Chiew Chiu Sing
BINTULU (Apr 26): A Democratic Action Party (DAP) lawmaker regards the implementation of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) over the past weeks has failed in managing the Covid-19 situation in Sarawak.
In stating this, Tanjong Batu assemblyman Chiew Chiu Sing observed that the number of positive cases kept rising.
“Controlling the movement of the people, setting up roadblocks, limiting the business hours, restricting workers from going to work, locking down premises and neighbourhoods, and conducting more swab-tests – all seem to have not been able to contain the Covid-19 spread.
“In fact, they’re creating more hardship to people and businesses, where the whole economic activity is now at a ‘dead slow’ pace,” he said when asked for comments about the CMCO extension to this May 10.
He said despite their sales plunging down to 70 per cent and experiencing massive decline in productivity, the local businesses still had to pay the salaries of their non-working employees, various types of rental fees, electricity and water bills, mortgages and all other kinds of commitments.
He pointed out that should this persist, many businesses would go ‘down to the path of no return’ and eventually, this would hurt the economy.
“The frontliners have been working so hard and sacrificing their all – yet, they’re not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
“The whole control movement is also making things more difficult for many people during this fasting month and the upcoming Gawai Dayak – they need help also,” said Chiew.
He added that the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), as the state’s ruling coalition, should be helping these businesses so that they could survive and continue on.
However, he claimed that instead of doing this, the GPS-led state government was not paying them a sen.
“This is like asking these businesses to absorb all the losses themselves.
“If such is the case, doesn’t this mean that the people are actually helping the government to finance the CMCO?” he questioned.
In this respect, Chiew said it was high time for the GPS-led state government to utilise a small portion from the State Reserves to help the local businesses and the people, and at the same time, to inject more funds into the market.