Kuala Lumpur May 23 — Najib Razak has mocked the latest movement restrictions, saying Parliament offers the best example that a full lockdown is an efficient measure against the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There are no new cases, no new clusters (from Parliament). At the same time, the income of parliamentarians and workers has not been reduced a single sen throughout the lockdown,” he said in a tweet.
Parliament and all state assemblies were suspended when the emergency was declared in January.
The latest movement restrictions, dubbed MCO 3.0, took effect on May 12 and are scheduled to end on June 7.
Last night, in defending stricter restrictions on its economic and social sectors, prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin said a new full lockdown would have cost the government as much as half a trillion ringgit in support measures to prop up the economy.
Muhyiddin’s government has faced pressure to impose another full lockdown in the face of rising Covid-19 infections, which have gone past 6,000 new cases a day.
He admitted that the health ministry’s recommendation was for a total lockdown to be implemented to stop the spread of Covid-19.
But, Muhyiddin said a balance between lives and livelihoods had to be struck in deciding on the implementation of the MCO to ensure that the people were not badly affected.
