Stop playing inexplicable narrative and risking Sarawakians’ lives, MUDA tells GPS

5 Nov 2021

Referring to the Press Conference by the Chief Minister of Sarawak today, dated 5th November 2021, MUDA Sarawak would like to urge the Government of Sarawak under the leadership of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) to stop playing inexplicable narrative in times of this COVID-19 pandemic.

GPS had been repeatedly saying that they requested consent from His Majesty Yang di-Pertuan Agong to lift the Proclamation of Emergency because they want to uphold and protect the Constitution of Sarawak and the democracy.

MUDA has democracy both in the name of our party and as one of our core values, we too

will always uphold and protect it, as well as the constitutions. However, in this pandemic, the lives of the people should be a priority before an election.

The narrative is inexplicable because the Emergency Proclamation was constitutional, and it was made because the King deemed it was necessary. The emergency had started from 2nd August 2021 and should end on 2nd February 2022 as proclaimed by the King due to His Majesty’s concern of a worse outbreak if the state election were to be done during this pandemic.

GPS could have just waited until the emergency ended in just a few more months when it is in much better control than it is today. As of today, almost 70% of the ICU in Sarawak are being utilized and the daily COVID-19 cases are still three digits. About 70% of the ventilators are currently in use. Last month, we have seen daily double digits death cases and still, we have more than 7,000 active cases. With our level of the healthcare system in Sarawak, it is a huge risk to do the election, especially in the rural areas.

During the press conference this morning, the Chief Minister said that they are discussing proactive measures for the election later. With new two clusters yesterday and the peak of cases just within two months ago, what made GPS think they can control the pandemic when there will be a surge of movements between states and divisions around the election date later?

This lift of Emergency Proclamation also made certain that youth of the age 18-20 will be unable to exercise their democratic responsibility. They will have to wait for another 5 years to be able to vote for their State Assembly leaders. Even though GPS had been preaching to support Undi18, it eventually causes about 135,000 youths to not be able to vote.

As the emergency ended, the state election is inevitable, MUDA Sarawak shares the concern of His Majesty and would like to call for the Election Commission and the government to take the necessary reforms in the election process and create proactive measures such as a new personalized Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the upcoming Sarawak election.

Demi Pertiwiku,

Pro-tem Jawatankuasa Eksekutif Negeri (JKEN)

Perikatan Demokratik Malaysia (MUDA) Sarawak