Stop blame game, take drastic measures

KOTA KINABALU: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Member of Parliament for Kota Kinabalu, Chan Foong Hin, has criticised former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for blaming the Sabah state elections for the increase in Covid-19 positive cases.

Instead of focusing on the past, Najib should advise the Federal government and newly elected Sabah government to direct their focus on the potential impact and start planning counter-measures, he said in a statement yesterday.

“This is to deal with the foreseeable effect, especially on the economy in the event a large-scale lockdown is reimposed.

“It is easy to simply blame others for something that had happened. However, real leadership is to be able to take drastic yet correct measures that resolve problems, whenever and wherever necessary, so that the impact would be under control and will not worsen,” he said.

Chan said much confusion has been caused by the Majlis Keselamatan Negara (MKN)'s hasty release of a 5-page Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on its official Facebook on October 2 at 7.10pm regarding inter-district travel in Sabah.

“The SOP was subsequently removed from the page 30 minutes later, but it continued to be circulated around on social media, leading to confusion amongst the public.

“It is very embarrassing for the Jawatankuasa Pengurusan Bencara Covid-19 Negeri Sabah (JPBN) to have described the announcement by MKN, a federal agency dealing with national security, as being fake news and even stating ‘tidak sahih, jangan kongsi',” remarked Chan.

“At the times like this we do not need any further confusion or misunderstanding, and that internal mismanagement is utterly unacceptable and may lead to unnecessary loss of lives. What we need now is certainty and true leadership by our government.”

Chan added that such mishandling of SOP had led to the public loss of faith in government agencies in which the public may hesitate and treat future announcements by MKN with doubt or reservations.