Officially, Malaysia may be transitioning into Covid-19 endemicity next week, but on the ground, it starts today, at the beginning of the long Maulidur Rasul weekend.
For the law abiding, deprived of interstate travel for 19 months and with it the familial ties of elderly parents and extended relatives, the lifting of travel restrictions in the country and to abroad heralds the longed-for trip back to ancestral homes and the placing of oneself into the jigsaw that makes the family whole.
Across the country, there will be emotional reunions and tears of happiness. For the lucky few who were able to get leave sooner, scenes of bewildered elderly parents taken by surprise by out-of-state offspring suddenly arriving at the door have already been played out. Hugs, kisses and salam have been exchanged — as if Covid-19 were a distant, and past, nightmare.
Little wonder then that federal ministers in charge of overseeing pandemic/endemic safety have been quite emotional at their press conferences this past week.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin entreated the population to be vigilant and safeguard against creating a surge in infections. "It's all well and good saying 'Thank you, frontliners', but if you don't adhere to the SOPs, and if you engage in high-risk behaviour, then your words of appreciation to these frontliners are merely lip service," Khairy spat out, in barely contained exasperation.
A few days later, Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein concluded his press conference by blinking anxiously at the press pool and intoned, "Stay safe, guys. Pray that what we have announced will not jeopardise the (infection) figures, which are decreasing right now." More than the common man's imagination can conjure, the weight of these ministers' responsibilities gives them just cause to be nervous.
Hishammuddin admitted that the wholesale reopening of the country — interstate and international travel, the abolition of MyTravelPass, home quarantine, adults going back to the office and children going back to school — make it difficult to anticipate what might happen.
The ministers' nervousness is not unlike that of parents, who, having taught their children how to cross the road and practised with them for a while, now have to let the children go out on their own and pray that they navigate the dangers as practised and make it home safe and whole.
But unlike parents, the ministers cannot rush after the child and say, "I changed my mind!" and grab the child and hold them close forever. Because most of the populace are grown adults who will not consent to being cosseted forever.
Besides, even parents have to let go of their children eventually. So what happens next depends on all of us. How Malaysians behave — whether we understand our collective responsibility to keep ourselves and everyone safe, whether we are honest about where we have been and what we have been up to, whether observing the SOPs have become second nature to us and whether we are always conscious that this virus is still among us — will be the true proof of whether all our efforts will see us through this safely.
The test bed will not be the potential Melaka state elections. The test bed will be this weekend, when we try to regain our lives from before, while accepting that the "new norm" is now just the norm. The responsibility lies with each of us — as it has always been.
