If we can’t behave like adults, we need to be prepared to face not just a lockdown but massive infections and probably deaths.
It’s infuriating to note that despite the rapidly-rising Covid-19 cases, people are still eating in restaurants and the owners are capitalising on it, instead of strictly telling their patrons not to dine in.
Such restaurants must be shut down completely and fined for not confining to the Movement Control Order.
These may seem like tough measures but do we really have a choice? We have close to 700 cases of Covid-19 and two deaths.
If this is not frightening enough, the government’s poorly coordinated initiative at movement control may have already resulted in an even bigger nightmare.
There were hundreds of people at police stations to get permits to travel back to their hometowns and scores more at bus terminals, when the police announced a ban on inter-state travel.
Universities and colleges shut their hostels, forcing students to head back to their “kampung”, resulting in a bigger exodus.
This forced the police to do an immediate U-turn on the ban and then re-instate the ban.
We have therefore clearly failed at restricting movement and worse, may have contributed to more people getting infected.
It’s therefore crucial for the government to think through the next plan and ensure that its ministries are not causing even more harm.
The Women and Family Ministry, for example, had temporarily suspended its hotline until the end of March.
This is disastrous as children should have access to counselling as they will experience even more isolation and stress during the next 14 days, not to mention that many could be stuck at home with abusive parents or guardians.
We are however thankful that pressure from activists and child rights groups pushed the ministry to re-instate all Talian Kasih lines.
With a clueless government in place, we have an even bigger responsibility to ensure that we stay safe.