– Former inspector-general of police Abdul Hamid Bador

COMMENT | Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah’s appeal to Malaysians to “self-lockdown” is a sad attempt to rally an apathetic public enabled by an incompetent political system. And by the political system, I mean Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Pakatan Harapan.

The reality is that much of the damage this pandemic has wrought has been brought upon by the current government, individual state governments but most importantly by a public who has no problem using the incompetence of the political system with their inconsistent rules to flaunt public safety guidelines.

When the rakyat sees political operatives breaking SOPs, or when the government rolls back on restrictions, it makes the pandemic less serious and it becomes a partisan issue, rather than a health emergency.

There is a strong mistrust for what the government is doing and the statements and strategy coming out from the occupants of Putrajaya do nothing to...