[UPDATED] Stop nagging, start giving useful info: Hannah Yeoh on NSC’s daily SMSes

KUALA LUMPUR – Hannah Yeoh (Segambut-PH) told off the National Security Council (NSC) for what she described as “abuse of its daily SMS broadcast” for sharing “useless information” to the public.

The DAP lawmaker said the platform should be better utilised to educate and provide awareness to the rakyat on the Covid-19 pandemic, especially with the more aggressive new variants.

Addressing a press conference in Dewan Rakyat today, Yeoh highlighted several SMS texts sent by NSC carry little significance, including informing on the government’s food basket initiative, as well as an advice to hold off on plans to visit family members.

“I feel the platform is not being utilised responsibly. It’s a waste to send so many rhetorical messages until it feels like nagging SMSes.

“I believe many today don’t even read (the messages). They will look at it and just ignore it. NSC must use the service as best as possible.

“The SMSes now appear like the good morning messages you get from your relatives,” she said, and questioned the amount allocated for this purpose.

Yeoh said the platform could be used for, among other things, providing information to the public on the symptoms of new virus variants and how to utilise the government’s online Covid-19 assessment centres.

On the same note, Yeoh urged the government to revise its standard operating procedures (SOPs) that have remained unchanged since the start of the pandemic early last year, of which she said many are irrelevant today.

Chiefly, she said, the requirement to check body temperature before entering a premises is obsolete, as most new cases do not carry symptoms like fever anymore.

“It’s unfortunate the rakyat is being fooled for requiring them to continue taking their temperature. Many positives today have no symptoms. I pity the public, having to follow (this SOP) blindly.”

“It also gives a false sense of security that if you do not have fever, then you are safe,” she said, adding that the need to write down names for those without MySejahtera is also useless as contact tracing is not being done.

Instead, Yeoh said the government should promote and educate the public on the importance of ventilation, particularly with the high number of workplace clusters. – The Vibes, July 28, 2021