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MALAYSIA’s Covid-19 daily positive cases of 3,027 today is an all-time high. The situation is worrying and the government seems to be clueless of what to do next to contain the spread of the virus.
There seems to be a breakdown in communication within the government. On one side, some pushed for another round of lockdown or more stringent movement-controls to contain the spread.
On the other side are those who think that there must be no further lockdowns as we cannot deal with the economic fallout.
Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah proposed to have another round of lockdown, albeit a more targeted and milder version. I think he is pitching this to the public in the hope of imposing a fait accompli on the political leadership. It seems like a lockdown is the administration’s only weapon to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
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BEFORE the tabling of Budget 2021, Parliament issued a notice that only 15 media agencies were allowed to attend and report on the budget, including Berita Harian and Astro Awani.
According to them, the decision was made with Covid-19 in mind and in line with the SOP set by the Health Ministry and National Security Council.
Following that, Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzril questioned why there was a limit to the number of agencies.
Speaker Azhar Harun answered that physical distancing would be undoable if the media room was too crowded.
He added that they were not restricting media freedom. “People say we blocked (the media) but we didn’t. If we did, we won’t even allow any media agencies at all,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.
Dewan Rakyat adjourns after passing 10 bills freemalaysiatoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from freemalaysiatoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Published on: Tuesday, December 15, 2020
By: Bernama
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Kuala Lumpur: Parliament’s Joint Committee for People’s Well-Being has agreed to a proposal to reduce the number of prisoners to curb the spread of Covid-19 in prisons.
Dewan Negara president Rais Yatim said the matter was decided after the second meeting of the committee today, which was also attended by Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Harun and Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin.
Rais said he was informed that prisons were now overcrowded.
ADVERTISEMENT The home minister said about 11,000 illegal immigrants would be deported next year.
“A total of 10,000 inmates, who are serving sentences of not more than three years, have been sent to rehabilitation centres.
[Photo courtesy Malaysia Information Department/Handout via Reuters]
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin survived a crucial legislative test by a whisker Tuesday as parliament passed his government’s 2021 budget in the final stage of a multi-step process.
A margin of only three votes clinched passage of the spending plan – Muhyiddin’s first piece of legislation as PM that was seen as a vote of confidence in his unelected nine-month-old government.
At the same time, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim failed to demonstrate his claim that close to two-thirds of MPs were supporting his bid to become prime minister, after 111 lawmakers out of 220 voted in favor of the budget bill.