No need for a state of emergency – Upko

KOTA KINABALU: United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko) has expressed its concerns over the reports and rumours that the Federal government will be advising the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to declare a national state of emergency to deal with the Covid-19 situation in the country.

According to its secretary general, Nelson W Angang, these reports also suggested that the real reason behind the declaration of emergency is because of the political instability facing the Federal government and the real possibility that the Prime Minister will lose or does not have the majority support once parliament sits in early November through a vote of no confidence or the failure to pass the budget in the coming parliament sitting.

If these are true then by asking the Agong to declare a national state of emergency is setting a very dangerous precedent for the country, he opined.

Upko, Melson said, believes that there is no need to declare for a national state of emergency to deal with the Covid-19 situation as our country already has the existing law to deal with the situation under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (ACT 342).

He pointed out that this Act gives the power for the state to make regulations, control the movement of people and also to move the armed forces as what has already been done in the country in dealing with the covid-19 situation.

“There are those who would want to justify for the declaration for a national state of emergency to handle covid-19 by giving examples that there are other countries in the world have already declared a state of emergency and therefore this is not something new.

“But they stop short of explaining why those countries had to call for a state of emergency,” said Nelson.

He cited for example, in France the government declared a public health state emergency to order people to stay home except for essential work, buying food and imposing curfew while in Spain, the government pushed for a state of emergency to give it broad powers to override regional authorities as in the country the regional authorities oversee areas such as public health policies.

“The Spanish government had before placed restrictions such as permitting people to travel for essential purposes only. Social gatherings of more than six people are banned, while restrictions on occupancy and opening hours in restaurants and shops have been tightened.

“However, the regional government in Spain had opposed the restriction and had appealed to the court to overturn the order prompting the Spanish government to declare a state emergency to overcome all this,” he said.

In Israel, he claimed the state of emergency was called to allow the government amongst others to impose restriction on movement, lockdown, enforce home isolation and permit to enter homes of people infected with the virus.

“All these restrictions and orders are familiar to us because they have already been imposed in our country through the power given under Act 342 that is the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988.

“Therefore, there is no need for a national state of emergency to be declared in our country,” he stressed.

Nelson opined that if the intention of declaring a state of emergency by the Federal government is to prevent for the fall of the Federal government and to prevent parliament from sitting, then that would be an abuse of power and process.

According to him if the Prime Minister fears for the loss of the majority support, a declaration of state of emergency should not be used to prevent that or to maintain his position.

That, Nelson said is not the intention of article 150 of the Federal Constitution.

“If this were to be allowed then we are setting a very dangerous precedent in our country. A state of emergency will cause the suspension of parliament and all the democratic process that comes with it,” he said.

What is also equally worrying, Nelson pointed out, is that the role of the opposition as the check and balance of every government decisions and actions would also be affected.

Laws can be passed during an emergency without going through the normal process in Parliament, he said.

“The confidence in the country’s economy will also be greatly affected by all these.

“If there are those who want to justify the calling for an emergency as to prevent for a snap poll at a time when we are fighting the rise of covid-19 infections, we should turn to and tell our politicians and leaders to get their act together,” he said.

To him the political instability was caused non other by the Federal government themselves.

The infighting is between the leaders of the component parties in the Federal government between Umno and PPBM, he said.

Assuming that the Prime Minister has lost the majority support, it means that his government has failed to provide for a stable government and to bring confidence to his administration, said Nelson.

“That they have failed in their responsibility to govern the country effectively and responsibly. They have only themselves to blame for this fiasco.

“If the Prime Minister has lost the majority support it does not necessary mean that a snap poll must be called for,” he opined.

Nelson pointed out that the Prime Minister has two options, (1) to resign or (2) to advise the Agong to dissolve Parliament.

If the Prime Minister is concerned that a snap poll will worsen the covid19 situation in the country he can choose to resign and let the person who commands the majority support in Parliament to become the new PM and form a new government, he said.

“Surely the new PM and his new government would want to ensure that the situation in the country is handled well. But at the end of the day it goes back to our politicians and our elected members of parliament.

“If they are serious in wanting to prevent the worsen spread of covid-19 in our country then they should come together, stop playing politics and concentrate of what’s really needed to be done to heal our country.