This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on April 27, 2020 - May 3, 2020

It would certainly be remiss of me to not write about the Covid-19 pandemic that has befallen all of us. In all my 50 years, I cannot recall any event that comes even close to this in magnitude. The pandemic has had an all-round effect on our lives, not just physically and emotionally but also intellectually and, of course, spiritually. While many choose to highlight its negative effects on our lives, as a non-conformist, I see many positives coming out of this pandemic.

In the past, I had always been a workaholic. Now, I eat nourishing home-cooked meals; have more time to think and read; get the chance to spend quality time with my family, be it praying, learning or playing together; and have enough rest with a good night’s sleep. All in all, I am truly grateful for this “pause”, or slo-mo, button in the journey of my life. With this gift of time, I am able to better appreciate and be thankful for all the little things that I may have overlooked. Quite timely too, Ramadan is here, and I think I am much better prepared for this Ramadan than I have ever been.

Covid-19 has infected more than 2.5 million people all over the world, and resulted in about 180,000 deaths. In this calamitous situation, I want to express our profound gratitude to doctors and nurses, and everyone else involved, for their dedication and sacrifice in caring for and attending to us.

Although many refer to them as our first line of defence or frontliners, I feel we should accord them the more accurate and higher status of being our last line of defence. When a patient is sent to them at the hospital, there is no other defensive line behind them. That is where the line ends.

In my opinion, the real frontliners are the leaders of the country — the policymakers who decide on the right approach to take in tackling this threat while balancing both the human and economic repercussions that come with it. I feel blessed that our Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has stepped up and made the necessary, albeit unpopular, decision to impose the Movement Control Order (MCO) to curb the spread of Covid-19.

So far, the MCO seems to be working, when we compare Malaysia with other countries that have delayed taking action or have chosen other approaches. For example, we have had better results at flattening the curve of infections compared with Canada, which has a population size that is similar to ours. If our leaders had not made the right move as our first line of defence, our last line of defence, which comprises our healthcare providers, would most likely now be overwhelmed by having to deal with thousands, if not tens of thousands, of infected persons. We only need to learn from the experience of China, Italy and the US to know how crucial the right decisions and enforcement by our leaders are.

When this is all over, and everyone has the privilege of hindsight, it is expected that there will be a debate on whether our leaders made the right decision then — the decision to prioritise the minimising of human penalty, at the expense of potential economic penalty, both inexorable consequences of the pandemic. Had the government allowed businesses to operate as usual from day one of the outbreak, the casualties, or human penalty to our nation, may have been unimaginable.

As Malaysians, each one of us is the second line of defence. A policy will remain just a policy if it is not adopted and practised by us, the potential patient. We should understand that each one of us is a potential host to the virus. We can contract. We can infect. Once we contract, the magic of 1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 4, 4 becomes 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1,024, 2,048, 4,096 and so on. This domino effect starts with just one.

For this reason, I anticipated from the start that this would be a very long MCO, to be lifted only after Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Otherwise, we are looking at potential Jakel clusters, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman clusters, bazaar Ramadan clusters, open house clusters and so on. A realistic way for us to fight this pandemic is to “zero-rize” the virus in public circulation. We need to identify those who are infected and have the potential to be infected, to be tested and quarantined as soon as possible. Once we are sure there is no more virus in public circulation, we must continue to sanitise some areas. After that, it will be prudent to have a 14-day cooling-off period to let the remaining virus die.

Apart from impacting the way we live, the coronavirus gave birth to some new behaviour. One that is propagated widely is “social distancing”. While I agree with the necessity of us staying a metre apart from each other to minimise the possibility of contracting the virus, I feel we should be more responsible about how it is branded. The terminology will survive this pandemic, and it will be accepted as the new norm and culture in the future.

Distancing, as a term, has a lot of negative connotations and perceptions. The mental suggestion is to try and keep as far away as possible from every other person, and to look at each other with suspicion. When left unchecked, there is every likelihood that this new behaviour will permeate our society — even long after the virus is gone. It may also reach the level of us looking at other people as if we were afflicted with leprosy, as in the past when this was a most dreaded disease. If I did not know better, I would think the term “social distancing” was perfectly designed to create a rift between us human beings.

I suggest that we do not use the word “distancing”, which has the meaning of trying to stay as far away as possible. Let us find a positive alternative that will survive this pandemic with a more responsible suggestion of new behaviour, for example, the term “a metre close” or “a metre proximity”. The words “close” or “proximity” still conveys the idea of human connectivity because, as a species, we were never designed to live alone. We are mutually dependent or inter-reliant, and will always have the need to stay connected.

Granted, we must keep Covid-19 from spreading further. We must also anticipate what will happen as a consequence of our actions today — for better or for worse — way into the future.

Please stay home safely with your loved ones. Read and share. Unlearn and relearn. Produce and contribute. Evaluate and appreciate. And do not forget to exercise and rest.

(In my next article, I will write about the economic penalty of Covid-19.)

Datuk Azrin Mohd Noor is the founder of Sedania Group, an innovator, author and IP expert

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