Good morning, here's what you need to know today.

Key Highlights

• RM50k fines for burger, rojak sellers
  
  
• No interstate balik kampung
  
  
• 'Maybe a joke'
  
  

RM50k fines for burger, rojak sellers

Small traders in Kelantan slapped with RM50,000 fines for operating beyond allowed hours under the movement control order (MCO) have sparked their outrage.

A rojak seller said he couldn’t afford to pay even at a discount and would have to choose prison. A burger seller said he was shocked.

Netizens contrasted their predicament to celebrity Neelofa’s family, whose SOP violations compound came to RM60,000 for more than 20 people and saw it as an example of oppression.

Authorities - police and ministers - scrambled to do damage control. Ultimately, it was a policy and legislative failure rather than a perverse desire to punish the poor.

Without parliamentary oversight, the government crafted poorly thought-out emergency ordinances. One of them, made in February, raised fines for Covid-19 SOP violations from RM1,000 to RM10,000 for individuals and RM50,000 for businesses.

Problem: The ordinance does not differentiate between the humble rojak seller and a huge franchise.

Another problem: Many small-time businesses in Kelantan operate from their home area. They may have stopped serving customers but remain in the kitchen for home-related chores. The law and enforcers didn’t consider this.

Yet another problem: The ordinance does not categorise the types of offences. It was the same issue that sparked outrage last month when individuals were slapped with a blanket RM10,000 fine and were expected to appeal. Putrajaya later issued a guideline on tiered offences.

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No interstate balik kampung

The government decided to retain the interstate travel ban until May 17 before another review, dashing balik kampung hopes during Hari Raya, which is expected to fall on May 13.

Meanwhile, Sabah is the latest to see tougher restrictions against Covid-19 reinstated state-wide. Its status under the recovery MCO will be reverse to the conditional MCO tomorrow. Kelantan went from conditional MCO to state-wide full MCO on April 21.

The government also imposed a ban on travellers from India as a more dangerous Covid-19 variant is raging there. India is seeing the world’s highest increase in new cases, at more than 300,000 a day.

On the vaccination front, there appears to be a debate within the government on how best to deploy the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is linked to rare cases of blood clots involving younger people.

While Health Minister Dr Adham Baba had said the AstraZeneca vaccine will only be used on the elderly, Immunisation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin is worried that it could drive people away from the overall immunisation programme that includes other vaccines like Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac.

Yesterday, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah tested the waters on social media by floating the idea of fast-tracked vaccination for those who opt for the AstraZeneca vaccine, as opposed to a mandated use.

In the meantime, the Health Ministry sought to educate the people about the low risk, pointing out that only 168 out of 21.6 million people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine suffered blood clots.

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'Maybe a joke'

The Home Ministry will summon Malaysiakini and China Press for highlighting Deputy Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani's comment on the rape threat against a teenager.

Acryl had said this: “Malam semalam beliau juga membuat laporan tambahan, berkaitan dengan mungkin gurauan daripada rakan sedarjahnya yang beliau tidak dapat terima”.

By highlighting the comment in the headline, the police and Home Ministry claimed the media outlets had given an inaccurate picture.

The police said the “maybe a joke” comment referred to an aspect to be investigated and did not mean they were not taking the case seriously.

The Home Ministry’s action coincided with Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah’s statement that the PN government was not silencing dissent. It was his second statement in a week defending Putrajaya’s record on freedom of expression.

Civil society activists said the police should instead be more mindful of their use of words.

The 17-year-old teenager Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam spoke to Malaysiakini about the alleged rape joke made by her teacher and a subsequent rape threat by a classmate after she exposed the teacher.

The classmate had since apologised.

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A daily glance at Covid-19

• 2,733 new cases and 13 deaths yesterday (April 27).
  
  
• There has been a sustained resurgence in Selangor, which recorded more than 700 cases for the fifth consecutive day. Prior to this, the 28-day average was 427.
  
  
• Active cases jumped from 19,854 to 25,414 in just 10 days. Nationally, we have around 34,000 Covid-19 beds but due to uneven distribution, some states in Kelantan have run out of capacity and have to set up new quarantine and treatment centres.
  
  
• For trends on daily cases, tests, hospital beds capacity, vaccination progress and more, follow our Covid-19 tracker.
  
  

What else is happening?

• Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim was questioned by police over a purported leaked conversation with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.  The police said they were acting on the many police reports filed on this. Anwar asked why the police didn't do the same to the prime minister over the leaked audio, where he purportedly offered positions for support.
  
  
• The Department of Environment rejected Lynas' application to build a permanent waste disposal facility within a water catchment area in Bukit Ketam, Kuantan, to store its radioactive waste. It can still resubmit a new application.
  
  
• The cabinet is expected to decide today on whether to fulfil tech giants' request to restore the cabotage exemption on foreign ships repairing undersea cables made under the previous Pakatan Harapan government.
  
  
• Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia succeeded in overturning the Malaysia Competition Commission's (MyCC) RM10 million fine against them for allegedly breaching a market-sharing prohibition.
  
  
• Parti Pejuang Tanah Air wants Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador, whose contract ends next month, to be retained amid leaked audio claiming the government was trying to install its "own boys" in the police force.
  
  

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What are people saying?

	RM50k fine for burger seller: Where is our discretion? By JD Lovrenciear
	The teacher may have failed Ain, but let’s not fail her By Malaysiakini readers
	Independent probe needed for period spot check claims By Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching

CARTOON KINI