Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 19th August 2021
If there are only two names for the position of Prime Minister, then one can be Prime Minister and the other Deputy Prime Minister to form a war cabinet to combine all political forces in a War Parliament to gain control of the war against Covid-19 pandemic and to pave the way for 15th General Election in 18 months’ time
If there are only two names for the position of Prime Minister, then one can be Prime Minister and the other Deputy Prime Minister to form a War Cabinet to combine all political forces in a War Parliament to gain control of the war against Covid-19 pandemic and to pave the way for the 15th General Election in 18 months’ time.
The War Cabinet should reflect this parliamentary unity to turn the tides of defeat in the 20-month war against the Covid-19 pandemic with a new policy and strategy to gain control of the Covid-19 pandemic and restore pubic hope, trust and confidence in a “whole-of-society” approach.
Yesterday, Malaysia continues to set new records in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Firstly, we set a new peak for daily new Covid-19 cases – 22, 242 cases.
Secondly, we overtook Canada and is now ranked No. 25 among countries with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, when 12 months ago last year, we were ranked No. 89.
When Malaysia declared emergency on January 11, 2021 to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 138,224 Covid-19 cases and 555 Covid-19 deaths.
Today, we have 1,466,512 Covid-19 cases and 13,302 Covid-19 deaths – a runaway scenario with over 10 times more Covid-19 cases and 24 times the Covid-19 deaths since the declaration of Emergency.
In fact, since in the past seven days, we had a total of 145,965 Covid-19 cases and 1,929 Covid-19 deaths.
This is Malaysia’s “darkest hour”. We must staunch the national haemorrhage to find our “finest hour” – and a War Cabinet and a War Parliament are the remedy for such dire times.
The War Parliament must forge national unity to wage the war against the Covid-19 pandemic with MPs playing a leading role in the various parliamentary select committees not only in the Covid-19 pandemic but to prepare the ground for an economic and national recovery to fulfil Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman’s aspiration for Malaysia to be “beacon of light to a difficult and distracted world”.
The War Cabinet and War Parliament must established on the bedrock principles in the Malaysian Constitution and the Rukun Negara of constitutional monarchy based on parliamentary democracy, the doctrine of the separation of powers, uphold the rule of law, good governance and human rights.
