When it comes to battling Covid, we’re constantly told how we must all work together. That must certainly include the federal Perikatan Nasional gomen and the Pakatan Harapan state governments, right? 

Yet time and again, we hear grumblings by the head honchos at Selangor they’ve been left out of important decision making when it comes to developing responses to the pandemic.

More worrying than the state not being consulted on CMCO decisions is the claim that the federal government is crippling the state’s Covid-19 task force by denying it access to detailed data since earlier this month. In the words of task force chairman Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad: “You asked us to box in the ring, but you blindfold us.”

Yesterday alone, 101 new infections were registered in the state. Selangor remains the state with the third-highest number of active cases – 702  – after Sabah and Kedah.

Without the data, the good doctor Dzul said the special task force’s been unable to do stuff like proper contact tracing and mapping of Covid zones. Not just that – a request to integrate the state’s Selangkah app with MySejahtera has also been flat out refused (allegedly allegedly).

Everyone’s favourite Health DG Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in response, has said the data was held back to allow for them to be standardised first, to avoid any misinterpretation. The individual states were “never empowered” to carry out surveillance and intervention. Instead, they should educate and raise awareness on the disease.

The big problem with Noor Hisham’s explanation, however, is we’re dealing with a health crisis, not Visit Malaysia campaign. Accurate and timely information are vital in combating this disease and those things are only going to help states in their battle, not hinder them. Couldn’t Hisham’s team work WITH the states to make better use of state resources and expertise?

Also, if it’s true that Putrajaya was always against sharing granular data, then why was it done before? Oh, and this is a small thing, but do we really have to point out that the guy who’s running the show and in charge of interpreting the stats in Selangor isn’t just some old uncle? Dzul was the previous health minister handling our Covid crisis before the Harapan government’s collapse.

Increasingly, to us unwashed masses (ya know, ‘cos there’s no water and all) it feels like Noor Hisham’s words and actions are getting more and more political as opposed to the single-minded focus on public health a few months ago. It’s a shame if this is actually the case. 

In other perplexing news, Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Ismail Sabri Yaakob has said the National Security Council (NSC) is considering a proposal to put the whole of Selangor under an Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO).

Selangor’s numbers have gone up, yes. But last we checked, active clusters are confined to just a few districts. More to the point, the state’s overall active caseload isn’t nearly as high as Sabah, where enhanced lockdowns have only been ordered for specific areas, not the whole state. 

Yes, we noted in our newsletter yesterday, that some rules in CMCO areas probably need to be tightened. But tightening shouldn’t mean going from a CMCO straight to an EMCO. Again, more transparency in decision-making will allow folks to judge the thought process of what seems like a jump from A to Z.

Incidentally, speaking of Sabah, former chief minister Musa Aman issued an open letter yesterday in which he blamed the surge of Covid-19 cases in that state on Parti Warisan Sabah boss Shafie Apdal and his allies. 

Washing his hands of guilt, the Umno man has said when it was clear Shafie had lost the support in the state assembly, what the latter should have done was to “resign responsibly” instead of “selfishly” and “recklessly” forcing an election during a pandemic.

You can read the whole letter for yourself here, but the kesimpulan is basically this: elections bad, power grabs and frogging good.