KUCHING: Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) Bukit Assek branch leader Dr Ling Sien Ngan has urged the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to tighten the standard operating procedures (SOP) to curb the spread of Covid-19, particularly in Sibu where the mortality rate stands at one per cent, higher than the national mortality rate at 0.4 per cent.
He termed the current SOP as ‘semua orang pening’ (everyone’s feeling dizzy) leading to lackadaisical enforcement which contributed to the growing spread of Covid-19 in Sarawak, recording the highest death toll percentage rate in the nation.
“A random visit to any of the food courts would reveal that social distancing and SOP are non-existent. People are casually walking around, looking for empty seats when all the seats have been fully occupied.
“There are casually and generally no staff at the entrance to monitor and control the movement of people into and within the premises,” he said in a statement on Friday.
According to Dr Ling, even though inter-district travel was theoretically restricted to ‘permit holders’ only, those who have driven across the state revealed that there is no examination of their documents.
He noted that Sibu district was the epicentre of the worst Covid-19 outbreak in the state so far, contributing 2,539 cases and 33 fatalities to the state tally of 6,832 cases and 61 deaths as of Feb 16.
“It is also where the biggest Covid-19 cluster yet in Sarawak, the Pasai Cluster, has originated. There were 2,576 cases related to the cluster throughout the state as at Feb 16.
“The Pasai Cluster is one such glaring exhibition of the ineptness of those in charge and the ineffectiveness of the policies they employ. How and why it happened, or was it ‘allowed to happen’? Only those in the know can explain,” he said.
Dr Ling lamented that there was simply no clear direction provided by SDMC while at the ground level, this was carried out in the name of being ‘economy friendly’ and that people needed to ‘cari makan’ (make a livelihood).
He feared that this would lead to a never-ending cycle of infection.
“It does not help that SDMC and their underlings community leaders, councillors and mayors are political appointees. There is surely a ‘conflict’ between ‘being nice and being harsh’ where ‘lives vs livelihood’ decisions are concerned.
“It must be realised that short-term inconvenience is preferred to long-term misery. Furthermore, most of the decisions made appear to be ‘knee-jerk’ decisions when proactive, rather than reactive, responses are preferred,” he asserted.
Dr Ling said the state government should emulate Australia and New Zealand in enforcing snap lockdowns to contain the flare up of the virus.
“In this emergency, crisis and pandemic, the state government should engage Sarawak’s autonomy not only by the words but action, and to emulate Australia and New Zealand on how ‘lightning-fast’ responses go a long way to break the chain of infection,” he added.
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