Tourism, Arts and Culture Assistant Minister Datuk Sebastian Ting
MIRI (July 29): There is no urgency to have the Sarawak state election now as the battle against Covid-19 is not over yet, says Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Sebastian Ting.
According to him, the current Covid-19 situation is still a concern and the state should not hold any election for now.
“The current State Legislative Assembly (DUN) would be automatically dissolved after Emergency ends on Aug 1 this year.
“After that, the Election Commission (EC) would have to decide when to hold the Sarawak election.
“However, there is no urgency to have our Sarawak election as we are still busy fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. The safety and the lives of our people must always remain our No 1 priority and as such, must take precedence over anything else,” stressed the Piasau assemblyman.
Ting, who is also Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) secretary-general, pointed out that Covid-19 is indeed “a once-in-a-century pandemic”.
He pointed out the influenza as another example of a pandemic, which hit the whole world during 1918-1919, with this virus infecting about 500 million people, or one-third of the world’s population at the time.
In comparison, he said over the duration of one and a half years, the coronavirus had infected more than 195 million people and caused more than 4.1 million deaths worldwide.
Citing data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) report, Ting said Covid-19 had caused a loss of more than US$4 trillion to global GDP for years 2020 and 2021, from the pandemic’s direct impact on tourism and other sectors closely linked to tourism.
In many cases, he added, the pandemic had harmed people’s livelihood and health.
He totally agreed that Covid-19 vaccine stands as one of the best solutions for humans at the moment to reduce the spread of the infection, but its primary function is to save as many lives as possible by cutting down the risks of people falling extremely sick from the coronavirus upon being infected.
On the implementation of National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), Ting said Sarawak had been doing extremely well in the vaccination programme for 2.04 million eligible adults, with 1.66 million having gotten their first dose and around 1.14 million having completed the second dose.
“There is no country that could have predicted and prepared for such pandemic.
“It really caught us by surprise, but we’re lucky that since 1918, we have advanced tremendously in biotechnology and vaccine development. Thus, we’re able to develop Covid-19 vaccines so quickly.”
According to Ting, the government is currently mulling on getting children to be vaccinated as well to ensure that they would also be protected.
In this regard, he pointed out: “Now is not the time for politicking to score political mileage as saving lives and saving the livelihood of the people must come first.
“It does not matter which political divide you are from – the important thing is for us to come together in solidarity against the Covid-19.”
Ting also reminded those who had already been vaccinated, on the need for them to continue to be vigilant and follow strictly the standard operating procedures (SOP) set by the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) such as wearing appropriate face masks in public, practising social distancing, washing hands regularly as well as avoiding crowded places and confined spaces.
“We do not want to be like Selangor sprawling out of control, recording more than half of the country’s daily cases.
“We’re fortunate that with effective leadership in Sarawak government, we are able to reduce our daily cases.The result speaks for itself.”