KUCHING – Putrajaya should not only focus on resetting its approach on managing the Covid-19 pandemic, but must also relook how it is managing the nation’s bruised economy by involving opposition leaders and parties as well, said a DAP lawmaker.
Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii told The Vibes that a paradigm shift in these two critical areas can be catalysed through a bipartisan “whole of society approach” and by stronger recognition of the opposition’s role, as well as its input on the country’s National Recovery Plan (NRP).
He said that the recent meeting between newly minted Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders will not only help transform national politics for the better, but also shift the focus to a Covid-19 reset plan and economic turnaround plan.
“Many of our suggestions have been communicated to the prime minister in the meeting PH leaders had with him, and now, it is up to the current government to show its sincerity to implement them.
This includes parliamentary reforms and strengthening the role of the opposition in parliamentary select committees.
“While there was an invitation for the opposition to be part of the National Employment Council (NEC), it must be set up to give a fair representation to the opposition to present its input and suggestions, and a bipartisan monitoring committee to make sure all measures announced are properly implemented on the ground,” said Yii.
He added that most importantly, this can give some form of political stability until the next election, allowing the current Ismail Sabri-led administration to focus on “resetting” its approach towards the coronavirus pandemic and rebooting the country’s economy.
Furthermore, he believes that such a bipartisan approach could catalyse important institutional reforms that can instil greater investor confidence as well as improve the country’s international ratings.
However, there must be clear sincerity from the government to follow up with discussions and input from the opposition, to implement the necessary concrete institutional, electoral and governance reforms.
We do not want a repeat of the ‘dark days’ where parliamentary democracy was stifled, and Parliament closed in the guise of a national emergency.
“One of the important solutions to fight a pandemic together is to allow vibrant parliamentary democracy and exchange of ideas to happen in Parliament as well as keeping the active functioning of the parliamentary select committees to run its role – to give substantive parliamentary oversight to every ministry in the government.
“When it comes to the government’s approach towards Covid-19, the current administration must learn from mistakes of the previous government and not do the same things over and over again expecting a different outcome.
“This includes not just putting all its eggs in the vaccination basket,” Yii said.
He said this is in line with a recent statement by World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director Dr Takeshi Kasai, who said vaccines alone will not put an end to the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia, and that the country should also implement effective intervention measures to control its spread.
Elaborating further, he said that this is the reason the opposition had been pushing the government from the start to invest and strengthen Malaysia’s public health capacity to implement the Find-Test-Trace-Isolate-Support (FTTIS) strategy.
However, he said FTTIS should not come at the expense of the vaccination drive and vice versa.
“Nationally, even with the commendable vaccination rate, the positivity rate has exceeded 10% for 36 consecutive days, indicating extensive under-testing and that the disease is widespread in our country.
“Just yesterday, the positivity rate was 13.22%; way above WHO’s recommended 5%.
“That is why, PH has suggested to the prime minister and the government to allocate a further RM4 billion immediately to protect the capacity of our healthcare services, while building a reserve surge capacity for any upcoming waves.”
According to Yii, to prepare the nation to live with an endemic Covid-19, strategic risk communication is important, especially when it comes to explaining to the public the transition to the endemic state.
He stressed that the public must be educated and be prepared for the new normal, where Putrajaya must ramp up its strategic communications and inform the rakyat to build trust for the new world that they will be living in.
Yii pointed out that it is important for the country to find ways to reset the economy as soon as possible, but there is no better way to reset it except to build a strong and comprehensive public health measure to control Covid-19.
“Fact is, Covid-19 should not be treated merely as a health matter, but also include health in all policies of ministries in the government as we find a way forward.
“So, I hope that through this understanding between the prime minister and the opposition, there will be greater acknowledgment of input by the opposition to spark a fundamental reset to our approach towards Covid-19 for the good of the people.” – The Vibes, August 27, 2021
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