I like Zunar’s latest cartoon in Malaysiakini. He draws two flights of steps on either side of the frame. On the left is Prihatin Nasional (PN) coalition leader Muhyiddin Yassin midway on the steps. On the right is the covid 19 virus also midway on the steps but with an admonishing finger at Muhyiddin and the quote written beneath: “Kalau lu tak turun, wa tak turun!” (If you don’t come down, I won’t come down!)

Zunar’s cartoon graphically says what I have always suspected but never articulated until now. Now is a good time to say it because after more than one year of lockdown we are worse off now after PN seized control of the government in February last year than before.

The poor are getting poorer. Businesses are shutting down. More people are getting mental illnesses. The Covid 19 death count remains high. People are frustrated by the continuation of an ineffective Movement Control Order. These are the facts and are daily reported in the media but the PN remains unmovable occupying a government without proving its majority.

Now, it is yet to convene a special session of Parliament before the Aug 1 deadline for the end of the emergency. Instead, PN leader Muhyiddin Yassin is hospitalised for diarrhoea and cancelled his weekly meeting with the Agong before the Wednesday Cabinet meeting. Is he really sick or is it another of his political ploys to remain in government?

The management of the pandemic has set this nation backwards, thanks to a leadership that couldn’t maintain our relatively high standing among other nations. Malaysia’s placing in the Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking in June this year is at 51 out of 53 countries ranked for progress in reopening amid the Covid-19 pandemic. We are only ahead of the Philippines and Argentina.

The World Bank on June 23 projected Malaysia’s economic growth at 4.5 % this year compared to Bank Negara Malaysia’s projected forecast of between 6 and 7%. Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz had stated on June 1 that the forecast could be lowered.

White flags are going up everywhere signalling a cry for basic essentials in a sign that the white flag movement is gaining momentum. The movement urges people to fly a white flag at their homes if they want basic essentials.

Suicide rates are going up. In a June 29 report, news portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) quoted health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah as saying that the 336 cases of suicides in the first three months of this year was more than half of what was reported throughout 2020. In other words, there was an average of four suicides every day in the first three months of the year.

There were 84 Covid 19 deaths yesterday bringing the total death tally to 5,254 and 6,988 new cases. As of November last year, 30,000 businesses had shut down. Daily, we hear of businesses shutting down.

Just two years ago we were said to be on track to attain developed status but from the way the PN managed the pandemic we now have to stretch out our hands to get free vaccines from Japan and the US. We can’t afford to buy our own vaccines. We have become a charity case.

In other words, the PN has failed to lead Malaysia to help ourselves. We may not have hit rock bottom but we are only a short distance away.

That makes it clear that the day the PN coalition steps down from government, our fortunes will begin to change for the better. We’ll have a rightfully elected government which will have the support of the people to facilitate health and economic recovery.

Nearly at the bottom, we can only get better.