The Malaysian Insight

THE Barisan Nasional/Perikatan Nasional government’s conscience is clear on the need to call for a state of emergency this year, Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said today.

“The government also rejects all allegations that the emergency was used to maintain power and the opposition should stop these claims,” the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) told the Dewan Rakyat during his winding-up speech on the cancellation of the emergency ordinances today.

“The government has the information to justify calling for an emergency and it acted accordingly,” said the Santubong MP.

Apart from that, Wan Junaidi, who was also part of the previous administration, said that the government had not failed in managing the Covid-19 epidemic.

“We were successful until the emergence of the Delta variant,” he said.

Wan Junaidi was responding to opposition lawmakers who questioned the need for a state of emergency to manage the Covid-19 epidemic. 

During the debate, Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said that Covid-19 cases had gone up more than six times after former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the emergency on January 12.

“This was just a political manoeuvre as while other countries also had emergencies, they did not stop Parliament from meeting. Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob (Bera-BN) and the other ministers cannot wash their hands off this as they were in the same cabinet too.”

Earlier, Ahmad Maslan (Pontian-BN) and Mahfuz Omar (Pokok Sena-PH) also pointed out that Parliament was stopped from meeting by using the excuse that it was a state of emergency although all the MPs were already vaccinated.

The opposition has repeatedly pointed out that the emergency proclamation was unnecessary and that Muhyiddin had proposed for it to stop Parliament from meeting after rumours emerged that some Umno MPs had withdrawn their support for him.

On August 16, Muhyiddin resigned as prime minister after 14 Umno MPs announced that they had lost confidence in the Perikatan Nasional chief.

While Wan Junaidi maintained the official stand that the government had no ill-intentions by calling for a state of emergency, he did not explain why Parliament was not allowed to meet until July 25.

Parliament, nevertheless, voted unanimously to cancel all the seven emergency ordinances that were passed during the state of emergency this year.

The emergency ordinances that were cancelled were those to increase the fines for breaking standard operating procedure, allowing federal and state governments to use government funds without legislative approval, and for the government to use private hospital facilities to help fight the epidemic. – October 25, 2021.