KUALA LUMPUR, 30 JUNE: Instead of a centralized, nationwide lockdown, the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) today urged the government to consider a more decentralized approach to overall pandemic management, including vaccination roll-out, Covid-19 testing, and the implementation of restrictions based on local severity. IDEAS stated in a statement that what is missing from the National People’s Well-being and Economic Recovery Package (PEMULIH) is a plan to engage with state governments to combat the pandemic.
“Limited resources can be effectively mobilized to combat the pandemic with improved cooperation. We have not seen a big shift from the federal government to make state governments equal partners in combating the pandemic, except for infrequent contact between individuals in the federal and state governments “Tricia Yeoh, IDEAS’ chief executive officer (CEO), stated.
“We urge some resources be granted to state governments to take on these new shared duties,” Yeoh said, referring to the overall pandemic management measures described previously.
Meanwhile, IDEAS applauded some of the package’s innovative measures, such as allocating RM300,000 for food basket assistance to each Member of Parliament (MP) regardless of political affiliation, a food program for the Orang Asli community, fiscal support for the leisure and entertainment sector, and one-time assistance to school canteen owners. It also applauded the government’s choice to keep the previous package’s activities going.
“We applaud the government’s initiative to provide MPs with an equal allocation of food baskets for their constituents, regardless of their party membership.”
This is a positive move for constituency allocation, and a fair distribution of constituency development funds should be maintained until the crisis has passed. We also urge MPs to report the allocation’s use to the public in a transparent manner. In reality, for transparency and accountability, the government should oblige MPs to submit expenditure reports on how they spend the allocated funds “Yeoh remarked.
However, IDEAS pointed out that the majority of the initiatives in the package are one-time cash aid rather than long-term support for the public, and that many of the measures would not be implemented right away, causing a time-lag impact.
It also raised worry that permitting a complete withdrawal of RM5,000 under the Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) i-Citra project could have unintended implications, such as depleting people’s retirement savings in the long run.
Separately, according to Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking for June, Malaysia was ranked 51st out of 53 economies.
“IDEAS is growing worried that the government’s National Recovery Plan does not include real steps and methods that will allow us to transition from one phase to the next more quickly. I renew my request for up to 300,000 [shots] per day of vaccination and widespread, regular, and affordable testing.
“The earlier we can get out of this long-term lockdown, the faster the economy can recover. Until then, fiscal support will need to be maintained while the government’s budgetary condition is improved “Yeoh went on to say. Continue reading