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A resident of Lower Ngau Tau Kok housing block in
Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, cleanup to protect against a
killer outbreak of pneumonia after many people were
infected on the estate. SARS is really a test for both
public and the governance in terms of resoluteness,
understanding, speedy and quality decision-making and
strong political will to enforce regulations. AFP
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The rapid spread of SARS (Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome) across the globe reflects the
downside of the modern and freewheeling air travel. In the
globalised and borderless world and in the name of economic
competitiveness, attempts have even been made to make travel
between countries, especially for business people, without using
conventional passport and immigration screening. One may ask at
what and whose expense?
So much so that business and
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) needs less red tape, but
regulations pertaining to health, terror, drugs and other
aspects of security shall always be there even in the face of
euphoria of economic, globalised and borderless world. Indeed,
some world authorities have already taken the meaning of
borderless world literally by willy nilly running over and
removing a legitimate government by force.
Thirty years ago or so, I still
remember vividly of the yellow vaccination book that was
required of me to produce at Heathrow immigration check-point.
Then it was only for cholera control. I know that depending on
which country a traveller comes from and travels to, the book
may be used for multiple diseases control. Expect for Haj or
Umrah trip to Saudi Arabia, my younger compatriots nowadays
hardly experience the hassle of this book imposed by WHO.
Is it indeed a hassle? I
honestly think otherwise. Unlike what APEC (Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation) always wants for its inter-economy
business travel to be on fast lane with minimal check, I think a
tough and yet facilitated border check is imperative for many
good reasons. This SARS epidemic is really an eye opener for
those who think that economy is everything even to the extent of
lying to the world about this lest it affects their economic
performance.
What steps do we need to take
in Brunei Darussalam with regards to SARS? The National Task
Force set up by His Majesty's Government seems so far to be
doing quite well in terms of preparing strategic plan of
actions. But, this is yet to be tested through its
implementation. Based on hard evidence so far, RIPAS and Health
Centres have not been impressive, to say the least, with their
front-line services in handling members of the public who
visited them with SARS-related fears. They complained about the
lack of alertness and enthusiasm among the medical staff to
attend to outpatients, the length of waiting time, the
unscrupulous use of hand gloves and other apparatus not in line
with strict medical practices and the failure to preempt the
danger of infection by allowing the outpatients to aggregate in
large numbers in a room of limited space for a long time. This
is not to mention the lackadaisical ways of checking and
confronting travellers at the airport. Of course such
shortcomings can easily be explained away by highlighting the
perfect strategies in the action plan.
The bottom-line really is to
narrow the value gap between the plan and its implementation.
For sure the way to do it cannot be dependent on emergency
situation, the Ministry of Health needs to send out officials
nation-wide as their eyes and ears to monitor whether what has
been planned is being implemented properly. This may sound
absurd but we cannot play trial and error with SARS prevention
measures.
Neither can we afford to
necessarily wait for other countries' best practices before we
can decide for ourselves what is best for Brunei. Since
inter-country travel is the source of possible infection for a
country like Brunei that has no SARS case as of now. Focus must
be on this factor to avoid SARS to the best possible. Of course
the essence of the need for travel is economic, social or
political. The essence of control is to regulate the inflow and
outflow of people. It is really a matter of considering these
factors in a most critical and down-to-earth manner if we were
really to give the best chances possible to our beloved people.
Since SARS is not in Brunei
now, it is only logical that the approach to preventing it from
coming has to be uncompromising albeit reasonable. This is both
at personal and official level.-
Jerangau |
