Leadership by example, please

 

We are quite amused by the Prime Minister (PM)'s announcement together with the National Security Council (NSC) that there will be tighter enforcement of the movement control order (MCO). The PM has inadvertently admitted there was loose enforcement in the past 15 months.

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) certainly does not condone any non-compliance of the MCO standard operating procedures (SOPs). However, we must question the many cases of ministers and VIPs who appear not to follow these restrictions and got off with a slap of the wrist, at most.

We even have ministers out of the country for weeks. When questions are raised, the usual response is that they have been granted special exemptions.

Our leaders have lamented that the people are ignoring the SOPs even to the point that those who test positive refuse to show up at quarantine centres. People in Bintulu, Sarawak have been warned not to rent their property to outsiders. If this is not an infringement of our constitutional right to own and profit from private property, I don’t know what is.

It is very sad that the Covid-19 pandemic is getting worse in the country especially in Sarawak. Sarawak has recorded one of the highest numbers of positive cases in the country, despite the fact that we are sparsely populated.

We can't help but notice the situation rapidly worsened after frontliners were criticised for enforcing Covid-19 SOPs on special invitees to a year-end party.

Despite the declaration of a state of emergency, ostensibly to fight the pandemic, the situation has got worse, not better. We also note that MPs and ministers were among the first to be vaccinated ahead of frontliners yet Parliament was suspended. Aspiring candidates to the state election continue to make their rounds campaigning under the pretext of distributing food aid or drain maintenance.

It is incredulous decisions like these that left Malaysians, especially workers, with a sense of despair.  Workers are at the frontline fighting the pandemic as healthcare workers, law enforcers, and those in essential and exempted services. They are working under tremendous stress and high risk of being infected. In Selangor, 69 percent of new infections are from workplace clusters.

Until and unless our leaders step up and demonstrate leadership by example, we do not see an end to the pandemic any time soon. - Mkini

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ANDREW LO is the secretary for the Sarawak chapter of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC).

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