KUCHING: Federation of Kuching, Samarahan and Serian Divisions Chinese Associations president Datuk Richard Wee is of the view that in Sarawak, the easing of the movement control order (MCO) should be done cautiously and in stages, with local needs taken into account.
“We need to have our own considerations. We can use the federal government’s decision of implementing the conditional movement control order (CMCO) as a guide and reference, but we should try to fine-tune to local needs and regulations,” he said.
He pointed out that the situation in Sarawak was slightly different, with more Covid-19 cases and deaths compared to some West Malaysian states.
“Sarawak has a larger area to control, so this could also make managing the entire situation a bit more challenging,” he told New Sarawak Tribune yesterday.
He proposed that the MCO’s relaxation in Sarawak could be done in a gradual manner, such as allowing shops currently operating twice a week to open three times a week, and then increasing to more days as the situation progressed.
Wee also suggested that professional firms such as legal, accounting and consultancy firms should be given more latitude to resume work compared to other sectors such as factories where social distancing and other measures may be more challenging to implement.
“Legal firms usually do not have many staff members, and for accounting firms they could work on alternate days in a week or control the number of staff present in the office at any one time,” he said.
He said that some shops such as confectionery stores could be given some flexibility in view of the upcoming festivities of Hari Raya and Hari Gawai, as long as all safety measures were in place.
In addition, he said that the severity of Covid-19 in each area should be taken into consideration, with restrictions in green zones being eased more so than those in red zones.
“However, this is with the provision that inter-zone movement should be more strictly controlled,” he said.
He acknowledged that this was a difficult decision for the government to make, and a delicate balance had to be struck between the matters of health and the economy.
“I hope that the state government and the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) will make a very well-considered, logical, and pragmatic decision,” Wee said.
On Friday (May 1), Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had announced the CMCO, which would allow almost all economic sectors and certain social activities to resume on May 4, subject to conditions and excluding those that involved gatherings.
Yesterday, SDMC announced that the state government had decided not to implement the CMCO on May 4 until it had studied the implications of reopening such economic activities, which sectors to open, and when and to what extent they would be allowed to open.
