THERE is no reason why Parliament should not meet now instead of 20 days later, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“Why wait 20 days when around 100 people are dying every day?” said the 95-year-old on Facebook today.

“This government has no sense of urgency,” said the former prime minister.

Dr Mahathir was responding to a media question on the upcoming Parliament sitting on July 26-August 5.

After months of public pressure that ended with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong repeating his instruction for the government to let Parliament meet again, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin finally relented on Monday to let Dewan Rakyat meet for five days while Dewan Negara will sit for three.

But for Dr Mahathir and opposition lawmakers, the July 26 meeting is too little too late.

“This is urgent and should be done now. We should have a fresh sitting in the next two to three days to hear what the government plans to do to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As it is, whatever they are doing is not working. Every time the government does something the infections go up.

“In January 2020, the number of infections were below 100 but Perikatan Nasional took over and then decided to retake Sabah. After that, the infections went to 2,000 over cases per day,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said it was the same after Muhyiddin announced a state of emergency in January this year.

He said although the infections were around 2,000 in January, it went up to 7,000 yesterday.

“Every time this government suggests something, the situation gets worse. I don’t know why they won’t have Parliament meet now when I have been sitting at home the whole month.

“Instead, they want to have a five-day sitting where the first two days will be used to discuss whether to have hybrid Parliament sittings before some briefing.

“We don’t want that. We want to discuss how to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the Pejuang chairman.

Dr Mahathir was speaking on the side lines of the Reset Malaysia forum on problems and solutions for Covid-19 pandemic. The forum also featured Rafidah Aziz and Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman and was moderated by Dr Abu Hafiz Salleh Hudin.

In a statement issued later, Dr Mahathir said he had written to Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Azizan Harun to request for the Parliament sitting to be held as soon as possible and not on July 26.

“We can’t wait for 19 days to meet when the nation is facing health, economic, social and political crises, which need immediate action.

“I hope the speaker can ensure the Parliament can convene as soon as possible, even if need be by tomorrow or the day after, but not 19 days later,” he said. – July 7, 2021.