KUCHING, March 30: Democratic Action Party (DAP) has submitted the first batch of list of residents in need of food and aid assistance to the Welfare Department.
Bandar Kuching MP Kelvin Yii claimed the party has received non-stop phone calls from the public affected by the Covid-19 outbreak and movement control order (MCO), asking for assistance.
The first batch of the resident list was collected from the Bandar Kuching, Stampin, Kota Samarahan and Petra Jaya parliamentary constituencies, he added.
“Many of them claim that they have no food on the table. Some daily paid workers and odd job workers have lost their source of income due to the movement control order.
“Some may not have proper transport to go out to buy food and also many others that are badly affected by the MCO and current virus outbreak,” he said in a statement.
Dr Yii lamented that the party’s effort to distribute aid to the poor and needy was not allowed by the federal government’s directive, where non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are prevented from distributing their aid directly to the frontliners.
He said it was understandable that the instruction from the federal government and the National Security Council not allowing anyone to directly distribute aids was to prevent them from being exposed to Covid-19.
“So, we have taken the effort to compile the list and submit it to the Welfare Department and hopefully the Welfare Department can provide the necessary assistance to those in need during this tough time,” he said.
However, Dr Yii hoped Putrajaya would reconsider the directive of to ensure the people received the much needed help.
He said the NGOs, as well as DAP, are willing to extend their help because they understood that the relevant department were stretched of manpower due to the crisis at hand.
“We are not trying to supersede the government’s role in this crisis, but we want to complement them through this crisis to make sure that no one gets left behind,” he said.
Dr Yii added that decentralising the delivery of the aid to the poor was to ensure that food and other essentials were delivered to those in need as soon as possible without going through various stages of the supply chain or bureaucracy.
“We will abide by the government’s directive and hoped that the Welfare Department of Sarawak will be able to cover the different needs in the communities.
“We are open to work together with the Welfare Department if ever they require our assistance, as I believe we all play a part to take care of one another as we brace through this tough time together,” he continued. — DayakDaily
