The Horse Has Bolted!

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that Malaysia will undergo a national lock-down starting from June 1, after seeing Covid-19’s daily infection figure had shot past 8000.

I suspect the measure will not help much. Spike will continue.

Even until today, the world for various reasons will not want to recognize that China is the only country that has succeeded in containing the virus. Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan have often been cited as the success stories. But there is still so much tentativeness in these countries. Taiwan is a good example of how things can wrong again.

Fighting a virus like Covid-19 requires the discipline of both the government and its people. There is a complete determination not to allow the virus to spread. The moment a cluster emerges in China, everyone STAYS IN. Food is delivered and essential services are provided with well thought out and well organised logistics. And other provinces – far and near, and uniformed personnel and civilians – rush to help with all the necessary economic and medical back-ups.

No other country, even the western ones, seemed able to do this, hence the agony that most of their citizens have gone, or are now going, though. Countries that able to finally crawl out are those that have vaccinated enough percentages of their populations to slow down the spread. But the virus has not been wiped out yet.  

Malaysia is a sad story. It started well. But soon it faltered – both in managing the containment of the virus and the roll-out of vaccines.

First, about its efforts in virus containment: The state election in Sabah allowed ignited the first bush fire, half-hearted MCOs (Movement Control Orders) allowed the embers to simmer, and the tendency of the government to accommodate turned cultural and religious festivals into new sparks all over the country.

The definition of essential services is also vague. Succumbing to appeals, the government allows exemptions after exemptions and the rippling effect makes everything becomes porous again. The whole country is now infected; there are no “clean” pockets to assist, like what Wuhan had during the outbreak.

But more importantly, it is the lack of self-discipline that many Malaysians are exhibiting. You see people wearing their mask below their nose of chin everywhere you go, including those who hawk produce and serve food in the wet markets. You also see young people chatting away publicly. I go for my morning and evening walks every day. Many people, including those seemingly well-educated ones, are casual with SOPs, like keeping a safe distance or going single file when we walk past or cross each other.

Second, its vaccine roll-out: It is simply not doing it fast enough. It is the only way that we can contain the spread.

The roll-out has created much anxiety amongst Malaysians. The efforts seem not well coordinated. Hopefully with the amount of feedback, the government has come to grips with the process and no time should be lost to have the programmes executed in a speedy manner. And on this, there are tons of good examples to follow.