“Why are we really implementing an MCO when Covid-19 cases are rising but restrictions are getting looser. If that is the case, just stop the MCO to be fair to everyone.”

- Najib Abdul Razak

COMMENT | Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the government would not implement a total lockdown even if a worst-case scenario comes true.

This begs the question: what is the worst-case scenario? What happens if the healthcare system breaks down? What happens if the majority of the frontliners get Covid-19 and a sizeable majority of them perish?

What happens if the businesses collapse because the rakyat, in the grip of an unattended pandemic, imposes a lockdown on themselves for fear of spreading the virus to high-risk groups in their families?

Why did this government declare an emergency and claim that this pandemic was the cause for such an action if it is not treating this as war, a war I...