By Tay Tian Yan, Sin Chew Daily

PM Muhyiddin has put it very seriously this time about the nationwide lockdown, that if it fails, we all will fail (Jika gagal, maka kita semua akan gagal). It's all or none, and there is no turning back anytime now.

With thousands of new confirmed cases being reported each day, our healthcare system is on the edge of collapse. The total lockdown is expected to cause an economic loss in the region of tens of billions ringgit, while the government is forking out some RM40 billion in aid packages in the form of Pemerkasa Plus.

This is going to be the last chance for the country to make a turnaround, and whether the plan will succeed or not will depend very much on us this one last time.

But the thing is, the way the lockdown is implemented is indeed a little worrying.

If you think that the so-called "total lockdown" is something like what we experienced during the MCO 1.0 last year, with the police manning every other street corner, people confined to their homes and the entire country like a ghost city, then you couldn't have been more wrong!

Day one of the "total lockdown", cars jammed up many places like Kepong and Klang.

While this has something to do with road blocks set up by the police, traffic jam would not have happened if there were not so many cars on the road in the first place!

Meanwhile, the internet network was also badly jammed up, and the COVID-19 Intelligent Management System (CIMS), unable to take the excessive load obviously, was momentarily down.

Nothing unusual actually, especially when hundreds of thousands of Malaysian companies thronged to the site to seek approval to go on with their businesses during the lockdown.

You're right. This was how the country looked like on the first day of nationwide lockdown, when life went on as normal, almost.

MITI has so far approved the applications of more than 90,000 companies to operate during the lockdown. This translates to 1.2 million people allowed to go to work and travel around freely with approval letters in hand.

A couple of days ago, countless of people hit the road to go back to their hometowns before the lockdown. Malls in large and small towns nationwide were crowded with shoppers stocking up things like food and toilet paper.

It is bad that we have not picked up a lesson from last year's experience. It couldn't be worse if things still go out of hand even with a previous experience.

What I really can't understand is that the government should have had a better idea how to implement an effective nationwide lockdown having enforced MCO 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 before.

But, they don't seem to be well prepared such that "balik kampung" rush and last-minute panic shopping were still evident this time round.

With an earlier experience, the government should have known what essential sectors are. No way, MITI has passed the ball to different departments which then pass the ball back to MITI.

The percentage of sectors and companies allowed to operate has been unusually high, so that more people can get to work. What about the "stay at home" rule to fight the virus?

The government is not the only one that has problem. The attitude of Malaysians also needs to be reviewed.

Many knew that they could not, and should not travel back to their hometowns, having seen the sudden surge in virus cases after Raya, but they still took the risk of spreading the virus far and wide.

They also knew that traditional markets and supermarkets would stay open throughout the lockdown and there would be no shortage of daily commodities, yet many still flooded the markets and malls as if the doomsday was coming, putting themselves within easy reach of the virus.

There were well aware that factories, construction sites and workplaces were high-risk areas but they still rushed to apply to stay open during the lockdown.

Weaknesses and loopholes of the nationwide lockdown have surfaced one after another as soon as the nation started its first day under lockdown. This whole operation will fail very badly if we allow the virus to spread freely in our midst because of our own ignorance and selfishness.

"Jika gagal, maka kita semua akan gagal." The virus will reign again and our economy will fall flat.

There is still chance to get back to the most initial purpose of the lockdown. The government needs to tighten its grips and the enforcement authorities must more strictly execute the lockdown measures.

Meanwhile, Malaysians must have heightened anti-virus awareness by conscientiously adhering to the SOPs and inspiring others around them to do the same.