Education must drive pandemic response, other approaches risk failure in managing the Coronavirus pandemic
There’s a case for the government to educate the people on the pandemic brought since late 2019 by the novel Coronavirus which emerged from “God alone knows where”. The pandemic may be an Act of God in law, and if so, I won’t believe it even if it’s true.
Based on the Law of Karma, cause and effect, there will be consequences. It’s universal. Malaysia closing the borders is counterproductive, it will zap public confidence, and delay economic recovery. That’s Karma at work!
What others do to us is their Karma. How we react is our Karma. It’s not superstition. No one can escape Karma. It is the first eternal law based on eternal Truth. It’s not invention but discovery, if not revelation. Even those who don’t believe that the Law of Karma exists, will experience it and perhaps learn something new. The more we fight Karma, the more it will fight us.
Adviser On Karma
Malaysia may need to appoint an Adviser on the Law of Karma. That will help ensure that everything that we do is Karma-compliant. I won’t push for the position. I may not feel comfortable with it since it would be all encompassing. Having said that, good or bad, I don’t believe that Karma can transfer from one to another. The Church, for example, does Charity among the unfortunate. Their Karma does not transfer to the Church’s charity workers. True conversion is by Spirit.
In digressing a little, no one can fall back on Act of God to evade responsibility for mismanaging the pandemic response.
If the government fails to educate the people on the pandemic, it can be held responsible in the court of law, Act of God or no Act of God. Let’s not go there. That’s another story for another day on the Act of God debate on the plight of so many people.
The call for education merits serious study. There’s so much ventilation of ignorance in social media platforms on the pandemic. It’s an open secret which the government can no longer afford to ignore.
Conspiracy Theories
I am not talking about conspiracy theories on the pandemic. These can be dismissed. No court will go into conspiracy theories.
The people should be persuaded through education to strictly comply with the SOP, especially hand sanitisation, so that the virus will have no place to go and will cease to exist. In Genesis, the 1st Book in the Holy Bible, the Word of God, it’s written, “if anything has a beginning, it will have an end”.
I believe, to the best of my knowledge, that if we sanitise our hands in public before we touch something that anyone has touched, we can fully protect ourselves against infection. Frontliners can’t be sanitising their hands every few minutes. They can advise those approaching them to sanitise their hands before seeking services. Otherwise, even if they are fully vaccinated, they risk infection.
My grounds for public education on the pandemic is as follows:
I just had a call from a frontliner at a bank. She tested positive after having headache, cough, fever and sore throat. She’s self-isolating at home. We don’t patronise this particular bank since they allow only fully vaccinated customers to enter.
Bad Experience
It was a bad experience the last time that we were there. We were treated like lepers, literally treated outcasts (Pariahs), and refused entry. Instead, a bank officer who knows us, brought the verification machine outside to check the MyKad and thumbprint. He gave us some forms to fill to make a withdrawal and brought us the money. He sprayed his hands with the sanitiser and did the same to us. We never went back to the bank.
The bank could have allowed us entry as long as we sanitised our hands. The status in our MySejahtera remains blue (low risk, no symptoms).
There’s no guarantee that the fully vaccinated will maintain the blue status in their MySejahtera. If they get infected, the status will change and they will also be treated like lepers if they try to enter public premises. Such people become infected because they don’t strictly comply with the SOP, especially hand sanitisation. Vaccination induces a false sense of security, safety and protection, and the fully vaccinated let their guard down, become complacent, rest on their laurels and throw caution to the winds. Well, I’m speaking in general here of course.
Security
The security at a supermarket confided that he no longer has the energy he used to have before vaccination. He can’t carry even a box of mineral water from the pickup into the supermarket without pausing for breath. He used to be able to carry many boxes of water from the pickup into the supermarket without pausing for breath. This particular security allows us to enter the supermarket although we are not vaccinated.
Two shopping malls denied us entry.
Another shopping mall allowed us entry after I gave the security a very long lecture very loudly on the blue status in our MySejahtera and the rule of law. I could have given them a thesis on the pandemic. These days, the security pretend not to have seen us. They don’t bother whether we check the temperature, scan MySejahtera and sanitise our hands. They probably don’t want to risk another very long lecture. Pandemic, or no pandemic, we can’t simply roll over and play dead when control freaks run amok and act with impunity.
Human Rights & The Coronavirus
The control freaks in governments worldwide who use the pandemic against the people are violating human rights under international law.
Human rights is the basis of international law. It must be incorporated in national law and errant parties risk isolation, indeed even “international pariah” status.
Most security have allowed power to get into their head and abuse it. They don’t exercise prerogative and discretionary powers based on common sense. It’s not surprising these security abuse power. They are fighting back after being generally ignored by customers. We never ignore the security anywhere. Yet, it doesn’t help us all the time.
A popular supermarket has allowed us entry again based on the blue status in our MySejahtera. Two other supermarkets have always permitted us entry. The security does not ask us to show the status in MySejatera.
A retired doctor, an Englishman who remained behind in Sabah after Malaysia Day on 16 Sept 1963, posted in my whatsApp group that his wife can no longer climb the stairs after she was fully vaccinated. – New Malaysia Herald
About the writer: Longtime Borneo watcher Joe Fernandez keeps a keen eye on Malaysia as a legal scholar (jurist). He was formerly Chief Editor of Sabah Times. He’s not to be mistaken for a namesake previously with Daily Express. References to his blog articles can be found here.
The points expressed in this article are that of the writer’s, and do not necessarily reflect the stand of the New Malaysia Herald.
Longtime Borneo watcher Joe Fernandez has been writing for many years on both sides of the Southeast Asia Sea. He should not be mistaken for a namesake formerly with the Daily Express in Kota Kinabalu. JF keeps a Blog under FernzTheGreat on the nature of human relationships.
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