GEORGE TOWN, May 5 — The Penang state government and its chief minister are ready to be sued for protecting the lives of Penangites from Covid-19 virus, Chow Kon Yeow said.
The Penang lawmaker said the state government had never objected against the conditional movement control order (CMCO) but had merely implemented it in a gradual manner.
“I wish to inform Senior Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali that the Penang state government and chief minister are ready to face any legal suits for protecting the 1.8 million Penangites,” he said in his Facebook message today.
He said the onus is on Azmin to furnish proof that the Penang state government had ignored the CMCO before he talked about legal suits against the state administration.
Chow also criticised the international trade and industry minister for “not getting his facts right” regarding the April 28 National Security Council (NSC) meeting with mentri besar and chief ministers.
“During the meeting, mentri besar and chief ministers were given a briefing on why the economy has to be restarted, the prime minister was excited about restarting the economy but told us the SOP from various ministries were not finalised,” he said.
He said the MBs and CMs had, during the meeting, requested for one week to study the standard operating procedures (SOPs), to prepare, and to give their respective feedback.
“It was decided that the SOP would be finalised on April 30 and the state governments’ opportunity to give input never happened as the prime minister went ahead and announced the CMCO that started yesterday,” he said.
Chow stressed that none of the state governments were expressly objecting to the CMCO but simply wanted time to prepare and plan for its implementation.
“It is unprecedented for many states to take so many different approaches to what Azmin expected; what was the senior minister expecting when he was lazy to reach out to all state governments?” he said.
He added that when Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced the CMCO on May 1, Chow had immediately called for the state security committee meeting on May 2 but they were unable to do so as the SOPs were not ready then.
“We could only meet on May 3 after we received a large part of the SOPs even though it was not the completed list,” he said.
Chow said the state security committee held a four-hour meeting to deliberate the CMCO and it was also attended by federal government representatives, Deputy Minister Datuk Mansor Othman and state Opposition leader Datuk Muhamad Yusoff Mohd Noor.
“They too endorsed my proposal for a gradual recovery plan as this decision was made after we took into consideration suggestion by Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah that the first week of CMCO starting from May 4 should be used to plan, strategise and implement new SOPs, not necessarily to open doors for business,” he said.
He said the Penang Gradual Recovery Plan was fully compliant with the CMCO by phasing it in stages where the first phase was the preparation stage to allow all sectors to prepare for the CMCO.
“May 8 to 12 is the reopening of most permitted economic activities to enable the sectors to slowly adapt to the SOPs and new norms,” he said.
He said from May 13 on, there would be a full opening of permitted sectors under the CMCO.
Chow said Penang is densely populated so the state administration must opt for a safer gradual recovery strategy instead of the “big bang approach of Azmin Ali”.
“This is to protect the lives of the people without compromising on work for economic recovery,” he said.
He said all sectors will need time to prepare to meet the SOPs issued, especially when there are changes to the SOP even after the CMCO started yesterday.
He hoped Azmin would not go around the country intimidating the state governments to adhere to the CMCO.
“He should be treating us as partners in this important work for economic recovery, we are ready to partner with the federal government to bring back economic recovery,” he said, adding that Penang is also dependent on its manufacturing and services industries.
He said Penang has always been cooperative with the federal government from day one of the movement control order (MCO) to flatten the curve and will similarly cooperate with the federal government to revive the economy.
