“There are do’s and don’ts, so to ensure that the government under (state secretary) Kamel Mohamad continues to operate well, I as the caretaker chief minister, and the state executive councillors, will help where we can.

“Projects to assist the people, and duties that should continue to run, are being monitored as usual,” he told a press conference after launching the Melaka-level occupational safety and health master plan 2025 (OSHMP25) and the occupational safety and health week (OSH) 2021 here today.

Also present were department of occupational safety and health (DOSH) director-general Zailee Dollah and the state exco member for unity, community relations, manpower and consumer affairs Ismail Othman.

The exco meeting held yesterday was the first chaired by Sulaiman as the caretaker government’s chief minister since the Melaka state assembly was dissolved on Oct 4 after four assemblymen withdrew support for his leadership.

The four former assemblymen are Idris Haron (Sungai Udang), Nor Azman Hassan (Pantai Kundor), Norhizam Hassan Baktee (Pengkalan Batu) and Noor Effandi Ahmad (Telok Mas).

In another development, Sulaiman said Melaka is expected to move to Phase 4 of the national recovery plan in the third week of this month.

“Melaka should have been able to move to Phase 4 together with Pahang but we postponed it due to our fluctuating number of cases. The decision on the transition will be determined next week,” he said.

OSHMP25 is a continuation of DOSH’s three previous five-year strategic plans that aim to create a safe and healthy work culture to make workplaces safe and healthy through a comprehensive strategic occupational accident and disease prevention programme.

Today’s event was attended by 50 participants while another 750 were online, comprising professionals from government departments, local authorities, public and private universities as well as OSH practitioners.