As predicted, the half-baked second MCO (movement control order) lockdown, announced by backdoor Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Jan 11, 2021, has now been extended for another 14 days. The MCO 2.0, initially implemented for 14 days – effective from Jan 13 to 26, 2021 – had already been extended by 9 days to Feb 4 for the sake of standardization with other states.

 

With today’s announcement, the MCO 2.0 will be extended to Feb 18, effectively eliminating any hope or chance of people being able to go back to hometown for the coming Chinese New Year festival, which falls on February 12 and 13. More importantly, it also means the incompetent government has wasted valuable 23 days of lockdown before realizing it actually didn’t work.

 

As usual, Senior Minister “Turtle Egg” Ismail Sabri Yaakob said while the MCO 2.0 will be extended with stricter measures, details of the such measures are not ready, and will be released in due time. In the same breath, new regulations and standard operating procedure (SOP) about the Chinese New Year celebrations are still being drafted. Sounds familiar?

In short, either the lazy and clueless minister has been sitting on his hands, or the decision to extend the lockdown was made hastily at the last minute so much so that the clueless minister did not anticipate any need for such SOP. But it’s not hard to guess what the new SOP will be – interstate and inter-district travel are banned, two people per car, and dining is not allowed.

 

Actually, it won’t make much difference whether interstate and inter-district travel are allowed or banned because the Covid-19 pandemic is already out of control. After all, the Ministry of Health does not care about contact tracing and tracking of new cases. Heck, the clueless government does not even know what it is supposed to do to contain the virus.

 

People who have been obediently observe and follow the health SOP will continue to do so even if they travel back to their outstation hometown. Likewise, people who have been breaking every single rule will continue to do so – spreading the virus to their colleagues or neighbours – even if they are restricted to their district or state during the festival.

From the beginning, the MCO 2.0 was a gimmick to justify the proclamation of emergency rule in order to allow Muhyiddin, who has lost a simple majority support in the Parliament, to cling to power. There was no political will to end the pandemic simply because if it is contained, the illegitimate prime minister will lose his power. Therefore, the latest extension will also not work.

 

The stricter measures would probably involve limiting people to supermarket and higher compound fines to ordinary people who flout the MCO 2.0 lockdown. But make no mistake. The “elite” or “privileged” class or VVIPs like the bloated 72 ministers and deputy ministers and their families will not be subjected to the new SOPs or stricter measures.

 

The ministers and pro-government politicians will continue breaking the lockdown rules, travelling interstate back to their respective hometown. The Royal Malaysia Police will not dare issue any tickets, let alone arrest and throw them into prison. And the proof can be seen in Sabah where a group of poor villagers was slapped with RM1000 fines each for breaching the MCO restrictions.

Apparently, the eight villagers, including a senior citizen, were arrested on their way to Tenom to buy food and medicine. Tenom is the capital of the Tenom District in the Interior Division of Sabah with a population of less than 10,000. Located about 176 kilometres from the state capital of Kota Kinabalu, Tenom is unofficially the capital and hometown of the Murut ethnic.

 

Coming from the interior district with limited essential supplies, the poor villagers were caught in a van that was carrying more than the 50% passenger limit. The 13-seater van driver, Ruil Taligi, said he did not want to allow the eight villagers on board at first, but changed his mind as he felt sorry for the villagers due to their desperation for essentials.

 

Mr Ruil said – “Police told me I exceeded the load limit. I already told them (the villagers) but they still wanted to come on board, and I felt pity for them. I begged police on duty at the roadblock to let us off with a warning or to just fine me alone and not the passengers, because they’re poor people and only wanted to buy essentials. But the officer still instructed us to go to the district police headquarters.”

One of the villagers, Irip Pang, whose granddaughter is disabled, was furious in a video clip that has since gone viral – “I didn’t come here for fun. I wanted to buy necessities – milk and diapers – for my grandchild. No one else can take care of my grandchild because her mother has passed away, while my husband is too old and can’t go out.”

 

Another villager, Buriat Alipan, explained why he had no choice but was forced to go to town – “Police said it’s MCO, but how can I not go to Tenom? I want to buy medicine because my leg is in pain until now. That’s why I had to go. We’re villagers, needy people. We don’t intentionally commit offences, we’re not going out for fun.”

 

However, Sabah Police Commissioner Hazani Ghazali was not impressed, even though he claimed to be sympathized with the eight villagers who were fined RM1000 each on the January 27 incident. Besides over capacity, he said other offences that had been committed including failure to observe social distancing inside the “illegal van”.

The poor villagers, who said they did not have televisions, have pledged ignorance over the SOP of the MCO. Interestingly, the police commissioner admitted the villagers may not have fully understood the standard operating procedure during the current lockdown. Still, he said police have to take action to ensure that everybody abides by the law.

 

But opposition MP Azis Jamman has criticized the authorities. The Warisan’s Sepanggar MP said – “The people are already doing their best to comply with the movement control order but the government should also be sympathetic to their plight. It’s bad enough that there is no food aid, but their movements are also restricted. They need food and medicine. What does the government expect them to do? Starve?”

 

While the police have the right to come down hard on people who deliberately flout the Covid-19 SOP, the authorities must also treat every case, especially those poor villagers in Sabah and Sarawak, with utmost consideration. It would be a different thing if the people could get their essentials in their own village, but intentionally travel to buy non-essential items.

Did the police think the poor villagers would spend money unnecessarily on transportation just to travel to Tenom if essentials like food and medicine can be found at their own village? Exactly why can’t the police be considerate and just gives the villagers a warning and educate them about the importance of SOP to contain the pandemic?

 

Why must there be double standards when Nurulhidayah, the wealthy daughter of UMNO president Zahid Hamidi, was given a discount and fined only RM800, but the eight poor Sabah villagers were slapped with RM1000 compound fines for breaching SOP? Why Minister Annuar Musa was not penalised despite breaking Covid-19 SOP when he had his morning walk with buddies?

 

Prime Minister Muhyiddin and his gang of 17 politicians might have no issue splashing RM6,500 on a meal in the Parliament House, including savouring close to RM3,000 worth of lobsters. But to punish eight poor Sabah villagers for a total of RM8,000 who were desperate to buy food and medicine speaks volumes about how pathetic Muhyiddin government is.

Perhaps the police should investigate whether the prime minister and his minion crooks had breached any Covid-19 protocol such as failure to observe social distancing when they happily consumed the lobsters and rubbed shoulders with each other last year. Why only have the balls to bully the poor and powerless villagers?

 

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February 2nd, 2021 by financetwitter

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