Armed forces personnel have begun their duties in assisting police to enforce the movement control order (MCO), which is now into its fifth day. Soldiers have been deployed to beef up the presence at police roadblocks, which is still at the stage where friendly advice is given to motorists to limit movement unless absolutely necessary.
It is hoped that the introduction of the military will reduce the number of people who are still moving about unaware or purposely ignoring the MCO, said inspector-general of police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador. He said that from a cooperation rate of just 60% earlier, 90% of people were now adhering to the order, but there were still 10% who were not.
“Considering that we have about 32 million people, 10% is still a lot. There are many out there who are either unaware or purposely ignoring the MCO. That is why we hope that the Armed Forces can help the police ensure that the situation remains under control and that the order is implemented,” he said.
The IGP rubbished rumours that tanks have been deployed at each roadblock, The Star reports. “This may sound funny, but this has been spread around to scare the public. I would like to stress that the Armed Forces are deployed to assist and give advice to the people in order to implement the MCO,” he said.
Meanwhile, defence minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said military personnel will also be assigned to help patrol supermarkets and markets to ensure the public adheres to social distancing rules and maintain a distance of at least one metre between one another, especially in crowded places.
“I want to advise consumers that we understand your need to buy your daily essentials, but please observe social distancing. That is why we have agreed for the police and the armed forces to be deployed at supermarkets and markets to help local authorities ensure people queue and don’t go inside in groups to reduce any risk,” he said.
Ismail reiterated that the deployment of the military was based on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342), and not under the Emergency Ordinance, but urged everyone to cooperate in the fight against Covid-19. “At the moment, we are still at the stage where we give advice to the public. However, this could change to sterner action,” he stated.
Again, we remind everyone that if it is absolutely necessary for you to get provisions, medical supplies and food, please make it fast and limit the distance travelled for those purposes, and remember the one person per car rule. You can try switching to delivery services for food as much as possible, or at least on alternate occasions, in a bid to heed the government’s call to just stay at home.
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a plea to those who are very rich in our country. You cannot take your wealth with you when you die and you have more than you can ever spend on yourself and your family. Kindly consider sharing at this time with the community, your fellow Malaysians. Share with the poor and those who will be hard hit by job closures but also remember the public health services. Our public health services have been chronically underfunded for more than 30 years and are in a serious need of financial injection to develop intensive care services, to buy personal protective equipment, to buy essential monitoring equipment for ill patients, etc. Make large contributions to the Ministry of Health (MOH) that will be able to dramatically turn around this epidemic, as they are currently still very short of resources (despite what is said publically). Also use all your business and friend contacts to enable us to get all the necessary items we need to deal with this epidemic, especially from China. We need to also support the many private general practitioners on the ground that lack the basic protective equipment including masks. If health professionals and the health service gets overwhelmed and crumbles than there will be no one to support us if we get ill.
Ajib bossku n geng Jho, gomen PN kte can sapot
This is the time we give full 100% support to the Gomen. Ayohlah Rakyat Malaysia!
Agreed. This is the time otai2 AP, bossku2 projek gov, kunan2 bilion give 100% support!