YOURSAY | ‘Hamzah should provide his interpretation of herd immunity.’

No in-person Parliament until herd immunity achieved, home minister says

Public Transit Is Better Than Highways: It looks like we had wasted our vaccines on politicians of this calibre, who despite probably already been vaccinated, still refuse to hold a parliament sitting.

If all MPs and essential staff in Parliament has been vaccinated, then why can’t we have parliamentary sittings?

Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin had mentioned that PKR held a virtual congress and pointed the hypocrisy in their call for a physical parliament sitting.

But in the same breath, he also claimed that a virtual parliament sitting is not feasible when he rightfully pointed out that PKR had done a virtual party congress meeting, which may have involved the same, if not more, people and staff than parliament.

What is Hamzah attempting to insinuate? At my best guess, he is trying to come up with all sort of excuses and problems fabricated solely to prevent scrutiny into the government he’s in by preventing Parliament from sitting.

By the very act of declaring so, he has shown his true intentions for not allowing Parliament to sit.

After all, this is merely just a shifting goal post. Next thing we may know when we had achieved a 70 percent vaccination rate, Hamzah may once more claim that Parliament can’t sit because there’s no water from Selangor.

AnotherClown: Stop being an idiot, Hamzah. So, you want to compare Parliament with PKR's congress.

All parliamentarians have been vaccinated, that much we all know. How many percent of those attending PKR's congress have been vaccinated? A 100 percent, too?

Yet you said Parliament cannot convene a virtual session when PKR's congress could.

Comeback Kid: Hamzah should provide his interpretation of herd immunity. What happens if it is not achieved by 2023? No need to dissolve Parliament then and PN to rule forever?

Oriole: Hello, all of you politicians were first in line for the best vaccines, right? So now what cluster are you talking about?

And when the rest of the country, including children, are carrying on as usual through virtual means, you claim there are problems with virtual meetings?

Have you any idea how incompetent you sound and how incompetent you make the whole cabinet sounds?

IndigoTrout2522: The PN government is just using Covid-19 as an excuse. Hamzah can check around the world to see which country has shut down their legislative branch for so long. US, UK and EU parliaments are meeting in-person and/or virtually.

PN, in particular Bersatu, are fully aware that they do not have a majority in Parliament. Shutting it down is to maintain their hold on power as long as possible. If they are confident, let the rakyat decide on the next government.

BusinessFirst: So, the truth is out. August is when the emergency supposedly ends. In fact, at the start, there was talk that it might even end earlier.

With Hamzah’s statement, the clear implication is that herd immunity is needed before Parliament can sit. This means if the government mismanages the Covid response, they are rewarded with continued power and that we must remain in a state of emergency indefinitely.

Is this talk of emergency lasting six months is just to make it palatable to the public, and when people get used to it and after power is consolidated, the real intention is to continue to stay in power indefinitely?

In saying this, is it that from the start the intention is for a government whose majority is uncertain to remain in power indefinitely without the scrutiny of Parliament or even an election? This is worrying.

Oscar Kilo: This minister has no qualms visiting shopping malls where are hundreds or thousands of unvaccinated people, but he is afraid of going to Parliament where 100 percent of MPs have already been vaccinated. How silly.

Coward: Hamzah, I am going to agree with you that herd immunity is necessary for the reopening of parliament for the sake of the herd immunity argument, even though experience in factories and other places shows that provided SOPs are followed strictly, the risk is manageable, and the fact that it is possible to carry out the business of parliament through video conferencing.

Where we disagree is the extend of herd immunity needed. I will argue that since MPs are vaccinated, we just have to vaccinate the 5,000 or so people who regularly attend Parliament when there is a sitting, and don't have to wait till herd immunity is achieved in the general population.

Kim Quek: Hamzah is clearly spewing nonsense. Pakatan Harapan and other like-minded forces who want democracy to be restored should push ahead with the following two-pronged strategy:

One, continue to petition the Agong to exercise his prerogative provided under Section 14(b) of the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021 to summon Parliament into session.

Two, renew request to the Federal Court to grant an urgent hearing on the application by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (and several others) to declare the suspension of Parliament unconstitutional and null and void.

Why: Have you ever wanted to throttle someone because their reason was so stupid?

Well, while I don’t recommend "strangulation", it could be gratifying too to tell someone like our home minister that his reason given for not convening the Parliament is just plain dumb.

Hang Babeuf: "No in-person Parliament until herd immunity achieved," home minister says.

"No in-person Parliament until this government-in-hiding achieves a servile herd mentality among the populace" is what he means.

Gaji Buta: They already have got cow brains, so herd immunity should be there.

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