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KUALA LUMPUR: For months, Malaysia seemed to have contained the coronavirus outbreak. Then top politicians flew to one of the few remaining hotspots to campaign for a local election and spread the virus everywhere.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin imposed new travel restrictions yesterday as Malaysia recorded a record 691 daily cases, a third of them from Sabah, which held elections last month.
Muhyiddin is now in quarantine along with seven members of his cabinet after politicians in the federal capital campaigned in the state without adhering to social distancing guidelines.
The rapid resurgence shows how election campaigns can trigger virus outbreaks if mishandled.
Some countries like Singapore have held national votes without major outbreaks, and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s party is poised for a landslide victory in an election this month that was initially delayed by a minor outbreak that authorities controlled. quickly.
Others, like Myanmar, which has a vote on November 8, are under pressure to delay elections after a recent outbreak. And the outbreak in the White House that tested positive for US President Donald Trump shows the political consequences of not containing the virus: National polls released this week show Democratic candidate Joe Biden with a double-digit lead and a Increasing margin in key states on the battlefield. .
The outbreak in Malaysia could have similar consequences for Muhyiddin, who has only had a minimal majority in Parliament since taking power in March after the collapse of an earlier coalition.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said last month that he has the numbers to topple Muhyiddin, prompting speculation that the prime minister may call a general election soon.
‘Using the cane’
While politicians from all parties campaigned in Sabah, a crucial state won by the Muhyiddin bloc, the government has borne the brunt of criticism for the subsequent virus outbreak.
The #Muhyiddinout hashtag started trending on Twitter after the prime minister seemed to downplay the need to follow social distancing restrictions shortly after his government announced that a one-year-old baby was among the deaths in the latest outbreak. .
“I’m sorry if this dad starts using the cane!” Muhyiddin stated, using a nickname for himself that is used frequently on social media in Malaysia. In the speech, he acknowledged that the Sabah elections fueled the latest resurgence of the virus and said it “makes us very sad.”
The Electoral Commission had ordered that campaign events should respect physical distancing, conduct body temperature controls, record attendance, limit the size of demonstrations, and require the use of face masks and hand sanitizers.
However, the parties still held traditional campaign events and shook hands with potential voters, said Thomas Fann, chairman of electoral regulator Bersih, who was in Sabah to observe the polls.
Photographs from the campaign showed a politician from Muhyiddin’s ruling coalition, who later tested positive, without wearing a mask as he squatted inches from a stall owner in a wet market. Subsequently, the authorities closed the market indefinitely.
“I’d like to think I wore a mask almost every time,” Shahril Hamdan, another government-affiliated politician who tested positive, wrote on Twitter. But to be honest, I took off my mask during speeches. I wasn’t strong enough to stay away from events with people. That was clearly not social distancing. “
While the government said it was not necessary to isolate for 14 days if returnees from Sabah tested negative, some politicians did so anyway.
Lim Yi Wei of the opposition DAP tested positive five days after returning from Sabah despite an initial test at the airport showing that he did not have the virus.
“From day one, I have been quarantined at home,” he wrote on Facebook.
Dr. M. Subramaniam, president of the Malaysian Medical Association, said politicians should have allowed their allies in Sabah to campaign on their own, rather than flying to the state and bringing the virus back.
“Everyone should have been screened and quarantined,” he said. “Suspicion of infection is important. And that is why we are suffering now ”.
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