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#AdhamBabaLetakJawatan has been the top trending hashtag in Malaysia after the latest announcement by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba.
On 8 February, Dr Adham Baba, issued a Federal Government Gazette dated 2 February, stating that the quarantine period for ministers returning from any official overseas visits have been reduced from 10 days to three days and will be enforced starting today (9 February).
After news broke out about this announcement, it didn’t take long for a massive reaction from the public, with many calling on Dr Adham Baba to resign from his position as Health Minister.
- “He is as useless as it gets. Please do all of us a huge favour and hand your job to someone that is actually capable. #AdhamBabaLetakJawatan“
- “This kind of ruling shows your lack of appreciation for our medical frontliners. You, of all people, Health Minister, is undermining their work and effort by this ruling.”
- “We’re getting tired with this clown. No function at all. Better #AdhamBabaLetakJawatan“
- “To reduce quarantine time for minister returning from overseas to only 3 days despite the new (more virulent) variant from UK and South Africa? I believe our health minister is incapable of common sense so please #AdhamBabaLetakJawatan“
- “Can I just say I would be a better health minister than the current one? At least I would know when it’s time to resign. #AdhamBabaLetakJawatan“
#MenteriJagaMenteri
Before the hashtag was trending, Opposition MPs were some of the first to call Dr Adham Baba out for the blatant double standards that has been evident throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO) period.
“Never expected that Malaysia would have gone to this level… If it is not clearly double standard, then what is it?” former Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said.
“Did l read it correctly Or Is it A Fake News ?? @KKMPutrajaya. Could anyone verify this please. For the sake of the People and the Nation. Three days quarantine? Remember Sabah?” said former Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.
Other Ministers like Hannah Yeoh didn’t say much, but just tweeted #MerekaJagaMereka and #MenteriJagaMenteri to express her view that the Ministers are only looking out for each other.
Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin arriving at Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, Jakarta, Indonesia on 4 February
Can Adham Baba actually do that?
Seeing that Malaysia is currently in a State of Emergency until August 2021, parliament and state legislative assemblies will not sit until a time decided by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, reported CNA.
This means that the Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers are able to implement new orders without tabling it in Parliament.
This ruling, of course, is very worrying to many people as a quarantine period of only three days does not guarantee that an individual (minister) is not infected with Covid-19. The very reason people are told to stay home for at least two weeks is to ensure that during that period of time, they are not exposing anyone else to possible infections.
With Ministers only needing to quarantine for three days after returning from other countries, how can we trust that they are not the ones who will be potentially spreading Covid-19 to the community?
After what happened at the Sabah Elections in September 2020 and the spike of Covid-19 cases after as a result of VIPs and politicians flouting their quarantine orders, there’s great concern that the same thing could happen now.
And just as the daily Covid-19 cases are finally showing a downward trend in the past few days after hitting an all-time high of over 5,000 daily cases two weeks ago, could this new ruling disrupt all the hard work that the frontliners and the people have put in for the past few months?
What will the government do if that happens? Do our Ministers not know how dangerous Covid-19 is?
Also read: Ministers Returning From Official Overseas Visits To Be Quarantined For Only 3 Days
