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By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, May 4: Police force in Sarawak will adhere to the decision of the Sarawak government to continue to restrict to only two persons in a vehicle until further notice.
Sarawak Commissioner of Police Datuk Aidi Ismail made it clear that the police force in Sarawak would have to follow Sarawak government’s decision instead of the federal’s in view that each state has been allowed to make its own decision with regards to the lifting of the Movement Control Order (MCO).
“For us, we still follow the decision of only allowing two persons in a vehicle; adhering to the 7am to 7pm policy; no jogging, no cycling, no dine-in in restaurants and eateries,” Aidi told DayakDaily in a telephone call interview today.
Besides Sarawak, eight other states also hold firm to their decision of continuing with MCO Phase 4 which will last until May 12.
And due to the fact that many semi-urban areas such as Bau has turned from green to yellow zone, the police chief said, manpower has been shifted from urban centres to man major roads leading to other second tier towns around Kuching.
“We found out that many are able to avoid checkpoints in town centres because they know ‘jalan tikus’. Furthermore, people are allowed to move around to buy food and do marketing. So we believe that it is not effective for us to man road blocks in town.
“That’s why, we have changed the strategy where the police is now going around to make sure that businesses operating are in compliance with MCO and moved our manpower to enhance district crossing and border control,” said Aidi.
He stressed that district crossing will not be permitted if there is no prior applied inter-district permits.
“Many districts are now turning from green zones to yellow zones. We want to prevent that from happening and so we are enhancing our district crossing control,” added Aidi. — DayakDaily.
