May 31,2020
When first heard of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan, Chan Tiong YAP was quite confident that his country, Malaysia, could do well to contain the coronavirus from spreading, since then both of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail were doctors. They had experienced an outbreak in late January. In about one month, Malaysia had successfully contained the first wave of the outbreaks, with 22 confirmed cases all recovered and discharged.
However, in mid-February, when the coronavirus cluster emerged in South Korea, none of Malaysian politicians, including cabinet ministers, cared of the development of coronavirus worldwide, but instead they actively planed a "coup" for their political benefit. When Prime Minister Mahathir suddenly resigned on February 23, his cabinet had no choice but to dismiss. During this period, except a medical team was processing regular preventive measures, no one was in charge to stop from a large Islamic gathering of about 16,000 people coming from at least 26 countries from February 27 to March 1. Some of the participants were from countries with outbreaks, so this gathering would cause a serious second wave of outbreaks!
Those days, Members of Parliament from various parties were busy fighting for a cabinet seat. The new government was formed on March 8, and many loopholes had been caused in the pandemic prevention. Hence, in just a few days, the number of new coronavirus diagnosed had surged! In order to prevent the pandemic from spreading rapidly, the new Prime Minister announced on March 18 and implemented a lockdown and Movement Control Order (MCO) measure. People and enterprises were completely caught off guard by the measure to respond and prepare. This had created a lot of criticism.
However, eventually Malaysian government started with the priority of national health and life of the people, it has proved to be helpful for containing the epidemic and this is a wise move by a leader with conscience.
In reviewing the development of the protective measure during COVID-19 Pandemic, Yap pointed that Members of Parliament are elected by the people and should be conscientious and people-oriented. Besides serving the people, in extraordinary times like COVID-19 outbreak, they must first consider the lives of the people. They should temporarily put down their political positions, unite together to fight against the pandemic and to restore the vitality of economic soonest, so that the people can live a safe and a healthy life. Mr. Yap hopes that all world leaders have a conscience and the wisdom to lead the people through this pandemic at this difficult time.