FOUR PKR lawmakers are arranging for free legal assistance to people who feel they are unfairly punished by the authorities during the movement control order (MCO 3.0).

Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah, Sungai Buloh MP Sivarasa Rasiah, Bukit Lanjan assemblyman Elizabeth Wong and Kajang assemblyman Hee Loy Sian said the Keadilan untuk Semua (Project Justice for All) initiative, is a service where 12 lawyers have volunteered their time to work with parliamentarians and assemblymen to provide legal assistance to anyone given “unfair” fines for violating MCO 3.0 standard operating procedures (SOP).

“Some of the offences that may have low virus transmission risk and will not lead to a widespread impact to the community – such as not wearing masks, being too near to another person, failure to record details on MySejahtera or in the logbook before entering premises – could be passed off with warnings from the enforcers.

“Yet these minor, almost inconsequential violations are compounded with fines higher than our present minimum wages. This has led to public cries of unfairness, biasness, abuse and emotional stress, especially felt by those alleged to be guilty of violation.

“In response to the alleged unfairness and the public having nowhere to turn, nor anyone to advise them on their course of action, we have banded together to launch Projek Keadilan untuk Semua,” the lawmakers said in a statement today.

They said legal assistance is offered to residents in the Petaling Jaya area/district and in Kajang. 

On May 10, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the country would be locked down from May 12 to June 7.

This is the first time that the government has enforced a four-week MCO, with previous orders issued in fortnightly intervals.

Under this MCO, Muhyiddin said there were stricter restrictions against inter-district and interstate travel, social activities, sports and education. However, economic sectors remained open. 

On January 11, just 24 hours after announcing the second round of MCO, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah declared a state of emergency, at the request of the prime minister, ostensibly to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

Starting March 11, the government gazetted the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021, which was promulgated as a proactive measure to contain the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia.

Hence, violation of SOP will fall under the Emergency (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021.

Anyone who violates the SOP can be fined up to RM10,000, while companies or corporations that violate the SOPs can be fined up to RM50,000.

The ordinance also includes amendments to general penalties under Section 24, stating that any person who commits an offence under the act “for which no penalty is expressly provided” may be fined up to RM100,000 or imprisoned for a maximum of seven years.

However, the PKR lawmakers said today that the definition of the offences and SOPs under MCO 3.0 were no clearer than previous.

“They were vague, unclear and constantly changing and allowed the possibility to provide enforcers with unfettered discretion to interpret the SOPs as they see fit,” they said. – May 20, 2021.