KUCHING: Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) wants the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in Sarawak to be done by experts, and not politicians.
Aspirasi president Lina Soo said she would like to see the Sarawak government appoint professionals to manage the pandemic since the situation is not improving.
“Pandemic management is not politics; it is a matter of life and death. And the people look to experts, and not politicians, to manage a pandemic with knowledge, competence and professionalism,” she said here on Monday (April 26).
She opined that the infection rate would not have been so widespread had the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) been vigilant and consistent with standard operating procedure (SOP) guidelines.
“Blunders and omissions had been committed which aided the virulent spread of Covid-19 throughout communities and longhouses all over Sarawak, affecting almost all districts and even remote areas.
“While the number of cases among healthcare workers is alarming, indicating lack of personal protective equipment at hospitals. Police trainees, who are trained to protect the people, cannot even protect themselves against Covid-19. Covid-19 spreading through our schools is appalling.”
She added that the policies and SOP were confusing and conflicting — the three-day, two-night policy without quarantine against the norm of 14-day quarantine were hastily put in place to please privileged groups and the elite.
“Visitors can just step off the plane and go on to participate in activities, putting at risk the danger of creating new super spreader clusters.”
Soo said testing was still slow in which results would only be known on the third day — by then the potential spreader would have gone on to infect family members, colleagues and the public.
“Also, SMDC cannot even get the naming of clusters and locations right. It has become a messy business where SDMC advisor Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian once proudly announced publishing locations is in the power of SDMC, yet laid the blame on the federal Ministry of Health when there are errors in names and locations.”
Soo also noted that the chaotic naming of clusters and locations had resulted in neighbouring shops—unexposed to Covid-19—being shunned by the public.
“Instead, SDMC pushed the blame to the public, for not following SOPs when it would have been prudent to first audit the processes in the system that had gone wrong. This is a continuous real-time process as Covid-19 management means split second decisions and fast action.
“With conflicting policies and information that are untimely and inconsistent, the public are bewildered and confused at a time when they are looking to the government for comfort and leadership.”
