PM Muhyiddin Yassin announced yesterday that the conditional movement control order (CMCO) would be extended a further four weeks, till June 9. This means that by the time this is over – if it in fact does end on June 9 – Malaysia would have been locked down for 3 months.

But, the extension wasn’t unexpected considering the number of new Covid-19 infections daily is still in the high double digits. In fact, experts had already been calling for the extension even before Moo’s announcement. 
 
It’s almost certain a large reason for extending the CMCO was to avoid the massive crush of hundreds of thousands of people going back to their kampungs during Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Kaamatan and Hari Gawai; which is why Muhyiddin said interstate travel wouldn’t be allowed during the festive period.

It’s also likely why the CMCO has been extended for four weeks this time instead of the usual fortnight. Raya is expected to fall on May 24 while Kaamatan and Gawai will be on May 30-31 and June 1-2. Extending the CMCO for a month means the travel periods before and after these celebrations are covered, leaving no room for ambiguity.

The question though is, what’s the value of the government’s pronouncements considering the last MCO lasted less than half its supposed shelf life before the goalposts were moved, everything was loosened and the MCO became the CMCO? What guarantee is there that the government won’t have a change of heart and perform another U-turn?

And that’s just it – Muhyiddin has, in fact, already shifted the goalposts again. Remember when the gomen said Hari Raya visiting wouldn’t be allowed, even within the same state? That was just a few days ago. 

Yesterday, our grand poobah said the exact opposite – Raya visiting WOULD be allowed within state boundaries, with 20 people allowed at a gathering at any given time. 
 
There are so many things that could go wrong here. How do you practice social distancing in a situation like this? Do you expect people to not salam? How do visitors sit a metre apart if they are in a tiny PPR flat? How do you guarantee everybody sanitises themselves?

It will just take one infected person to set off a chain reaction. Even with the 20-people-at-a-time restriction, there could easily be 100-200 people visiting a home over the first two days of Raya alone. Imagine if these 100-200 people visit five different houses each, with 19 other different people. And those people then visit other houses. It could end up being disastrous. 
 
The oddest thing about this decision is how unnecessary it was. Why did Moo decide to do this, considering there hasn’t been any huge demand for open houses? The majority of Malaysians, no matter their religion, are aware of the dangers we’re facing.

The only ones with the faulty memories seem to be Moo and Co., who look like they’ve forgotten the lessons of the Sri Petaling tabligh cluster – just one gathering that caused a chain reaction and led to a large chunk of the cases in the country.

As it is, we’re still seeing new clusters. The latest is among foreign construction workers in Setia Alam, Selangor. Parts of Petaling Jaya’s old town have also been placed under enhanced MCO following an increase in infections in areas surrounding the Jalan Othman wet market, where a trader had tested positive for Covid-19 last month. And if you think that’s a small thing – think again, cos it’s gonna take 10 days to test all 2,900 residents in the affected area. 

Let’s hope the government thinks things through properly before they announce the SOPs for congregational prayers in houses of worship. Not performing obligations at mosques, churches, temples, etc is something people have largely managed to reconcile themselves with and there really isn’t a massive need to lift the closure on mass religious gatherings. So, whatever SOPs announced need to actually be enough to ensure we don’t trigger another wave. 
 
A new wave would be heartbreaking as the Health Ministry is confident of bringing the daily infection rate down to single digits within the next week or two. In all, there were 67 new infections yesterday, bringing total infections since the outbreak began to 6,566. There were 96 recoveries (5,025 in total). Nobody died of Covid, meaning that grim tally stays at 108.
 
But all this hard work – and all the sacrifices of our frontliners – will be for naught if new clusters appear because of the relaxing of regulations for Hari Raya. And the single-digit dream can be kissed goodbye, at least for some time.