With the recent announcement of the Full Movement Control Order (FMCO), Malaysians yet again have turned to social medias to rant about their take on the order. In language of debate, some in favor of the motion, while others against.
No matter which side they lean on, it is pretty evident that a vast majority of the population have been blaming the government for the spread of the virus.
But is the government alone to be condemned?
In this article, MALAYSIANS refer to EVERY SINGLE MALAYSIAN, despite their social status.
LESSONS FROM MCO 1.0
Basically, the implementation of MCO 1.0 was based on the basic principle of "Survive First, Thrive Second", and our survival mode proved to serve as a valuable teacher.
Though we were fairly successful in curbing the wide-spread of the Covid-19 virus, MCO 1.0 came with serious side effects as Malaysia suffered RM63 million losses and saw a 5.6% decline in GDP performance for 2020. To make things worse, 100,000 Malaysians lost their livelihood. To top it of, Befrienders have reported to have received 4,142 calls between March 18 and May 16 2020 during the MCO period, where over a third of the calls were suicidal in nature. Grievously, Ministry of Health recorded 465 attempted suicide cases between January and June 2020, and 266 suicides were reported between March to October 2020, which were heavily caused by debt, followed by problems caused by family (24%) and marriage (23%).
Unfortunately, in the war against Covid-19, we lost battles in safeguarding our financial, economical, and social stability. It truly is an expensive learning moment.
THE QUESTIONABLE SUCCESS OF #KITAJAGAKITA & THE TRENDING #KERAJAANGAGAL
"Survive First, Thrive Second" has now become a more challenging principle to live by as the war against Covid-19 has proven to be not as easy as expected as it affected different aspects of our lives.
Though the announcements are made by the Prime Minister, the decisions taken in curbing the Covid-19 virus is taken based on
procedures underlined by the World Health Organization, with the advice from Ministry of Health and National Security Council. Eventhough we may think we are smarter than the rest, we should understand that the officials appointed in the ministries are those with relevant expertise and knowledge specifically in said field. A quick visit to the
SPA website will give us enough input to comprehend this.
Nevertheless, we can't deny the political influence in the implementation of such measures. Despite the measures, let's examine our role in this war. As quickly as the pandemic hit, the hashtag #kitajagakita became a wide-spread use in our daily lives. Unfortunately, we seem to have failed to make it a reality.
Even with the strict implementation of MCO, Malaysians have failed to put a united front unanimously, as it becomes evident with the
100,000 compounds issued over SOP violations since MCO 1.0 and we are all too familiar with all the ridiculous excuses given to the police officers.
With our frontliners facing severe
burnouts from working around the clock, cases have been on the rise with more people violating the SOPs.
Learning the lesson from MCO 1.0, the government decided to ease on the SOPs in hopes that #KitaJagaKita becomes a reality. But alas! as the SOPs were relaxed, so did we.
More and more people took things for granted. More violations were observed, being social creatures, more people took this chance to 'balik kampung', to visit parents (understandable), to go out on first dates and to finally meet their friends and have physical contact.
Regretabaly, cases started to spike up.
Though the economic sectors were open, the government is not solely to be blamed in such situation as the RAKYAT (including politicians, celebrities and EVERY SINGLE MALAYSIAN) has a role to play.
Due to our own actions, the virus concentrated in few areas have now rampantly spread to every nock and cranny in the country. For example, Sabak Bernam which was in green zone, gradually became yellow and drastically ended up to Red zone within a short span of time.
How would this have happened if not for those who decided to travel?
MALAYSIANS AND SOPs
Though the government SOPs can be vague and largely confusing, the basic guidelines are the same throughout the world.
For a country with over
90% literacy rate among the youth, its unfathomable why these guidelines are not understood and implemented in day to day lives.
Many are still ignorant with their OWN actions and believe they are beyond the virus. Negligence and the famously known Tidak Apa attitude is what has lead us to the current situation.
Ask yourself, have you done your part?
- Avoid physical contact with parents after coming home?
- Isolate yourself when you feel unwell?
- Sanitize yourself and the products you bring into your home?
- Head straight to the bathroom, strip and shower the moment you enter the house?
- Avoid touching your colleagues?
- Avoided sharing vape or cigarettes?
- Avoided crowded places?
- Chose to wait for the next train when the current one is full?
- Kept your employees home when it can be arranged?
- Kept dating and hangouts virtual?
- Chose to spend 2 to 5 ringgit in delivery charges instead of getting in crowded situations?
- Wore your mask properly around people?
- Answered and checked on your symptoms truthfully?
Or have you
- Hugged, shook hands or even fist bumped your friends / collegues?
- Hugged your children as soon as you got home?
- Decided on going out on first dates, blind dates without masks on?
- Queued up for hours just to buy a meal?
- Have weddings or functions with crowd of people?
- Went to work even when you were exhibiting symptoms?
- Went back to hometowns?
#KERAJAANGAGAL or #RAKYATGAGAL?
So its time to reflect with our own actions, especially with the current "offsprings" of the virus that show zero symptoms. Lets stop blaming everyone and take accountability on OUR OWN ACTIONS.
Reflect on OURSELVES, rather than pointing fingers at someone else.
For CHANGE HAS TO COME FROM US.
With over 90% literates, the win against COVID 19 is easily attainable if we all hold ourselves accountable and act accordingly.
With knowledge we do not have to rely on someone else (i.e. government) to tell us what to do. We should be able to do it ourselves.
Govement issued SOP or not, let's pray our role to protect OURSELVES and LEAD A BETTER LIFE.
Without a united front, we can never win this. Therefore, lets check ourselves and make sure we are not the problem.
Do it for our drained frontliners
Do it for our kids whose futures are on pause
Do it for the nasi lemak mak cik
Do it for the salon aunty
Do it for our parents
Do it for YOURSELF.
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