SIBU: No food assistance will be distributed during the implementation of the conditional movement control order (CMCO), said Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
He said food assistance would only be distributed to longhouses or settlements under lockdown.
“This is because during the CMCO, people can still go out to work, go to the parks, buy necessities and so on. The government has spent a lot on food aid.
“There was a distribution problem in Sibu during the movement control order (MCO) recently,” he said.
Uggah added some people complained that they did not get any food aid while others received the aid twice.
“Because of this problem, we decided not to impose the movement control order (MCO) again in Sibu, Kanowit, Selangau, Song and Kapit,” said the deputy chief minister yesterday during a live session on Facebook hosted by Sibu Municipal Council chairman Counselor Clarence Ting Ing Horh.
The session was also attended by the chairman of the Sibu Rural District Council, Sempurai Petrus Ngelai, Senator Robert Lau Hui Yew, Sarawak Dayak National Union (SDNU) Sibu chairman Chambai Lindong and councillor Augustine Merikan.
Uggah said SDMC decided to stop the MCO and implement the CMCO to allow the people to go out to work and not worry about food supplies.
He added that SDMC might need to review the food aid distribution and delivery system in future in order to improve it.
Uggah, who is Bukit Saban assemblyman, said that the government held a community policing course in October last year to educate the Tuai Rumah on Covid-19 awareness.
On the 214 longhouses that were under restriction, following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, he did not deny that SDMC had problems educating them to comply with standard operating procedures (SOPs) at first.
“There were unwanted incidents but I hope we can learn from the mistakes of the past and not do things we should not do.
“We have to comply with the SOPs not because we are worried about getting a compound but because we want to ensure that the longhouse community is not infected with Covid-19,” he said.
