On top of a major constitutional crisis, Malaysia has worsened further in Covid-19 pandemic in the five-day parliament special meeting, overtaking four countries to be ranked No. 27 among nations with most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases.
Tomorrow, the emergency proclaimed on January 11, 2021 to combat Covid-19 pandemic, ends as the Cabinet on July 21 decided not to ask the Yang di Pertuan Agong to extend the emergency.
Was the emergency a success in its intended objective?
When the emergency was proclaimed on January 11, there were 235,992 total Covid-19 cases and a total of 551 Covid-19 deaths. Now, on July 29th, there is a cumulative total of 1,095,485 cases and 8,859 Covid-19 deaths.
We will break the 1.1 million mark for cumulative total of Covid-19 cases today and may break the 9,000-mark for cumulative total of Covid-19 deaths – an increase by eight times the cumulative total of Covid-19 cases and increase of sixteen times the cumulative total of Covid-19 deaths. I cannot think of a more catastrophic failure than these!
On January 10, there were 2,433 daily new Covid-19 cases and the single-digit nine new Covid-19 deaths.
Yesterday there were 16,840 new Covid-19 cases and new 134 new Covid-19 deaths.
The seven-times increase of daily new Covid-19 cases and 15-times increase in daily new Covid-19 deaths is the strongest evidence that an emergency is not the antidote to the Covid-19 pandemic and why no country in the world proclaims an emergency to fight the Covid-19 pandemic except in the most extraordinary of circumstances.
By Monday, we will have overtaken Pakistan, Romania, Sweden and Belgium to be ranked No. 27 among countries with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, and this bears re-examination why Malaysia is doing so badly in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic when in November we were ranked Nol. 85, and China, which was the world’s top No. 1 worst country is the first two months of the Covid-19 pandemic is now ranked No. 107 with 92,875 cases and 4,636 deaths.
With the end of emergency tomorrow, a new scenario emerges, along with many questions.
The first question is whether the Cabinet decision on July 21 will receive the Royal Assent before midnight today.
If there is no Royal Assent by midnight, and the six Emergency Ordinances continue to be in force for six months, can Parliament annul the Emergency Ordinances?
But will Parliament be sitting on Monday?
There are no answers now, but there is no reason why the Dewan Rakyat should not meet as scheduled on Monday.
Hitler in 1933 contributed to global parliamentary lore with the German Reichstag (Parliament) fire. Let not Muhyiddin contribute to global parliamentary lore with a Parliament lockdown allegedly because of Covid-19 pandemic.
Malaysia is in unchartered waters, for this a constitutional crisis which is not envisaged by the founding fathers of the nation who wrote the Malaysian Constitution and provided the bedrock principles of good governance based on constitutional monarchy based on parliamentary democracy and the doctrine of the separation of powers among the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary.
(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, July 31, 2021)
