Guan Eng chides Putrajaya for lackadaisical attitude towards Omicron, says special committee hasn’t sat since Nov

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 — DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng questioned the seriousness of the government in managing the Omicron variant threat as the Special Committee on the Management of the Covid-19 has not met since November 5 of last year.

Lim, who is a part of the committee chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, went on to criticise the government's “gross dereliction of duty”, claiming it is consumed by political self-interest to bring maximum electoral benefit in the coming Johor state poll.

 “Instead of being fully and single-mindedly devoted to overcoming the latest wave of infections that has now reached nearly three million cases, there have been no meetings of the top panel on Covid-19 management for the last three months, in the midst of the latest crisis.

“With more than 32,075 Covid-19 deaths, Malaysia has the highest number of deaths per capita in the Asean and East Asian regions with 969 deaths per one million people,” he said in a statement today.

Lim also reiterated the stand of Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council to either postpone the Johor state election or open up the campaign, allowing open ceramahs and public rallies.

He said that allowing the election to proceed — with the National Recovery Council even proposing that borders be reopened before March 1 — is no different from what is being practiced in Western countries.

“The government cannot have it both ways: by allowing the Johor state elections to proceed but imposing enhanced SOPs and banning ceramahs.

“Restricting campaigning and banning ceramahs will allow the ruling parties an unfair advantage by possessing sole media and physical access to voters,” he said.

Yesterday, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the Ministry of Health (MoH) is in the midst of finalising the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the Johor state election before it is submitted to the Election Commission (EC).

He said currently, MoH was still in the middle of risk assessments, as the election would be held in a different environment compared to the previous Sarawak and Melaka polls, due to the spread of the Omicron variant in the country.

Perikatan National (PN) also voiced hope that the SOPs will not be too strict for the campaign period this time.

The Election Commission announced on Wednesday that polling for the 15th Johor state election would be on March 12, while nomination is on February 26 with early voting on March 8.