Recently the National Recovery Council headed by ex-Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that it will propose to the government for the border to be reopened for international travelers on March 1. The news was received with much fanfare and the most elated of the announcement was the tourism sector.
But the celebration has now been called short, as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri has come out stating that the Cabinet has yet to discuss the National Recovery Council proposal to reopen the country’s borders.
According to the PM, any decision can only be made after feedback on the proposal is received from the Ministry of Health, which has yet to evaluate the proposal.
“We must find a balance between wanting to protect the tourism industry and the people’s health, so the Health Ministry will look into it in detail and propose to the Cabinet on the next step. As of today, our borders are still closed… there’s no discussion yet to reopen,” he added.
A bit of a cold water treatment there, as for the NRC Chairman who has gone into quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19, has yet to make any statement on his premature announcement. What’s even more baffling is why wasn’t MOH consulted or even included in the council before the group collectively made the decision?
It has been 2 years and yet no concrete timeline is being presented on when the borders will be reopened, these flip-flop decisions are not helping anyone either. To date only the Malaysia-Singapore border in Johor via the Vaccinated Travel Lane is online, that is after a firm bilateral discussion between the two nation was formalised.
The PM reiterated that the government was aware of the woes faced by the tourism industry entrepreneurs but did not want the entry of foreign tourists to cause a spike in cases in the country.
While the safety of all Malaysians is paramount, there has to be more engagement with the affected community, the government needs to realise the actions put in place is fixing all segments of the economy. And should be advised on which group or person is to communicate on Covid-19 and economic related issues to the greater public.
