Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing
KUCHING (July 6): Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing has chastised Malaysia Shopping Malls Association president Tan Sri Teo Chiang Kok for questioning Selangor’s decision to impose Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO).
Masing said Teo had questioned why total lockdown or EMCO was imposed on Selangor while only ‘surgical lockdown’ was applied to Kuala Lumpur, where only selected areas in the country’s capital were to undergo total lockdown.
“The reason Selangor was given a sledgehammer approach of lockdown was because it has a very high (number of) Covid-19 positive cases, while Kuala Lumpur was less,” said Masing in a statement.
The deputy chief minister noted that Teo had reasoned the high number of positive cases in Selangor was due to its mass testing being effectively carried out and less cases were detected in Kuala Lumpur due to inefficient mass testing.
“Tan Sri Teo said why should Selangor be penalised due to its good initiative in doing mass testing, while KL got away from total lockdown due to its inefficiency in mass testing!”
Masing added that Teo had deemed it unfair for Selangor to undergo total lockdown or EMCO because more positive cases would not be detected if Selangor had not conducted an efficient mass testing.
“He (Teo) means what ‘we don’t know, it doesn’t matter’. It’s like an ostrich hiding its head in the sand. What the ostrich doesn’t see doesn’t exist.
“If people of Tan Sri Teo-level believe in the notion of what ‘we don’t know don’t exist’, then God better save Malaysia from Covid-19 soon,” said Masing.