PETALING JAYA: The rapid rise in the number of Covid-19 cases needs urgent attention and the best way forward is to form a parliamentary select committee to address various concerns, says DAP.

Party stalwart Lim Kit Siang said Malaysia had a daily increase of 1,937 new cases yesterday, bringing the total to 82,246 cases so far.

“This surge has added urgency to the need for a select committee on the Covid-19 pandemic to be set up. There is also much public fear on the vaccines that will arrive shortly.

“I call on Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Harun to convene an urgent meeting to establish a select committee on the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said in a statement today.

The Iskandar Puteri MP said the committee could then meet after Parliament adjourns on Thursday to conduct public hearings to find out what had gone wrong all of a sudden.

“The authorities had failed to adopt an ‘all-of-government’ and ‘whole-of-society’ approach which had resulted in this sudden rapid rise in the number of Covid-19 cases,” he said.

Lim said former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad, the Pakatan Harapan MP for Kuala Selangor, would be the ideal candidate to head the committee, adding that the best brains in the country on the subject must be tapped for solutions.

He said the committee could also help allay public fears on the growing controversy in Malaysia and the world about the safety of the Covid-19 vaccines which are expected to be made public shortly.

He said Malaysia was now ranked at number 80 among countries with the most cases, just behind China.

“If Malaysia’s daily increase next week is in the 2000-region, then Malaysia will overtake China before Dewan Rakyat adjourns on Thursday.

“At one time Malaysia was separated from China by over 60 spots. On Sept 1, for instance, China had 85,058 cases while Malaysia had only 9,354,” Lim added.

Source: Free Malaysia Today