MP SPEAKS | End the “cloak-and-dagger” politics and let all political parties meet and reach a new national consensus that the country’s biggest threat is the Covid-19 pandemic and that there would be no 15th general election until the threat is overcome.

The proclamation of an emergency yesterday is the product of such “cloak-and-dagger” politics for it came as a total surprise to the nation apart from the ministers.

This is especially after the Monday address by the Prime Minister Muhyddin Yassin on the re-imposition of the movement control order (MCO) on eight states and territories and conditional MCO on six other states, and the continuation of the recovery MCO on the two remaining states.

If the purpose of the emergency is solely to win the war against Covid-19 and to unite all politicians, civil society leaders, religious bodies, youth organisations and everyone in Malaysia behind this mission, then there is no need for the “cloak-and-dagger” approach where the whole nation was taken by total surprise by the emergency proclamation.

There should have been a full...