WHEN will our selfish politicians ever learn? Selfish and irresponsible is how one can describe politicians in the Melaka state assembly who decided to put “self” above the nation.
And they do this when the nation is seemingly on the road to recovery from the pandemic.
Many say that we are in this current sad state of affairs because of the Sabah state elections last year which sparked off a chain of rapid transmission of COVID-19 in Malaysia.
Granted that a high percentage of our population have been vaccinated against the dreaded COVID-19 but the numbers being infected is still high.
The current active cases number more than a hundred thousand with the daily death rate going above a hundred and yet our politicians are clamouring for polls.
Having state elections now would be like going out from the frying pan and into the fire!
For a long time, deaths from severe COVID-19 were in the hundreds almost daily.
Many children were orphaned and women widowed by the dreaded disease.
There are many victims left suffering from long COVID-19, with some tethered to oxygen concentrators for God knows how long to be. Do we want to add to the numbers?
Have we forgotten the fallen heroes from among the medical and non-medical frontliners?
The medical frontliners have been battling the pandemic for close to two years now with many having their leaves frozen, and an equally large number who either opt to stay out of their homes or dread going home after each shift for fear of bringing the virus back to their loved ones.
Life has never been normal for the medical frontliners facing a never-ending stream of COVID-19 patients coming into the hospitals and other treatment centres.
The vaccination programme has just begun to bring a reprieve to these exhausted and dedicated frontliners.
What happened to the truce that was called by politicians from opposing sides and their pledge to work together for the sake of the people?
As far as the medical fraternity is concerned, we are dead against the state election being held during this time, not at least till the current situation returns to near normal. – Oct 7, 2021.
Dr Koh Kar Chai is the president of the Malaysian Medical Association.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
