Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (PH-Kulim-Bandar Bharu) said Muhyiddin had first announced the recovery plan when he was prime minister, which included key thresholds such as daily infections, the public health system’s capacity and vaccination percentage.
He pointed out that the original plan was to only open up the economy and allow domestic tourism when 60% of Malaysians were vaccinated, the public health system was at a moderate capacity, and daily cases were below 500.
“Is this policy still in effect with the current government? For example, it was announced that domestic tourism in Langkawi will resume. AirAsia has already sold about 200,000 flight tickets.
“But according to Muhyiddin’s exit plan, assuming it is still in force since he is the MPN chairman, this will only happen when daily cases are fewer than 500. Cases are still at five digits now, but domestic tourism has opened.
“So, were these recommendations based on science and data? Or is that exit plan no longer in use? I need clarity on this matter,” he told the Dewan Rakyat today in debating the King’s address.
The Pakatan Harapan secretary-general also said there was a need for Putrajaya to move away from formulating its economic policies based on figures like credit ratings and deficit, and instead focus on addressing various inequalities affecting the people.
He said finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz admitted to him that among the government’s weaknesses was that it measured success in terms of aid disbursement rather than the effects of the measures.
“There were already inequalities in income, education and infrastructure before the pandemic struck,” he said, warning that Covid-19 and the various lockdowns had only exacerbated them.
“An economy based on conventional figures or the approach of giving big projects and allocations while hoping for trickle-down benefits or corporate tax collection, I think these are old ways.
“We must focus our efforts on resolving inequality and giving greater social protection. And studies must be done into the people’s problems based on granular data. It cannot be based on views.”
He added that there must be a plan for the economy with data-driven policies while ensuring no misallocation of resources.