26th August 2021
Saving Lives And Livelihoods By Winning The War Against COVID-19 And Helping Malaysians Survive The Economic Recession As Well As Concrete Institutional Reforms Are Key To Any Genuine Collaboration With Ismail Sabri
Saving lives and livelihoods by winning the war against COVID-19 and helping Malaysians survive the economic recession as well as concrete institutional reforms are key to any genuine collaboration with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob. This was communicated to Ismail during the nearly one and a half hour meeting with him yesterday together with Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and Amanah President Mohamad bin Sabu.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the financial hardships faced by ordinary Malaysians following the economic recession are more important than the political musical chairs played by opportunistic political manoeuvring for positions and posts by members in the current government. Parliamentary and electoral reforms would also help to ensure that the people’s mandate is respected, and their constitutional rights upheld.
The test positivity rate has exceeded 10% for 36 consecutive days, indicating widespread under-testing and that the actual number of Covid-19 cases is likely significantly higher than the reported figures. The positivity rate was 13.22% on 25 August, way above the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended 5%.
For this reason, there must be accelerated vaccination and mass test screenings as effective preventive measures to hinder the surge of COVID-19. PH has proposed the adoption of WHO’s recommended large-scale implementation of the Find, Test, Trace, Isolate and Support plus vaccination (FTTIS+V), by testing 1% of the population daily or 320,000 tests. RM 4 billion must be immediately allocated for this purpose and to enhance the health support system and manpower, particularly ICU beds as well as vaccine delivery.
A bipartisan National Economic Turnaround Plan is urgently needed to help distressed Malaysians and businesses losing their jobs, businesses and incomes from the economic recession that has caused more than RM500 billion in losses since the Movement Control Order or MCO 1.0 in March 2020. A RM45 billion direct fund injection must be accompanied by a waiver of interest on the bank loan moratorium for the remaining 3 months of the year, except for the Top 20.
RM6 billion must be allocated to offer wage and hiring incentives to create 300,000 new jobs to reduce the unemployment rate. Businesses must be given RM30 billion in grants, monetary incentives, wage, rent and utility subsidies instead of loans and guarantees, to save jobs and slow business closures.
Putting Malaysian lives and livelihoods first over and above the selfish political interests requires all of us to adopt a fresh start and not repeat the failure of the previous government. As Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
Lim Guan Eng
DAP Secretary-General
