Month: July 2021

Four senators, the members of Malaysia’s upper house, took their oath of office before the Senate President Rais Yatim at Dewan Negara today.

The four appointed Senators: Radzi Jidin is the Senior Minister of Education, and the Vice-President of BERSATU; serving his second term as Senator.

• John Ambrose is a Kadazan from Sabah and he is a member of BERSATU; serving his second term as Senator.
• Teo Eng Tee @ Teo Kok Chee is a former state assemblyman of Skudai, Johor and a member of GERAKAN; serving his second term as Senator.
• Bobbey Ah Fang Suan the newly appointed Senator is the former state assemblyman for Nabawan, Sabah and a member of BERSATU.

Note: The Dewan Negara consists of 70 members, which they are referred to as Senator.

• 26 of them are appointed to represent 13 different states (2 from each state).
• 44 are appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the advice of the Prime Minister.

The Dewan Rakyat will be reopened for five days for a special sitting from 26 July until 2 August 2021, but only with an agenda of ‘briefings by the Ministers’.

Why it matters? Parliamentarians were expecting to debate on the National Recovery Plan (NRP), emergency ordinances and pandemic when the Parliament reopens.

What they’re saying? With the opposition and backbenchers not allowed to participate in the debate, this step have silenced the voices of the people, claim some of the Member of Parliaments.

• If a parliamentary sitting is being called just for (ministers) to give briefings for five days, just record a video and upload it to YouTube so we can watch, former Prime Minister Najib Razak posted on Facebook.
• We’ve been under lockdown for months yet (daily) cases have now exceeded 13,000. I’m paid by the rakyat, I must bring their voice. – Syed Saddiq, Muar MP.
• This means MPs can only ask ministers questions in Parliament from September. It must be nice to be a Perikatan Nasional (PN) minister, you don’t have to answer anyone for nine months. – Hannah Yeoh, Segambut MP.
• Pejuang will not attend the coming parliamentary sitting if debates and the party’s two motions are disallowed. – Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad
• It’s just to cheat that a parliamentary sitting is being held. But not the way we think. They can issue a white paper. – Langkawi MP
• The role of check and balance by the Dewan Rakyat must be empowered, and not stopped. – Anwar Ibrahim, Port Dickson MP.

The special sitting from July 26 to July 29 and Aug 2 will be the first sitting since Parliament was suspended following the declaration of emergency on Jan 12.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that Operation Surge Capacity, a massive vaccination effort in the Klang Valley will be executed to reduce severe cases of Covid-19 infection.

Why it matters: The move will see daily doses of vaccines administered in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor go up significantly to ensure that some 6.1 million adults have access to at least one shot of the vaccine.

This involves the administration of the vaccine at a rate of 1.3 million doses until 25 July, 2021 and another 1.3 million doses between 26 July to 1 August 2021.

Current numbers: Up until 16 July, about 3.5 million adult population in Selangor and KL have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Cooperation between the federal government and Selangor state government is crucial with the coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin decided together with Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari to appoint Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming as the coordinator for the Selangor state government.

The issue: The high increase in daily COVID-19 cases, especially in the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor is giving pressure for the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) to make thorough preparations to increase vaccination capacity and vaccination rate, especially in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor which are the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Health Minister Dr Adham Baba made the news again at a talk in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) where he mistakenly mentioned “Spanish fly” which he is suppose to mean “Spanish flu”.

The gaffe: In the video made viral by social media users, Dr Adham Baba can be heard saying that in 1916, the Spanish “fly” (instead of flu) had killed about a million people around the world and it happened for two years.

To make things worse, Spanish fly is commonly referred to as a sex stimulant.

Not the first time: He made Malaysians uproar during the early stages of the first Movement Control Order (MCO), when he advised the people to drink hot water in order to kill the COVID-19.

The Minister then made the news again when he mentioned that he had attended a World Health Organisation (WHO) conference call with 500 countries. Technically, we only have 195 countries in the whole world.

Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa has been fined RM2,000 by the police for breaching COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs). He was visiting former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Badawi and his wife Tun Jeanne Abdullah at their residence.

The issue: This is not the first time he has been seen flouting the SOPs, but the third time.

• The first time was in January when he uploaded a photo of himself briskly walking with Kuala Lumpur City Hall director-general Datuk Noordin Abdul Razak and former Kelantan Football Association treasurer Datuk Nik Aminaldin Jaafar, with no masks on.
• In February the Minister was seen sitting at a table with six individuals without socially distancing, which he was fined RM1,000.

Should Ministers, YBs and politicians be given a heavier fine when they are going against rules that they should be aware of?

Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) has been officially registered as a political party, said its chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said the party received approval letters from Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin and the Registrar of Societies (ROS) today.

“Thank you to the government for registering this party as a political party. We will be more active after this because we are legal,” he said in a virtual press conference.

On June 25, the High Court ordered Hamzah to make a decisionn on an appeal by Pejuang regarding its registration within 14 days, which ended today.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mahathir said the Pejuang MPs would propose the establishment of a National Recovery Council at the special sitting of the Dewan Rakyat later this month.

– BERNAMA

UMNO has decided to withdraw its support for Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin with immediate effect, said UMNO president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said the decision was made at a Supreme Council meeting held virtually last night, which began at 8.30pm and lasted more than four hours.

He said the decision was taken following the failure of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government to fulfil seven conditions set by UMNO when Muhyiddin became the Prime Minister on March 1, 2020.

“Fulfilling the unanimous mandate of delegates at the UMNO 2020 General Assembly and based on the seven failures of the government to fulfil the aspirations of the people as outlined, therefore the period of giving support to Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as Prime Minister is withdrawn and has ended.

“Therefore, UMNO demands that Tan Sri Muhyiddin step down honourably to enable a new Prime Minister to be appointed for a limited period,” he said in a media conference held virtually at the Putra World Trade Centre.

Ahmad Zahid, who is also Bagan Datok Member of Parliament, said throughout this period, the new Prime Minister would only focus on efforts to help the welfare of the people during the COVID-19 pandemic by adopting an inclusive approach and ensuring that the vaccination process is speeded up.

“After achieving herd immunity, the new Prime Minister should immediately advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to return the mandate to the people for the 15th General Election to be held.”

“This is important to establish a truly stable government with the mandate of the majority of the people as decreed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong,” he said.

He said the UMNO Supreme Council meeting also reiterated the position adopted by the UMNO General Assembly 2020 to not support any effort to nominate Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the Prime Minister or back a DAP-Pakatan Harapan-led government.

Ahmad Zahid said the meeting reaffirmed the decision to postpone the UMNO elections for 18 months in accordance with Clause 10.16 of the UMNO Constitution.

– BERNAMA