COMMENT | Does the movement control order (MCO) need adjustments to improve it? Were some rules too hastily implemented? Is this new back door government too raw in freshly gained power? Has this led to some debatable decisions?

After all, as Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin admitted recently during the stimulus package speech, “We are not perfect but we are doing the best we can.”

Some of the initial MCO decisions were clearly misguided. For instance, the order to close all student hostels and to insist on police permits for interstate travel led to huge crowds at bus and police stations. And as we know, mass close contact is the last thing we need if we want to stop the virus.

We had confusion if face masks were compulsory, with different authorities saying different things. And then, the MCO announcement that only “heads of families” can go out to buy food led to much laughter about clueless men mixing up their halia (ginger) and lengkuas (galangal).

It seems rather obvious that some decisions were...