By Sarawakian
June is now here. Yet again all signs of hope since to have waned yet again as we are jolted with another version of the movement control order. There had been so many versions that many of us would have forgotten what they were. It all began in 2020.
Let us revisit the timeline in which we have been subjected to the various movement control orders created by the Government. The first ever shock came after the change of Government in February 2020 and a new Prime Minister on 1st March 2020. The 1st MCO (Movement Control Order) against the looming Covid-19 infections then began from 18th March 2020 and ended on 3rd May 2020.
This was replaced with the CMCO (Conditional Movement Control Order) from 4th May until 9th June 2020. A RMCO (Recovery Movement Control Order) came into effect from 10th June 2020 and was supposed to end on 31st December 2020. This was significant as cinemas were allowed to open again. However, because of some over-zealous political characters in Sabah leaning towards the attraction of the newly installed Government, the power was returned to the voters. Political parties on both sides failed to uphold the basic tenets of the SOPs bringing a believed increase in cases due to the easy fly in and fly out of Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia then. Because of this, Selangor and a few other states had to go back into the CMCO yet again from 14th October 2020 until 12th January 2021. Cinemas had to close yet again.
The Government then announced the return of MCO which many have dubbed as the MCO2.0 which would cover the whole Chinese New Year Celebration period form 13th January until 26th January 2021. However, Selangor had an extension till 4th March 2021. Cinemas were allowed to reopen again for the CMCO period of 5th March 2021 until 5th May 2021 before the MCO3.0 was declared again to begin from 6th May 2021. This was supposed to end on 17th May 2021 for Selangor but it evolved into a Nationwide MCO3.0 scheduled for 12th May until 7th June 2021.
Beginning 25th May 2021 a stricter version of MCO3.0 or some called it MCO3.1 or MCO3.0 enhanced came to play and would also end on 7th June 2021; superseding the earlier. Of course, in between we had the amazing release of the HIDE (Hotspot Identification for Dynamic Engagement) list or the proud creation of the Government on 8th May requiring all those listed to close immediately from 9th May until 11th May 2021.
On 28th May 2021, yet again we have been given another announcement saying that we would have another version of the MCO. This time it has 3 phases. Phase 1 MCO (2 weeks); Phase 2 MCO (4 weeks) and Phase 3 MCO. Each stage is likened to a circuit breaker. Perhaps they learnt from Singapore after a year. The First Phase MCO would begin from 1st June 2021 until 14th June 2021.
Media reported that the recent spikes are due mainly because of the failure to adhere to the given SOPs which of course you and I know are quite difficult to keep up with in this understandable dynamics as one had said. It was also reported that the clusters are caused by the Raya cluster.
At this point, it seems that it is always us the Rakyat who has to take the brunt of the blame. Sometimes we do have to remember that people follow leaders and icons. Much like a ‘Monkey See Monkey Do’ situation. Even as it is, many people who have got their single dose or even 2 doses think they are invincible because the tagline says ‘Lindung Diri Lindung Semua’. The tagline is good but it does not mean being vaccinated you cannot get infected or you cannot infect others. There have been reports of people who have got their doses still infecting others. People must understand that the vaccination program is to assist with lessening the probability of being severely symptomatic requiring medical attention. The real reason is to ensure our healthcare system does not collapse. Knowing this does not mean you need not get vaccinated. Just do it.
It does not matter if you have to #CucukMYAZ or #CucukMYFIZ or #CucukMYSINO so long as you get your arse moving to help campaign for this. Those who scrambled at the noon day showdown twice and had been grumbling because they missed out on the Opt-In should take the fire off their arse now knowing that #CucukMYAZ is still possible as it is back in the National Immunisation Program (NIP). Just make sure you register. This was announced recently because at first they took out because people were skeptical, so when they tried this tactic, it worked as a survey. So it is back in to #CucukMYAZ for the NIP.
Tensions have risen high as the app seemed to go through a baptism of fire and the Government has successfully used ‘Pavlov’s Law’ in the creation of organized control and the desired conditioning. Let us hope the vaccination progress improves in the next months as it is important to get through the targeted 80% population vaccinated as soon as you can.
This Lockdown or Phase 1 MCO is something we should all support in adhering to. Cases are nearing 10,000 a day in Malaysia and this is not going down any sooner if such an action is not taken. Lives can create livelihoods. Livelihoods cannot create lives unless you are a robot.
So let us join together and get off our arse to get ourselves #CucukAPAPAVAKSIN so we can move on.
God Bless
