Sin Chew Daily

The government earlier announced that CMCO would be implemented in several states such as Kedah, Penang, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor and Terengganu for four weeks from November 9 until December 6.

Unfortunately such a drastic measure has not produced the desired results and daily new infection numbers continue to be alarming.

At the same time, the national economy and market activities continue to come under tremendous pressure and many local businesses are taking the brunt of the virus outbreak.

Indeed the government has the obligation to contain the spread of the coronavirus to safeguard the health of Malaysians. However, it must also strike a balance and not to deny small businesses of their right to survive.

The good news is, the government has decided to relax some of the controls to provide the much needed respite for the suffering market.

Defense ministry senior minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced recently that the CMCO for Kedah (except Kulim), Melaka, Johor (except Kota Tinggi and Mersing) and Terengganu will be lifted earlier on November 21 due to improvement in the COVID-19 situation in these states.

In the meantime, the national security council has also agreed in a special meeting that "travel bubbles" in green zones will take effect from Sunday, covering four areas, namely cross-district travels within green states, cross-state travels between green states, cross-state travels between green states through a red state, and cross-district or cross-state travels from a green state to a green zone in a red state.

Such relaxation is timely to revitalize the anemic national economy.

The various stages of MCO introduced by the government since March have helped mitigate the coronavirus outbreak, but have also dealt a severe blow on the economy as well as local businesses, causing a spike in unemployment.

With the relaxation of rules later on, the market has managed to breathe a sigh of relief but the same has also given the virus an opportunity to strike again. With the newly reintroduced stricter controls, the rebounding market slumps again, sending many local businesses struggling to stay afloat, especially those in the travel business.

The implementation of green bubbles will help revive the ailing tourism industry even though it may not bring them immense market potentials. It is imperative that travel operators work closely with the relevant authorities to make this travel bubble program a success so that it can be expanded to selected international destinations in near future in resuscitating the tourism industry.

The early lifting of CMCO in several states will help restore market vibrancy and spearhead the country's economic recovery.

As a matter of fact, the government should have reintroduced CMCO in a more prudent way in the first place so as not to hurt the retail and tourist sectors. In other words, the government should implement differential measures in red and green zones in order to more effectively contain the spread of the virus without hurting the economy in less affected areas.

We need more fine-tuned strategies to put the virus in check. The government needs to strike a balance between curbing the virus and retaining market activities, and this will put the government's competency to real test.