Malaysia needs a new Commander-in-Chief after losing the 17-month war against the Covid-19 pandemic – one whom all Malaysians have trust and confidence in his leadership and vision in the war against Covid-19 pandemic and not one who does not mind being called “stupid”!
When Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin became the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia on March 1, 2020, there were 29 Covid-19 cases and zero Covid-19 death.
After 15 months of Muhyiddin as Prime Minister, there are now 525,889 Covid-19 cases and over 2,350 Covid-19 deaths.
When the emergency was declared on January 11, 2021, the cumulative total of Covid-19 cases was 138,224 cases and 555 Covid-19 deaths.
The number of Covid-19 cases in the 19 weeks of emergency have increased by more than 2.8 times the number of Covid-19 cases in the 12 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, while the number of Covid-19 deaths in the 19 months of the emergency was 3.3 times the Covid-19 deaths in the 12 months of the pandemic before the emergency.
But all these failures in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic pale into insignificance, when on Sunday we beat the world’s top 10 nations with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases in the “Daily confirmed cases per million” category as recorded in Our World in Data i.e. United States, India, Brazil, France, Turkey, Russia, United Kingdom, Italy Germany and Spain. Brazil had the highest “daily confirmed cases per million” index of 168.51 and the lowest being the Untied Kingdom with 30.83 – while Malaysia had an index of 215.53!
On Sunday, the United States of America recorded a daily increase of 19,866 new Covid-19 cases – a 93.5% drop from its peak of daily increase of 304,195 new cases on January 8, 2021.
India’s daily increase of new Covid-19 cases fell to 195,815 cases on Sunday – a 53% drop from its peak of 414,433 new Covid-19 cases on 6th May which is only 17 days ago.
But the opposite is taking place in Malaysia – for the sixth consecutive day, we have exceeded our peak of 5,728 new Covid-19 cases on 30th January – with today’s increase of 7,289 new Covid-19 cases, we have exceeded the peak on 30th January by over 27%.
Malaysia has failed miserably in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic in five key aspects, viz:
· Maintain public trust and confidence in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic;
· National mobilisation of Malaysians through a genuine “whole-of-society” strategy and approach;
· A new economic stimulus package to help the poor and vulnerable;
· Effective and efficient Find-Test-Trace-Isolate-Support (FTTIS) strategy to ensure that we are always ahead of the pandemic curve; and
· Acceleration of the national vaccination rollout especially in view of deadly Covid-19 variants.
The horrible Light Rail Transit (LRT) collision in Kuala Lumpur last night because a negligent driver drove the LRT in the wrong direction, resulting in six passengers in critical state with three on ventilators, raised the spectre whether such systemic failures must be expected to be “things to come” in the future in Malaysia.
The country is facing its worst moment of survival since we achieved Merdeka in 1957, and I call on all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or political beliefs, to put their personal and political differences aside and to focus singly on the task to win this invisible but deadly war against the Covid-18 pandemic and to save Malaysian lives and livelihoods.
We should immediately convene an All-Party All-NGOs Conference to Save Malaysia from Covid-19 Pandemic with a new War Plan.
We should also convene Parliament immediately and allow the various State Assemblies to meet to ensure that we have a “whole-of-society” strategy and approach in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.
All political parties, whether in government or opposition, should reach a new consensus that there would be no “no confidence” motion in Parliament and the State Assemblies, and that Parliament and the State Assembles should serve their full term from the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 and that there should be no earlier general election unless the war against the Covid-19 pandemic is won.
(Media Statement (3) by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, 25th May 2021)