File photo showing Army and Rela personnel manning a roadblock at Kanowit bridge.
KUCHING (Feb 20): Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) Pelawan branch leader Dr Low Chong Nguan opines that professionals should be dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic in the state rather than leaving it to politicians.
According to him, some Sarawakians were ‘aghast’ with the State Disaster Management Committee’s (SDMC) recent decision to stop enforcing the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Sibu, Kanowit, Selangau, Song and Kapit.
He was in shock with the reason given by the SDMC for lifting the MCO previously enforced in Sibu and the nearby districts to curb the upsurge of Covid-19 infection.
“SDMC had said that the government and the authorities had failed to distribute food properly to the needy in the MCO areas, so it decided to lift the MCO instead of addressing its food distribution failures.
“In order words, SDMC is saying that the MCO was lifted not because of health reasons but purely because this state government did not know how to distribute food properly and get the food to its people in need,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Dr Low pointed out that such decision was akin to allowing the asymptomatic carriers to run loose, looking for food under Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) when they should rightfully be staying at home under MCO with the government taking care of their food needs.
He cautioned that the ‘circuit breaker’ namely the MCO or State of Emergency would never work if this was the attitude of the state leaders.
“It means nothing for the majority of Sarawakians to sacrifice while these loopholes and cracks such as these keep appearing.”
He said the country had been in a state of alert and concern over Covid-19 as early as February last year, and the government had had every opportunity to prepare for each and every eventuality.
He felt that ample preparations and strategies should have already been in place for this most basic of needs.
“Yet we are now being told that the SDMC has failed even to manage food distribution properly,” he lamented.
He reminded SDMC and the state government that Sibu district being the epicentre of the worst Covid-19 outbreak in the state had contributed 2,539 cases and 33 fatalities to the state tally of 6,832 cases and 61 deaths as at Feb 16.
He added that Sibu was also where the biggest Covid-19 cluster, the Pasai Cluster, in Sarawak had originated.
He noted that there were 2,576 cases related to the cluster throughout the state as at Feb 16.
“This Covid-19 pandemic had ironically exposed the flaws, if not failures, of the state government to prepare Sibu residents, if not Sarawakians, for a disaster like this Covid-19 pandemic. Now, they cannot even handle food aid distribution properly,” said Dr Low.
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