COMMENT | What will normal look like post-lockdown?

COMMENT | It has been well over a month since Malaysians have been forced to curtail their daily lives. In anticipation towards the day when the movement control order is lifted, there have been countless of WhatsApp messages pinging back and forth with everyone declaring what they will do when everything reopens. Food, as usual, takes the top spot, many missing the conviviality of their local mamak shop.

But once the lockdown is lifted will everything be back to normal? There is talk of a "new normal" but what does that entail? This new pandemic will signal a large scale reassessment of everything pertaining to one’s daily life. There are many who have not thought in-depth about the far-reaching repercussions of this pandemic.

And corporations, as well as local authorities, are so busy with answering day-to-day problems arising from this pandemic, that there has been scant time to think about communicating with the public on life after lockdown. So this article poses a series of questions in an attempt to obtain clarity on a future that seems so uncertain.

Until a vaccine is found, many planners and city managers are scrambling over health and safety issues, but what are things that need reassessment? For instance, ...