Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Of snippets ... thoughts on PKPB

Something concrete and  pragmatic should be done fast to address Malaysia's COVID 19 situation. It should not be solely shouldered by KKM helmed by Norhisham alone...

I will make it short and straight from my heart. How do I see ways to at least control 4 digits COVID 19 for the past few days.

There are three main cause for the alarming speed of COVID 19 spread ie the prison, the construction and the factories.

How do we contain it? Well, nothing much can be said about our prison except for a better SOP and control there.

As for the construction, then that is something else. Regardless of what our Finance Minister wants to say, the outlook for our economy will not be as rosy as painted. That means, there will be less demand to the already oversupply of office and habitable space in the country. that means? Simple... it means construction of "non-essential" can wait.

What it means is the government through MKN can decide to seal off "non-essential" construction site and let the developers and contractors to monitor their workers off-site.

What is considered as "non-essential"? For the timebeing, I would put residential, commercial, office buildings as "non-essential" and their construction can wait. The government can issue a blanket instruction to instruct the developers and contractors of such construction site to stop work for at least 1 month to flatten the curve.

Easily done? No... it will not for the simple reason that these developers will be begging and crying to the government to allow them to proceed for special reasons. The government has to stay put on this decision. Why? This is to flatten the curve and to control the workers movement who are basically cramped in their living quarters which in turn can be vulnerable to COVID 19 spread.

The same goes for factories. Their close and cramped working space with common canteen and (again living quarters) will provide the same health problem as construction workers. It is best for the government to force them to close down for the next 1 month to flatten the curve.

Apart from flattening the curve, the government can place a stricter control on remittance to foreign countries. Reason? Just look at Top glove alone. Based on various statement, they have possibly more than 20,000 workforce in total. Now comes the crunch - how many are foreign workers? Let's just assume that 70 % of them areforeign workers, that is already 14,000 workers. Now, let's just say that they earn an average of RM 1500 per month and send 50 % of their income to their families back home, that will come to RM 10.5 million per month. That is just from Top glove alone...

If the government decides to instruct for factories and construction site closure for 1 month, than imagine how much money we might save from RM outflow...

But this is not about economics alone. I am more concern on the 4 digiits COVID 19 cases daily for the past few days. It is time for abah Din to use his so famous "rotan"and whip up the factories and construction sites. Honestly, I doubt abah Din will take that action because he is too ngrossed with his own political survivor game... and budget 2021...

Me? I give my view. Straight from my heart. It might sound cruel but something must be done fast to curn 4 digits COVID 19 spread. If you have better idea, why not share with the public and let abah Din knows...

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are...

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