Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.
– World Health Organisation
Have you planned properly what you are going to do after the MCO? Do you have an exit strategy? Or do you think you will just go back to doing whatever you were doing before March 18 when our MCO 1 began?
Well, those who think that they will pick up from where they left off are in for a big shock. Some will have lost their jobs. Some, a reduction in their income. For the businessman, either closures or a struggle to restart.
Besides that, the way we socialise, work, travel and many ordinary aspects of life will not be the same anymore.
I’m sure our government has planned some form of exit strategy from the MCO. As the statistical Covid-19 figures are seemingly showing elements of stability, some restrictions on businesses are already being cautiously rolled back.
A phased exit from the MCO would be the best way forward rather than a sudden opening up. A sudden lifting of the MCO without staged phases might undo all the progress that has been made to contain the Covid-19 virus.
Ultimately, come what may, we will have to face new realities, adapt to them and then move on in the best of the Darwinian tradition no matter how difficult. Of course, to ease this transition to the new normal and realities, the government has to play its role wherever possible.
On our part as individuals, we have to clearly realise that post-MCO does NOT mean post-Covid-19. Also ‘flattening the curve’ merely means slowing down the infection rate to enable healthcare systems to manage the pandemic, not to eliminate the virus.
In the post-MCO phase, the virus will still be out there, searching, high and low for us as hosts. Therefore, to save each other, none of us can let our guard down.
We will for quite some time to come still practise social distancing or physical distancing. There should still be no public and social gatherings for some time to come. The use of face masks, sanitisers, washing of hands regularly and good personal hygiene have to go on.
However, how long would we have to do this? Well, despite some claims in certain segments of the media that, this and that vaccine is just around the corner, the informed opinion is that an effective vaccine is anywhere between 12 and 20 months away.
Since a vaccine is the only cure, can we breathe a sigh of relief in about one-and-a-half years’ time? Most likely not.
Even after a vaccine is found and once we are eventually vaccinated, due to the deadly nature of this virus, we will have to maintain the new normal related to personal hygiene for a long time to come.
Perhaps our Sarawak government can look into setting up a vaccine production facility to manufacture it for our people and also sell it abroad. It would provide supply security and rapid response to local epidemics. But then this would be a large undertaking with a multitude of challenges.
Obviously, there are numerous foreseeable and many unseen challenges our federal and Sarawak government have to face post-MCO.
We have an effective Sarawak Disaster Management Committee that will have its work cut out for it for some time to come. However, now we need to have an effective Sarawak Community and Economic Recovery Plan and with its component committees and its counterparts at the divisional level.
These would be able to guide many aspects of community revival and stimulate the economy towards recovery for the short, mid and long terms. But I’m sure they already have this in the works.
An immediate stimulus plan would not only bring back on track the many MCO stalled public infrastructure works but also to start more.
We can start with more hospitals, smart technology- equipped schools, more roads and bridges, faster implementation of the electrification of Sarawak, the quick expansion of gas and water pipeline networks and ramping up the introduction of communication networks.
While not comprehensive, these could be a good start towards recovery and provide better preparation towards partially ‘shock proofing’ Sarawak in the future. I’m sure this is easier said than done, but worthwhile looking into.
Past pandemics have always reshaped cultures, attitudes, social behaviours, towns, cities and nations. There are also many lessons always learned but subsequently forgotten.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a German philosopher, said: “What experience and history teaches us is that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”
Let us prove him wrong by collaborating and working together to keep Sarawak safe and strong.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
