BINTULU: Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing had again reminded the public here not to rent out their rumah sewa (rental home) to new tenants from outside the district during the current Covid-19 pandemic.
“This will be the final reminder and appeal from me. It will not be tolerated any further and landlords cannot blame the authorities for taking stricter actions.
“Businesses will be subject to rigorous inspections. If the rumah sewa still do not cooperate with these standard operating procedures (SOPs), they will face immediate demolition by the authorities,” he warned.
Added Tiong, “In one case, the tenants of a rumah sewa have repeatedly crossed districts to work but tested positive after returning. This had resulted in the rumah sewa being locked down a total of three times.
“Why do the people continue to stubbornly dismiss the SOPs?” chided Tiong in a statement on Tuesday.
He then explained that the majority of confirmed cases had occurred in rumah panjang (longhouses) and rumah sewa (rented houses).
“Among them, several irresponsible persons had tampered with the rT-PCR test reports used to apply for inter-district travel passes and even several police reports had been falsified.
“This is extremely infuriating and disappointing. We are facing a life-and-death situation on a pandemic scale but yet, we continue to encounter behaviour like this which threatens our efforts to battle the coronavirus.
“Likewise, rumah sewa in Bintulu have been the locations of many confirmed cases and clusters of infections. The authorities have repeatedly called on the relevant businesses to cooperate with the Covid-19 prevention efforts including not renting out units to people from outside the district, monitoring the flow of people and maintaining sanitary conditions.
Tiong also pointed out that there were groups of people who continued to violate the SOPs. During roadblock checks, many road users have claimed to travel to work but they hesitate to provide details of their workplaces.
He added that it was very difficult to understand why the public could not exercise some self-discipline and self-sacrifice to stay home and not go out unless necessary for the sake of their families health.
“Pasar Utama Bintulu and Pasar Ikan Sebiew, where clusters were previously detected, were among places frequently visited by the public. They were allowed to reopen with careful observation of the SOPs and surprise inspection visits from time to time.
“A lack of rigorous compliance to the SOPs will lead to more confirmed cases and that will disrupt the livelihoods of the hawkers and stall keepers,” said the MP.
He said while urban cases had gone down, there were signs of growing numbers of confirmed cases in longhouses.
“We will be holding discussions with the residents’ association on this matter to seek their cooperation and re-implementing the ban on visitors and relatives from outside the district to returning to the affected longhouses.
“These SOPs include refraining from visiting each other during the Gawai festive season. People from outside the district must be urged not to return to Bintulu during this period.
“One of the reasons for the occurrence of clusters in these longhouses is by the frequent entries and exits by residents and outsiders, including those who work in the urban areas returning during their breaks. Infected non-locals are also transmitting the disease among the longhouse community undetected, which made it very difficult to perform contact tracing on the infected population and contain further infections,” said Tiong.
“I sincerely appeal to my fellow Bintulu residents to dedicate themselves to protect their homeland for the long term,” he said.
