Tackling COVID-19 needs leadership, not just leaders

The Internet immediately went bonkers after news of US President Donald Trump's laughable idea of injecting disinfectants to protect people from the novel Coronavirus spread like wildfire.

Despite the almost endless laughs, scientists and disinfectant manufacturers did not find Trump's assertion as amusing or side-splitting as they knew the dangers of such foolish recommendations and were fast to debunk such mystifying elixirs.

RB, the maker of Lysol and Dettol, swiftly came up with an official statement advising people that its products were not meant for human consumption.

"As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstances should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)," it cautioned.

RB is a fine example of leadership, stepping in only when it is needed.

As a matter of fact, ever since the outbreak of COVID-19, Asian countries in general, and Malaysia in particular, have shown good leadership in managing the pandemic.

Health director-general, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has been in the forefront and the face of Malaysia's fight against the deadly virus from day one with strong support from Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Senior Minister (Security Cluster), Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

As lawmakers, Muhyiddin and Ismail Sabri is precisely doing what is required of them, displaying leadership in policy matters and letting the experts handle the call of the day.

Especially the Prime Minister, who has been keeping people engaged with his profound sayings and occasional witty remarks in his speeches that had even set aflame social media trends in the country.

Despite the grim situation here and elsewhere, Malaysians have been looking forward to his speeches, especially for updates on the Movement Control Order (MCO), on how has Malaysia fared in tackling the health hazard and what the potential future holds.

His messages have always been simple: stay at home, the government is taking every measure possible to stem the spread and will revive the economy once the pandemic is over.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin aptly said in his recent webinar engagement that the message that needs to be sent to the public is that the politicians are asking the right questions from scientists and health professionals.

He opined that people would be less convinced if politicians started uttering scientific jargons and then trying to wiggle their way out of technical questions.

"At a time like this, you need the public’s trust, public trust is very, very important for governments to deal with COVID-19 and the post- COVID-19 world. And that is by putting your professionals and scientists in the centre," he lamented.

Khairy emphasised that it is for this very reason why Dr Hisham, is the frontman for COVID-19 in Malaysia.

"The public wants to hear it from a guy who understands the epidemic and understands the disease. And we are behind the scenes handling the policies. That is the way it should be.

"It is about public trust and without public trust we cannot get out of this,” said Khairy.

And for that, leaders sometimes need to step aside for leadership to move forward. - BERNAMA