You can hold the pasar malam CNY reunion dinner plans ya’ll! 

After getting whacked by everyone and their dog, the gomen’s announced a much-improved update to the SOPs for the coming festivities. (FYI, we covered the OG SOPs in Friday’s newsletter).

Here’s the skinny on the changes:

• Reunion gatherings are back on — BUT limited to 15 family members residing within a 10km radius and within district/state lines.
  
  Prayers at places of worship are allowed (max 30 peeps) on Feb 11 (CNY Eve), 12 (CNY Day 1), and Feb 19 (Feast of the Jade Emperor).
  
  Prayer sessions are capped at 30 mins per session between 6am and 2pm on the stated dates.
   
• Naturally, wearing of masks and social distancing rules still apply.

Sure, the new rules aren’t as accommodating as Hari Raya’s, Deepavali’s  and Christmas’ last year, but remember, our Covid numbers then weren’t nearly as high as they are now (we’ll get to that). 

Also, the facts show that the greenlighting of interstate travel around Christmastime did no one any favours. Ho-Ho-Hopeless!

In case you’re wondering, the gomen had recently come under fire for well, not even knowing when reunion dinner takes place, and unequal allowances being granted for a tonne of other stuff (like okaying pasar malams but not family dinners at home). 

And now that we’re done with CNY, let’s talk about leeways elsewhere. Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to a travel bubble arrangement to bolster bilateral trade.

When and how this’ll take place is still up in the air for now. But it looks like the deal, agreed to during PM Muhyiddin Yassin’s nasi padang date with Indonesian prez Joko Widodo, will give tourism a massive shot in the arm.

Many have derided the plan as how’ll it work with domestic travel bans in place? For now though, it’s limited to gomen officials and investors. Also, could the deal result in travel clusters? Highly likely if the usual half-baked SOPs we’ve become used to are put in place. 

Enforcement, too, has been piss poor since MCO 1.0. And a now, almost a year on, Bukit Aman’s internal security and public order boss Abd Rahim Jaafar, has finally admitted to the problem. He’s conceded enforcers themselves find MCO 2.0 rules confusing as heck!

Its great coppers are copping to this, but their confusion’s costing us common folks thousands of ringgit in fines, with us having to jump through hoops to appeal. We repeat, that’s why it’s so important for the rules to be clear, precise and logical.

BT-Dubs, on the subject of confusing, it seems physical classes for SPM students, who only just returned to school, will end tomorrow. 

SPM’s set to begin on Feb 22. Candidates were initially required to return to classes physically till then. Now, however, the Education Ministry appears to have changed its mind.

Officially, the MOE has stated in a circular that this is for candidates to self-study. But the likes of Maszlee Malik and one Najib Razak are calling BS and demanding to know the logic of ordering kids back for physical lessons only to close schools just before exams.

Education Minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin has been conveniently missing in action, incidentally. Perhaps he’s still out celebrating his new Datukship? 🤷