LETTER | Increasing Covid-19 pains must cease

LETTER | Malaysians have been battered with unprecedented challenges for the past one year.

The Covid-19 pandemic in the country has literally butchered our economic strength as the national financial performance records show for the Year 2020.

The consequences that have fallen on every citizen have not only brought nightmares of untold hardship but leave mere hope in our palms, which only seem hopeless as no one knows for certain how the pandemic will pan out in 2021.

The movement control orders were a necessary evil to fight the pandemic, although not all countries in the world agree to it.

Some say the varieties of highly mobile MCOs, CMCOs and EMCOs in Malaysia helped contain the spread of the deadly, or at the least, the highly threatening virus.

Others think otherwise as the cases per day soared in the last two months, despite increasing clampdowns on human mobility.

Only history will prove us right or wrong, eventually, as the world crawls out of the battle.

In the meantime, the government's announcement of an unbelievable RM10,000 fine for flouters of MCO restrictions, effective March 11, is not going down well among leaders, politicians, business communities and the often unheard rakyat.

Reactions across the country indicate that the whopping high fine is deemed as unrealistic; lacking in compassion; cruel; harsh and punitive in nature; inhuman; a pretext for a hidden political agenda; etc.

A former prime minister even went on to state that Malaysia has beaten the world record by instituting such a hefty fine.

If it is not an offence, I would like to deposit the following concerns in the lap of the prime minister of the backdoor government.

Firstly, how will you marshal and garner support for your government from citizens who are already into such untold miseries?

Secondly, where will the hardcore poor and the growing number of middle income and self-employed citizens, increasingly now without pay or gainful employment, find that kind of money to pay up?

Thirdly, already the lock-ups and prisons are deemed as acutely potential Covid-19 clusters. Will you not make it worse as more victims end up unable to pay off that sum, as rightly pointed out by an MP, takes a year's income for many?

Fourthly, are Malaysians by far and large, big time, notorious flouters of the already existing orders, so much so you have to sledgehammer us with an unimagined sum of penalty?

Fifthly, as a Muslim, how do you view this Emergency Ordinance as rightly providing the means and power to slam an RM10,000 fine? Do you see it as compassionate, foremost? Is flouting the movement control order so rampant in the country that the government, having exhausted all avenues, has to invoke the provisions for such a harsh measure?

Sixthly, for months the rakyat have struggled without much help from you, endured the emotional and mental stresses arising from restricted movements, coupled with the grip of fear over the virus. What is your comprehensive understanding of the psychological impact on Malaysians in this long season of unprecedented emotional and social barricading?

Finally, do you and your team of learned advisors think that the RM10,000 fine for even first-time offenders proves to be the ultimate panacea to curb or imprison the virus?

Have you not thought of the more serious side effects of this move that is widely held as 'most cruel'?

Desperate victims without the means to pay or seek legal remedies and opportunist, errant law enforcers may only exploit the situation.

The legal system may even get overwhelmed with legal suits and contentions. We are already seeing this happen as business leaders file suits in court - like the Bangsar community.

The police force may suffer severely with uncalled for bad reputation. Already the police are overburdened and this public crucifixion will not help at all.

Already the ever-changing, piecemeal, abrupt announcements affecting healthcare services, education, business operations and related movement restrictions within the demarcated districts and the differing interpretation of the laws in place by enforcers is causing frequent and widespread confusion and spiking social media at record highs.

Truly, therefore, it is not too late to eat the humble pie and come up with a more acceptable, justified and compassionate measure to protect all citizens as we work together to navigate through the Covid-19 attack.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.