KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — The new federal government under Perikatan Nasional should stop dithering and take charge immediately in managing Malaysia’s economic and health crisis caused by the Covid-19 outbreak and the fall in global oil prices, former finance minister Lim Guan Eng said today.

Lim, who is DAP secretary-general, also accused the new government of having failed to fulfil its responsibility by failing to hold an emergency meeting yesterday and by meeting today instead to discuss measures on the Covid-19 outbreak.

“For the new government not to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday when Malaysia recorded 190 new Covid-19 cases, an increase of 80 per cent to 428 cases, is clearly an abdication both of duty and responsibility,” he said in a statement today.

“Many are asking if those involved in overthrowing a democratically-elected government can meet on a Sunday, February 23, 2020, in Sheraton Hotel, why can’t the government do the same yesterday on a Sunday to deal with this health and economic crisis? In fact, I had continued to work on February 23, 2020 on a Sunday to complete the RM20 billion economic stimulus package,” he added.

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Lim was referring to his last task of finalising the country’s economic stimulus package for Covid-19 while he was still finance minister last month.

The RM20 billion economic stimulus package was announced by then interim prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on February 27.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced several additional measures on top of the previous RM20 billion economic stimulus package, following the first meeting today of the newly-formed Economic Action Council which he had chaired.

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The measures announced by Muhyiddin include a RM120 million allocation for a RM600 monthly cash aid for workers on unpaid leave for a maximum of six months with 33,000 workers expected to benefit, and discounts for electricity bills for six months.

Other measures are the earlier payout of the government’s cash aid to low-income households today instead of the initial scheduled May payout date, and that the RM2 billion worth of projects previously announced in the February economic stimulus package would be carried out from April onwards.