MARCH 17 — It was bad enough when senior citizens couldn’t read alone in a park without being fined RM1,000 but the new menace of an RM10,000 fine is simply cruel.
Police “not being sure” about SOPs is no excuse to fine people for what cannot be considered infractions.
At first we were told the RM10,000 was for repeat offenders but no one has sent the police that memo.
A fake news law and an excessive fine together are an oppressive combo; this is not how you win hearts and minds or the Covid war.
What citizens need is assurance that their leaders know what they’re doing, and that they will provide aid to those who need it.
Instead for some reason the three-day quarantine rule after returning from overseas seems to not apply to members of our Cabinet.
Politicians seem to have learned nothing from recent anger over double standards; instead of taking care not to flout SOPs so openly it seems as though those SOPs are only for the non-elected.
It is time, I think, to retire Ismail Sabri’s security briefings as instead of enlightening the public those daily numbers of MCO flouters are meaningless.
There has been no transparency about those numbers — is there some sort of KPI for the police to try and reach? Is there pressure for them to provide numbers for the minister to announce?
That might be the only logical explanation for some of the nonsensical compounds being issued.
The general mood is not so much anger but a general, and deep, disdain. There is no longer disbelief when a politician acts as though SOPs do not apply to elected reps nor is there loud anger but more a lack of surprise.
It is baffling as to why the finance ministry still keeps refusing to give more tangible aid to the poorer folk that does not involve opening the coffers of the EPF.
Speaking of the EPF, how many people actually do have substantial savings? What of farmers, day workers and other non-salaried earners who have never benefited from the extra contribution from their employers?
During the first MCO there was, for a while, a fragile peace and general solidarity, where Malaysians were invested in making sure other people were OK.
That investment unfortunately was not at all apparent in the members of Cabinet who even now draw their full salaries and allowances, despite not going to Parliament.
When the housing minister makes a statement about something that’s the women’s minister’s job, while the latter’s deputy disappears into the ether, you wonder why we have to fund their salaries.
“How daft will politics be today” is not how I like to start my work days pondering but alas, this is Malaysia, the land of generating The Onion-suitable headlines without even trying.
How much longer can the government pretend not to see the ever-simmering discontent, the mocking jibes about “warm water” ministers and the reality that our people are struggling?
How many more reps will be handed GLC board directorships and positions just to forestall the inevitable — an election that will have to happen whether or not the rakyat wants one.
I just hope this time they do better at managing SOPs and social distancing than they did the one in Sabah because Malaysians deserve better than to die of Covid-19 because some people insist on politicking in a pandemic.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
