AUGUST 12 — Fear overwhelms our ability to decide rationally and feel secure.
Us, includes government — in these days of Covid-19.
Our leaders — despite the widespread cynicism towards them — when it does not affect them directly, do pander.
For, the caveat notwithstanding, they love votes.
Though here’s the rub, they rarely pander to our objective best interest but rather to our sentiments. Or more pointedly, the prevailing sentiments of the masses. What the overwhelming majority feel for.
For example, let’s touch on the unending and palpable outrage over illegal migrants as virus spreaders. The videos are doing the rounds, so are the comments.
A response is inevitable as enough Malaysians urge action.
Immigration and police in tandem arrest a sizeable number of migrants. Does that appease the rakyat?
Simply put, yes, but it leads to other issues.
Those arrested are handcuffed and stuffed in vans, ending social distancing for all brought in. The detention centres are packed like sardines — petri-dishes for diseases — and Covid-19 dances all night and day, disrespecting operating-hour SOPs.
The infection chain mushrooms inside, courses to security staff and duly their family members.
If it comes back to haunt the rakyat thereafter, raising the question, was the decision in the best interest of the rakyat?
Modern solutions in a complex world are always difficult to communicate, so better go for simpler and certainly populist solutions which may not resolve an actual problem.
.jpg)
In the example used here, illegal migrant headache is longstanding and one which merits a thorough solution after this pandemic. Today is about co-operation with migrants to vaccinate and up SOP adherence. Clichéd as it sounds, pick the right battles.
Two issues feed fear therefore the prevailing sentiments and make it difficult to pick the battlegrounds.
Rationalising them would assist both the rakyat and government to manage Covid-19 better in tamans, kampungs, districts and states. Without underestimating the damage before and still to come.
“…not extinguishing the light”
Death runs anchor for The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse.
Its news — mortality data — throws all other considerations paradoxically under the bus.
Open schools to prepare our engineers 20 years from now, commerce requires more planning, not start-stop and people are losing their minds at home. Let’s factor hospitalisation rates, vaccination rates and SOPs more. Wait, X number died yesterday the DG tweeted. Shut up everyone. No Phase Two, do you have no heart?
There’s almost no way to justify death, and to resume normal life when it kills is an unpopular opinion, however articulated. Even in an unspectacular column.
With more than 11,000 dead here in Malaysia through the Covid-19 experience, and counting, the mood is grim.
Eleven thousand tragedies unpacked in hundreds of thousands of WhatsApp threads in small and large groups, sharing, consoling, regretting. Millions of Malaysians affected.
Therefore, the constant plea from the rakyat:
Do everything possible to avoid further Covid-19 deaths.
How to ignore?
Even those desperately wanting to return to work stay quiet to respect the losses.
Compounded, Malaysia is a young nation unaccustomed to substantial deaths out of a tragedy.
However, here is where leadership is needed most. To respect losses, to rue the failures without failing to tell people it is getting better.
My politicians lack the knack to build societal optimism when the chips are actually down.
Shifting goalposts
While almost everyone on the planet is aware of Covid-19, it is almost certain every room — virtual room — positions are invariably divided. Over time, the narrative has bounced randomly and amplified selectively by social media.
In short, 2020’s priority list has morphed over the year and a half to the present.
Last year, at the beginning, it was to keep the infected numbers low by all means possible since too little was known about it and proposed vaccines were purely theoretical.
As body counts rose from at one epicentre to another, theories of how bad things were getting sold clicks.
Eighteen months on, vaccinations, planned restarts and healthcare dictate SOP relaxations.
Leaders have to usher the people from the old set of conditions necessary for success, to the new one. They are not going to just sense it from all the issued PDFs.
In late May, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said what was the worst kept secret, the disease is endemic and like dengue, a manageable problem with fatalities. This was before Malaysia targeted less than 500 daily cases as the finishing line to return to normal.
It was curious the tropical disease was compared to Covid-19.
Dengue does kill, more than it should in Malaysia but few bat an eyelid when neighbours or friends get it.
It kills but with precautions, it’s no pandemic.
The language of our own policymakers should echo that.
The numbers are set to go down substantially as per the government’s own expectation when compared to other countries’ experiences and cases-deaths-vaccinations modelling.
However, the government has not actively or effectively communicated to Malaysians about our speedier than anticipated convalescence.
It should draft the victory plan — which they somewhat did — and constantly narrate cleverly to the people we are getting there. The latter is missing.
The chatter does not convince the government is on top of this. Time to buckle up. They may remember regardless of how many people get to vote inside Parliament and when, it is the general election which ultimately matters.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
