KOTA KINABALU: Usukan assemblyman and ex-Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Salleh Said Keruak feels that it is important to have continued assistance for the people due to the growing number of people being infected with Covid-19 in the country.
In his blog Sallehsaid.com, he said that the country is now facing her biggest challenge following the rise of Covid-19 cases of up to 3,000 cases per day.
He said that it is due to this that the Movement Control Order (MCO) 2.0 was imposed at six states in the country as announced by the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He added that the country’s frontliners are facing the challenge of supporting high number of cases and he urged that people adhere to the orders of the government to stay at home, especially if they are located at red zones.
Nevertheless, assistance and incentives must be given continually since the MCO is expected to continue unless the number of cases start decreasing, he said.
“There are just too many people affected by the pandemic. Not just here but it is impacting the world economy too,” he said.
Citing a research by the United Nations made last year, he said that the study suggest more than 826,000 Malaysians would be unemployed.
“The unemployment rate last year was 5.3 percent,” he said.
“Hence, it is important for the assistance to be continued to those who do not have access to social protection network such as SOCSO. These include the self-employed, those working in the gig economy such as the e-hailing drivers,” he said.
Salleh also reminded that many business operators and hawkers have not even recuperated fully from the last implementation of the MCO last year in March 18.
“They have only begun to run their businesses again,” he said.
And he said that recent media reports have mentioned the worries of business owners who felt they may have to permanently close shop and are in need of help and incentives to continue in the industry.
