It is no more likelihood – but certainty that we will break the million-mark for Covid-19 cases today and overtake Pakistan to be ranked No. 30 among countries with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, when eight months ago, we were ranked No. 85.
I have said that Malaysia will be set on the path to return to normality when we stop setting dubious records in the Covid-19 pandemic, and today will be no exception in setting multiple dubious records a day, viz:
· We will break the million-mark for cumulative total of Covid-19 cases;
· We will today overtake Pakistan to be ranked No. 30 among countries with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases;
· We will today break the 8,000-mark for Covid-19 deaths;
· Yesterday, we became the world’s Top 10th country in daily new Covid-19 cases;
· Yesterday, we also became the world’s Top 11th country in daily new Covid-1 deaths; and
· Another dubious record is that yesterday, Malaysia beat the United States of America in daily new Covid-19 deaths, as the USA reported 149 new deaths while Malaysia reported 184 new deaths.
The time has come for the government to distance itself from the National Recovery Plan announced by the Prime Minister in a live national telecast on June 15 and its blind faith in “total lockdowns” and to open up all businesses in keeping with “Live with Covid” instead of “Zero Covid” objective and where targeted lockdowns are resorted to only in extreme circumstances.
The National Recovery Plan was not the result of a “whole-of-society” consultation and deliberation. It bears the mark of the dismal failure of the strategy in the war against Covid-19 pandemic, whether the six-month emergency or the various forms of lockdowns including “total lockdowns”.
The cumulative total of 135,992 Covid-19 cases when Emergency was declared on January 11, 2021 had increased by more than seven times in six months to 996,393 cases yesterday while the 551 Covid-19 deaths on January 10, 2021 had increased by more than 14 times to 7,902 deaths yesterday.
A National Recovery Council has been established, and if this Council is to be useful, the first thing it must do is to replace the National Recovery Plan with a new strategy and approach which is truly a “whole-of-society” product and which crafts a new strategy to enable Malaysians to “Live with Covid” without destroying their livelihoods and the Malaysian economy.
(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Sunday, 25th July 2021)