Health Minister Khairy gets bipartisan support to delay tabling controversial amendments to Act 342

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today that he would postpone tabling the amendments to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 or Act 342 to the next sitting, citing concerns over several aspects of the Bill that could prompt public non-compliance.

The decision was reached after prolonged engagement with MPs both from the government and Opposition parties since last week. Many had voiced their opposition to the harsher penalties proposed under the Bill, which they said could spark backlash and civil disobedience.

Khairy told the Dewan Rakyat that “substantive” issues regarding the Bill had received bipartisan support, but the delay took into account tethering matters that needed more time to be addressed.

“With regards to the amendments of Act 342 it is crucial and important that we get public support and compliance because this involves public health measures not only to deal with Covid-19 but any infectious diseases,” he said.

“As such, I have tabled to the select committee with regards to all the details to the amendments and guidelines for them, and we have also listened to experts... and the select committee have unanimously agreed to delay the amendments, not because they are not supportive of it in principle or that substantive aspects of the legislation were supported, just that we need more time to address several key issues,” the minister added.

“I agree with the view because this Act is extremely important so that we get public compliance, or public adherence. If we vote it today but the Bill does not get bipartisan consensus, we will have a problem with compliance because we can’t agree on the matter.”

Khairy said the postponement was also appropriate given the floods hitting most parts of the country. 

Several states and dense areas in the Klang Valley have been badly affected by the natural disaster until today. Official estimates of damages from the floods could reach millions of ringgit.

The postponement was welcomed by the Opposition bench. Just as the minister finished explaining the reasons behind the postponement, several MPs were heard shouting “the people have won.”

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, a key figure in the engagement with Khairy to delay and tweak the amendments, said the decision to table the Bill at next year’s proceeding was timely given the risk of Covid-19 spreading as the disaster unfolds.

Anwar has taken on the popular fight to stamp out Act 342, opposition that mostly stems from the lack of confidence that the authorities would enforce the penalties fairly, following repeated incidents when the elites and their family members have either been slapped with a meagre fine or escaped punishment for failing to comply with Covid-19 standard operating procedures, while members of the public were punished harshly.

“I feel when the amendments were drafted it failed to take into consideration public input, for example, the compound sum raised from RM1,000 to RM10,000… so we must learn from our experience that is to scrutinise again details of the legislation and continue with the engagements,” he said.

“Several substantive matters had been agreed on for example we had asked for the public fine to be kept at RM1,000 instead of RM10,000,” he added.

“And we want assurance that [the amendments] prevent a double standard application of the law whereby powerful leaders, the elites, escape punishment [for violating Covid-19 SOPs] while the poor people are punished.”

Under the existing Act 342’s Section 25, RM1,000 is the maximum fine that can be collected from an offender who commits an offence under Act 342 or breaks any of the regulations made under Act 342.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began in Malaysia and from the very first movement control order in March 2020, Malaysians only had to face the possibility of paying up to RM1,000 to compound offences such as failure to wear face masks (although this maximum amount also caused difficulties for many who could not afford it in their financially-depressed situation).

Malaysia was then placed under a nationwide Emergency from January 11 to August 1, 2021, with several Emergency laws known as Emergency Ordinances introduced.