THIS makes me livid: “The daily vaccination rate is among the highest in the world”, boasted the man who holds the top job in the country while visiting Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital.
Just please stop it already, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Let’s look at other statistics: today’s Covid-19 cases have surpassed 11,000. Malaysia came second last in the way it has been handling the pandemic.
While we have reported fewer cases than neighbours Indonesia and the Philippines, our ratio of infections, at more than 16,000 per million, is Southeast Asia’s highest.
Let’s also look at what’s been happening in the country while you have been focused on staying in power: white flags have been raised, requesting help with food.
Malaysians have been hard at work trying to ensure fellow citizens and others don’t go hungry. Besides the community movement, the #KerajaanGagal hashtag has gone viral, clearly showing what the rakyat thinks about your government.
And your visit to Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital is overdue. People were parked outside the emergency department five days ago from lack of hospital beds.
You have said more beds will be made available in intensive care units in the near future, more trainer doctors will be roped in, and the hospital’s Daily Treatment Complex will be used as a temporary ward.
You know what, Mr Prime Minister: these initiatives should have been done yesterday.
“Immediate ventilator addition”, as you put it, Mr Prime Minister, isn’t the end of the challenges faced by the hospital. And please stop downplaying the real challenges by saying it was reported that Klang General Hospital is facing “some difficulties such as the lack of beds in the Covid-19 treatment ward”. It’s appalling, to say the least.
Mr Prime Minister, you have said you are prepared to listen to criticisms as long as the people stay home.
People have been staying home. They have been following the standard operating procedures.
You have locked us in, but that has resulted in an increase in cases, rising daily deaths, a near-collapsing healthcare system, some 50,000 SMEs shuttering in the coming weeks, and seven million Malaysians becoming jobless by October.
To top it off, the Germans and Japanese have said they might pull out their businesses from the country.
So please stop it already with your public relations pieces on Facebook and photo ops.
Please do the right thing: call experts who can help you come up with a proper pandemic mitigation plan. Or we won’t see an end to the mess you have put us in. – The Vibes, July 13, 2021
Charles Santiago is the MP for Klang
