Journal 2

 


Question: "Malaysia, once praised by the WHO as 'united' against COVID, has gone back into lockdown" is a headline on news posted on 14th January, 2021 by Max Wouden.

     I still remember the happiness we felt when for the first time after a year of pandemic, government announced that we have finally reached zero cases of Covid-19 a day. That moment was like a miracle. Now, Malaysia is one of the countries that is currently battling with thousands number of cases and not less than 100 deaths a day. This situation is saddening and alarming at the same time. What a nightmare.

    My first assumptions towards the statement are the frontliners might have feel very exhausted and burned out at this point. All of their efforts at first place and the excitement their felt for the temporary achievement had gone wasted. As stated by Tharanya Arumugam (2021), “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to significant emotional stress among the country’s frontliners, particularly healthcare workers. Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said a number of frontline workers showed symptoms of extreme stress or burnout.” This situation is worrying as they are our backbones and the one whose struggling the most by taking care and treat patients during this pandemic. Hence, as a citizen, we should not give them any unnecessary pressure such as not following SOPs, not cooperating in taking vaccines to reach herd immunity and spreading false information in social media. The least we can do is to cooperate with them in whatever they ask us to.

     Next, some of the Malaysians’ effort for abiding the SOPs and faced full lockdown for almost a year also had gone wasted whereas most of the Malaysians had done a good job by only stayed at home during the lockdown. Thus, I assume the statement of the article must have frustrated many Malaysians’ citizens. Not everyone is mentally ready to face online learning and working from home again during lockdown period. Not to mention, most of the businesses had to discontinued from operating due to huge amount of losses, result from the pandemic. One of the Malaysian’s Correspondent mentioned, “Ms Firdaus Nisha used to earn a good income from her small environmental consulting firm in Kuala Lumpur, but now, more than a year after the pandemic started, she has slipped into the lower-income group. And with no end date given, Malaysians are speaking of the toll that the lockdown and pandemic are taking on their mental health, relationships and finances.” (Anand, 2021). This indicates how Malaysians are affected enough with lockdown and the existence of Covid-19.

    To sum up, I am honestly felt a bit ashamed reading the statement of the article, as we were once praised as a ‘united’ country and now it is the opposite. However, I believe if we can do it once, we can do it again. I still have faith in which our country will fully recover from this harmful virus one day. It is only the matter of time and with full cooperation given by Malaysians to reach herd immunity soon.

References

Arumugam, T. (2021, June 27). Frontliners affected by emotional stress from Covid-19. NST Online. https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2021/06/702775/frontliners-affected-emotional-stress-covid-19

Anand, R. (2021, June 28). Malaysians talk of mental anguish as Covid-19 lockdown is extended. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysians-talk-of-mental-anguish-as-covid-19-lockdown-gets-extended 

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