Movement Control Order - 2nd extension

As officially announced yesterday at 4pm, the nation-wide MCO (Movement Control Order) here in Malaysia has been extended for a second time for an additional 2 weeks. This means the end of the MCO has been extended from 14 April to 28 April.

Even before the announcement, judging from the daily new confirmed cases alone, it would be a real surprise if the MCO would be ended as planned.

Extending into the 3rd phase of MCO will not be a case of "more of the same", as this state of economic stasis cannot be sustained indefinitely. As essential supply chains are disrupted, its only a matter of time before food, medical supplies and other consumables run out.

The definition of "essential" remains somewhat ambiguous. The government has published a list of permitted industries, and those that were not listed would be allowed to appeal from Monday (13 April). However, this then opens up a can of worms, as there is little transparency of how such appeals are handled. Also there will be some bad-hearted parties who will object that approval is given to some. Thus, I expect this list to be somewhat dynamic (not counting exceptions) so do check the official government websites and sources for the latest info.

The key problem statement is how to resume daily functions with adequate controls without compromising the social distancing and other necessary measures. Besides restarting essential supply chains, businesses cannot afford to continue paying their staff for doing nothing. As they are not allowed to take any measures such as terminating staff, closure remains the only realistic option, which will then leave people jobless instead of just short of income. This sadly would be a real case of killing the goose that lays the golden egg. On the other hand, businesses like day care and school buses are insisting that they still be paid in full throughout the MCO period. So, everyone is being pressed and doing their best to stay afloat in these difficult times.

As of today, this is a tough challenge which no country has a clear solution. With the reopening of Wuhan, China today is taking the first steps into uncharted waters, and I hope China will be successful and that we can all learn from the experience.

One thing is clear - everyone, from the leaders down to the common folk like us, has to do their part and act responsibly, if we are to overcome this global pandemic.

Every day, there is still news of people arrested and fined (as space in detention is fast becoming a bottleneck), their numbers far exceeding the confirmed cases. I also observe inconsiderate people in the neighbourhood still going for morning and evening walks, and even stopping to chat with anyone they bump into. No doubt they share the same shallow thinking with the doctor and engineer who was jogging in Penang as well as the Shah Alam City Council member and friends who were playing badminton. Perhaps the police should start patrolling rather than just set up static road blocks...?

Back home, how does the news of extension bode for us? Well, the kids are getting started with their online lessons, though the teachers are the ones with the most challenges - having to master online teaching tools. Most of the lessons are a form of watching online video lessons followed by questions. Haha, for now, the videos are not of the teachers themselves, but some 3rd party. Not like what I've seen on social media for China, where some videos are starring the teachers themselves. But I don't blame them - even for me, presenting a Powerpoint slide online is no problem, but live (or even recorded) video feed is a completely different and new experience. Unless you are a seasoned vlogger on youtube, you'd probably keep comfortably off-screen....

For me, life during MCO is quite routine, occasionally starting my car to break the monotony. Working from home is still possible, and major telcos like Digi and Maxis are kind enough to offer free data daily from 8am to 6pm, which is sufficient to get a day's work done. The network speed can get slow at time, making teleconferencing a choppy affair. With the extension of the MCO to 28 April, I hope the free data plan offer would also be extended accordingly - otherwise, will have to incur a bit of cost. It would be interesting to calculate the daily cost of working from home versus the usual working at office (factoring in costs such as refueling and parking)....

Well, the first MCO clamped down on our daily lives and started us working from home. The second MCO (14 day extension) limited our movement to within 10km of our homes and with valid reason only. Let's see how the next two weeks go along in the 3rd episode of the MCO trilogy - hope we start to see the light the end of the tunnel (as Donald Trump aptly puts it) or maybe we'll see yet another extension - but even then, life after this pandemic will unlikely to be the same as before!