SEEMINGLY, there is never a time the Federal Highway is empty of cars. The busiest highway in Klang Valley during rush hours according to Wikipedia, when it comes to the Federal Highway, the question is whether or not it is congested — because no matter the time of day of night, be it 1am, 2am or 3am — there are cars on the road. Perhaps, the only time it was ever empty was during the pandemic days.
I’m sure the good reader remembers those heady days of being stuck in Kuala Lumpur (KL) or wherever you happened to be working at, needing permission from the police if you so much as wanted to wriggle a few inches away from your residency address.
As for me, I happened to be working in the vicinity of the Twin Towers and there was something surreal but also serene about seeing the road in front of them, which were usually packed with cars and tourists, be so empty that you could literally lie down on it without fear of being turned into a pancake.
The train service ended early and finishing work at night, I not only had my choice of seats, sometimes I even had the whole train to myself.
Hot take, but some of us miss the pandemic. One Reddit user, Yucifir, said: “I miss seeing my family every day. I miss hanging out with my brother every day. I miss being able to stay home all day…For that entire run, there was never a day I felt sick of it,I just loved being with my family every day and being indoors.” Another user, BiltongBeast said: “There was no noise pollution from the sky and it was sobering of course knowing the cause, but it was also…peaceful.” Yet another, Kureeru, said: “I actually miss the solitude of it. Was the happiest I’ve been in a long time. Just getting on doing my own thing. Social pressure is awful for me.”
Or perhaps it’s not that hot a take. There were some benefits that came with the pandemic. The introduction of remote working for example. Why did its possibility never seem to cross the mind of employers before that? The more significant impact was perhaps on the environment.
NASA released satellites images showing a dramatic decline in pollution levels over China and according to The National Centre for Atmospheric Science, pollution data from 10 UK cities during lockdown showed that nitrogen dioxide levels and small particle pollution were significantly lower than usual. And do you remember those dolphins seen swimming in the Grand Canal of Venice?
Yet, despite these strips of silver lining here and there, the negative impacts of the pandemic are more profound and far-reaching.
Malaysia’s GDP shrunk by 5.5% in 2020, the biggest reduction since the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998. In the same year too, unemployment increased to 4.5%, the highest since 1993. Extreme stress and isolation led to more people suffering from depression, some to the point of committing suicide.
Our children had their education disrupted — schools were closed, the teaching and learning process had to be done remotely which did not necessarily suit everyone, important examination dates had to be pushed back. Perhaps, one day we would look back to this period and call this generation The Lost Generation.
And now we’re facing a not so new threat in the form of mpox or monkeypox. Not so new because if you remember, an outbreak happened in 2022, while we were just propping ourselves up and learning to accept the new normal of living alongside Covid-19. Some of us are a bit apprehensive about the possibility of another lockdown, but the authorities had come out to state that while mpox is a cause of public health concern, its severity is different from Covid-19 and it has a lower transmission rate.
But, with nine cases to date, Malaysia is on high alert nonetheless. Regardless the criticism about the way we handled the pandemic, I think it’s only fair to say that we did what we thought was the best at the time. No one predicted Covid-19 to be the apocalyptic-level threat that it was and anyone who said otherwise was either lying through the teeth or fancied themselves the next Nostradamus.
Everyone was caught off guard, even those countries which successfully battled the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak. Covid-19 taught us many lessons but perhaps the most important lesson of all is one in humbleness.
So that comes mpox or whatever virus next, we’re better prepared than we were before, in balancing vigilance with level-headedness, and in readiness to rise to the occasion rather than merely pointing fingers and seeking the next scapegoats.
I may be a bit nostalgic about seeing the Federal Highway completely devoid of cars. But at the price of another pandemic?
That is much too expensive.
- Norain MT is a copy editor of The Malaysian Reserve.
- This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition
