Voon Shiak Ni
KUCHING (Sept 8): Political activist Voon Shiak Ni has expressed her disagreement with exemption to be given to some Indonesians to enter Sarawak while the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMO) is still being enforced.
She said this was because Indonesia had been listed by the Immigration Department as among the 23 countries under the country’s entry ban list .
Voon said she was surprised to read that the State Disaster Management Committee’s (SDMC) would be making an appeal to the National Security Council (NSC) to allow some Indonesians to enter the state.
“I’m surprised it came from the SDMC. We do not understand the priority of the appeal stated by Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas to allow some Indonesians to enter Sarawak when the federal government has imposed an entry ban for Indonesians.
“If the NSC gives an exemption to a country in the ban list, they will be queried later on why they are not considering exemption for the other countries in the entry ban list,” she said in a press statement today.
Uggah, who is Deputy Chief Minister and SDMC chairman, announced yesterday that the committee would be appealing to the NSC to allow some Indonesians to enter the state after Malaysia closed its borders to countries with more than 150,000 Covid-19 cases.
Voon reminded the SDMC that the people and nation’s economy suffered when the Movement Control Order (MCO) was enforced for nearly three months in an effort to break the chain of Covid-19 infection.
“Therefore, who is going to be responsible if there is a spike of imported infections later on as a result of the exemption given to some Indonesians to enter the state?”
Voon said taking into consideration the number of Covid-19 imported cases detected in the country in the last few weeks, the people did not see any valid reason for the government to allow citizens from the countries in the entry ban list to enter Sarawak.
“The imported transmissions over the last few weeks is a concern and the people are worried that the virus may be transmitted to the local community especially via asymptomatic patients.
“Therefore, with due respect, I do register my disagreement with Uggah and SMDC in seeking an exemption for some Indonesians to enter Sarawak during the period under RMCO,” she stated.