BINTULU, May 5 — Bintulu Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing today warned owners of rented houses that authorities will demolish their premises if they do not comply with standard operating procedures (SOPs) to curb the spread of Covid-19 infection.

He said he has made many repeated appeals to the landlords to comply with the SOPs and refrain from renting out their rumah sewa to new tenants from outside the Bintulu district during this trying period.

“This will be the final time I make this reminder and appeal.

“It would not be tolerated any further and the landlords cannot blame the authorities for taking stricter action,” he warned in a statement posted on his Facebook.

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Tiong cited a case where the tenants of a rented home repeatedly crossed districts to work and tested positive after returning.

“This had resulted in the rumah sewa being locked down a total of three times. Why do the people continue to stubbornly dismiss the SOPs?” he asked.

He said the majority of confirmed cases in Bintulu have occurred in longhouses and rumah sewa.

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He claimed that a number of irresponsible people have tampered with the rt-PCR test reports used to apply for inter-district travel passes and even several police reports have been falsified.

“This is extremely infuriating and disappointing. We are facing a life and death situation on a pandemic scale but yet we continue to encounter behaviour like this which threatens our efforts to battle the coronavirus,” he said.

He said the authorities have repeatedly called on relevant businesses to cooperate with Covid-19 prevention efforts, including not renting out units to people from outside the district, monitoring the flow of people and maintaining sanitary conditions. 

“If the rumah sewa still do not cooperate with the SOPs, they will face immediate demolition by the authorities,” he said.