This comes after Noor Hisham reportedly said the interstate and inter-district travel ban could go on until at least 70% of Malaysia’s population had been given the Covid-19 vaccine.

Center for Market Education said taking a one-sided approach to national policies would yield disproportionate results, pointing out that those in the aviation and hospitality industry will not survive if these sectors are closed for another six to nine months.

Its CEO, Carmelo Ferlito, said there needed to be a “competing” panel of experts from various fields, while placing the real decision-making power in the hands of elected leaders.

“This would afford them a wider range of policy options without ever being accused of ignoring the ‘science’. They would still be following scientific advice.

“This approach would also allow for more accountability and transparency if the public is allowed to review the various recommendations from the competing expert panels,” he said in a statement today.

Ferlito also welcomed the King’s decree that Parliament can reconvene even during the present state of emergency, saying this was crucial to ensure checks and balances instead of government policies being “monopolised” by a certain field of experts.

“Policymaking is an art, not a science, and it is a crucial attempt to a strike balance with contending tensions in light of a complicated trade-off analysis which aims to look closely at the unintended consequences of each regulation.

“This is why it should be led by politicians, who are accountable to the public, and who have the delicate task of bringing complexity into their art.”