B.I.R.D., Why Malaysia May Fail The Covid 19 War
Without borrowing even more from say IMF or China, we will not be able to fund the war against Covid 19. IMF borrowing may come with the unthinkable subsidies cut, termination of Bumi preferential policy which our gov most likely will not accept.
Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah, Malaysians Must Know the Truth
The month after Raya will be very critical in determining whether Malaysia will succeed or fail in this Covid 19 war. And the reason for failure can be summarised under these 4 factors – B.I.R.D.
B stands for border.
The Indonesian Malaysian borders is extremely porous and almost impossible to seal. The thousands of fishing boats that travels the strait of Melaka as well as the South China sea also act as an illegal conduit for illegal migrants. Malaysia simply do not have the maritime and naval resources to seal these sea lanes effectively.
The borders between Kalimantan with Sarawak & Sabah are even harder to monitor or seal. These allow continued illegal movement between our 2 countries. That explains why millions of illegal Indonesians are able to enter and reside in Malaysia at any given time.
I is Indonesia.
The Italy of Asia. Many reports have indicated that this country will become the Italy of Asia due to their lack of effective lock downs and testing resulting in millions of folks exposed to Covid 19. 80% of the imported Covid 19 cases are students back from Indonesia.
While Malaysia started this Covid war with 33 million PPE for the hospitals, Indonesia had less than 200,000 PPE for all their hospitals. Their healthcare will be overwhelmed and more than 30 doctors, dentists and numerous nurses have died from Covid 19 infection in the past months. And this is only the beginning.
R is Raya.
Traditionally many Indonesians go back home during Raya. This year with so many jobless and running out of food due to MCO in Malaysia, many will try to head back to their villages to both celebrate raya as well as wait out our MCO before coming back again after Raya. If only 10% of the estimated 2.5 million Indonesians in Malaysia head back to Indonesia and then come back again, it will mean potentially an unimaginable number of imported Covid 19 cases after raya.
