AS I was reflecting on my next article, I got bad news from an employee of a prominent hotel in Perak whose management has instructed the food and beverage and kitchen staff to go on six months of unpaid leave due to severe dent on revenue.

The imposition of MCO 2 has created greater uncertainty in hotel business projections which is one the primary reasons that hotel workers around the country are retrenched or ask to go on unpaid leave.

Without a bank loan moratorium, I wonder how would some workers with financial obligations would survive in the next six months. They would be at the mercy of banks. The more distressing aspect is the skills and contribution of this employees would need to be put on hold for a long time since there is no much hope that hospitality industry would be revived soon. 

The question in my mine is how would these workers adjust themselves in the months to come when the government has done little to support the hotel industry? How would wage subsidy work in the context where the hotel’s primary business such as food and beverage are crippled and there is no wage support for those who earn above RM4,000?

 As I finished my conversation, I got another call from a friend, a factory worker who told me how he was ask to go for a 10-day quarantine few weeks ago after one of his co-workers was infected with Covid-19. He narrated how an ambulance came to his home and took him together with eleven workers. They were tested negative at the general hospital, and then told to go on a 10-day quarantine at a specific place. 

When I ask him of his experience in the quarantine centre he told me there were approximately around 300 people there who had some contact with Covid-19 patients. Toilet facilities  were few and inconvenient. There was a health risk since everyone has to share it. Those in the quarantine centre were freely conversing with each other, putting themselves in risk situations.

To him it was a significant risk of possible infection since those who were in the hall had a previous contact with Covid-19 infected persons. On the positive aspect the hall and toilet were sanitised frequently. 

Based on the conversation with two individuals in different situational context, it basically reflects the current economic and health crisis. It exposes social realities of Malaysians who are not as privileged as the politicians who do not suffer loss of their income or access to the best healthcare services during a pandemic. Social distancing becomes a burden even in quarantine facilities. The epidemic has expose structural inequality where government hospitals have been overburdened while private health hospitals are seeking ways to profit through Covid-19 .

The pandemic has exposed the reality of structural inequality where workers have very little protection in times of economic crisis, and healthcare system that is overburden resulting in situation where people are in greater risk of infection even in government health centres. – February 5, 2021.

* Ronald Benjamin is secretary at the Association for Community and Dialogue.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.