Livin' La Vida Lockdown Day 62: how has Malaysia done the impossible?
I get asked this a lot - so why has your MCO been so strict? Malaysia began this lockdown with a staggering 3 times more cases than anywhere in South East Asia. Fast forward and they are now considered one of the safest countries in the world. They were off to a very bad start. It was bleak. Yet so far only 112 people have died in a population of 30 million and that's with two international borders and multiple access points to Indonesia. (Which, as we know, is a whole other story unto itself). This is how they turned it around. Watch and learn.
63 days ago I moved house during very uncertain times both personally and globally. Into a new fab little condo in Penang and even though the 3 ring shit show circus had rolled into Fotinitown - I was excited about a fresh start. That lasted for a grand total of 8 hours. I had taken a 3 month lease on a place to weather the storm - with little idea of what was about to unfold. I moved in, started to unpack and set up a nest for us until Curly could return again and our life could resume. Cos as we all know a girl needs a roof of her own during troubled times. I had a day to move all our stuff - poured a celebratory wine, exhaled, congratulated myself and turned on the TV to watch the late news. And that is when a country I had not felt particularly connected to at all went through the motions of announcing a sudden lockdown.
Penang had been our base for a number of months. We were actually packed for our imminent departure to WA - bus life beckoned. Then life happened. Shit happened. COVID happened. Lockdowns happened. But now I look back at that day where I had less than 24 hrs to get the basics. Water delivered, some food, find my way around and work out what to do. And all I remember is the crowds, the panic and the chaos - alone in a new area, foreign country and a new building - and I still to this day don't quite know how I did it. Auto pilot is a wonderful thing.
I had my first and last swim in the pool, sat in the garden and wondered when that would happen again. (It hasn't). The backdrop to all this...local politics, heavy life events back home in Australia and Bali and COVID sweeping the world. When your heart resides in more than one place - when the people you love and care for are scattered - you experience things like this in segments. You have to. You cant take it all in and process it all at once - it becomes overwhelming. So you break it down. Day by day. Some days hour by hour.
After all this time Malaysia makes more sense to me now - it has sheltered me, been kind and giving and this was entirely unexpected. It has revealed its spirit. For that I will always be grateful.
's Dustin Pfundheller has captured the time here perfectly. I will say it again and again: Dr Noor is a legend.