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Lack of data despite 400,000 cases is ‘beyond stupidity’, says Wong Chen

By FMT Reporters (5 May 2021) PETALING JAYA: Subang MP Wong Chen has slammed the government for failing to effectively analyse Covid-19 data despite over a year of dealing with the pandemic. In a Facebook post, he said the Perikatan Nasional administration’s style of announcing a movement control order (MCO) before the SOPs were ready was also “just stupid and unacceptable”.

He said the current confusion over the SOPs was similar to when the previous MCO was announced.

Wong, who is part of the PKR Covid-19 task force, said they had been crunching limited available data and observing models of the pandemic since last year. The current Covid-19 situation in Malaysia, he said, was “completely expected and predictable” as the country was normally three to six weeks behind Covid-19 incidences in Europe.

“What is beyond stupidity is that after more than 400,000 infections in Malaysia, and this represents a very, very large pool of data, the government still cannot provide proper public advisory on who are most at risk, where are these risks and what economic or social activities are risky,” he said. Instead, he said, the government chose to adopt a “one-size-fits-all” mentality that hurts the economy and the people’s financial well-being.

He also questioned the lack of transparency regarding data from the MySejahtera mobile application and why it had not been shared with state and local governments.


“Or, is this government just too lazy to do proper analytics?” Senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob told a press conference yesterday that six districts in Selangor – Hulu Langat, Petaling, Gombak, Klang, Kuala Langat and Sepang – will go under MCO from tomorrow until May 17.

According to Ismail, the full SOPs for work-from-home policies in the private sector and the closure of schools will be released by the international trade and industry and education ministries, respectively.


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