Barely a month ago, the spotlight descended onto Sabah as it became the country’s political battleground. Political giants from the peninsula eyeing to take control of a state rich with culture, heritage and natural resources participated in a statewide election right in the middle of a pandemic.

Politicians, both local and from the peninsula, campaigned hard for two weeks leading up to election day with many promises being made and a lot of “incentives” dished out.

Sabahans, on the other hand, were stuck between a rock and a hard place. With the number of Covid-19 cases on the rise, they were left to make a very difficult choice; to stay at home and do nothing or to risk their lives in the middle of the pandemic and vote.

For most the decision was obvious, including many Sabahans who live and work in the peninsula but flew back to perform their duty and obligation to the state.

Elections have now come and gone and since then, a lot has happened. The number of Covid-19 cases reported on a daily basis has been alarming, even to the extent of the newly-appointed Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Noor contracting the virus.

Today, Sabahans are once again stuck between a rock and a hard place but the choice this time is different. It’s between their lives and their livelihoods.

Sabah has now recorded over 13,000 cases with almost 8,000 being reported in the last 14 days. Of those, 108 people have died.

Sabahans are now left to fend for themselves after being promised heaven and earth during the election. They are losing a deadly war due to the lack of care and support from our government who till this day are busy politicking rather than figuring out how to overcome this situation.

Medical professionals and frontliners are overwhelmed and are scrambling to cope with the number of cases with the limited resources they have.

The people of Sabah did not vote to be left hanging. The people of Sabah did not risk their lives to be left abandoned in their hour of need.

Many people shrug at these numbers and only focus their attention on the number of Covid-19 cases in KL and Selangor. Their logic? This doesn’t affect them or that prison clusters and migrant workers make up most of the reported cases.

Migrants workers and prisoners are people too.

There have been many contradictory reports about the actual situation in Sabah. For example, a couple of days ago, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reported that hospital and quarantine beds capacity was at 70%.

However, another report on the same day quoted Masidi Manjun, who is the state’s official Covid-19 spokesman, saying that it is at 99.5% capacity and that some people are even being treated at home so as to manage the strain on the healthcare system.

We don’t know who’s right or who’s wrong but one thing for sure is that either way, things are not looking good.

Politicians need to stop bickering and start working. Start acting like the government and fulfil your promises made during the election to take care of the people.

You need to deliver and be held accountable for your actions. This doesn’t just apply to the government.

Politicians from both sides of the divide need to come together and figure this out. Now is definitely not the time to play games. Peoples’ lives are at stake.

We also need to be asking the tough questions to ensure we are always on our toes and to not let our guard down.

Are we doing enough testing? Are we doing it fast enough? Do we have the equipment and the capacity to support our frontliners? What is the home ministry doing to address all the different prison clusters?

The health ministry’s decision not to share its data with state governments is also very worrying.

Are they so confident in their ability to handle the pandemic that they can afford to turn away help? Are they not looking at different ways to enrich the data that’s available to them from multiple sources?

Data by itself is useless. But enriched data can help us objectively assess the situation and make the right decisions.

The people of Sabah need us and we must do everything we can to help. The federal government, state governments, opposition, NGOs and volunteers all need to come together to flatten the curve.

Migrants matter. Prisoners matter. The people of Sabah matter. Stop living in a bubble and face reality.

Prem Anand is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.

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