KUCHING, May 27 — Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen today asked the state government to immediately roll out the financial assistance for all small-medium businesses to help them survive the two-week movement control order (MCO), which begins on May 29.

He said a sum of RM1 billion will be more than sufficient to help these targeted groups to tide over this difficult time.

“This immediate financial assistance should take the form of a one-month wage subsidy for all businesses and cash handouts to all hawkers and micro-businesses,” Chong said in a statement when responding to the MCO announcement by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah this afternoon.

He said the existing systems of the government agencies should be ready for a swift rollout of such financial assistance. 

“The Socso (Social Security Organisation) has all the records of employees, the local councils have all the records of the hawkers and the Business Names Registries have all records of micro-businesses,” he said.

In a separate statement, Sarawak Patriots Association (SPA) president Datuk John Lau welcomed the announcement on the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO), saying that it is a time to have to curb the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the state.

However, he said SPA would like to know what is the Sarawak government’s financial packages to those affected by the enforcement of the MCO.

He said he hopes that the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination programme would not be affected by the enforcement of the MCO.

SPA also wants to know if the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SMDC) has any target by how many per cent it hopes to reduce the Covid-19 infections.

Earlier this afternoon, Uggah, who is also SDMC chairman, announced that Sarawak will be placed under the MCO from this Saturday until June 11 due to the rise in Covid-19 cases.

He said the conditional movement control order (CMCO) which has been enforced in the state and was being tightened on May 12 did not help to curb the spread of Covid-19 infections, especially during the recent Hari Raya celebration.

“Therefore, taking the Covid-19 infections situation which is getting serious, the health facilities which are getting critical, and the variant of concern (VOC) which has been recently detected in Sarawak, we need to take a more drastic measures to curb the spread of the Covid-19 infections now, before we reach a more critical stage,” he said.

He added the SOPs will be released tomorrow on the National Security Council’s website.