THE country has entered a most critical stage with record high new Covid-19 infections and deaths reported almost daily in recent weeks. Our healthcare facilities nationwide are stretched to breaking point, if not already broken.

As a sense of doom descends amid the spike in infections and body count, the overriding question in our national conversation now is: Are we on the right track?

The debate over this invariably revolves around the choice of whether to save lives or to save livelihoods.

The government’s decision not to pursue a lockdown, opting instead to keep the economic sector open under stricter SOPs has been criticised by certain quarters. The criticism is fuelled by a certain former prime minister and his supporters, though we as the rakyat should question the political motives behind their calls for a lockdown.

The choice that lies before us need not be limited to saving lives or saving livelihoods. We should not be divided over this. From the very beginning, with the pandemic disrupting supply chains and trade across the globe, we have faced a war on two fronts: health and economic.

Since the outbreak began last year, the government has introduced policies and measures that aim to simultaneously save lives and livelihoods. Like my fellow Malaysians, I feel frustration at certain measures and with pandemic fatigue creeping up on us, it is easy to have blinkered views of the matter.

For example, a person who has lost family members and close friends to the virus may get frustrated over the government’s refusal to impose the version of lockdown we saw during MCO 1.0, which started on March 18, 2020.

Likewise, a restaurant owner struggling to feed his children may find the government’s latest decision to ban dine-ins harsh, just as the economy is starting to sputter along after restrictions were slowly eased starting late last year.

Both views are correct but fail to take into account the holistic outlook required to tackle the most daunting crisis the country has faced since independence.

Busting the coronavirus chain of infection need not mean depriving millions of people the means of feeding and sustaining their families. In the same vein, keeping the economy open should not result in failure to win the Covid-19 war.

Recently, former health minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said a lockdown is not the silver bullet to end the pandemic. At best, it would only delay the deadly virus.

In fact, as studies have shown, MCO 2.0 proved it is possible to keep infection numbers down without closing the economic sector. Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz has warned that if the restrictions imposed during MCO 1.0 were reintroduced now, as many as 2.8 million people are projected to lose their sources of income while as many as 40 percent of our SMEs will be shuttered for good. This can certainly lead to an economic disaster that can set Malaysia back by years and one that can plunge the nation into great despair.

Having said that, Malaysians should be mindful of attempts to stoke public anger and sow division for political ends using the “either health or economy” argument.

This is not just a health crisis, nor is it merely an economic one. It’s a double whammy crisis. The truth is, for the sake of progress and future of our country, we simply cannot choose between lives or livelihoods – not when we can strike a reasonable balance between the two. For the future of the rakyat and coming generations, there can only be one form of victory, and that is to win on both counts. – May 25, 2021.

* Fathul Mohd Abidin reads The Malaysian Insight.

* 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.