71 CABINET MINISTERS – AND ALL OF THEM MAKING STUPID STATEMENTS: BY NOW IT IS CLEAR – MUHYIDDIN’S MCO IS ACTUALLY THE ‘FINAL HONEYMOON’ FOR RACIAL SUPREMACY – ONCE DONE, A HEADLONG PLUNGE INTO ECONOMIC RUINS AWAITS

 PUTRAJAYA, 11 Mac -- Perdana Menteri Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin bergambar bersama jemaah menteri sebelum mesyuarat kabinet pertama kerajaan baharu di Bangunan Perdana Putra hari ini. --fotoBERNAMA (2020) HAK CIPTA TERPELIHARA PUTRAJAYA, March 11 -- Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin poses with a cabinet ministers before the first new cabinet meeting at the Perdana Putra today. --fotoBERNAMA (2020) COPYRIGHTS RESERVED

Ministers should stop making stupid statements

Politicians should stop playing politics. They should stop making stupid statements that will insult the intelligence of the people. It seems like the country is having a dysfunctional 71 member cabinet that is wasting taxpayers’ money.  What more the people did not vote for this government. It’s actually a backdoor government that has apparently become clueless in handling the Covid-19 pandemic.

There are some ministers who are making things worse for the frontliners to tackle this pandemic. They seem or pretend to know more than the doctors and staff in handling the issue.  A minister has just suggested that barber shops and hair saloons can operate during this period of the movement control order. Before this, another minister suggested that drinking warm water will take care of the Covid-19. Such senseless statements are making ministers look stupid.

These are ministers who are making life difficult for the frontliners who are trained to handle health matters.  

Be that as it may, Malaysians must come around and understand that this is no time for politicking and egotism. In the present coronavirus pandemic, politicians should resort to common ground in a bipartisan effort to respond to the shock attack on the people’s health and the country’s economy.  Partisanship should stop for now and make the people arise together in combating this threat. Only in unison can the people defeat the invisible virus that’s sweeping across the world.

The virus has swept homogeneous as well as non-homogenous countries. It discerns no race or religion. Hence, just put political differences on hold to see the country overcome the coronavirus risk. The nation needs a united front to spell the pandemic. The people’s role now is to pull the nation together.  Identity politics, unending polemics and making silly statements during this crucial time will be the end of us.

Malaysians have to take the coronavirus onslaught very seriously and understand it will take difficulties across the board to be victorious against this new adversary. The priority now is for the country to take discipline and patience to get the job accomplished.

Just note that while Malaysians crouch down to weather the coronavirus tempest, our nation’s health staff on their part are moving mountains to check and attend to the victims of this virus.

The front liners comprising doctors and other health care staff are working 24/7 to help contain this peril. Their immediate task is to defeat the attack of a minute enemy, but the threat is just as grave. Some have succumbed to this virus in their line of duty to the nation.

At times like this, the people must lean on team work, discipline and solidarity in order to overcome the enormous odds and accomplish feats that require the best humanity has to offer. We can only succeed in this difficult period as a team, as people of one nation irrespective of race or religion.

Again, the idea that the coronavirus only affects the elderly is untrue. A recent Disease Control and Prevention report in the US found that 38 percent of those hospitalised with the coronavirus are under the age of 55.

The younger generation should therefore understand that it’s extremely dangerous to socialise in the midst of this crisis. Just stay home for a while. Not to heed the “stay at home policy” to heal the infectious virus ailments is going to cause permanent impairment to the people and the nation.  It’s vital that the young and old do their part in order to “flatten the curve.”

Just because you might not be having symptoms if you are infected with the coronavirus does not mean you will not pass the virus on to the elderly unknowingly.

Perhaps for the first time, the country is asking the people to do more. In fact, they are simply asking the people to practise social distancing so that fewer people are infected with the virus.

Social distancing and self-discipline can only realise the goal we desire if everyone plays a role.  Let us therefore get through this bad time as one united people irrespective of one’s race, religion or political affiliation. Make humanity the platform to overcome this threat and for the nation to come out from it safe, stronger and better. In this crucial moment, the frontliners are those who need the people’s support.

Regrettably, the people have little faith in the present government, especially the ministers, to handle the Covid-19 pandemic.

-MOAZ NAIR