Press statement by DAP Secretary-General and MP For Bagan, Lim Guan Eng in Kuala Lumpur on 28 June 2021:
When Can Malaysians Earn Their Livelihoods and Operate Their Businesses Like Factories?
The extension of the total lockdown Movement Control Order (MCO) has aroused public dissatisfaction, particularly the differing treatment across the economic sectors whose businesses are severely disrupted and affected. No one knows when the total lockdown will end with the high number of new daily infections, mostly from the factory workplace clusters. So far, the government has been unable to answer the basic question why all businesses can not be treated equally and fairly.
Factories in certain economic sectors deemed essential, with Covid-19 cases are ordered to close for several days up to a week for large outbreaks, and then allowed to open after sanitisation. However other businesses deemed not essential are not allowed to open throughout the total lockdown MCO despite not recording a single Covid-19 infection. This appears to be unnecessarily penalising good practices.
Instead of allowing some Ministries the discretionary power to arbitrarily decide in a high-handed manner which economic sector is essential, and could then be subject to abuses, all businesses should be treated equally by being allowed to operate like factories. Businesses should then be subjected to the same SOPs as factories that they will have to close for a set number of days and then allowed to open after sanitisation.
In the battle between saving lives and livelihoods, such decisions are not easy. Whilst no one doubts that saving lives should be given priority, the government must not forget that forgoing livelihoods can destroy lives to the extent that some even commit suicide. This does not include the lives of many who are forever changed for the worse following their loss of livelihood.
Who then can answer the question when Malaysians can earn their living by operating their businesses like factories?
