DR Mahathir Mohamad and Lim Guan Eng have criticised the government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis in their New Year messages released on social media.

Both top opposition politicians have compared Malaysia’s more than 100,000 infections with China’s 87,000, saying that this reflected the government’s failure to control the disease. 

Dr Mahathir, the founder of Bersatu splinter party Pejuang, said in a video message released on social media that this could be because political pressure on the government distracted it from the crisis.

“If the government had looked east, maybe it could learn how China contained the disease,” he said, adding that this government was not elected and just wanted to stay in power.

DAP secretary-general Lim said in a statement the government has mishandled the outbreak despite imposing strict movement curbs earlier this year.

He also called Putrajaya “miserly” for refusing to spend RM2.1 billion to secure a vaccine earlier, resulting in Malaysia getting the inoculations two to three months after Singapore.

He warned of an education crisis because of the school closures to curb Covid-19 infections.

“With students attending classes only for four months this year, there is an urgent need to spend an additional RM4 billion to buy everyone a laptop and upgrade internet connectivity to allow for online learning.”

Lim also slammed the government for not addressing the political instability because of its slim majority. 

“Members of this unelected government continue to make political statements or take actions that divide the people,” Lim said. – December 31, 2020.