AMONG government departments, the land office is one of the most crowded places. It is widely used by legal firms and ordinary people to go about their business, which range from ordinary payment of quit rent to undertaking a search on information of properties.
Since March 18, the land office is not functioning. The reason is likely due to the huge crowd and high probability of it being a “hot spot” where the Covid-19 infection can spread. Because the land office is closed, business transactions such as buying and selling of properties cannot take place.
Most legal firms are closed or only operating at half pace. The trickle-down effect goes to banks and down to the poor despatch guy who provides services to a few legal firms.
The courts are only hearing new criminal cases while all other applications are put on hold. Existing hearings are all pushed to after May 12. The postponement of the cases may go on longer, depending on the government’s guidelines on the movement control order (MCO).
It’s not only the closure of the land office and courts that are affecting the workings of the private sector. A slew of other government departments remained closed since March 18 for reasons best known to them.
Towards this end, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in his Labour Day speech said that most of the economic sectors would open up from May 4. The daily loss to the government is RM2.4bil.
Even restaurants are allowed to open as long as they practise social distancing such as reducing the number of tables, putting clear markers at payment counters, checking temperatures of customers and getting their details.
As for government departments, the Prime Minister had said that it would start operations slowly and heads of departments have to come up with guidelines on operations considering the danger of the virus.
Before the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday, a few departments providing public services have re-opened. But it is only for a few hours in a day to allow people to undertake selected services, a move which is perplexing.
For instance, the Road Transport Department (JPJ) opened its counters from April 29 for some services such as renewal of driving licences and vocational licences, settling of summons and issues related to blacklisting.
The department urged the public to follow the guidelines on social distancing as per the government’s MCO. This effectively means that the number of people allowed to the premises would be restricted, which is only to be expected given the circumstances.
However, why are the counters only open from 8am to 1pm? Shouldn’t it be longer or at least until the normal 4pm since fewer people can access counter service at any one time?
One can understand if government departments are cautious and want their front-line staff to minimise contact with members of the public. However, in minimising contact, there is little logic in reducing the hours of counter service, especially in the first few days of opening up as there is a huge backlog.
Moreover, most people are already conditioned to living with the danger of Covid-19.
Come May 12, the country would have been in MCO mode for 56 days. People are well aware of the “Dos and Don’ts” of social distancing.
People are not going out and about as they please not only because of the restrictions in place. The majority are careful as they don’t want to contract the virus. They avoid crowded places and “red areas” where there are high incidences of Covid-19 cases.
Sanitisers are placed in entry and exit points of supermarkets. Going out to public places without a face mask is a big “No”. Some supermarkets do not allow customers without a mask.
A common sight outside supermarkets is the long queues waiting to enter the premises, a measure put in place to restrict the number of people entering the premises at any one time. The long queues sometimes act as a deterrent for people to reduce their trips to supermarkets.
Social distancing is practised even in wet markets, which used to be more crowded than the land office or courts.
Council officers are stationed at entry points to restrict the number of people entering the wet market. People queue up and their body temperatures checked before they are allowed into wet markets.
If one goes inside the wet market, a conspicuous feature is how people generally avoid contact with each other and the stall operators. In most instances, stall operators wear disposable gloves. Customers do not linger around and leave quickly after buying what they require.
Supermarkets and wet markets, places that are normally crowded, have proven to embrace social distancing well.
Why not the likes of the land office and other government departments which are so crucial to support the private sector?
To re-start the economy, the government, which is the biggest employer in the country, has to start operations quickly. Counter services that complement the working of the private sector cannot operate at half pace.In fact, the land office, courts and other regulatory authorities that issue licences and permits should have started operations earlier, just like the JPJ, instead of waiting for the go-ahead from the Prime Minister.
Millions are collected in land office and other counter departments. Each day of the MCO is costing the government RM2.4bil, not to mention the trickle-down effect.
Malaysia’s MCO is not as strict as what other countries had undertaken. For instance, New Zealand announced a state of emergency on March 25 for four weeks where even food deliveries were not allowed.
Malaysia’s relatively lax MCO rules have conditioned people to practise social distancing. The majority know what to do when frequenting public places, including government departments.The views expressed are the writer’s own.