PUTRAJAYA must sort out a clear and coordinated course towards reopening Malaysia’s borders safely without risking the health and security of the people, DAP lawmakers said. 

Bangi MP Dr Ong Kian Ming and Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said this should be possible now that the authorities have a better understanding of how Covid-19 behaves.

“Putrajaya should announce a timetable for the reopening of the border with Singapore given the already established protocols.

“This includes the vaccinated travel lane (VTL) and the mutual recognition of the digital vaccination certificates for both countries,” they said in a joint statement today.

They said the positive economic impact from the reopening of the country’s borders with Singapore will also be significant especially for the leisure and tourism sector.

“It is clear that other countries are moving to an endemic phase of Covid-19 recovery.”

They were commenting on the National Recovery Council’s (NRC) recommendation that the country quickly reopen its borders to accelerate economic recovery.

Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who chairs the council, said the borders could be fully open as early as March 1 while quarantine requirements could be scrapped.

“However, one may still need to take a Covid-19 test before and after entering the country.”

“The opening of national borders needs to be properly implemented and based on current risk assessments. Other terms and conditions will be announced by the Health Ministry,” he said.  

The opposition MPs said today there should be communication between the cabinet and the NRC  on when the borders will open. 

“While it is understandable that the cabinet should have the final say on a major issue such as quarantine-free travel into the country, the manner in which this announcement was handled shows the total lack of coordination and communication between the chairman of the NRC, prime minister and the key ministers.”

They said that surely the decision to make the proposal to reopening the borders could have been communicated by Muhyiddin to Ismail earlier so that a clear timeline and proper processes and procedures can be put in place to prepare for such a border reopening.

“The lack of proper communication and coordination probably resulted in many Malaysians and perhaps foreigners as well making travel arrangements to travel into and out of the country in March thinking that quarantine-free travel will be implemented soon.”

They added that when a senior minister like Hishammuddin Hussein openly questions the NRC’s decisions and recommendations, the council’s authority will inevitably be called into question, “what more when the prime minister himself is seen to be undermining the NRC chairman’s announcement”.

On February 8, defence minister Hishammuddin said that Malaysia would only reopen its borders after discussion with the health and tourism, arts and culture ministries as well as the Immigration Department. 

He said the outcome of the discussion between the three parties would be refined by the relevant ministers before it is brought before the cabinet or the special committee chaired by the prime minister.

Meanwhile, the lawmakers said that as part of the process to reopen Malaysia to travellers, the government must categorise countries into different risk levels based on their Covid-19 response including vaccination rates.

“This will allow us to prepare specific pathways and timelines to reopen the borders to each category of countries based on properly defined risk and health parameters.

“To establish VTL for lower-risk countries allowing fully vaccinated travellers from those countries to come in by showing proof of a negative PCR test (48 or 72 hours before departure) and also a rapid PCR test at port of entry in Malaysia. 

“We can then carry out ‘test and release’ in which thos who test negative in Malayia are released without quarantine but are required to download MySejahtera and activate the MyTrace function for more effective contact tracing if needed.” – February 16, 2022.