Teh Lai Heng (PH-Komtar) said the call was his personal view, taking into account lessons learnt from Selangor, which suffered its worst numbers not long ago and took about two months to bring down without real hard lockdowns.
“I know this is going to be a tough decision to make, but as the Chinese proverb goes, better to endure short-term pain than allow a disease to be untreated,” the chief minister’s political secretary told the state assembly today.
Teh said Penang had tried its best to control the spread of Covid-19 with whatever powers it had, but said most of the powers were vested in the federal authorities.
He said while the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution concerning public health was the joint responsibility of Putrajaya and the state, Penang itself had very little power to do as it wished.
Teh gave an example of the call for factories to be closed. He said Penang, like other states, had no powers to do so as it was in the hands of the ministry of international trade and industry.
He said there were parties asking for state borders to be closed, but that too, was under the federal authorities, namely the National Security Council and the police.
Teh said “ignorant political parties” such as MCA and Gerakan continued to snipe at the Penang government on combating Covid-19 when the state had tried its best through its limited powers.
“There are a lot of negative comments against the state, but with no constructive proposals on what we can do. They think the CM is the health minister or the prime minister (PM).
“The reality is the CM’s power is limited compared to a federal minister or the PM,” he said in debating the governor’s address.
Teh said in a tug-of-war on the lives versus livelihood dilemma, the CM had also faced conflicts with the federal authorities in wanting to be stricter in Covid-19 prevention.
“I remember once the CM wanted to tighten the SOPs and dine-in and other close-contact, risky activities.
“He was then criticised by many traders and certain parties for being ‘zalim’ (cruel) for not taking care of their rice bowl,” he said.
Teh said that despite limited powers, the Penang government had sponsored most of the personal protective equipment worn by frontliners in the state, camps and portable toilets at all police roadblocks and food supplies to healthcare workers.
He said it had also had its largest Covid-19 screening in the whole of last month across all state constituencies and with the state setting aside RM175 million in the 2021 state budget to address concerns during the pandemic.
Penang has consistently recorded the highest Covid-19 case numbers by population, with 94.5 incidences per 100,000 population as of yesterday (seven-day average), beating Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.