The first MCO undoubtedly had some serious effects on the community and the country’s economy.
However, as the number of cases increases, there were talks of implementing MCO 2.0, and Malaysians were divided on that. One man took to Twitter to explain why some citizens do not want a second Movement Control Order.
Bila anda berkerja, ada gaji sedap, boleh work from home tanpa potong gaji
Jaga lah mulut bila bercakap dgn org susah yg "taknak PKP"
Aku harap sudi baca walaupun panjang. Buka hati and fikir sendiri
Bukan org taknak PKP sbb nk melancong, tamak duit, tak kesian frontliners
— Anas Banas ?? (@ans47) January 19, 2021
“When you have a job with a stable income and you’re allowed to work from home without any pay cut, please keep quiet when the less fortunate say that they do not want another MCO.”
In his thread, he highlighted several points, mainly focusing on poverty in Malaysia.
He started off by making reference to the first MCO, there are people who suffered, for example:
- Taxi uncles who only earn RM10-20 per day
- School buses and canteens who lost their income for six months
- Burger sellers who open after maghrib but needed to close after maghrib during MCO
Going to his next point, he said that many businesses were affected too with some of them going bankrupt and the unemployment rate at an all-time high (March 2020 3.9%, April 2020 5.0%, and May 2020 5.3%). Other than that, 5.35 million Malaysians under the age of 55 have less than RM10,000 in their EPF Account 1 due to minuscule pay. For comparison, a person who earns RM5,300 per month will be able to get more than RM80k in their EPF after only working for 6 years.
The unemployment rate in Malaysia.
Restaurants across the nation were hit with a decrease in their sales by 80 per cent as the people were unable to dine-in, order after hours, and travel more than 10km away from their place of residence.
Other than that, he also mentioned that 37 per cent of schooling children did not have access to electronics while some university students had to quit uni in order to get jobs to support their family.
“Not everyone lives in a palace, bungalow or a luxury condominium. Not all of us are born with a silver spoon.”
“There are still many Malaysians out there who are not rich. There are many who are POOR and even if there is no MCO, they will not be going on vacations.”
He added: “When life is easy for you, it’s easy for you to say that the people who do not want an MCO is selfish. If you had to choose between being retrenched + MCO or work + no MCO…”
“…you would make the same decision.”
