PETALING JAYA: Umno has described as nonsensical to only allow Parliament to reconvene after 40% of the population has been fully vaccinated, noting that MPs have been inoculated.
Its president, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, also said that parliamentary sittings could be held virtually as conducted in other countries.
“So it does not make sense for the Perikatan Nasional government to say that Parliament can reconvene after the nation enters the third phase of the national recovery plan,” he said in a Facebook post.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that Parliament will reconvene either in September or October.
Muhyiddin said Malaysia will move into the third phase of the recovery plan when Covid-19 cases are below 2,000, the public health system is in a more comfortable position and 40% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Zahid, the Bagan Datuk MP, questioned if Parliament had been dumped under the “negative list”, which refers to activities that have a high risk of Covid-19 transmission.
This, he said, included spas, beauty salons and pubs, which would be allowed to open under phase 3 only if their staff were vaccinated.
“Does this mean that Parliament, the symbol of democracy, is in the same negative list as pubs, spas and beauty salons?”
He said Parliament should be reconvened as soon as possible.
Parliament and the state assemblies were suspended after the King declared a state of emergency in January.
Earlier this month, the government agreed in principle for Parliament sittings to be done in a hybrid manner, with MPs present both physically and virtually.-FMT