PUTRAJAYA was forced to restart the economy under the conditional movement-control order after 520,000 Malaysians lost their incomes in the past seven weeks from the MCO, said Mustapa Mohamed.

Mustapa, who is in charge of economic planning in the prime minister’s department, said the economy also lost an estimated RM63 billion after the closure of almost all businesses to stem the Covid-19 infections.

“Now Malaysia has already lost about 520,000 jobs. Based on Bank Negara’s projections, we stand to lose 1.8 million jobs if we don’t do anything,” Mustapa told talk show Malaysia Hari Ini on TV3 today.

“And going by what the prime minister said, we already lost RM63 billion and we stand to lose RM2.4 billion per day,” Mustapa said, justifying the government’s decision to relax restrictions on most businesses starting on Monday.

The conditional MCO allows almost all businesses to resume operations, except those that rely on close physical contact and crowds.

The decision comes after a consistent fall in new coronavirus infections throughout the country. As at yesterday, Malaysia recorded 6,428 Covid-19 cases and 107 deaths. 

However, some states have decided to postpone easing up on movement restrictions on fears that it would lead to a resurgence in new infections.

Some have also said the CMCO was too early and that Putrajaya should have waited another week while ensuring that businesses put strict standard operating procedures in place first.

Defending the CMCO, Mustapa said the government deliberated carefully and in detail before making the decision and had consulted the Health Ministry on whether it was safe to do so.

“Saying that it’s too early, that’s just an opinion. It was not a hastily made decision and we considered it carefully. We received advice from the Health Ministry and we decided that it was time to focus on the economy after focusing on saving lives.”

Even with the CMCO, businesses and industries have not resumed fully operations as it will take time to restart operations, he said.

“What is important is to give early notice to businesses so that they can get ready to reopen. Because they want the certainty in order to plan ahead.” – May 7, 2020.