By Kuik Cheng Kang, Sin Chew Daily

When our politicians were fighting tooth and nail over the just concluded Sabah state elections, they did not seem to realize that countless of Malaysian businesses are still desperately awaiting the arrival of spring.

SME business owners, travel operators, small businesses at shopping malls and all those self-employed or employed Malaysians are praying that the chilly winter will be over very soon.

Just as business owners are struggling to stay afloat, wage earners are keeping their fingers crossed that their bosses can survive the crisis, even if it means they may have their pay slashed, so long as they still manage to feed their families.

Unfortunately, with the numbers of daily new cases registering new highs these days, a slight lapse in any part could mean the people in the street will not get to see the spring arriving any time soon.

For example, power grabbing by certain rogue politicians have forced a state election to be called in the midst of the pandemic.

Among the 691 confirmed cases reported on October 6, more than half or 394 cases were from the Tembok cluster in Kedah, not outside the prison, while an additional 219 cases were from the red zones in Sabah.

The government has sealed off the borders of Sabah and is barring the residents from traveling out of the state.

Selangor is another state that warrants our attention. More than 30 new cases have been reported each day for several days in a row. We must not take things too lightly, as Klang Valley is the most densely populated area of the country with very high human mobility. How many of them have actually been infected by politicians campaigning wildly in East Malaysia?

Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah has announced that all individuals flying back to West Malaysia from Sabah between Sept 27 and Oct 10 have to go for COVID-19 tests and be placed on home quarantine for 14 days.

But what about those who had returned to the peninsula before Sept 27? These people were well aware that the situation was bad in Sabah. They were unsure whether they had been infected, but still roamed around freely seeing their supporters.

So far seven politicians campaigning in the Sabah elections have tested positive for the virus, and an infection cluster is already formed. The next one week will provide some clue as to how powerful the infection cluster will get. Already, more infections reported in Klang Valley have been linked to the Sabah elections!

Malaysians are already extremely frustrated with the fact that a cabinet minister flouting the quarantine order has gone unpunished. It is hard for them to feel happy with the government that the latest spike in infection cases is a direct consequence of the state elections.

We can understand how furious the rakyat will get seeing that those in power are openly defying the SOPs they have themselves set.

This explains why many have sneered at the "Abah" trying to use the cane against SOP violators. People are utterly disgusted at the double standards practiced by the government.

Muhyiddin says anyone breaching the SOPs will be punished regardless of their status or class. Malaysians are now watching very closely whether his government will take any action against plantation industries and commodities minister Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali, who has been probed by the police but has so far not been prosecuted.

As for the seven ministers and six deputy ministers, they'd better duduk rumah diam diam, or Malaysians will not let them off if by chance they are spotted roaming freely in our midst.

Noor Hisham posted on his Facebook the projected number of reported cases based on R0/Rt. If the Rt rises to 2.2, we may see more than 4,500 new positive cases by October 31.

In another diagram based on Rt=1.86, we may have more than 20,000 cumulative COVID-19 cases after October 10.

The country can no longer take the impact of another wave of coronations outbreak, and because of that, a snap election must never be held at this moment. Sarawak should seriously consider deferring its state elections, and any plan to change the government must be stalled for the time being.

Politicians on both sides of the divide must stop their fights right away and work together to battle the virus for the well-being of the rakyat while saving our sinking national economy. This is what we all must do right now!

We notice that during this crucial stage, many religious organizations such as Foguangshan and the Catholic churches in Klang Valley have taken the initiative to stop their prayer services for the next 14 days, while Chinese temples nationwide are closely adhering to SOPs in a bid to minimize the infection risk.

Such an attitude is highly commended because we are all duty-bound to do our utmost to fend off the virus.

From my personal observation, many restaurant and business operators have started to ignore the SOPs. Many no longer take the temperature of their customers while those not putting down their contact details or using the MySejahtera app are allowed to walk into their shops undeterred. We must not wait for the situation to go out of hand or the government to strictly enforce the law again before we start to comply with the SOPs.

We all have the obligation to fight the virus together. Political leaders, in particular, must lead by example.

We must never allow the sacrifices of our frontline doctors and medical care personnel to go down the drain.

Fighting the virus is our only way out. Fighting for politics will only sacrifice the innocent and helpless people.