KUCHING, May 29: It is not the time for the Sarawak government to play autonomy with the federal government by coming out with different sets of Movement Control Order (MCO) and standard operating procedure (SOP) that are only confusing to the people.
This is the view of Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen when he said autonomy is meant for Sarawak to make better decisions for the good of the people especially at such times of urgency and emergency.
Following two conflicting announcements of Sarawak’s MCO from May 29 to June 11 by the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) and the nationwide Full MCO (FMCO) from June 1 to June 14 by the Prime Minister, he questioned which policy and its SOP should Sarawakians be following.
Making things worse, he noted contradicting social media posts and press releases today by different ministers where one said Sarawak would go straight to MCO 1.0 starting May 29 while the other said Sarawak would not be under full lockdown as in MCO 1.0.
Chong, who is also Kota Sentosa assemblyman, said this is not the first time the Sarawak government has had inconsistent announcements of policies and SOP with the federal government when both parties are in the same coalition government.
“All these changes of SOP were made within a short period of one week, leaving the people and the business sector breathless in trying to cope and comply with the changes in the SOP and policies.
“What is more frustrating to the people and business sector in Sarawak is that, despite the different names used by the Sarawak government, the SOP implemented are, in essence, very similar to the ones imposed by the federal government,” he said in a statement today.
Thus, he urged the Sarawak government to put its political agenda aside and have a thorough discussion with the federal government to come up with one set of clear, certain and effective SOP that fits all and is effective in curbing the Covid-19 pandemic. — DayakDaily
