“THEY don’t make pills for this.” This has never been more true for me, like it is right now, and I suspect, for many out there as well.
Zooming in on Malaysia, this is not what we had in mind when Vision 2020 was introduced to us back in the early 1990s. Some of us, at the time, figured we’d have flying cars or robots walking down the streets.
The more practical ones amongst us probably thought we’d stand on a par with other developed countries. In many ways, even though not by the accepted definition of a developed nation, Malaysia has developed tremendously.
There are Malaysians all over the world carving names for themselves in fields that at one point were out of reach for many. We have indeed come a long way. Yet here we are today, battling a pandemic, uncertainty looming over our heads, wondering when this storm will blow over and life can get back to the normal kind of crazy it was before this mess.
The raging concern, apart from public health and managing the outbreak as best we can, appears to be the economy. Perhaps that is why many world leaders are reluctant to take strong action. Action that defies corporations and trade giants.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appears to be among the few willing to go on record, accompanied by action, to say out loud that the people must come first.
“We must go hard and we must go early.” Hearing her say these words makes me wish that we had gone hard in the early stages. Were we complacent? Did we think because our first wave was at a mere 22, that that was it? The problem was going to go away?
Sadly, at a time we should have adopted the “go hard” method, the country was dragged into a political crisis that led to the collapse of the government that was in charge, and by extension, had all the powers to handle this outbreak better.
So a couple of weeks were wasted on political updates, political announcements and political plotting. We even saw the appointment of a new prime minister, at a time we should have been focused on ensuring the outbreak would not escalate, to the state we are in today.
Safe to say, despite the deafening cries of politicians left and right telling Malaysians not to worry, we had no leadership.
Looking back, so many things could have been done between late January and late February. Had we “gone hard” during the first wave, we might not find ourselves in the midst of a massive second wave. While Singapore overtook us in the number of cases weeks ago, we have effectively overtaken all our neighbours in a single day.
What if we had the willpower to “go hard” in the first wave? Did we not have any medical experts who could have advised the government during the first wave on the “radical” steps that could be adopted to ensure we didn’t escalate into a scary looking second wave?
What if we had issued an outright ban on public gatherings during the first wave? What if we had empowered our law enforcement to shut down any and all public gatherings? We don’t need more politicians to spew rhetoric.
This is where we are today. All the politicking and plotting mean nothing because a crisis, such as the one we’re facing now, cares not for eloquent speeches. It’s the kind of crisis that should be the driving factor in the people electing politicians.
Because the kind of crisis we are facing now comes without warning and can’t be avoided by negotiations or meetings. It requires the will to act in the best interest of the people. For some reason, many leaders fail to see that their rhetoric and politicking will mean nothing if a crisis like this escalates.
This is not a trade war, this is not a border dispute, this is not a power grab conflict. This is a situation that calls for decisive action. So, “go hard” or go home.
The writer is NST Online editor
