The moment the press statement from the office of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the news regarding the declaration of emergency was released, everyone was panicking. People were questioning each other, searching for answers on what will happen when the emergency is executed.
Furthermore, with the emergency announced one day after the announcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO), Malaysians were even more confused considering that there might be more extreme measures taken compared to the standard operating procedures (SOP) of the MCO.
Fortunately, the emergency is generally to prevent more politicking from going on. Parliament and all State Assemblies are temporarily suspended from meetings until August. No election will be called during this same period as well.
As usual, there are different voices from different groups of people. Those who are not politically in favour with the current government claim that this is a political step to prevent Pakatan Harapan or maybe even UMNO from making steps to take over the Government. The Prime Minister wannabe Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim even dares to request the King to rescind the Emergency that has been announced, claiming that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has midled the Agong with the advice for the proclamation and that Muhyiddin was also in no position to do so as his government no longer has majority support among the Member of Parliaments.
I do not know about what some may think, but at this current moment, I do not think that politicking is the right thing to do now. The pandemic has grown to the worst situation that we have never experienced before. If the lawmakers and politicians are still busy making priorities to lobby to be the government, we might be plagued to death first before the government is stable. As I have written before, the Sabah state election is a good enough scenario that we should really stop politicking for now.
There are so many Malaysians who are in pain now, biologically, economically and mentally. As political leaders in the country, not only that we should know when to stop politicking, and when to do it. Similarly when we want to play our part to assist the rakyat, even if it is for a media stunt, we should put the safety of the people as priority.
Since the pandemic began last March, there are many parties that wanted to give out assistance to the people, but we know how social media has shared the stories of the programmes, and how the SOP that were not adhered. We may have the kind heart to help the people, but it may turn out to be a cluster of its own if we are not careful.
Just last week when a group wanted to distribute chickens to the people but did not obtain the approval when Putrajaya was still under MCO. The distribution event has caused a standstill to the traffic after too many people rushed out to grab the chickens. We are simply putting the people at risk when we are not careful.
If I were to say it, one of the major causes of the spread of the Covid-19 virus is due to over-politicking, perhaps we should name it as the “politicking cluster”. The on-going political events to give out items to people, the negotiation and lobbying to be the government, and the political meetings held to make it happen are all part of the “politicking cluster”.
We were too careless when we managed to control the pandemic for the first round. We were too proud of it, until we neglected it.