KUCHING, May 31: While many Sarawakians are struggling and barely able to put two meals on the table daily, Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) is not making life any easier for them with ambiguous policies and about turns in its chaotic management of Covid-19.
Not least is the latest situation where now Sarawak faces two different sets of Movement Control Order (MCO): Sarawak MCO and federal MCO. Adding to the confusing was another new word thrown in by SMDC Adviser Dr Sim Kui Hian – FMCO or Full MCO.
Sarawak People’s Aspirasi Party (Aspirasi) president Lina Soo urged SMDC to clarify if the federal MCO supersedes Sarawak MCO.
“If Sarawak MCO precedes, since PDRM is federal, who will enforce SMDC MCO?
“If we get slapped with a compound by PDRM in violation of federal MCO, can we turn to SMDC to ventilate?” Soo asked in a statement today.
Soo also wanted to know if it is mandatory to follow federal SOP by updating mySejahtera every other day or be fined RM1000, or Sarawak SOP which does not require Sarawakians to do so.
“As SOPs and ever changing SOPs in Sarawak roll off the assembly line, I want the chairman of SMDC to clarify for once and for all, when does the observance of Sarawak SOPs end, and federal SOPs start to apply?”
Soo believed Sarawakians also want to know if MCO in Sarawak will end on June 11 or June 14.
After SMDC has clarified once and for all to end all doubts for Sarawakians, Soo hoped SMDC will improve enforcement to make the MCO meaningful and effective as the circuit breaker, as it is meant to be.
“What had contributed to the high number of cases in Sarawak had been half-baked SOPs at varying times to placate certain groups of people to score brownie points, and this had resulted in failure to flatten the curve, as each day sets a new record for cases.”
She said Malaysia is top of the world in terms of new cases per million of population with falling recovery rate and increasing fatality rate.
“One in 60 Sarawakians is Covid positive: Kuching 1 in 98, Miri 1 in 32, Bintulu 1 in 26 and Sibu 1 in 13. What is even more alarming is the reach, where the Covid virus has penetrated all districts.
“The Covid spreads at rapid geometric infectivity rate and with poor healthcare in our rural areas, the threat for a humanity disaster remains real, and must be averted.”
Soo said the implementation of the vaccination process has to be expedited to reach our rural folks as the limitations of the mySejahtera fail to make the vaccine accessible to those who need it most.
“All community leaders must be mobilised, and vaccination roll-in pods and mobile vehicles with well-equipped vaccination facilities to reach our suburban and rural communities must be employed.
“It is not really a herculean task or impossible mission just to carry out four million inoculations as for many countries, it would be a simple task just to vaccinate two million people in less than a month.
“All it needs is for the government to have the will to do it, leaving aside politics, if a human disaster were to be averted,” said Soo. — DayakDaily
