Perikatan Nasional must stop misleading the rakyat!

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Seremban, Anthony Loke Siew Fook has refuted the claim by Health Director-General (DG) Tan Sri Noor Hisham that opposition representatives have agreed to postpone Parliament sitting should there be any Covid-19 cases detected in Parliament.

On the contrary, Loke clarified that opposition representatives have unanimously agreed that Parliament sitting must still continue after taking into account all the extra safety measures put in place such as the Covid-19 screening test on all MPs before each sitting.

In a Facebook post earlier today, Loke asserted,

“I would like to stress that opposition representatives have NEVER agreed to postpone Parliament sitting should there be Covid-19 cases detected in Parliament.”

Yesterday, Noor Hisham in a statement claimed that representatives from the government and opposition political parties have agreed to stop Parliament sitting immediately if there is a Covid-19 case detected in Parliament. He further claimed that this was the decision made during a meeting chaired by the Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun on 26 July 2021 and attended by the Prime Minister, Senior Minister (Security Cluster), Parliament Minister, Deputy Speaker and representatives from all political parties.

However, this is simply not true.

Loke, who was representing the DAP in the meeting stressed that himself, alongside Saifuddin Nasution, who was representing PKR and Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, who was representing Amanah never agreed to the decision as claimed by the Health DG.

The Seremban MP further clarified,

“The three of us unanimously agreed that Parliament sitting must continue… I have also suggested that as an extra precaution, we agree to conduct a Covid-19 screening test every week and if any MPs were infected with the virus, they must be quarantined immediately.”

Loke then stressed that Noor Hisham’s statement has misled the rakyat as the opposition never agreed to postpone Parliament sitting. Moreover, PN’s suggestion for Parliament to be suspended for two weeks is unreasonable given the Covid-19 positivity rate in Parliament is only 1%! – The Rocket.