KUCHING, Feb 5: It is absolutely ‘abnormal’ for family members of the same household to be making house visiting among themselves. This is so ridiculous and a total joke.
Democratic Action Party (DAP) Batu Kitang chairman Abdul Aziz Isa highlighted this in joining many Malaysians today to poke fun at the standard operating procedures (SOP) for Chinese New Year (CNY) released by the National Security Council (NSC).
Among the latest SOP for CNY under Movement Control Order (MCO) which comes into effect on Feb 12 and 13 and applied mostly to Peninsular Malaysia and not Sarawak, reunion dinners and religious ceremonies will only be allowed among members of the same household and house visiting is limited to 20 people and can only be held among family members of the same household.
Furthermore, Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced yesterday (Feb 4) that night markets, hair salons and car-wash services will be allowed to reopen starting today with operation hours until 10pm.
“I found it laughable when I read the latest SOP guidelines for CNY during MCO. Worse, it has received brickbats from the public throughout the country.
“It seems that the federal government led by Perikatan Nasional (PN) does not understand the Chinese culture. This is a real joke of the century,” he said in a statement today.
Picking on the reunion dinner SOP, Abdul Aziz, who is also special assistant to Chong Chieng Jen, agreed with other critics that the CNY reunion dinner would just be another regular everyday dinner if limited to members of the same household as it totally defeats the Chinese customary traditions.
“It is considered the most important get-together meal of the entire year.
“Moreover, what’s the point on having the SOP for reunion dinner since it is only enforced on Feb 12 and 13 when reunion is on CNY eve or Feb 11?,” he added.
The funniest part of the SOP, he continued, was on the house visiting restriction which can only be held among family members of the same household.
“Can you imagine family members of the same household ‘house visiting’ among themselves? They will knock on the doors of their rooms to visit one another?
“The most incomprehensible part was that they allowed visiting with limit of 20 people at a time but there’s no limit for the number of people visiting the night market.
“Because of this ridiculous SOP, it has become a total joke this year with many joked about celebrating CNY at night market,” he said, urging the federal ministers to check out the #CNYPasarMalam.
Abdul Aziz pointed out that with the spike in Covid-19 cases, the PN government through NSC should not come out with a flip-flop SOP.
“Today, the SOP will be strict (“ketat”) but tomorrow will be loosened (“longgar”). Sometimes “ketat”, sometimes “longgar”. This should not be the way.
“The NSC should make proper SOP by taking into consideration various factors without changing it almost every day.
“If the NSC keeps flip-flopping their SOP, there is no guarantee that PN government will be able to flatten the curve of Covid-19,” he added. — DayakDaily
