LETTER | Locked up and mistreated amid EMCO

LETTER | I’m a resident at the Merpati A Apartments in Ampang, which is currently under EMCO from July 18 to July 31.

The reason why I’m writing this is because I wanted to express my disappointment and frustration on how we are being mistreated during this EMCO at our locality.

They locked down my housing area at midnight on the 18th without any prior notice, even to the management here. We can’t even make preparations for the lockdown. Secondly, they delivered dry food supplies at night on July 19 and to date, no other supplies have been given.

On the 19th, residents were asked to gather for swab tests in big groups without any social distancing. I wouldn’t know if any residents here got infected as a result.

I lost my income due to the pandemic as I had to close down my bar and cafe business. Currently, I’m doing some freelance jobs to support myself and my family. Since the EMCO was enforced, I couldn’t even go out to earn anything, and yet I don’t want to finish up my little emergency savings for just food and living expenses during this pandemic.

Earlier today (July 22), I called the Hulu Langat District and Land Department’s emergency response centre to ask for food supplies since I’m all alone at home and no supplies were given for cooking. This was the answer I got from the person in charge there:

“Encik Maaf ye, kami tidak dapat menyediakan makanan untuk Encik dan Encik perlu belajar memasak secara sendiri sebab Encik ade dapur sendiri.”

(I’m sorry, sir. We could not prepare food for you and you’ll have to learn how to cook for yourself as you have a kitchen.)

Yet, they have been delivering cooked food for lunch and dinner to some residents here. Why would there be an issue to just add my name in the list so I could receive food? It’s not going to cost them millions.

I have also walked to the apartment’s main entrance to ask for details regarding delivery and the sending out of medicine to my mother, but some of the officers there seemed rude and were unhelpful. Their answer was “call the hotline”, which is useless.

I feel like we are being treated like refugees in our own homes and are being denied the basic right to request for basic needs. Other housing areas under EMCO may be facing the same issues as well.

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