MIRI – A friend of mine who operates a food and beverage supply outlet here in Miri said bookings for food and all brands of beer have shot up.
There is only one week to go before the Gawai Dayak harvest festival, which starts on June 1, and it looks like the Dayaks in Sarawak are preparing to celebrate Gawai, which is traditionally a month-long affair.
Under normal circumstances, this friend of mine would be most happy to see his sales shoot up.
But these are not normal times.
“We in Miri are already among the districts worst-hit by Covid-19 in Sarawak.
“Imagine if the Gawai Dayak celebrations next week get out of hand and we see more Covid-19 transmissions and outbreaks in the housing estates and longhouses,” he said.
Gawai Dayak is renowned for being a time for the Dayaks to enjoy and look forward to a good harvest, especially from their paddy fields.
However, it is a well-known fact that gatherings involving big groups can get out of control in terms of close contact, with all the alcohol-drinking, feasting and cock-fighting. The longhouses and even residential estates will see big gatherings among the Dayaks.
This Gawai cannot be like that, or there will be a serious explosion of coronavirus infections.
CMCO ineffective, yet persists
Already, Sarawak is among the top three states in terms of Covid-19 infections and deaths, with this state logging 249 deaths to date and nearly 42,000 positive infections as of yesterday evening.
And, state leaders have not followed the prime minister’s advice to impose the latest movement control order (MCO 3.0). They are still insisting they will continue with the state’s own version of a conditional MCO (CMCO).
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas has been implementing the CMCO Sarawak-style since January this year.
However, it is very obvious and clear for all to see that this CMCO is not producing the intended results of flattening the transmission curve and even deaths.
Day by day, we are seeing hundreds of new cases statewide, and two days ago, we saw eight Covid-19 deaths confirmed in one day.
Netizens and opposition parties Sarawak DAP and Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) have criticised state leaders for their lack of will to impose a full MCO to effectively curb the surging Covid-19 infections and fatalities in the state.
They have been very vocal over social media platforms concerning the matter.
SOPs keep changing
PSB president Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh said SDMC has been making lame decisions since last year’s full MCO (from March to June) was relaxed into a conditional MCO.
“During the full MCO last year, the Covid-19 situation was better handled,” he said.
“The numbers of cases and deaths were not high (only about 500 infections and 19 deaths).
“Now, the whole situation has gotten out of control throughout the state. SDMC keeps changing the CMCO SOPs, confusing the public.
“If it was a full MCO, then the SOPs are clear and precise and the public must obey.
“Now, things have become very messy and the Covid-19 pandemic is getting increasingly worrisome,” said Wong, who is also Bawang Assan rep.
Sarawak DAP also took SDMC to task for failing to tackle the Covid-19 surge.
Michael Kong, who is special assistant to state DAP chairman Chong Chien Jen, said it is clear that SDMC is losing its will to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
“SDMC is seriously lacking in will and ability to stop the Covid-19 surge,” he said. “Despite the pandemic getting more serious by the day in terms of infections and fatalities, that has not prompted the SDMC top leader to take sterner measures, such as a full MCO.
“The situation on the ground in Sarawak is really serious,” he said.
Uggah, who is one of the three Sarawak deputy chief ministers, recently told a press conference in his Kuching office that a full MCO is too difficult to enforce.
“We in the state Disaster Management Committee have spoken to the National Security Council and said that due to the size of our districts, we cannot effectively enforce a full-scale MCO.
“As in previous cases, enforcement was difficult. We told NSC that instead of an MCO, we will identify specific areas in the high-risk districts for the enhanced MCO (EMCO).
“We have directed the respective districts to identify these hotspots to be put under EMCO,” he had said.
Uggah had said that Kuching, Sibu, Miri, Bintulu and Meradong will see specific hotspots being put on lockdown.
No improvements; only rising case numbers
To be honest, I have not seen any useful results from Uggah’s CMCO or EMCO. There are still big crowds on the streets daily, and state health authorities and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) have discovered new variants of Covid-19 in Sarawak.
These include the South African variant and the P3 Philippines variant.
Hopefully, the existing Covid-19 vaccines are able to tackle the new variants found so far, but Sarawakians need to stop causing more transmission.
And, since the current Sarawak-style CMCO and EMCO are not producing results, and Covid-19 continues to endanger everyone, Sarawak must impose a much stricter version of the order.
Uggah must make that decision now, or next week’s Gawai will end up being another minefield of Covid-19 clusters waiting to explode into existence during celebrations.
There are one million Dayaks in Sarawak. I dread to imagine what can happen if most of them defy SOPs and go full-scale with their gathering and feasting. – The Vibes, May, 23, 2021
Stephen Then is a correspondent for The Vibes in Sarawak
