KOTA KINABALU, Jan 23 — Eight MPs from Parti Warisan Sabah have appealed to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah to lift the state of emergency.
Party president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal said that they acknowledged the provisions in the Constitution which allows for a state of emergency to be called but said it was “not the time” for such a measure to tackle the Covid 19 pandemic.
“Our concern is not from the legal aspect of the Constitution – an emergency is allowed for the security of the nation, and there is no doubt there is serious concern over public health with the pandemic.
“It’s not that we cannot but the current provisions under the Movement Control Order(MCO) is sufficient to battle the pandemic,” Shafie said during a press conference here today.
“The pandemic is not uncontrollable at the moment; some areas are still manageable but it’s just not time for an emergency yet,” he said.
Shafie said that many countries around the world use a form of MCO to tackle the pandemic, and that Malaysia could benefit from stricter guidelines.
The letter of appeal was sent to the Agong earlier this week.
Shafie, who has previously made his disagreement to a state of the emergency known, was asked whether Warisan was also considering taking legal action following a statement by Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“Our letter is only an appeal, we are not pressuring. We agree with Agong’s decision, we are just giving our views on the legal issues pertaining to the laws,” he said.
Shafie had earlier distributed assistance to water villagers at Tanjung Aru here whose were severely affected by bad weather this week.
The homes were damaged by the high waves, strong winds and heavy rain earlier this week.
Shafie said that despite the billions of ringgit in allocation that was being tabled by the government, people on the ground had not seen any assistance during this time.
“Some of them haven’t seen any help at all during this lockdown, and then during the flood,” he said.
His party had handed food supplies, mattresses, pillows also building materials including zinc pieces for roofing, wooden planks and beams for those whose houses were damaged. (Malaymail)
