My Take on Malaysia Restricted Movement Order 18-31 March 2020

Today is the 5th day, I’m just doing this post in this blog to keep it as a record of my feeling on this Restricted Movement Order. Covid-19 is putting the whole world in a chaos. It wasn’t much of a problem for the rest of the world aside from China in the beginning and people were not taking it seriously until cases after cases surfacing from one country to another. We never thought that it will end up here on our shore, Malaysia, Sarawak, or even Kuching! To date, we have 3 deaths recorded here in Kuching!

NOW! IT’S YOUR TURN!
Back then, people were making fun or ridiculing China and other countries about it and now… Karma, people! Karma! It’s your turn now. For example, Malaysians used to make fun of Singaporeans and Australians hoarding toilet rolls, instant noodles, and panic buying yet many are doing it themselves now; Malaysians used to scold those Chinese for mass balik kampung or escaped Wuhan before the lockdown yet now many are doing the same and there’s now a case of someone bringing the virus back home and putting those on the same bus at risk.

STAY HOME
Yes, I understand that your rented place is not your home, your kampung is where your home is. Hence, you naively think that you must go home. It doesn’t mean that! It’s meant to ask you to stay where you are! Don’t bring the virus back unknowingly to your family at home in a small town or village. You will kill the whole community there if it happens. The medical facilities there are scarce and it will not be able to handle the surge of sick people in a short time frame. You will end up be the one wiping out the whole community or your bloodline and being labelled as the murderer for the rest of your life. Maybe, the phrase “stay home” should not be used at the first place, it should be “stay put“. Well… It’s just human nature to fight-or-flight especially when they are not well-informed and got all panic thanks to many fake news that circulate around. There are more fake news than real news.

YOU WANT IT BUT DONT WANT IT
We have to stay home and not going out unnecessarily, essential services are available to cater to the citizens’ needs but social distancing must be practiced. Many people are not happy with it. In the early days, people kept telling the government to do a lockdown and finally now we’re on on Restricted Movement Order(18-31 March 2020), not even a lockdown, the very same people are not happy with this decision. Human… Just stay home for 2 weeks won’t die, ok?!! You asked for it and you’re given with something less worst than lockdown, you’re not satisfied with it. Do you want it to be a total lockdown then you can appreciate this Restricted Movement Order? Our government is trying to stop new cases from coming in, to protect you from getting sick, so that the current and pending ones can be taken care of. Please don’t add to the statistics with your selfishness! Otherwise it will be longer, it won’t be just 2 weeks.

THEY CAN’T STAY HOME
Our medical resources are getting stretched to the max, the frontliners are working hard to ensure you don’t need to be stuck in this situation any longer, yet you want to make their lives even more difficult and at the same time putting all those people around you at risk. Be thankful that you can stay home instead of being enlisted to be at the front-line or got stuck in the hospital because you’re sick and worrying about whether you will still be alive the next moment. Help the frontliners by staying at home rather than increasing their workload. They too have family to go back to but at the moment they can’t, they wish they could stay home but they can’t because they need to serve.

STAY HOME, BE A HERO
Everyone wants to be a hero. This is your time! Being a hero for staying at home, how easy can that be? You’re not ask to go to the front-line to fight the battle. Be grateful people! This battle is asking you to stay home for you can still enjoy your hobbies at home(gardening, browse Internet, binge watch series, read books, play with your kids, exercise, etc.). It is not asking you to fight this battle by staying at home listening to bombs and guns with fear of your home will be attacked/destroyed/invaded by enemies. You can still get necessities instead of suffer in hunger, don’t bloody empty the shelves and leave none for others, just get what you need for a week or two not a year! You are not supposed to be in the crowd too unless you want to be one of the statistics.

On my personal end, I’ve been staying at home since I quit my job 2 years ago. Before I went to Australia in 2011(came back to Kuching in 2013), I was also working from home prior to that since 2004. Not a big deal for me really, 2 weeks is nothing. I’ve not been out of the house for over 2 weeks already hahaha… Add on with this, it’s gonna be a month. How time flies! I love staying at home and I’m glad I’m not employed at this moment. I don’t have to worry about going to work other than myself and my family. Life is pretty much the same except can’t go out and be carefree anytime I want to. Once the whole pandemic is over(hope it won’t escalate or drag longer, only possible if everyone is doing their part), we’ll have our freedom again. Hang in there, mates!

