Winston Lim
KUCHING: Some parents here disagree with the relaxation of the Movement Control Order (MCO), as announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Friday.
The relaxation of the current MCO to ‘conditional MCO’ would take effect tomorrow.
The move would allow most industries and economic activities to resume – provided that they all must comply by the standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the authorities.
Those not allowed to reopen just as yet would include operations involving the presence of many people, where body contact and social distancing would be difficult to exercise.
In this regard, parents interviewed by thesundaypost said they would prefer the MCO be continued for the safety of everyone during the current Covid-19 pandemic
Winston Lim, 51, said Sarawak should not follow the federal government’s decision, in view of new Covid-1 positive cases still being reported daily.
“Sarawak’s record is not that good yet – it (relaxed MCO) should be put on hold. There’s no point in rushing businesses to resume; instead, (the government) should let it be a bit safer for everyone first,” said the businessman.
Lim, whose wife is also his business partner, said they had been suffering from lack of generated incomes over the past two months.
Still, he viewed losing money as ‘being secondary to life, which is more important’.
In this respect, he said he would not allow his two children to go out at all, despite many premises being given the greenlight to open.
Even on the permission for two family members to travel in the same vehicle, Lim would still uphold the earlier directive – only one person, usually the head of the household, would be allowed to go out.
“We have a system – my wife and I would take turns to go out once a week; if there’s no urgency, we would not go out.
“We won’t let our children go out, unless they’re sick and need to go to the clinic or the hospital; otherwise, there’s no justification as to let them go out.
“On food, everything is home-cooked – we don’t do takeaways as a way to cut down the time for going out and expose ourselves to infection risks.”
Lim also said they would cut the children’s hair at home.
“My children seem to be understanding; they wouldn’t complain as long as the Internet is running and they have movies to watch.”
For a mother of two, she regarded the decision to ‘relax the MCO’ as being ‘a bit too early and premature’, in that the statistics in Malaysia had only shown the start of a declining trend, which should not warrant the easing off on the restrictions’.
“Take Japan, for example; it relaxed the restriction and the (Covid-19) numbers shot up again. In Hokkaido, the restrictions had to be imposed again, bringing them back to square one.
“We shouldn’t do things halfway. We don’t want to end up back at square one,” said the interviewee, who requested anonymity.
She added that should companies start operating as usual, it would be hard to maintain social distancing between the workers, as they would have to share the pantry during lunch.
Moreover, she said working with a facemask or a face shield on would not be comfortable, especially for those wearing glasses, she said.
For her young children, she would not want to bring them outside the house just yet, except for urgent matters like obtaining medical treatment.
Meanwhile, Sunil Mohd Fauzan said it would be better for businesses that could still withstand the current difficulties well, to remain closed for the time being.
“If your business could not survive such closure, then you should continue finding other means of incomes; for those that can survive the current situation, then the operators should continue the closure,” said the 37-year-old owner of a sound/lighting equipment rental business.
Sunil Mohd Fauzan
Sunil said with him being in the entertainment industry – one of the most severely affected by the MCO – he had no choice but to ‘swallow the bullet’.
“I haven’t had any income for the past two months.”
Sunil said much as he wanted the entertainment and tourism sectors to operate again, he acknowledged that the present crisis was just ‘too risky’ for them to resume operations.
For the education sector, he said it would be good for schools to remain closed for now.
“I think the students can still study online – my children’s teachers have been sending over homework so that they can continue to learn at home.”
Sunil also believed that for the time being, it would be unnecessary for libraries to open.
“Same as schooling, many materials can be searched online. The university students should be able to do their assignments at home.”
Asked if he would allow his children to go out during the conditional MCO, Sunil said: “No – unless it’s urgent.”