Press statement By DAP Secretary-General and MP For Bagan, Lim Guan Eng in Kuala Lumpur on 5 February 2021:
The SOPs On Chinese New Year Celebrations Appears To Ban Home Celebrations In Preference To Pasar Malams
DAP calls on the Federal government to review and correct their latest SOPs for Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations, which is is not just insensitive to the Chinese community but downright disrespectful. First is the condescending tone that the PN Federal government has decided to allow CNY celebrations. Then its ignorance in believing that the CNY Reunion Dinner is on the 12th and 13th February, when it is on the eve of CNY namely 11th February.
The biggest controversy is banning CNY reunion dinners and family get togethers. Allowing CNY reunion dinners only for family members in one house but not family members living nearby, is not a reunion dinner but an ordinary dinner. If my parents live down the road, are they supposed to celebrate and eat alone, and cannot be visited by their family members. This is going to be a lonely and empty CNY for many senior citizens.
The government even said that family visits are only allowed for family members living within the house. Are the Cabinet Ministers so detached and disconnected from reality that they do not realise that the SOPs make no sense and makes Malaysians look silly? It is ridiculous that pasar malams are allowed but not family visits merely because they live in different houses within the same district.
Are the Cabinet Ministers so detached and disconnected from reality that they do not realise that the SOPs make no sense…
Posted by Lim Guan Eng on Thursday, 4 February 2021
Further there is also unhappiness that prayers at temples are prohibited except for up to five members of the temple committee, when currently more people are allowed for other religious practices. Such unprofessionalism and inconsistency clearly indicate that the government has not fully consulted with all parties. Unless this wrong SOPs is corrected, CNY home celebrations is effectively banned in preference to celebrations in pasar malams.
There is something very wrong and surreal about a government that relies on a proclamation of emergency and suspension of Parliament to remain in power, on the pretext of containing the surge of COVID-19 infections that they were responsible for mismanaging until Malaysia is now the worst in ASEAN. The latest SOPs reveal again the frightening incompetency of the present government in managing the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis.
Lim Guan Eng
DAP Secretary-General
MP for Bagan
