KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 — Barisan Nasional (BN) must explain why it supports stiffer punishment against people who fail to comply with the Covid-19 regulations, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said today.
The Opposition lawmaker was referring to the latest update to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Amendment) Bill 2021 — also known as Act 342 — regarding punitive measures against individuals and companies for non-compliance of the Covid-19 standard operating procedures.
“Such harsh penalties and draconian powers arming enforcement officers will impose an additional obstacle to the full recovery of the economy. To save lives and livelihood, there must be a whole-of-government approach instead of blaming or making the people the culprit for the Covid-19 pandemic,” the Bagan MP said in a statement.
He accused the federal government of deliberately scheduling debates on the Bill in the Dewan Rakyat for after March 12, when the state election would be over.
The DAP politician said that such harsh penalties and compound fines can be enforced at will “with unfettered and unlimited powers granted to the director-general of health, that can not be questioned or challenged under the same proposed amendments.”.
“Clearly, the amendments are intended to be passed after the Johor elections, to avoid the controversy and the adverse electoral impact over the issue.
“For this reason, BN including both Umno, MCA and MIC must come clean on their support for these proposed amendments that are inimical to the interests of the people,” Lim added.
He pointed out regular Malaysians are still struggling with the devastating economic impact of the pandemic and will be hard pressed to pay up the amount if slapped with the RM1 million fine if the Bill is passed.
Lim said this was why his party and the Pakatan Harapan coalition yesterday made clear that they will vote against the Bill in Parliament when it is called.
Last December, the Health Ministry reduced some penalties on individuals and corporate bodies found flouting Covid-19 SOPs.
But the same ministry is now proposing a maximum compound amount of RM500,000 for companies, which is half of the initial RM1 million amount proposed in the Bill.
The ministry has not proposed lowering the maximum RM10,000 compound amount for individuals that was listed in the Bill.
As for the general penalty for offences committed under Act 342, the ministry has also proposed a maximum fine of RM50,000 and a maximum three years’ jail or both for individuals, which is about half of the Bill’s initial proposal of a maximum fine of RM100,000 and maximum seven years’ jail or both for individual offenders.
For corporate bodies such as companies that committed Act 342 offences, the ministry however did not propose lowering the maximum RM2 million fine that was listed in the Bill.
Initially, the MoH had proposed to introduce Section 31(3) into Act 342, which would enable regulations made under the Act to state that any action breaching the regulations is an offence and to state the penalties as a maximum RM50,000 fine or maximum two-year jail term or both.
On December 15, the ministry proposed that the new Section 31(3) instead specify the penalties for breaking regulations under Act 342 according to whether the offender is an individual or corporate body.
The ministry’s proposed new Section 31(3) would state penalties for regulations breaches for individuals as a maximum RM20,000 fine or maximum three-year jail term or both, while body corporate such as companies can be penalised with a maximum RM1 million fine.
Currently Act 342 confers the director-general the power to offer a maximum compound amount of only RM1,000 that Act 342 offenders would have to pay to avoid being charged in court, following the repeal of the Emergency Ordinances (EOs) in Dewan Negara on December 8, 2021.
