YOURSAY | ‘Covid-19 cases only show marginal improvement after a month's lockdown.’

MCO 2.0 extended to March 4 in S'gor, KL, Johor and Penang

Citizen_Zero: In case it sounds like I think I know better, yes I do. In fact, I know I know better.

It’s nonsense to call the movement control order (MCO) now an actual MCO. In its current form and conditions, it does not serve a real purpose to protect the people from Covid-19 or prevent its spread.

It is too late for an “MCO” as Senior Minister (Security) Ismail Sabri Yaakob calls it. They are just calling it MCO to look like they are doing something and to justify the emergency.

That’s why they cannot back out of it. Anyway, the thin red line has already been crossed. The virus genie is already fully out of the bottle.

Shops are open and the people are out, all taking care of themselves and not caring about the government anymore because Perikatan Nasional (PN) has lost all integrity and credibility. Not that they had any in the first place.

Let’s be honest and real, this MCO 2.0 has nothing to do with MCO 1.0. It is all to serve the political interests of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, Senior Minister (Finance & Economics) Azmin Ali, and the rest of the PN opportunists.

They don’t care about the health situation. The government departments, Health Ministry personnel and the frontliners are doing their jobs already anyway.

They are better ways now to handle the situation but PN is not doing it. Just look at Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. They are the centre of Malaysian economy but they are not protecting it in the first place.

So, simply put, if the PN government can do whatever they want, so can we. We will do what we need to do to survive. Because we know better.

Purplepea: Don't get me wrong but the whole point of an MCO is really pointless at this stage. You can't keep people at home forever.

Shut down the factories that have clusters and let the other businesses run. This is becoming close to a two-month “lockdown” and you are going to see more job losses. It won't happen right away, but many people will be jobless soon.

You already see small businesses that were trying to stay afloat have already downsized as much as they can, and now, as they are closing down, it will do way too much damage.

You should've just come up with solid standard operating procedures (SOPs). Tell you what, if stupid leaders actually follow them, then the public will follow.

There is poor enforcement because enforcement officers are confused over the changing SOPs.

Well Thats Fantastic: No one is asking anyone to stay home forever, vaccination is our way back to some kind of new normal.

It is stupid to pretend people aren't suffering and dying from this virus. The government needs to help and provide assistance to those in hardship.

Matteropong: Indeed, there is hardly any difference now between the MCO and conditional MCO (CMCO) since more businesses are opening up and travel is less restricted.

The terms are misleading and complicate things operationally. They do not help the public’s health and do nothing to raise the daily income of the B40 (bottom 40 percent of income earners) and M40 (middle 40 percent).

PurpleMacaw4829: What's the point of announcing an extension every two weeks? Just announce “until further notice”.

Malaysia is in a sad state of affairs. Is it now a competition to change the rules faster than the virus is spreading?

People and businesses are suffering and closing down everywhere. The silence from our leaders speaks volumes.

Mr Trump 666: The Covid-19 cases only show marginal improvement after a month's lockdown. They should just close everything and declare a strict curfew for 14 days and I believe it will be better than this main-main (slapdash) type of lockdown.

V S: Using Covid-19 as a political tool to make life miserable for your “beloved” rakyat is a sin.

There is no point in announcing the MCO, enhanced MCO (ECMO), recovery MCO (RCMO), whether we can travel, or eat out, or cross state boundaries… people are still going to curse you for what you are really doing under the guise of Covid-19.

The Covid-19 virus does not respect state boundaries. Politicians should not be allowed to cross boundaries to canvass for votes. We are even getting the vaccine later than other countries because they were busy playing politics.

YellowGopher7568: What kind of a dumb government do we have? Isn’t there any intelligent minister in this government? Over 70 of them in the cabinet and they cannot come up with a formula to control the disease?

Look at the two most populated nations of the world - China and India. They have managed to bring down the infection to a manageable level and are also producing their own vaccines.

We are still struggling. Emergency, MCO, CMCO, no interstate travel, no inter-district travel, and, best of all, suspension of Parliament. That takes the cake.

GMan: You open up everything but still keep the MCO? Absolutely a no-brain plan.

While most businesses can open, schools are shut with more and more children dropping out or losing all interest in online learning.

B40 children are struggling with poor infrastructure and lack of resources to efficiently access any online learning. They will only fall further behind.

Where is the Education Ministry? Most countries have prioritised reopening of schools before businesses as they know that the key for the next generation is continued education.

But here, we have ministers and the director-general who haven’t addressed the issue of continued impact of school closures.

To top off the absurdity, private and international schools are also forced to close when their class numbers are actually small enough to ensure safe physical distancing and are more easily managed than supermarkets and business which are allowed to open.

For the sake of the children - reopen the schools for their future. Otherwise, we will end up having a lost generation of school-going children among the B40.

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