It is really tragic that Cabinet Ministers continue to make an ass of themselves.

Malaysia is really doomed if Annuar Musa, the Federal Territories Minister, wields real influence in the Muhyiddin Cabinet.

Only last month, I had occasion to remark that Malaysia will never win the war against Covid-19 pandemic if Annuar Musa’s attitude represented the mentality pf the Muhyiddin Cabinet, and the prophesy has not been proven wrong in the last 10 days.

On June 25, when I made the statement, Malaysia had 5,812 Covid-19 cases and 82 Covid-19 deaths. Yesterday, both had increased to 6,658 cases and 107 deaths.

What caused my statement was Annuar’s assertion at a Harakah Day forum on the Covid-19 pandemic that it was an indicator that the government had succeeded in managing the pandemic when the people were no longer afraid of Covid-19.

May be Annuar thinks he was right. Let me tell him that he was gravely wrong, as Malaysia was never in a situation since the emergency was declared on January 11, 2021 where the people were not afraid of Covid-19. For their family and livelihoods, despite their fear of Covid-19 which could cause death and long Covid, they had put their fear aside to try to make a living.

But Annuar has not learnt anything, as shown by his tweet to my statement yesterday that the Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin had neglected the high Covid-19 fatality rate in Malaysia and asking him to direct his Covid-19 team to focus on it as it was completely unacceptable for 2,374 people to die of Covid-19 in June itself.

In his tweet, Annuar said:

“Mengabaikan? ternyata anda buta di hati..tiada optometrist yg boleh mengubatinya…”

I agree with the DAP Director of Political Education, Senator Liew Chin Tong, that in times of pandemic when suffering was widespread and distressful, one grave flaw of the Muhyiddin Ministers is the absence of empathy.

The Ministers, in their quest for personal advancement instead of promoting the national good, do not seem realise that in the Covid-19 pandemic, the people’s suffering are real. This has caused a huge spike in suicide cases and people are losing hope.

As Chin Tong said in his Facebook:

“Each time I look at the raids and other punitive actions such as hefty compound by the government’s enforcement agencies on helpless ordinary people for violation of SOP and other minor offences, I imagine something terrible. The image of Tunisia’s Mohamed Bouazizi setting himself on fire on 17 December 2010, which set off the Arab Spring uprising, came to mind.

“I understand how upset, frustrated and angry Malaysians are, for I feel the same.

“The hopelessness is real. The announcement by Prime Minister Tan Sri Mahiaddin Md Yasin on 27 June that the lockdown would continue without a timeline but is instead premised on Covid-19 daily reported cases declining to below 4,000 touched a raw nerve.

“Millions of low and middle-income families, especially those in informal sectors without job security, risk not having food on the table. Businesses which survived earlier waves of lockdowns now wonder if they would still be around when this indefinite lockdown is finally lifted. Employees in such establishments are naturally concerned about their own future.”

Thanks to Ministers like Annuar who have no empathy for the sufferings and sense of hopelessness of the people, the “White Flag” movement has spread like a prairie fire.

But what is very distressful is that Malaysia is performing very badly in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Malaysia with 772,607 Covid-19 cases is now ranked No. 35 among nations with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases. But with 107 deaths yesterday, Malaysia is ranked No. 14 in the world for most daily deaths yesterday, beating United States (96 deaths), France (17), Turkey (45), United Kingdom (18), Germany (10), Philippines (90) and Canada (10).

Recently we were catapulted to be one of the world’s worst performing nations in the Covid-19 pandemic, beating the previous worst performing nations in “daily deaths per million population” like the following statistics for July 2, 2021 from Our
World in Data – United States (0.76), India (0.68), France (0.41), Turkey (0.60), UK (0.26), Italy (0.47), Spain (0.40), Germany (0.48) and Iran (1.58) as compared to 2.31 for Malaysia.

At the rate of Covid-19 infection and fatality in the first three days of July, we are likely to exceed one million Covid-19 cases and 10,000 deaths when we mark our 64th National Day on August 31 and exceed 1.2 million cases and 11,000 deaths on our 58th Malaysia Day anniversary on Sept. 16, 2021.

Will Muhyiddin remove from the Cabinet Ministers who are incompetent, inept and who have not been able to develop an empathy for the sufferings and hopelessness of the people in the 18-month long Covid-19 pandemic?

(Media Statement (2) by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 4th July , 2021)