GEORGE TOWN – Penang PAS chairman Fauzi Yusof has given his full backing to the emergency declaration, saying it will curb the spread of Covid-19.
Views from different sectors were taken into consideration before the proposal was mooted to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, who assented, he said.
He said besides the cabinet, members of the military, Health Ministry and other agencies also gave their views.
Fauzi stressed that the Covid-19 situation has reached an extremely dangerous and alarming level, and the emergency proclamation was needed, together with the tightened restrictions announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin the day before.
He said the emergency will help divert resources to security forces, so that the public health crisis can be effectively dealt with.
The increased security presence will not just affect Malaysian citizens, but also ensure that undocumented people, refugees and asylum seekers – whom he claimed to be the cause for the surge in infections – are disciplined via the threat of detention, or worse, he said.
“Also, the international borders of Sabah and Sarawak are not like what we have here in the peninsula.
“Refugees can enter with more ease there.”
He said the nation desperately needs a larger security presence on the streets to deal with the virus threat.
“We have very little police control, and we desperately need military control. With the emergency, the military is empowered to intervene.”
He added that the public at large does not want elections now to change the government.
“Many people do not want it, except politicians. Politicians should listen to the people.”
Asked if the request by Muhyiddin for an emergency last October would have helped control the pandemic, Fauzi said the Agong had his reasons for rejecting it then,
Government failure exposed, says DAP
Meanwhile, Penang DAP politicians expressed concern over the lack of transparency in the proposal and implementation of the emergency by the Perikatan Nasional government.
State DAP vice-chairman Zairil Khir Johari described the emergency as a “tool of last resort” in any democracy.
“The fact that the government is using it now in peacetime really exposes their own failures in managing the pandemic, as well as their political failures in keeping their government together.
“Clearly, it is a government without a majority, and its collapse was just waiting to happen.
“With the emergency, they have avoided that and bought some time for the administration.
“Had the pandemic been better managed, things would not have reached this stage.”
He expressed hope that the government will utilise its emergency powers judiciously and prudently, without using the emergency as an excuse to curtail democratic freedoms.
DAP’s Seri Delima assemblyman, Syerleena Abdul Rashid, said her focus is on the people and preparing her team to face the two-week movement control order (MCO) head-on, as it may be extended.
“The declaration of the state of emergency to curb the spread of Covid-19 is needed, as cases are increasing. This is extremely worrying.
“However, the lack of transparency (on the decision), and no news of financial relief, will worsen the impact of the second MCO.
“Too many Malaysians have been affected, and will continue to be affected. The federal government must be transparent and provide guidance in such trying times.” – The Vibes, January 13, 2020
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