WHEN Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the movement-control order (MCO) 3.0 would be expanded to the whole country, restrictions were imposed from May 12 to June 7, followed by the announcement from the Sabah state minister Masidi Manjun that the state will retain the current conditional MCO standard operating procedure.  

Subsequently, the Sarawak government made the same decision too. At that point in time, Sabahan and Sarawakian social media users were celebrating their happiness with the words “kecuali Sabah dan Sarawak” (except Sabah and Sarawak). As a Sabahan myself, May is one of the meaningful and joyful months as the natives celebrate Kaamatan Festival on May 30 and 31. 

Retaining CMCO means that we might be able to go back to kampung and celebrate this festival with our families and friends and aramaiti (or any sort of merry-making activities). 

Besides, earlier in May, the daily number of Covid-19 cases in Sabah remained in two digits compared with Klang Valley, which recorded four digits daily. However, daily confirmed cases in Sabah reached three digits after the Raya holidays. Since May 19, daily confirmed cases have increased from 160 to 308 on May 28, before the long weekend.   

No more opting out from MCO

As Sabah took a long time to recover from the early phase of the third wave, the increasing number of daily cases is an alarming sign for the state government to implement tightened SOP to avoid a worsening wave during the festivities. 

Unsurprisingly, the Sabah government just announced tightened SOP two days before the festival on Friday to clamp down on public movement. Based on the media statement from Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin, this SOP will be implemented from May 29 to June 2, which will see a ban on dine-ins at all eateries, limitation of the number of people allowed for jogging and cycling in group, ban of group exercises such as aerobics and zumba. Golf is allowed but cafés at golf clubs are prohibited to operate. 

Movement is restricted, with an inter-district ban in place for the festival holiday, with inter-district travel only within the designated zones allowed.     

Sadly, on the same day the whole country breached the 8,000 mark for the first time. The Prime Minister’s Office responded with an order for a nationwide total lockdown where no social and economic sectors, except essential services are allowed to operate from tomorrow to June 14. 

As Sabah has just announced earlier about the tightened SOP for the state, Sabahans wondered whether the state would go along with the latest announcement from the Prime Minister’s office.  

Some Sabahan social media users showed great concern, whether the pandemic situation in the state can be controlled, if the state is adamant at keeping the different level of movement restrictions between Sabah and the rest of the country. 

In addition, Sabah recorded a higher daily 308 cases on the same day, after a three-month period since early February with only 276 cases recorded. Yet, some social media users held a different opinion, saying the economic situation is still under the recovery phase from the third wave.  

In the end, the state government confirmed that Sabah would comply with the full lockdown.

Misuse of the soft-touch movement-control

Balancing act between “lives and livelihoods” is a tough job for the government during the challenging pandemic period. Although the state government opted for a soft approach of movement-control to make sure that the state economy still can operate, yet the number of daily confirmed cases rose after that. 

What is more worrying, Covid-19 clusters that contribute to the spike of cases in the state were mostly through social activities, such as Kolopis, a marriage-blessing ceremony; Pagar Sg Iman, a house-visiting activity and Jalan Mangga, a birthday celebration gathering. 

With the ongoing National Covid-19 immunisation Programme, some people might have thought that being vaccinated means being immune from Covid-19. In addition, Sabahans get more leeway, enjoying the freedom of movement with more social activities during the festival holiday.  

Consequently, a new cluster, Desa Ranggu, emerged from a woman who had completed her Covid-19 vaccination. She was believed to have been infected by a social contact who had visited her during the Raya celebration. The Sg Pukul and Kauran-Durok clusters formed due to Raya celebrations too. These newly identified clusters are also one of the reasons for the increasing number of daily cases in Sabah. 

The number of green zone areas in Sabah is reducing after the festival holiday too. It dropped from eight to six areas within 10 days – from May 18 to 28. On the other hand, the occupancy of hospital beds due to Covid-19 has increased during the same period, from 13.11% to 35.86%.  

According to the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre infographic on Saturday, Sabah topped other states, with 26.92% clusters linked to the Raya celebration. All these figures show that, if the movement-control measures are still maintained at the CMCO level, potential outbreaks are in the making after the festive season. Therefore, the tightened SOP in place during the festive season are preventing Sabah from another round of severe outbreaks.   

Breaking the transmission chain cannot depend solely on the enforcement of the tighter SOP but also needs the commitment from the public. With the newly formed clusters and decreasing number of green zone districts in Sabah, would you Sabahans still consider aramaiti during the festival?  

Not to forget that, in red zones such as Tawau, the district health facilities have reached 70% capacity amid the pandemic and would probably not be able to hold any longer taking in more new patients. Furthermore, the issue of lacking medical infrastructure still needs to be resolved for Sabah.  

Perhaps, we can still aramaiti during this festival season just by changing the venue from outside the house to “inside” the house, watching and supporting the Unduk Ngadau beauty pageant via social media and drinking tapai (rice wine) inside the house.

In short, there is another way to aramaiti during the festival. – May 31, 2021.

* Esther Sinirisan Chong is a member of Agora Society. She was born and raised in the Land Below the Wind. Her research interest lies in education and government policies, and the history and heritage of East Malaysia.

* 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.