KOTA KINABALU: The Federal Government should do away with the National Recovery Plan as following it will eventually kill the economy and affect the livelihoods of millions, including in Sabah, said Sabah Economic Advisory Council (SEAC) Chairman, Tan Sri David Chu.
“Take Sabah, which is now under Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan for example. Many sectors remain closed and many continue to be jobless. Even if Sabah is to enter Phase Three, many sectors, especially those considered non-essential will continue to be closed,” he said.
Chu said the economy is important as it provides employment.
“No one can afford to be jobless and business owners also can’t afford to stop operating due to the continuous lockdowns.
“The National Security Council (NSC) should only go for targeted lock-down and not across the board. It has proven that lockdowns under the name of MCO, CMCO, RMCO, EMCO and Temco did not manage to flatten the Covid-19 curve. After months of lockdown, Covid cases now has spiralled 20,000,” he said, adding that lockdowns are not working.
“If it is not working then why keep it? Many people are having problems placing food on their tables as well as pay their rentals.
“To these millions of people in the country, the bleak economic situation now is worse than Covid,” he said, adding that the Federal Government should without delay allow all sectors, both essentials and non-essentials to operate.
“Everything needs to work concurrently. We need to ramp up the number of people being vaccinated, follow the SOPs and at the same time open the economy. The Government and NSC should invite corporate figures and those involved in the SMEs to SOP meetings to give their views,” he said.
Chu said among the SOPs that the Government should impose, include only allowing those fully vaccinated to reopen… meaning the bosses, staff and customers must be fully inoculated.
“Many people are getting desperate and worried about their livelihoods. Continuos wait for the number of Covid cases to drop before opening up all the sectors is not the solution. For example, sector like tourism has been closed for a long time and some of these tourism operators are still hanging own, hoping they will be allowed to reopen soon and recover their losses. But they are also many who have decided to wind-up their businesses to cut their losses and as a result many were made jobless,” he said.
He said one can see the number of tour buses parked all over the places, being left to rot.
“The Government should also encourage bosses to bring their workers, legal or otherwise to be vaccinated. There is no point only vaccinating the locals and leaving out the foreign workers. There are believed to be a few hundred thousand legal workers and illegal immigrants in Sabah. Letting them roam around without being fully jabbed means herd immunity would be impossible to achieve.
“Deal with the problems of illegal immigrants in the State later. Get them vaccinated and protect the people first,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chu said the two persons per table rule for dine-ins at eateries should be changed.
“Five people should be allowed in a table meant for 10 people,” he said, adding four people should be allowed in one vehicle for families travelling together.
“For example, a couple has four young children and under the present rule, even when both the husband and wife are driving their own vehicles, the most they can bring is two children. So who is going to take care of the other two,? he asked.-pr/BNN
