The Malaysian Government will no longer be issuing out RM1000 fines to errant citizens and violators of the ongoing Movement Control Order (MCO). Instead, both PDRM and ATM will now reprimand and arrest those of us who purposely flout the laws put in place to help flatten the COVID-19 curve.
The new directive was made clear by Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, the Senior Defense Minister, during a daily address to the nation. It is one of two new orders issued by the government and has also been posted on Twitter via the Ministry of Defense’s (@MINDEFMalaysia) official Twitter account.
7. #PKP Fasa 3 – PDRM tidak lagi mengeluarkan kompaun bagi kesalahan ingkar PKP sebaliknya individu tersebut akan terus ditahan & dituduh di mahkamah
8. #FakeNews – PDRM dan SKMM telah membuka sebanyak 217 kertas siasatan penyebaran berita palsu COVID-19
— MINDEF Malaysia (@MINDEFMalaysia) April 14, 2020
Yaakob explains in the livestream that the decision to immediately reprimand violators instead of issuing RM1000 fines was because the latter think that many feel that the sum “doesn’t feel like a huge sum” to some of these violators. And decided to let the courts deal out harsher judgements against them. Up until 13 April, MCO violators totalled at 9090 people, with a total of 4036 having already been slapped with the initial RM1000 fine.
While the number of cases is showing signs of improvements, do understand that we are not out of the woods yet. The fact that the government is scrapping the RM1000 fine less than a week after it was implemented shows just how desperate it is trying to get people to comply with the MCO. So please, stay home and stay safe.
