YOURSAY | ‘Didn’t the US return billions to us? That’s our hard-earned money…’

As Covid-19 surges, Ismail Sabri says poor won't survive total lockdown

Brahminy Kite: Firstly, the government will not implement a total lockdown as this would sound the death knell for the poor and small businesses? But it looks like the government can allocate tens of millions to build community halls?

Didn’t the United States return billions to us just a few months back? But the government still cannot use that money to help the poor? That’s our hard-earned money - to be used for our welfare!

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, didn’t you tell the Agong you need this emergency to control the pandemic? A strict lockdown for a month and a half will definitely do less harm to the economy than months and months of half-baked lackadaisical movement control order (MCO) or conditional MCO (CMCO).

Look at how Australia tackled their problem today - a lockdown on two million people with the discovery of only one case. We are not asking for the lockdown of the whole country, just the problematic areas.

Senior Minister (Security) Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the focus of containment would be on construction sites, where large numbers of cases have been recorded. However, outbreaks in those areas are easier to contain. It is the transmission within the local community which is happening now that is difficult to solve without a strict MCO.

The pandemic has already reached the state of community transmission. It is not a surprise if the transmission has crept into non-Covid departments of major government hospitals, infecting healthcare staff including doctors, disrupting services to the public because the staff have to undergo quarantine.

Please check how many patients who are seeking treatment at non-Covid departments are positive. I suggest you work for a few weeks at the nephrology ward or the acute haemodialysis unit of the Kuala Lumpur Hospital to understand the gravity of the problem.

Ismail shared how small businesses were affected after the government barred dining-in. This doesn’t make sense. A restaurant will still get the same profit whether a family dines in or they order takeaway or online for food to be delivered. The price of the dishes remains the same, whether it is dine-in, takeaway, or online delivery.

In fact, restaurants may gain more if customers take away or order online because they will need less staff. Dining-in increases the chances of staff being infected. When this happens, the restaurants lose by having to pay employees while they are in quarantine. Restaurants might even have to shut down for sanitising.

Ismail added that there are no clusters involving markets and roadside stalls. “We act according to facts.” He’s really talking rubbish. Of course, at the point of decision-making, there is no cluster because they haven’t gathered yet. It takes time to form a cluster. How do you know that none of the traders or customers is infected? Clusters only start when traders and customers start to gather. Wouldn’t the exchange of notes and touching of items contribute to transmission?

You can set up a screening desk at the entrance of the pasar malam equipped with thermometer, sanitiser, a record book, and armed personnel to control the crowd but that cannot prevent transmission by people who do not show symptoms. Another thing, if there has not been any history of clusters among roadside stalls, it doesn’t mean that in the future there won’t be any.

I bet my comments would invite a lot of criticism. But please give it some deeper thought. If it is a money problem, the government still has lots of it. That money is our money to be used on us, especially when we are in trouble.

Don’t let our loved ones die just because of money.

WhiteCrab8706: @Brahminy Kite, your comment about restaurants is definitely off the mark. I own a number of restaurants, and revenue is down 90 percent since MCO 2.0.

Dine-in and takeaway are completely different. Delivery helps a bit, but paying 30 to 35 percent fees to Grab, etc, doesn’t make that part of revenue a major factor in surviving.

New Hope: Ismail, you would make the people very happy by getting the police to either arrest or summon all ministers who have broken the standard operating procedures (SOPs).

As far as we are concerned, there should be no excuses. While you are trying your best to do your job, all the other ministers in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government have come up with fanciful ideas on how to breach the SOPs.

The police can fine a business owner who was just getting out of her car in front of her shop without wearing a mask? On what basis do the police catch ordinary citizens when our so-called “leaders” are getting away scot-free?

Siva1967: One thing is certain, no one can pinpoint where the cases are coming from and why it is spiralling at this unmanageable rate. The stringent implementation of MCO 1.0 did work out somewhat until we let our guard down due to the Sabah state election - no thanks to the Sabah frogs.

However, the same stringent enforcement is not seen being carried out for MCO 2.0. Here’s a suggestion:

1. Call for a strict lockdown for one month - a total shutdown of the economy.

2. Provide a moratorium for six months across the board to counter the impact of lost wages and lost business.

3. Give financial aid for people’s needs, especially the B40 (bottom 40 percent), by which time, the number in this category would have ballooned.

4. Cut all wages and allowances of MPs and state assemblypersons for six months, not that they would starve anyway.

5. Cut wages of all C-suite executives in all government-linked companies (GLCs) including the political appointees for six months.

6. Ensure food supply is amply available and proper enforcement to ensure no hoarding.

We take the hit altogether one time, instead of dragging it out and giving band-aid solutions here and there, prolonging the problem. While the six-month moratorium is in place, efforts to restart the economy must be put in place and rolled out at the end of the sixth month.

What is the economy? In simple terms, it is to ensure every able citizen of this country either has a job to make a living, or a business to earn their keep. With that and a sincere policy in place, we can come out of this victorious.

A generation or two ago, our parents and grandparents lived through the Japanese occupation. This pandemic, however, is a war against an invisible enemy.

ManOnTheStreet: @Siva1967, there is no way a one-month total lockdown, no matter how strict, will bring down the numbers to post-MCO 1.0 levels. Not with the virus in the community as it is now.

There is no such thing as health/lives over economy/livelihood. Only the uninformed repeat this mantra again and again. Both are inextricably linked. We have to find the balance. Prolonged lockdowns will not give us that balance.

GMan: Ismail said they will focus on factories and construction sites as they are the biggest contributors to Covid-19 cases. If that is the case, it doesn’t make sense that we have an emergency declared across the whole country.

This means Parliament is suspended, businesses are suffering, schools are closed for four months (only kindergartens and day-cares can operate) when the biggest contributors are factories and construction sites?

Then why can't the emergency be limited to just factories and construction sites? Why drag everyone down, affecting the lives of all Malaysians?

Ghostwhowalks: @GMan, the government is just acting like a big bully and blaming it all on the foreigners. They are taking an easy way out and missing the target by a mile!

If it is that simple, the pandemic would have been solved much earlier.

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