INDIFFERENCE makes a great difference. That is the message Melbourne, the second largest city in Australia, is sending out to the world.
Travellers returning home quarantined in hotels pass the coronavirus to security guards, who take it to other Melburnians. This is how a city moves from shine to shame. Indifference is alive and well in Malaysia, too.
Not too long ago, the NST Leader highlighted how some errant businesses and apathetic Malaysians are putting lives at risk, their own and those of others.
There isn't an apathy gauge or indifference device to measure the level of complacency here, but anecdotal evidence suggests a hike since the Leader went to press. Just travel the length and breadth of the peninsula, or cross the sea to Sabah and Sarawak, it is a growing circle of concern.
Be it Melbourne or Malibu, or even Melaka, three things must happen to contain the contagion. The government must govern. Companies must comply. People must behave.
Melbourne's melancholy comes in three-part disharmony. The government didn't govern; it just abdicated by privatising the quarantine service.
According to a BBC report, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews "pinpointed the origin of many infections to workers overseeing hotel quarantines breaking the rules." Andrews also told the news channel of illegal socialising between staff and quarantined travellers. At the centre of the blame are several private security firms contracted to operate Victoria's quarantine. The contractors have since been fired and a judicial inquiry ordered, says BBC.
The profit motive often misbehaves during pandemics. Compliance is compromised, all in the name of keeping costs down and profits up. Vigilance vanishes thus. Let's be blunt. There are things only the government can do and must. Policing quarantine is one of them.
If only Victoria had looked across the border to New South Wales, its neighbour, it would have learned that there police police quarantine, as it should be.
Free market capitalists will advise governments to privatise everything, from prison to pension payments. Now add quarantine to the list. A government that believes in good governance will resist this. Out of sight, out of mind in such services is a dangerous thing.
This Leader is not a to-do list for the government here or anywhere else, but if governance is missed thus, we must be prepared to mourn like Melbourne. People, too, have failed Melbourne. Andrews told The New York Times that nine out of 10 people with Covid-19 were not tested or isolated when they first felt sick. And 53 per cent were not quarantined while waiting for test results. It is no surprise that Melbourne came down with 723 new cases on July 30, with infections now averaging 500 cases daily.
On Monday alone, 11 deaths were recorded. The city is now under Stage 4 lockdown that has put another quarter million people out of their daily routine. Who would have thought that a section of Melbourne, a city of five million and often described as the capital of food and culture, would be under such curfew? And in military style, too. Sadly, the apathy of some extracts a heavy price from the responsible rest.
The fight against Covid-19 is a three-act play: the government, businesses and the people. Success can only happen if all three play the part.