About time interstate travel is lifted

 

As I recall, the last time interstate travel was not allowed, all the essential journeys had to go through police clearance.

This part of the process was managed well and we should be thankful to the police, especially at the district level, for their kind understanding, patience and competent management.

It was a nationwide undertaking and it wasn’t easy for the police, especially for the traffic division to monitor the situation. But they did it well and the public was happy too, as they could still perform all the essential trips, whatever that might be.

There are three lessons to be drawn from this experience.

One is that the police can rise to the occasion and manage the given responsibility well despite hiccups over some roadblocks and congestion in some areas.

Two, people can be disciplined and cooperative when needed as they were able to display such qualities just fine back then and they also took the travel hiccups in good stride despite all the inconvenience caused.

Three, people can also be mature and responsible as shown by those who observed all the required standard operating procedures (SOPs) during their journeys.

These three observations are laudable. Also, very few clusters were recorded as a result of these trips. The MySejahtera app should be able to confirm or dismiss this assumption.

These three elements are important background and experience that we should capitalise in assessing the way going forward.

There is another important aspect which the government should seriously consider in allowing unrestricted interstate travel. This relates to the economic support that such freedom of travel restrictions could lend to small businesses in areas outside of Kuala Lumpur.

Many out of town areas in this country need businesses to get restarted and the link with KL is important in their revival as well as survival. Without the freedom of interstate travel, their chance to survive will diminish. It’ll be like facing a slow death.

On that score, I think it is about time for the decision makers to consider lifting the travel ban again and give due responsibility to the public to manage their travel requirements.

The police could continue to monitor the situation based on feedback obtained at interstate roadblocks and information given by the public. They could certify that all the necessary SOPs are followed, failing which the police could always fall back on the RM10,000 fine.

Although this latest law isn’t popular among the masses, but for those who have to perform essential journeys, it plays the role of a “stick” which will ensure strict adherence to the established SOPs.

Therefore, this gazetted penalty or fine should provide some comfort for the decision makers to allow interstate travel.

Another matter worth considering is to benchmark Malaysia against a number of developed countries which have more or less a similar number of daily Covid-19 cases.

Many countries in Europe have now allowed interstate journeys (or trips within the country) to be made, so long as all the SOPs are closely followed.

These countries include Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden and many others with a smaller population base but with a similar number of cases as that of Malaysia.

The only difference is that, unlike ours, they don’t practice punitive measures on their own citizens.

They place the entire responsibility of making those essential journeys in the hands of the people. Trust and honesty play their parts. Can we expect the same from the government here?

There are many reasons for essential trips to be made. It could be health-related, economic, financial and business too. Perhaps, we should assume that reasons declared by trip makers to the police are all honest and truthful too.

In this way, the government could turn around and boast that some, if not all, of their restrictive measures, appear to be working well.

Surely, that is worth a shout. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.