The Malaysian Insight

THE government’s mishandling of the emergency, as well as its failure to listen to outside experts, are among the reasons for the continuing hike in Covid-10 cases and deaths, health and political experts said.

They said that the hijacking of the emergency for political purposes resulted in the failure of the emergency to address its main objective – to control and manage the pandemic.

They noted that Malaysia’s national caseload increased by eight-fold since January 11 when the emergency was declared. Then, the cumulative Covid-19 caseload was at 138,224.

However, the numbers have since swelled to 1.13 million as of yesterday, the last day of the emergency. In the same period, more than 8,000 deaths from the coronavirus have been reported.

They also blamed the government for not listening to suggestions from outside experts on handling the pandemic.

Former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye said it was apparent that the emergency was put in place more for political reasons than to rein in the pandemic.

The Gopeng MP said while daily cases were in the 2,000-3,000 range in the beginning of the year, it has surged to 16,000-17,000 seven months on.

He noted that the first movement-control order imposed (MCO) on March 18 last year was a “great success” without an emergency.

“Emergency has failed in the expressed intention of Covid-19 control. Politically, it failed to ensure political stability and, at the same time, also triggered a constitutional crisis.

 “It is a failure of leadership,” he said.

He added that the emergency declaration had granted the prime minister the power to do whatever he could to control Covid-19.

“This included enlisting the defence forces, the private facilities and other government departments to assist in fighting Covid-19.

“He did nothing except to increase the penalty for SOP violations and to spend money without Parliament oversight,” said the PKR lawmaker.

Meanwhile, consultant paediatrician at KPJ Damansara Specialist Hospital Dr Musa Nordin agreed that the Covid-19 situation had only worsened after seven months.

He said this was based on the multi-fold increase in the caseload and death toll.

“The government, the National Security Council, Ministry of Health and other ministries and agencies have hopelessly failed to contain and control the pandemic,” he said.

He added that countries that were worst affected in the first quarter of 2021, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, had managed to “mitigate the deadly effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

He said the failure to flatten the pandemic curve has led to the virtual collapse of healthcare services in Malaysia.

“The Covid Assessment Centres were flooded with thousands of patients. The Low-Risk Quarantine Centres’ hospitals beds and ICU beds were all filled to the brim, with no more beds available in both the public and private healthcare facilities,” he said.

He also blamed the government’s failure to involve outside experts in handling the pandemic.

“In hindsight, it is sad to note that this national health and economic catastrophe could have been avoided if only the government and the ministry of health had heeded the mitigation proposals made by many quarters, including the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) and health experts outside the ministry.

“Better late than never, many of these suggestions have now been incorporated into the National Recovery Plan,” he added.

Senior Fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs Dr Oh Ei Sun said the high number of cases, job losses and business closures, only proved that the emergency has evidently not fulfilled what it was purported to do.

“But what it has fantastically done well is to conveniently prolong the survival of this government, as the latter made abundant use of its emergency powers to avoid having its parliamentary majority tested in any way,” he said.

Mishandling the emergency

Academic James Chin, meanwhile, said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had mishandled the emergency.

The professor of Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania said this was clear from the way the government had handled the revocation of the emergency ordinances in Parliament last week.

“For a majority of Malaysians, with the politicisation of the emergency in the last week, I think the opinion that is currently formed is that Muhyiddin has mishandled it,” said the Senior Fellow at the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia.

“When the emergency was put in place this year, many people said it was political and when the cases started rising, people said maybe he does need an emergency but, now, it is very obvious that public mood has turned against him.

“So, I think he has mishandled the emergency totally,” he added.

Chin said there was a big divide between what the ordinary people wanted and what the political class did.

He said the man on the street was more worried about the Covid-19 situation and their job prospects due to the economic conditions whereas the political class was all about power play.

This included the political play to overthrow Muhyiddin’s government and the Bersatu chief’s fight back to stay in power.

“So now we have a funny situation where what the people want has taken a secondary seat to what the politicians do.

“I think the current crisis is very deep and Muhyiddin has a very short time to get his act together. It is either he survives or doesn’t survive,” he said.

“Obviously the government has not achieved the aims of the emergency with the cases rising and while some of the projections are that it will get a lot worse before it gets better.”

Meanwhile, political analyst Hisomuddin Bakar said the government could have taken real advantage of the emergency in containing the pandemic.

“This was because, with the unlimited power given to the government (under the emergency) … it was easier to use assets, budget, make ordinances, take over assets and to force all parties to cooperate to achieve the government’s objective,” he said.

“However, all this did not happen. The failure was due to the decisions made by the government,” he said.

The executive director of Ilham Centre said the government had diverted the people’s attention by various U-turns on Covid-19 policies, showing double standards in penalising SOP breaches and failing to close sectors that were the main contributors of Covid-19 clusters.

He said, to make matters worse, the prolonged MCO had taken a toll on the people’s livelihood as they could not go out to carry out their usual activities.

This, he said, had paved the way for a new set of problems such as several people running out food supplies, culminating in the start of the Bendera Putih movement.

“This proves the government’s failure to provide the best solution through the emergency,” he said.

He added that with the end of the emergency, the government would have to come up with an alternative to replace the “failed emergency.”

In announcing the emergency in January, Muhyiddin said the state of emergency was aimed at giving the government more powers to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the emergency, the government would be able to enact new laws to help it fight the pandemic, he had said. At the same time, Parliament was suspended during this period.

Muhyiddin also denied that the emergency was an attempt to remain in power despite his majority in Parliament dwindling. – August 2, 2021.