DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang wants Prime Minister Muhiyiddin Yassin to convene a two-day emergency parliamentary sitting to debate his economic stimulus package.
He said it was important for Muhyiddin to convene the emergency sitting to approve the package so that it would have credibility and legitimacy.
Yesterday, Muhyiddin announced a RM250 billion economic stimulus package to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said that “no one will be left behind” as the government’s priority is to combat Covid-19.
Of the RM250 billion, RM128 billion will be spent on welfare while another RM100 billion have been earmarked for businesses, including small and medium enterprises.
“There should be no other business for the emergency meeting of parliament, whether it be question-and-answer session, a no confidence motion against the prime minister, election for a new speaker or any other business except for a debate to approve the RM250 billion economic stimulus package.
“The debate will also allow MPs to convey the views of the people with regard to the invisible war against the virus and the triple whammy of public health, economic and information crisis in Malaysia as a result of the outbreak,” he said in a statement today.
Lim, who is also Iskandar Puteri MP, slammed the Prime Minister’s Office’s 24-page infographics on the stimulus package for carrying alarmist messages.
“The infographics opened with the global and domestic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is very clear that the infographics were using figures far behind time when the Covid-19 was raging at an exponential speed worldwide.”
Lim added that the use of the projections by a study at Imperial College London that if the Covid-19 pandemic is left unchecked, there could be 2.2 million deaths in the United States and 510,000 deaths in the United Kingdom was irresponsible and alarmist.
“All these, as well as ideas for a more effective public health strategy to contain the Covid-19 outbreak in Malaysia and the earliest possible restart of the Malaysian economic engine, should be the subject of debate of an emergency meeting, which should be held within a week or two.” – TMI