Shaun Cheah, executive director of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said uncertainty does not augur well for businesses, adding that “the less change, the better”.

He said the lack of communication could be seen when the government announced the MCO but said SOPs would be announced later, giving the impression that Putrajaya was shooting from the hip before the ministries scrambled to rectify the various guidelines.

“If there’s a need to be ‘dynamic’, then consult the industry before you announce (additional rules) so that it’ll be clear and precise and won’t lead to further confusion.

“Imagine businesses having to wait until the penultimate hour for the new SOPs to come out. Businesses need to plan ahead and don’t have an on-off switch,” Cheah told FMT.

His remarks came in the wake of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin stating that MCO rules were not static but dynamic, as they were formulated according to the current situation of the pandemic.

Cheah said the government should not micromanage businesses.

The chamber preferred keeping SOPs simple with guiding principles on sanitisation, mask-wearing, physical distancing and reduced movement.

“These should be sufficient as all the granular SOPs are addressed in the guiding principles. Businesses will adapt to fit these principles to their business processes without needing the government to tell them what they can or cannot do.

“In terms of social activities, then yes, the government can be more granular in micromanaging the general population,” he said.

Muhyiddin had also said a complete lockdown would have cost up to RM500 billion in support measures to prop up the economy.

But economist Geoffrey Williams disputed these figures, noting that the MCO had cost the economy some RM2.4 billion a day.

“Based on this assessment, this means he is expecting the lockdown to last 208 days. In other words, we would be in lockdown until the end of the year.

“Even if MCO 3.0 costs RM300 million a day, this would be RM64.5 billion or nearly 4.5% of GDP if it runs to December. The ‘dynamic SOPs’ will do nothing to help,” Williams, of Malaysia University of Science and Technology, told FMT.

He said the real communication issue from the government was how it seemed to be applying policies that were counterproductive to its goal.

Using Ramadan bazaars as an example, he said allowing them to operate did not make sense if Putrajaya’s goal was to bring down the Covid-19 cases as large groups of people would be congregating in high-density areas.

“Now the policy is to shorten opening hours and reduce service levels on public transport which will cause crowding in shops, trains and buses.

“The two-hour limit is almost impossible to monitor and the HIDE system will shut down outlets and cause further crowding in those that are open. The policy is the direct opposite of the target.

“It gives the impression of a dispute in the government between the health ministry which wants a full lockdown and others who want to keep the economy open. So the compromise is leading to confusion and bad policy design.”