Malaysia has finally joined France, Spain and Italy in imposing lockdowns on tens of millions of people after the country recorded a disturbing jump – a jaw-dropping 190 patients – in new Covid-19 cases on Sunday (March 15). But hours before Prime Muhyiddin Yassin reveals his 2-week lockdown, confusion and panic had already started in major cities of Malaysia.

 

Supermarkets and grocery stores – Giant, Aeon, Aeon Big, Tesco, NSK, Mydin, Speed 99, KK Super Mart and even Chinese medicine stores – were swarmed by people who had a bad feeling when Muhyiddin said there would be some “big news” on the night of Monday (March 16). The PM said – “I’ll announce today quite a big news. Just bear with me.  Just wait until tonight.”

 

It wasn’t that hard to guess that a lockdown was coming. If there was no such plan in the first place, the government would normally deny and rubbish such rumours to prevent unnecessary panic in the already sagging economy. Already, the country has the largest number of confirmed cases in Southeast Asia, with 125 new cases reported on Monday.

Even the latest 125 new cases were viewed with suspicion that the new government of Muhyiddin might have “under-reported” the numbers. With the overall tally skyrockets to 553 cases of Coronavirus, of which many of the new infections are linked to a religious “Tabligh” gathering attended by about 16,000 people at Sri Petaling mosque, the prime minister had limited options.

 

Hence, supermarket shelves were emptied of essential goods at lightning speed. Groceries such as baby formula, eggs, canned food, frozen meat, instant noodles, rice, bread, biscuits and of course, toilet paper, were selling like hot potatoes. It didn’t help that the supposedly 9pm announcement by the prime minister was later postponed to 10pm.

 

Refused to call it a “lockdown” for obvious reason, PM Muhyiddin, who was sworn in as the 8th Prime Minister slightly more than 2 weeks ago (March 1), announced on television channels that his government had decided to put the country under a nationwide movement control order from this Wednesday (March 18) until March 31 due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

He said – “The government’s priority now is to avoid the spreading of new infections, which will affect more people. Therefore, drastic action needs to be taken. We cannot wait any longer until the situation becomes more acute. The government has decided to implement ‘restriction of movement order’ starting from March 18 to March 31.”

 

The PM justified that the decision was made under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 and the Police Act 1967. He announced the coverage of the nationwide lockdown. Firstly, a complete ban on all mass gatherings, including religious, sports, social and cultural activities was announced. Clearly, this was to arrest the criticism over the religious rally at Sri Petaling.

 

However, just hours before Muhyiddin’s so-called movement control order, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri had announced that all religious activities in mosques – including Friday prayer – will be suspended for only 10 days following a decree by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King).

The religious chief said – “All activities at mosques and surau including Friday prayers and congregational prayers are to be suspended, starting March 17 to 26. All mosque and surau committees are advised to conduct cleaning and sanitising as a precautionary measure.” So, whose order will take precedence? Will the suspension of mosques’ religious activities be 10 days or 14 days?

 

The suspension of mass gatherings also means all business premises have to be shut down, except supermarkets, wet markets, convenience stores and grocery shops selling daily essentials. But considering mega-mall is a concept where you can find everything under one roof, does that mean only selective shops will be allowed to operate?

 

Will fast food chains like KFC, McDonald’s, Texas Chicken, A&W, Pizza Hut and Chicken Rice Shop have to close for the 2-week holiday? If they have to close, where will family who does not cook get their food? Even Grab Food and Food Panda will not be able to deliver food if the restaurants are completely closed. But if they can operate, it means public gatherings will happen.

It was also announced that all Malaysians will be banned from travelling abroad, and that no tourists or foreigners will be allowed to enter the country. Malaysians who have just arrived from abroad must undergo self-quarantine for 14 days. This alone speaks volumes that the latest measure to fight the Coronavirus is a complete nationwide lockdown, not a movement control.

 

The good news for all students was the order to all public and private schools, including kindergartens, nurseries, residential school, religious school, and other educational institutions to be closed. All private and public higher institutions of learning as well as vocational training centres will also close nationwide during the 2-week period.

 

In addition, all government and private premises would be closed except those providing essential services such as utilities (water, electricity, energy), telecommunications, transport, banking, health, pharmacies, ports, prisons, ports, airports, security, cleaning and food supplies. Does the lockdown include suspension of weddings and even funerals, as did by Italy.

Still, Muhyiddin’s lockdown order, the first of its kind in the country’s history, fails to clarify if Malaysians – ranging from 250,000 to 300,000 people – who commute between the country and Singapore daily to work will be affected. Despite Singapore’s latest border restrictions on travellers, the Government of Singapore allows Malaysians and Singaporeans to commute from both sides.

 

While the lockdown looks bold and necessary, like it or not, it creates more confusion and vagueness. Will the business of providing IT services and maintenance still operate, without which the essential banking or hospitalization services, for example, might collapse? Where should the people go if they have tyre punctures or car breakdown if tyre shops or workshops are all closed?

 

More importantly, who is going to enforce the lockdown? Without proper enforcement, it would be business as usual. It was both entertaining and hilarious when PM Muhyiddin said that supply of food and daily essentials, including face masks, were sufficient nationwide. Obviously he hadn’t a clue that face masks had ran out of stock weeks ago.

 

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March 17th, 2020 by financetwitter

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