonsense.”

He said this is also contrary to the government’s national recovery plan, which is aimed at reopening the country. 

“We should be encouraging more testing at the ‘workplace’ and if the positive rate is not high, as long as the required SOP are adhered to, we all should continue to function and carry out our duties as normally as we can while living with Covid-19,” he said. 

“This shows the prime minister and his government are cowards, to hide behind the director-general of health and dare not face the people due to their incompetence.”

On Thursday, Parliament adjourned early to enable Covid-19 testing of all MPs and staff after two positive cases were detected.

MPs were then in the heat of demanding the government explain its shock announcement that the emergency ordinances had been cancelled by the cabinet on July 21 without royal assent and without parliamentary debate.

The following day (yesterday), director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the mass screening of MPs and Parliament staff had uncovered another 11 Covid-19 cases, raising the figure of infections in Parliament to 65.

Protocols against Covid-19 in Parliament, however, are strict and include transparent plastic shields placed between each MP’s seat, while masking is mandatory.

Yii said Parliament’s abrupt adjournment has left the legality of the emergency ordinances hanging.

Although the government claimed that it has cancelled them, the revocation has not been gazetted, he said.

“Meanwhile, we are told that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has also ordered the government to table them in Parliament. So, what happens now?” asked Yii.

“Are these emergency ordinances still valid? Will the government table them as instructed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong? Or is the whole country left hanging because the government is afraid of losing power?”

Lawyers have said previously that the ordinances will automatically expire in six months from the date the emergency ends, which is August 1. – July 31, 2021.