WITHDRAWAL & FAKE NEWS
On the 3rd and 4th day, I think I’m seeing the sign of people getting restless and cannot think straight anymore, the withdrawal symptoms are getting obvious. There was a surge of “my whatever said this/that” kind of posts showing all over my social medias’ timelines even from people who normally don’t do such things 🤔 There are also posts such as “expert said”, “doctor said”, “researcher said”, quoting all those professionals from very reputable organizations or even those with “I am doctor/professional from so and so” 😂 Well, I think they might or did say but for something else, in other context. However, people might have misinterpreted it or photoshopped the actual text/research to fit the current situation. This kind of fake news is hard to stop, even our minister succumbed to it. Please… Don’t share anything other than from the authorities or official media(Oh wait… Minister did a boo boo… How now brown cow?), we don’t need all these mess now. Did you know that MCMC can take action on you if you post all those things even though it’s not you who made it up. Be responsible for not going out unnecessarily but also be responsible when you share something online.

SELFISHNESS
Today, we’re getting more news on patients not being truthful on their status when being asked while they get themselves attended to. These selfish people are putting our frontliners at risk. Hospitals are lock down, medical and safety professionals are quarantined and waiting for result in agony. They can no longer work until they are certified clear from the disease. They can’t go home and they do not know whether they will be able to even see their family after this if the result is unfavourable. This is supposed to be the crucial period for them to handle this madness yet they can’t help, their colleagues have to cover for them and work extra long hours due to their absence. When their colleagues don’t have enough rest, their immune system will compromise and indirectly increase their chances of getting infected. Really hope that there is no more such cases anymore, it’s depressing. Your Maker never tell you to lie and kill, what is the point of being so religious yet not walking the talk? Are you afraid that you won’t be treated if they know your actual status? How silly can you be? You want to be treated, you must tell the truth! Those who are supposed to treat you cannot treat you anymore, do you think this is a smart thing to do? You are also depriving others off the precious treatments of other sickness not just the one you are having. Well… Like as if you can read this… You are most likely having meeting with your Maker now… I’m piss!

NO MASK
To me, mask should be only for those who are sick. With this, we did not buy any mask because we do not need it. It’s not a big deal really but it’s now being enforced that anyone who wants to go out to get essentials to wear mask, this is when problem arise. You tell me, how to wear face mask when there is no face mask? The wrong kind of face mask will not do any good but make things worst. There are many people saying just wear cloth mask or some other kind, this is not right! Might as well don’t wear any if you don’t have the right mask. Proper air circulation is important.

Even if there’s stock, the price is not what everyone can afford, RM2 per piece! Are you nuts?! Also, likely it will be hoarded once the stock is out and there will be nothing left for others. I wonder those who are giving free masks these days hmm… Looks like you have a lot, where did you get it? Did you hoard it in the early days which cause the shelves to go empty? Now, you come out and do your publicity stunt as a kind soul for giving out free mask? Before things got serious, some influencers and politicians hoard all the available stock for their publicity stunt too. Such a shame! You are one of those selfish people who didn’t leave it on the shelves for those who need it the most and contribute to the panic situation.

Anyway, if you want to go out to get essentials but you don’t have any, you’ll just have to get delivery, no choice, otherwise the enforcers will go after you. Whatever it is, practice good hygiene. The good old soap and water are cheaper and more effective than anything else.

POLITICAL CIRCUS
The Malaysia political scene is a mess with the recent political circus where those power crazy people gathered together to pull a stunt during the period of time when the infected cases are brewing. Everyone was too busy with this circus and didn’t care about the disease. Once the new government was formed, no thanks to the huge event that happened in West Malaysia which cause the spike of cases that led to where we are now. What if… What if there was no such circus, I’m sure the leaders and authorities will pay more attention to the disease development and might stop the mass gathering from happening. As much as you dislike the current government, you feel that they are incapable, at time like this, we will need to be even more proactive, we have to do our part which is stay at home and don’t contribute to the statistics! Don’t ask what the country can do for you but what you can do for the country. Only if we can get through this period of time, then we can do bigger things in the future. If you can’t do little things like this, don’t even think about doing anything big!

Ok… Before I end this, I found out from Facebook that my ex-collegemate have a positive result and currently admitted in the hospital just one day after MRO was imposed. I have no idea where she got infected though. I hope she will be able to pull through… 🙁

I think that is enough for today, it took me 5 hours to complete this post -.-” It has been a long time not posting something this long winding… Hope we all do our part so that life can get back to normal soon. Take care!!