APRIL 1 — For many people, the movement control order (MCO) may be a time to rest at home, try on new cooking resipi or watch TV to pass time.
Their salary is still ongoing although there is no active work.
On the other hand, there are the weak and vulnerable among our communities that 2 to 4 weeks of MCO may mean total collapse of their livelihood or even their lives.
Sad stories
The other day there was a report from a NGO trying to reach out to someone in Air Itam, Penang who had not eaten for a week since the MCO started.
At the same time, there was a newborn baby, unclothed with umbilical cord severed found inside a rubbish bin in Gombak. Fortunately baby was still alive when found.
There are also reports of many senior citizen homes having their food supply cut off due to unforeseen reasons further threatening the health and lives of these most vulnerable groups.
In Parit Buntar, there was a report in the press of a family of 9 whose head of household is a daily wage earner having to resort to scrounging for edibles around their home like wild vegetables and fish caught from the ditch.
The most tragic of all was a report from Kelantan 2 days ago when a 37-year-old man who work as a labourer and couldn't work because of the MCO. Since there is no money, he went out to a small river to catch fish for his family but was found dead, apparently from drowning.
He leaves behind a wife and small kids who are barely able to put food on the table.
To all these marginalised and underserved communities, the coronavirus is less of a threat than hunger and food to survive.
When a crisis happens, these are the people who are first to suffer the collateral damage of making sure others survive the pandemic.
It need not be these tragic consequences if our response to the crisis is not only centred on public health requirements but also an enhanced and amplified efforts in protecting and reaching out to the most vulnerable among us swiftly.
We need an all government response and we need more importantly the highly specialised skills in coordinating such a massive tsunami like pandemic that we are all facing lest more and more lives are lost.
Mismatch priorities
Most certainly we cannot have our Ministry of Women telling how women should dress at home or talk to their husband in “doraemon” tone when women, families and communities are suffering and even some are facing deaths.
Most certainly, we can't have our minister leading a team in wasteful complete personal protection suits when these suits are so much needed in our hospitals and disinfecting the streets when it's really an ineffective way to combat the pandemic.
Instead critical efforts should be on social distancing and improving personal hygiene techniques and equally important to redirect our resources in increasing our Covid-19 testing capacity and capability.
Paradoxical objectives
In enforcing the MCO, many people are arrested for violations and disturbing pictures of possibly immigrant population groups who may be clueless to what's happening huddled together, being arrested by police emerged.
In other pictures, we see groups of policemen manning road block sitting side by side together in a small tent without any social distancing put in place.
Even the shorten opening times of supermarkets, petrol station or restaurants may force many people to crowd these places rather than spread out at intervals.
All these actions may result in the exact opposite of what we hope to achieve.
In fact it may cause more transmission of infections rather than our objective of decreasing human contact and extinguishing the pandemic.
The way forward
Understandingly no handling of such a massive pandemic will be perfect but if we:
- Prioritise the most vulnerable and weak among us in our response and paraphrasing the words of our top infectious disease doctor, we provide a " cocoon" around them
- Take cognizance of the fact that in restricting personal freedom in the name of health, we need to take heed of basic human rights
- Make sure all ministers and ministries understand the seriousness of this pandemic and do everything they can to assist communities in dire needs and distress rather than indulge in mindless patronising politics.
- Make sure that every directive or regulations from the Nation's authority must be vetted fully from a public health perspective lest it result in the opposite of what we are trying so tirelessly to do and defeats the purpose of the MCO.
- That actions must be made speedily, carefully thought and planned with a clear understanding of likely consequences rather than reactive flip flops to public complains or backlash.
Let pray we continue to do better with each passing day as we fight this pandemic.
God bless Malaysia and all Malaysians
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
