The Acceptancy of CMCO

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the conditional movement control order (CMCO) would be enforced nationwide starting from May 4.

 

More economic sectors are now allowed to operate but must abide to the standard operating procedure (SOP) set by the Health Ministry.

 

 

However, the CMCO was not well received by several state governments, decline to enforce the order.

 

Senior Minister (Economic Cluster) Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmi Ali warns the state governments that they might be sued by the industry players for not implementing the CMCO.

 

 

In return, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal insisted to not proceed with the CMCO, alleged that the federal government did not consult with the state government on the matter.

 

Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow was also active in opposing the CMCO, said that the state government is ready to be sued for protecting the lives of the Penangites.

 

On the other hand, Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari defended his move of not fully complying with the CMCO, stating that a transitional period is needed in the state as it has large Covid-19 clusters like the Sri Petaling tabligh cluster.

 

 

According to the media intelligence, the state leaders were reported by both mainstream and alternative media.

 

Shafie mostly appeared in regional media like Borneo Today, Daily Express and The Borneo Post. For the alternative media, he was mostly mentioned in articles by Free Malaysia Today.

 

For Chow Kon Yeow, he was quoted by numerous mainstream media, MalaysiaKini was the only alternative medium which took interest on him during the first three days of CMCO.

 

Meanwhile, Amirudin was most mentioned by the national news agency Bernama. At the same time, he was also mentioned in alternative media like Malaysia Gazette, MalaysiaKini, The Malaysian Insight and The Rakyat Post.

 

 

On the following the days, the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia was seen to be improving, the number of daily new positive cases had declined.

 

The enactment of CMCO was seen to not cause a third wave of Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

 

Subsequently, state governments which opposed the CMCO have decided to proceed with its enactment, but the SOP has been modified accordingly depending on the situation in each state.