Media Statement by DAP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, 7th August 2021
Height of irresponsibility for Muhyiddin not to convene Parliament in August when the country is heading towards 1.5 million Covid-19 cases and over 15,000 death on 64th National Day and some two million Covid-19 cases and 20,000 deaths on 58th Malaysia Day
There has been no let-up in the surge of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia as yesterday registered a new daily record of 20,899 Covid-19 cases and 160 new Covid-19 deaths.
Malaysia is facing a double crisis – a constitutional crisis which has reached a new peak with the resignation of two UMNO Ministers and the Covid-19 pandemic continuing its worst ravages.
Malaysia should not reach a position where some 200 people are dying a day and some 20,000 people are infected with Covid-19.
Two weeks ago, the Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah projected that that Malaysia will reach the peak of Covid-19 transmissions in mid-September with 24,000 cases a day, but it appears that he was being too conservative, as the 24,000 cases a day may be reached as early as mid-August instead of mid-September.
What should be a matter of real nation concern is the height of irresponsibility by the Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in not convening Parliament in August when the country is heading towards 1.5 million Covid-19 cases and over 15,000 Covid-19 deaths on 64th National Day on August 31 and some two million Covid-19 cases and some 20,000 deaths on the 58th Malaysia Day on Sept. 16, 2021.
What is the Muhyiddin government doing to avert these calamitous numbers on our 64th National Day or 58th Malaysia Day?
Community activist Dr. Mohamad Rafick Khan has dissected Noor Hisham’s claim about Covid-19 in Parliament, used to justify the shut-down of the Parliament special meeting on July 29, truncating two sittings of the Dewan Rakyat and three sittings of the Dewan Negara.
Hisham Noor said that based on the case screening conducted by the Health Ministry on the Parliament special sitting, a total of 85 cases have been found.
However 56 out of 85 positive people were tested from the pre-Parliamentary session. This means that the 56 did not get infected in Parliament but from elsewhere. That leaves 29 people infected positives. Another were from close contacts i.e. they were not from Parliament. That leaves 25 people infected during the Parliamentary sitting.
Who are these 25 people? So far no public information has been released on who is infected. None of the MPs made a public statement that they were infected. What is clear is that no one had been infected because of the parliamentary debates.
There is only one conclusion that the Covid-19 risk assessment of the Parliament special meeting was presented negatively to justify the Parliament shut-down.
This should not be the act of the non-partisan public servant as it undermines his credibility.
The events of UMNO Ministers and MPs withdrawing their support from Muhyiddin after the meeting of the Prime Minister and the Yang di Pertuan Agong have created a new situation demanding the immediate meeting of Parliament in August to determine whether Muhyiddin still commands the confidence of the majority of Parliament.
Muhyiddin should not delay any further until September and should convene a special meeting of Parliament to determine his future as Prime Minister of Malaysia.
