Look east for fighting Covid-19 without lockdowns, ‘dysfunctional’ cabinet told

 

Former government adviser Jomo Kwame Sundaram said East Asian countries had managed to tackle the pandemic without frequent lockdowns.

PETALING JAYA: Prominent economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram says the government should adopt a ‘Look East’ policy in its battle against Covid-19.

Speaking at an online seminar today, Jomo said one of Malaysia’s major problems in dealing with the deadly disease is that it lacks an ‘all-of-government’ approach and is instead looking at it from a two-dimensional perspective.

“The Cabinet is quite dysfunctional and the whole treatment of the pandemic is left to the prime minister and health director-general. Very few others are involved, except maybe for the security minister,” he said. “It’s basically a public health and police approach.

“Contrast this to South Korea and Japan where transport and work schedules have been radically changed to spread out the working day to make sure public transport and offices are not overcrowded.

“Instead of looking East, we are looking West,” he said.

Several European countries have toughened movement restrictions and implemented tighter nationwide curfews in a bid to stem the spread of Covid-19, a move which Jomo was against.

Jomo said Malaysia failed to learn from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, where society had continued to function without harsh lockdowns.

While he praised Malaysia’s early handling of the Covid-19 crisis, he said the country did not carry out more testing and implement better contact tracing, both of which have been largely successful in helping reduce the number of daily cases in neighbouring countries.

Instead, Jomo said Malaysia flattened its Covid-19 curve by rolling out a “crude, blunt” movement control order which disrupted the lives of many people.

“Korea didn’t have a lockdown, likewise in Japan and Taiwan,” he said. “In Vietnam, there were only lockdowns in certain communes, not the whole city. Vietnam is a poorer country than Malaysia but was still able to control (Covid-19).”

Stating that he was sympathetic with the health ministry – who he felt was operating with “one hand tied behind its back” due to financial constraints – Jomo said he had serious doubts about whether the MCO was an effective solution against the pandemic.

Calling the nationwide emergency an excuse to suspend Parliament, Jomo suggested that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may consider having a temporary government of national unity. “If we continue the way we are going, I’m afraid the situation will go from bad to worse,” he said. - FMT