Four reasons for Malaysia finishing at bottom of recovery index

 

Economists believe that mass testing is the key to reducing infections and returning to normal life.

PETALING JAYA: Lockdowns, lack of mass testing, poor compliance with rules, and the slow rate of vaccinations are viewed by economists as the cause of Malaysia being ranked last among countries making a recovery to normal life.

Constant politicking and the lack of coordination have also thrown the government off track in the battle against Covid-19, according to economist Firdausi Suffian of Sabah UiTM.

The ranking was published last week by the Economist weekly. Malaysia finished at the bottom of a list of 50 countries ranked by their progress towards a return to normal life.

The Economist “normalcy index” measured the level of activities in travel, leisure time and commercial activity.

Firdausi and Juita Mohamad of think tank Institute of Strategic and International Studies (Isis) agreed that lockdowns had been detrimental to the country’s economy and affected the livelihood of the people.

However, Firdausi believed the main problem was the absence of mass testing. “Most countries managed to reduce the number of cases through constant testing,” he told FMT.

Other factors were non-compliance with SOPs across the board, be it politicians, policymakers or the common man, and the “very slow” vaccination rate, which he said inadvertently led to more new cases.

Constant politicking and the lack of coordination contributed to the rising number of cases which then reinforced the government’s need to impose the various movement restrictions.

Lockdowns – a “necessary evil” at a particular time – should have been treated by Putrajaya as a temporary measure, he said. The current level of daily infections had proven that lockdowns were ineffective, he said.

Firdausi said testing “is key”, as well as decentralising the vaccination programme to ensure more are inoculated faster.

The country, he said, could not afford further lockdowns. “It has a detrimental impact on our economy. The writing is on the wall, people are feeling the pinch from the crisis, especially the middle and lower class.”

Juita believes that lockdowns are a double-edged sword.

The strict and relatively early lockdown last year for around two months had been effective as it led to a decrease in cases and subsequently saw movement restrictions lifted.

The current one, which sees selected sectors allowed to operate has seen workplace clusters mushroom. And this could mean a prolonged FMCO.

“While the government wants to cushion the blow for further contraction of the economy, the longer the lockdown is enforced, it could harm the economy and more people are likely to be pushed into poverty.”

Like Firdausi, she too believes that ramping up vaccination is the way forward.

Economist Madeline Berma, an honorary professor at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), said the lockdown had prevented a return to normal life.

Madeline, who previously warned of severe economic setbacks if lockdowns were to last more than two weeks, said the Economist index did not indicate the effectiveness of measures implemented against the virus.

She said other Asean countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines had scored a higher ranking although they had more Covid cases and deaths than Malaysia.

“This suggests that these Asean countries are returning to normal although they still have a large number of deaths.” - FMT