We agree with columnist Wong Chin Huat, who recently wrote on the need for the next leaders of our countries to have clear and concrete plans (malaysiakini.com/news/581528) for the future direction of the country.
Projek #BangsaMalaysia is working hard to produce a bottom-up, rakyat-driven roadmap for our nation’s future. This is a long and involved process, and a detailed roadmap will take some time to complete.
That said, we were able to reach some consensus regarding some of the broader questions that were astutely posed by Wong:
“First, what is the overarching policy goal - flattening the curve or returning to normalcy? On one hand, can our hospitals not collapse without a full lockdown?
On the other hand, can our economy survive an indefinite and real lockdown? What are the objective measures to decide what level of lockdown?
Third, how to speed up vaccination in both supply and administration?
How to allow state governments, businesses and even charities to acquire more vaccines without competing with the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) for supply?
Who should pay for their vaccination and for how much? What incentives in less control should be given to those who are fully vaccinated to encourage vaccination?”
Our guiding principle is the long-term health and safety of everyone in Malaysia. In pursuing this goal, here are our priorities:
*Priority 1:* Vaccinate as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. This can be done through a concerted all-of-society effort where every citizen and organisation plays a part.
More vaccination will protect against Covid-19, variants and hospitalisations that strain our public hospitals.
*Priority 2:* Every possible step must be taken to ensure that hospitals and medical staff are able to operate in an effective, dignified and sustainable manner. This may require surge financing in the medium-term, and the government should borrow where necessary (cont'd below)
(this is acceptable because interest rates are very low). We will provide temporary solutions to contract health professionals (like doctors, pharmacists, dentists and nurses), (cont'd below)
while building the foundation for long-term durable solutions for the hiring process of the Health Ministry. Private healthcare must be brought into the fight against Covid-19 in a fair and equitable manner, given their resources and moral duty.
*Priority 3:* We must have smart, targeted and transparently decided MCOs. We will build a traffic-light MCO classification based on public health risk, like in Singapore or countries in the European Union.
We will publish a list of which types of businesses are allowed to operate during which MCO stage. We will remove ad hoc decisions so that businesses can operate using a predictable decision-making framework.
Decisions regarding the levels of lockdown should be made objectively, based on data and science. Factors such as positivity rate, testing rate, infection rate and the total number of cases must all be taken into account as part of an overall algorithm.
Different levels of MCO should apply to different states and different districts. All data regarding Covid-19 cases will be made transparently available at all times.
The second question raised by Wong Chin Huat: “Second, who amongst individuals and which amongst businesses should be prioritised in government aid, and by how much?
How to make sure no one is starving? How to stop businesses from closing and workers from a layoff? How far should the government raise its debts to save households and businesses now?”
The guiding principle with regard to economic aid is that the most vulnerable should be protected the most.
Food security and shelter must be made the top priority, and the government should welcome the help of NGOs and other civil society actors in identifying the most vulnerable populations and ensuring that sufficient aid reaches them.
One party alone will not be able to tackle a problem of this magnitude.
Aid to businesses for staff wages should be continued, and there must be a system to track unemployment due to Covid-19.
Malaysia’s debt ratio is still within manageable levels. It is thus better to borrow a certain amount of money now, while we can, than have to borrow even more later when the economy is in a full crisis, and financing may become harder or more expensive to come by.
Wong concluded: “I want more than a change of PM or government parties. I want a real change in the political system.”
It is time to reject a broken political system based on Very Important People, and replace it with a democratic movement that is based on Values, Impact and Policies.
There is no longer any point in looking towards the same old tired political players who have demonstrated their complete inability to set their priorities right.
They do not hold the keys to our future. Power in our current system is overcentralised, and this in turn has poisoned our democratic culture and reduced all questions to the question of who the next prime minister will be.
The future lies instead with movements of Malaysians who believe in decentralised, collaborative consensus-building.
It is only by believing in community-based decision making and the fact that there is more that unites us than divides us that we will succeed in building up a truly rakyat centric, representative and bottom-up democratic coalition for a brighter future.
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IDEAS Community Projects and Projek #BangsaMalaysia are coming together to launch a *HOSPITAL EMERGENCY FUND* to aid our hospitals and medical frontliners.
This *URGENT* effort is to support our overstretched healthcare system as a result of the prolonged COVID pandemic. Hospitals are overwhelmed, medical frontliners are exhausted, equipment is insufficient, and patient care is compromised.
Let us all do our part to help fight this together.
📍Donations can be made to:
Name: *IDEAS BERHAD*
Account: *8001367104*
Bank: *CIMB*
Reference: *HOSPITAL FUND*
MALAYSIA'S HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE, WHY DOES THE GOVERNMENT HAVE ITS HEAD IN THE SAND?
When India faced the worst days of its Covid-19 crisis, the entire world knew.
The transparency regarding just how bad the problem was helped India ensure that its government took the matter seriously, and got the help it needed. This is how India recovered from the near total collapse of its healthcare system.
COMMENT | Thanks to voices from the public and within the political class, including that of Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azalina Othman Said, a hybrid sitting is now being studied after de facto Law Minister Takiyuddin Hassan (cont'd below)
and Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun revised their opposition to the reopening of Parliament under the state of emergency.
The Malaysian government's failure to curtail the most recent CoVid-19 outbreak, further exacerbated by a sluggish vaccination program, has put our national health services under a tremendous amount of strain, reports @NileBowie .
"Malaysia’s health crisis is taking a turn for the worst as new Covid-19 cases rise exponentially, a viral surge that as a percentage of the population is now higher than India’s daily infection rate."
"With a record number of critically ill patients occupying almost 1,200 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, the healthcare system is at a breaking point amid reports of doctors giving priority care to patients with higher chances of recovery."
"The cancellation by UTM said to be the recommendation of their 'Islamic Center' poses serious questions on the role of the university as a place to enlighten minds or a place to condition knowledge based on a narrow perspective of religious tolerance."
"One of the important aspects of nation-building that is lacking in this country is the sharing and appreciation of other cultures like those of the Kadazan, Murut, Dayak, Iban and Orang Asli."
"The issue also raises the questionable role of universities in nation building with regards to knowledge of a shared heritage in arts."
The Srebrenica War Memorial not only serves as a commemorative focal point for the Bosniak genocide and the final resting place for many of its victims, but also as a damning indictment of man's inhumanity to man.
Radko Mladic - the infamous, unrepentant Butcher of Bosnia.