Yoursay: ‘We need military healthcare assets, not combatants’

YOURSAY | ‘Deploying the army is too excessive; the police are already doing a good job.’

Control order - Army to be deployed starting Sunday to assist cops

Xiao Zhu: China didn't deploy its People's Liberation Army at the height of its Covid-19 crisis. The role to control public movement is for the police.

This is causing more panic and fear. It looks like we are now seeking to close the stable door after the horse has bolted. Isn't it too late?

The focus should be to boost our medical facilities with more beds to handle those infected, all necessary equipment and medication, as well as more humanpower.

Most importantly, all the frontline medical personnel must be well-protected.

Anonymous 2043581479977820: We need military healthcare assets to help face this crisis, not combatants. Why do we need the army to enforce the movement control order, which is a partial lockdown anyway?

I can see following the public announcements by the government and health authorities, the people are beginning to cooperate.

Deploying the army is like using a bomb to kill a fly. Please call off the deployment of the army as people are already jittery.

This is a very uncalled for decision.

Weird Weirder: Many countries have laws to prevent using the army to take on a civilian role. The reason is that the army is not trained to be a crowd controller. They are trained to shoot and kill enemies of the country.

Thus, there is a risk that things might get out of hand when someone dies due to confrontation with the army on our streets.

I hope the government knows what they are doing before we get a Tiananmen Square situation in Malaysia.

TangoBug: Perhaps send the army to round up all the participants of the major source of localised Covid-19 infections in Malaysia, which the utterly incompetent authorities seem unable to do.

The objective of the movement control order is to prevent/reduce casual infection between individuals. The method employed is social distancing. As long as individuals stay apart from each other, the likelihood of droplet infection is reduced.

Distancing does not refer only to the physicality of measured separation. It includes the presence of physical barriers between individuals.

Stay at home is not equal to social distancing. How does enforcing staying at home in a two-room low-cost flat with grandparents, parents and five children equate to social distancing?

It’s extremely frustrating to see knee-jerk responses and the lack of competence by people without a clue on what to do.

Believe We Can: Finally, a good move. We need to nip it in the bud before this disease goes out of control.

Aggressive measures must be taken early to get rid of this problem fast. The situation at the hospitals is getting worse and we need to be ahead of the game.

Malaysian Expatriate: People irrespective of race or religion, especially those who have attended mass gatherings, who do not abide the instructions of the government authorities, are grossly selfish and irresponsible to others in the community and should face the brunt of the law.

Martial law, I will say, is possible.

Drngsc: Legal experts must advise us. Is this cabinet, without being tested by Parliament, pronounce a national emergency and send the army to the streets? Do they have to get parliamentary approval?

Having the police to enforce the movement control order is one thing. Bringing the army out is an entirely different matter. Dear constitutional lawyers, is this order in accordance with the constitution?

Can the man who allegedly eats banned turtle eggs make new laws?

Tax payer: This is too excessive; the police are already doing a good job. What is important is to remind the public at large to adhere to the order through various means of communication.

Please don't try to create panic. That is the last thing we need.

Anonymous_1584152259907.39181584151970432: Former health minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and his deputy, Dr Lee Boon Chye, were doing a fine job of bringing the Covid-19 crisis under control with the then deputy prime minister, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, as the national coordinating minister (three doctors focusing on the Covid-19 outbreak).

In fact, before the treacherous Sheraton Move, Malaysia was acknowledged to have a better grip on the crisis than countries in the region, including Singapore who was in panic-buying mode.

During this critical time, we had a group of pengkhianat (traitors) plotting their treacherous move to overthrow the duly-elected government and the climax came on Feb 24.

The distraction caused by the pengkhianat, starting from Feb 24 until March 1, resulted in the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government and a new prime minister appointed. During this critical time, there was a vacuum of leadership.

The country was leaderless until March 9 when the new PM appointed his ministers. It took the unelected government another nine days to react when a positive Covid-19 case was reported in Brunei, tracing back to a religious congregation in Sri Petaling, Kula Lumpur.

The Health Ministry lost focus during this period while the religious congregation was going on from Feb 27 to March 1 without taking any precaution.

Since then, our stock market has tanked and lost billions of ringgit - and will probably take 10 years to recover - foreigners took their investments out, and now Covid-19 has exploded with more deaths expected.

Malaysia is now fourth in Asia with the most Covid-19 cases. Malaysia’s economy will take a very long time to recover from this disaster.

In panic reaction, the National Security Council, staffed by the same pengkhiatnat, came up with this half-cooked national lockdown emergency.

Instead of controlling the situation, the lockdown is now making the situation worse, causing unnecessary panic with mass travel back to kampungs, spreading the Covid-19 even faster.

This lockdown has contributed to uncountable damage to the economy and misery to Malaysians.

These pengkhianat should bear the responsibility caused by their greed and self-interest while the country is going through this Covid-19 calamity. 

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