File photo for illustration purposes.
KUCHING: The Sarawak Malay Chamber of Economy (Dekoms) is appealing to the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to implement Movement Control Order (MCO) for two weeks.
Its president Bujang Boji Sitam said with the MCO in place, it would definitely help reduce the spread of the pandemic as the current daily record has been on the rise and shows no sign of declining.
He cited the movement restrictions in March which had helped Sarawak reduce the number of positive cases and explained that Dekoms was of the opinion that with the implementation of a two-week MCO, it would not affect the economic sector too badly.
“The important thing is that the lives of the people need to be taken care of, compared to the economic downturn. If too many people lose their lives due to this pandemic, it will also cause our economic activities to be severely affected,” he said in a statement today.
According to Bujang, despite the enforcement of the Conditional MCO or the Enhanced MCO in some districts in the state, it seems that the movement of the people was difficult to control.
He added that as the country has gone through three months of MCO, he believed that the people can survive through just two weeks, and the government can ensure the people have access to food during that time.
“We are confident that during that period, corporate companies and government-owned companies will also come forward to provide assistance to the people.”
“Based on past experience, not only the government provided food aid but also government-linked owned companies (GLCs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also came forward to provide assistance,” he said.