This month of May is likely to be the deadliest month of the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia.
In the last four days which recorded daily increase of over 4,000 new Covid-19 cases, there had been 144 fatalities. In the half-month of May alone, there had been 360 fatalities which was the same number of fatalities registered in February 2021, which recorded the highest monthly toll since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in January last year. (On Feb. 1 there was a cumulative total of 770 deaths which increased to 1,130 deaths on Feb. 28.)
At the present rate of increase of Covid-19 fatalities, May is likely to end up doubling the highest monthly toll in February, i.e. exceeding 700 deaths.
Malaysia reported 4,140 new Covid-19 cases yesterday with a cumulative total of 466,330 cases.
Malaysia is likely to reach the half-million mark for Covid-19 cases in nine days before 24th May at its present rate of daily increase of Covid-19 cases above 4000 cases.
Malaysia is definitely not among the best 20 countries in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, but let us not be among the worst 20 countries in handling the pandemic.
Even the Indonesian government cited Malaysia in the same breath when it recently warned Indonesians not to emulate India and Malaysia in the handling of Covid19 pandemic when advising Indonesians to stay home and to take precautions on Covid-19 in the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays.
I had given three reasons why Indonesia now feels superior to Malaysia in the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic: (i) Malaysia has a higher “Cases per 1 million” index than Indonesia; (ii) Indonesia has been quite successful in bringing the first Covid-19 wave under control, from the peak of daily increase of 14,518 new Covid-19 cases on January 30 to 2,385 cases yesterday; and (iii) a faster vaccination roll-out in Indonesia than Malaysia.
I have just discovered a fourth reason: For the past four days, Malaysia’s daily increase of new Covid-19 cases have been higher than that of Indonesia, although Indonesia has a bigger population nine times that of Malaysia!
Even the Health Ministry is now forecasting more than 8,000 new Covid-19 cases a day by June if the public does not comply with the Covid SOPs.
The Ministry of Health model predicts that if there is strict compliance with the SOPs, then the daily number of cases can be reduced to under 1,000.
These are sombre figures, both in terms of daily increase of new Covid-19 cases and daily fatalities.
But is this a foregone conclusion that the month of May will be worst month in the 16-month-long Covid-19 pandemic or can it be the month where there is a turnaround in the Covid-19 pandemic?
The emergency that was declared on January 12, 202l was meant to save Malaysia from the very critical situation of the Covid-19 pandemic we are now in.
What can the Muhyiddin government do to avert Malaysia from a Covid-19 crisis?
Yesterday, it was reported that the University of South Carolina president, Bob Caslen, resigned after a recent plagiarised speech.
Caslen said he was “truly sorry” and apologized for having undermined trust in the university’s leadership. He said: “I understand the responsibilities and higher standards of senior level leadership. When those are not met, trust is lost. And when trust is lost, one is unable to lead.”
The government leadership in Malaysia should give serious thought to this episode, as the deficit in public trust and confidence in the government leadership had never been as huge as now than at any period of the country’s six-decade history since Merdeka.
The moment of goodwill to combat the Covid-19 pandemic in the early months of the Sheraton Move conspiracy in February 2020, which toppled the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government and ushered in a backdoor, undemocratic and illegitimate government, had vanished with the SOP flips flops and double standards, greed, lack of good governance and power lust which caused the third Covid wave which had become one of the longest Covid-19 waves in the world since last September.
The Muyhiddin government, as Caslen pointed out, is unable to lead because public trust and confidence had been lost.
There is widespread and palpable public anger and discontent in the land as witnessed by the #kerajaangagal outbursts in Parit Raja, Batu Pahat and other parts of the country.
The Muhyiddin government is facing a national crisis which it has no public trust and confidence to lead, handle and resolve.
The Opposition are prepared to form a parliamentary united front with the Perikatan Nasional government in the war against Covid-19 pandemic – convene Parliament, no “no-confidence” motion and spearhead a “whole-of-society” national mobilisation of Malaysians to restore the country to normalcy.
The ball is in the court of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin!
(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, May 16, 2021)