MP SPEAKS | M'sia needs new strategy to fight Covid-19

MP SPEAKS | Another wave of Covid-19 is upon Malaysia. More devastating is the mounting deaths; more than 500 Malaysians have died at this point in May 2021 alone.

I cannot help but feel that those are 500 plus deaths that could have been prevented. My heart and prayers go out to their loved ones, as well as to those still suffering, whether in hospital or quarantine, emotionally or mentally or socio-economically.

The spike has led to calls for a “total lockdown”, especially for the Klang Valley. Others have argued, just as passionately, that we need to keep the economy going.

Both are legitimate, valid stances to take. On the surface, it makes sense for the movement control order (MCO) to be stricter, both in terms of its rules and enforcement.

But lockdowns cannot be our only solution to the pandemic. Lockdowns, alone, without any other action, cannot work. Neither can we remain in the status quo.

We will be stuck in an endless cycle of lockdowns and Groundhog Days of suffering if the National Security Council (NSC) imposes a total lockdown without anything else.

This will also be the case if it allows the economy to remain open but does not ramp up its efforts on other fronts. So what is this “anything else”? The “other fronts”?

First, the capacity of our healthcare system needs to be ramped up. Our hospitals and frontliners are overwhelmed. We should learn lessons from India and Brazil.

We need to continue ramping up mass testing, not only in the Klang Valley but across the country. There has to be more vigorous contact tracing across the board. Healthcare facility capacities ought to have been exponentially increased months ago.

And, of course, we must speed up the vaccination process, particularly in the Klang Valley and other urban centres. The government must not let up on this.

Secondly, we have to realise that Malaysia’s economy, total lockdown or not, is in dire need of pump priming. As many politicians, industry and civil society bodies have urged, the people cannot be left to their own devices.

Shutting down the economy may help reduce cases, but as the “MCO 1.0” showed, it will have a deleterious effect on employment and business. We all know the famous figure of how the first lockdown cost our economy RM2.4 billion a day.

In October 2020, Socso reported that more than 90,000 Malaysians lost their jobs. The unemployment rate in March 2021 was 4.7 percent, a rise from 3.9 percent a year before. But the figures for youth and graduate unemployment, as well as underemployment are more severe.

There is also a social cost, in terms of damaged mental health and domestic violence. The children of Malaysia have particularly suffered. Either way, the social safety nets that were introduced during the “MCO 1.0” must be reintroduced and strengthened.

This includes the blanket bank loan moratorium and the wage subsidy programme. The BSH/BPN cash transfer programmes must be increased also.

Very bleak future

Yes, this will require bigger fiscal spending. But we are in a war against Covid-19. No country has ever won a war via austerity, or by neglecting its people.

The current measures simply haven’t worked. As has been pointed out, the i-Sinar EPF withdrawal schemes basically asked the rakyat to pour out their own nest eggs (which weren’t great to begin with) for the present.

Some Malaysians used their withdrawals as capital for Ramadan/Aidilfitri bazaar stalls -  but these have been stopped early due to the MCO 3.0. What is to become of them?

I’ll say it again: the current measures aren’t working. Also, the fate of Malaysia’s education system is very much on my mind.

The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education have had more than a year’s worth of experience grappling with Covid-19. Surely the transition between in-person and online learning should be more seamless and painless than it has been this year?

What has happened to the 150,000 free laptops promised in the 2020 federal budget? The Perikatan Nasional (PN) government cannot keep giving excuses or seeking to shift blame.

Malaysia’s future will be very bleak if we cannot manage education properly during these trying times.

Separately, the SOPs must be enforced strictly, without fear or favour. There cannot be double standards or one set of laws for the elite and another for everyone else.

Finally, Parliament needs to convene. We have been under the emergency for over four months now. Since it’s supposed to end in August - we are technically at the halfway mark.

And yet we are facing the very problems that it was supposed to prevent.

Muhyiddin Yassin seized power from a democratically-elected administration as the pandemic started and has now had the audacity to declare an emergency.

The federal government has clearly not been able to make use of the time given to it to strengthen Malaysia’s healthcare capacities or take radical economic measures otherwise why are we facing the current crisis?

Perhaps it’s because Parliament has not been allowed to sit, to question it and hold it accountable - even though the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong has decreed that it can do so.

There has been no way to tell if the monies that have been spent so far have been expended in a wise fashion. And there is no way to guarantee the abovementioned policy planks will work without Parliament’s oversight.

There is no way to win public support for what needs to be done to bring Malaysia safely back to shore, without the people’s representatives - namely Parliament - being called back into session.

Malaysia has not lost the fight against Covid-19. But we definitely need a new strategy if the country is to survive.

NIK NAZMI NIK AHMAD is Setiawangsa Member of Parliament and a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee for Education.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.