Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 4, 2020 - May 10, 2020

FINALLY, after six weeks of virtual lockdown, most economic and social activities — with the exception of those involving close contact — will be allowed to start again.

With a few exceptions, Malaysians had been very disciplined and complied with the Movement Control Order (MCO) that started on March 18, even as we saw our businesses collapse and we had to stay away from families and friends. Heck, we were not even allowed to walk alone for exercise!

But we rallied around our healthcare system and workers to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. On March 23, The Edge Media Group launched two funds and within a few weeks, Corporate Malaysia and ordinary Malaysians responded generously. A total of RM25 million was raised, of which RM14.5 million was to buy medical equipment.

So far, we have sent 900,000 face masks, 33,000 protective suits, 19,500 face shields, 35 ventilators and 11,000 goggles to more than 30 hospitals and 80 district clinics all over the country. We wanted to show our healthcare workers that while we cannot be with them, they are not alone.

It was an amazing effort by Corporate Malaysia to support our healthcare system and workers, led by Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. We knew we could not let our hospitals collapse from the pandemic.

And kudos to all our healthcare workers and other security and enforcement staff for the amazing work they have done to contain the outbreak, thus enabling the government to allow most businesses and social activities to resume.

Critics will say we should have waited another two weeks or even a month.

But what difference does it make whether it is May 4 or June 4? The coronavirus will still be there and there will be no vaccine either.

Will infections rise again? Likely yes, the number of new cases and deaths will spike. But our healthcare system has been ramped up in the past several weeks and its Covid-19 fighting capacity is now only 30% utilised.

We are in a far better position than five weeks ago.

But the economic and social costs of locking people and businesses down for longer than necessary will be devastating. The cure will by then be worse than the disease.

Many Malaysians are killed in road accidents, especially during festive holidays. Do we stop people from driving? We don’t.

What we do is increase speeding penalties and set up more speed traps and roadblocks. To prevent speeding, which is the main cause of accidents on city roads, we have speed breakers. But we don’t close our roads because there are reckless drivers who cause deaths.

Similarly, we know how deadly dengue is. But we don’t forbid people from going out to their garden or to the park to exercise, although we know there are aedes mosquitoes in these places. Instead, we advise them to take precautions such as spraying insect repellent on their arms and legs.

We don’t lock down people because of deaths on the roads or from dengue as we know the social and economic consequences. Instead, we take safety measures. That won’t completely stop deaths from accidents or dengue. But it will contain them. The same should apply in dealing with the Covid-19 virus.

It is now up to us as individuals and businesses to get back to work but to do so safely by complying with the guidelines set by the Ministry of Health. In reality, no company is going to rush full swing to the way they operated before.

Businesses and their customers have to adjust and find a new equilibrium that works for both parties — whether it is a restaurant, a department store or a law firm. Employees who do not wish to work in the same set-up can choose to leave.

Not everyone will succeed in adjusting to the new normal. Those that do will thrive. Those that don’t will fold. Better that this be decided through our own decisions, right or wrong, than by a government lockdown order.

 

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