LETTERS: The raising of a white flag of late by some of our fellow Malaysians, denotes defeat or hopelessness requiring help due to the onslaught of this pandemic.

As a proud Selangorian, it is very sad to see my state which is the most populous, industrialised, urbanised and possibly the most educated of all the states, now also having the dubious distinction of having the most Covid cases in Malaysia.

And this is not a single spike but a consistent trend of between 2,000-3,000 cases per day for days on end now.

For all the criticism the Federal Government has received in handling the pandemic, even our feckless Opposition cannot deny that the Malaysian vaccination programme has been very well handled and rolled out with almost 300,000 jabs per day currently, with the August target of 400, 000 a day in sight. 

While it is clearly the Federal Government's job to vaccinate the people and issue SOP and movement orders, it's the State's responsibility to work with the Government and enforce the SOP within their boundaries.

So where is the Selangor Government in all this?? Where is the extra enforcement at factories and work places or in areas with the highest cases and clusters?? Where for example, are the Community outreach programmes that the state asembly members should be expounding regularly to ensure SOP are followed.

It is very clear that the Selangor Government has faltered badly in its Covid fighting duties and has figuratively speaking, "hoisted the White Flag" resulting in the Federal Government stepping in and implementing an Enhanced MCO over almost the entire State.

What's happened now is that Covid cases appear to be decreasing or plateauing in most states while Selangor is setting new records. In fact, five States have just been moved to the NRP Phase 2 while Selangor has moved backwards into Phase 0.

It is high time for the Selangor Government to take "down" the White Flag, stop making excuses and tackle this enemy hard. Please ensure this is the first and only EMCO the state will ever face.

Jago Singh

Petaling Jaya, Selangor 

https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/letters/2021/07/705042/selangor-should-be-setting-example-tackling-pandemic