IAI COMMENTARIES 20 | 80 - NOVEMBER 2020 ISSN 2532-6570 © 2020 IAI 1 Studies (IKMAS),National University of (UKM). of Bologna and Visiting Research Fellow at theInstitute of Malaysian and International Andrea Passeri isAdjunct Professor of International Relations of EastAsia at the University crisis. to mitigate thisunprecedented health operating procedures (SOPs) imposed restrictive measuresandstandard degree of social compliance with the and intheattainment of afarhigher the spreadof thenovel coronavirus, more effective policy responses tocurb both intermsof theformulation of to handling thepandemic. Thisistrue American counterparts when it comes outperformed theirEuropean andNorth truth: EastAsian countries have largely Organisation highlights anirrefutable at thedata provided bytheWorld Health In such perspective, even asneakpeek century”. replaced bytheadvent of the“Asian hegemony iscoming toanend,be signalled that theageof Western the COVID-19 pandemic hasfurther shift from West toEast,thespreadof marked byaprogressive power As theworld witnesses awatershed by Andrea Passeri the COVID-19 Pandemic Malaysia’s Success Story inCurbing that sits at the21stplaceworldwide notable exception of thePhilippines As of mid-September,with the (COVID-19) Dashboard COVID-19, see: of spread global on the Organisation Health 1 per cent) andMalaysia (1.29per cent) Vietnam (3.29percent), Thailand (1.68 the UK, compared with countries like above 10per cent inItaly, Belgium and at COVID-19’s mortality rate, oscillating an even greater magnitude bylooking Such astartlingdiscrepancyacquires (4,840,830). the Americas (14,815,178)andEurope overall number of casessuffered in which standinstark contrast with the far (1.9percent of theglobal toll), has recorded 562,807infections thus top ten. continents hold eight spots in the whereas theEuropean andAmerican of the25mostaffected countries, East Asian nation features inthelist for total confirmed cases,noother

For the updated figures provided by the by World provided figures updated For the 1 Southeast Asia, inparticular, WHO Coronavirus Disease Disease Coronavirus WHO , https://covid19.who.int . Malaysia’s Success Story in Curbing the COVID-19 Pandemic

that managed to keep the death toll at These efforts, in turn, have allowed bay. Malaysian authorities to step-up the capacity of testing on a daily basis, Malaysia, in particular, has attracted which jumped from 3,500 per day in domestic and international praise early February to a peak of 20,635 per thanks to its successful attempts to day at the start of May. In parallel, the break the chain of infections, stemming aforementioned rise in inpatient and from a timely and multifaceted strategy intensive care unit beds availability has

© 2020 IAI that was adopted from the very start of paved the way for the implementation the crisis. As a result, Malaysia recorded of one of the most peculiar corollaries a relatively low number of cases (9,946) of Malaysia’s strategy, namely the and deaths (287), while also achieving hospitalisation of those who are a recovery rate (93.1 per cent) that asymptomatic or show only mild appears significantly higher than the symptoms. global average (72.4 per cent). The active detection of positive patients, In a nutshell, Putrajaya’s anti-COVID moreover, has mostly relied on the ISSN 2532-6570 blueprint has revolved around three adoption of contact tracing tools, thanks pivotal tenets, encompassing the also the previous expertise developed enhancement of screening capabilities by Putrajaya in the eradication of other and hospitalisation capacity in the infectious diseases such as dengue public health sector; the adoption of and tuberculosis. In this regard, the contact tracing technologies aimed at cornerstone of the government’s bringing disease clusters under control; efforts to isolate COVID-19 clusters was as well as the launch of an effective embodied by the introduction in mid- communication strategy to present April of the Gerak Malaysia, MySejahtera new SOPs and win the support of the and MySejahtera Check In smartphone population. apps, which utilise the same GPS and QR code technologies employed in The first pillar of this strategy was Singapore and South Korea to track pursued since the early stages of infection chains. Malaysia’s fight against coronavirus: accordingly, between December 2019 Most notably, the launch of contact and April 2020 the number of hospitals tracing apps has been accompanied equipped for COVID-19 patients by a high degree of public compliance: surged from 26 to 40; whilst screening Gerak Malaysia, for example, has centres and ventilator units recorded, totalled 1.3 million downloads in less respectively, a nation-wide increase of than two days since its release, even 53 per cent (from 56 to 120) and 49 per though it has also raised some eyebrows cent (from 526 to 1,034).2 amongst local commentators for all the risks in terms of privacy protection 2 Fifa Rahman, “The Malaysian Response to COVID-19: Building Preparedness for Surge Capacity, Testing Efficiency and Containment”, in com/article/125084/the-malaysian-response- European Pharmaceutical Review, 4 August 2020, to-covid-19-building-preparedness-for-surge- https://www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview. capacity-testing-efficiency-and-containment. IAI COMMENTARIES 20 | 80 - NOVEMBER 2020 20 | 80 - NOVEMBER IAI COMMENTARIES

2 Malaysia’s Success Story in Curbing the COVID-19 Pandemic

subsumed in the use of similar tools.3 pandemic, namely the Health Director General, Noor Hisham Abdullah, and The third centrepiece of Putrajaya’s the Minister of Defence, Ismail Sabri strategy to fight coronavirus has Yaakob. relied, instead, on the adoption of a multifaceted communication Since late February, their daily press campaign aimed at delivering timely briefings devoted, respectively, to the updates regarding the progression of health and non-health issues entailed

© 2020 IAI the pandemic, as well as accessible in the anti-COVID campaign have information on the restrictive measures glued millions of to their put in place by the government. TVs, winning a widespread popular support through the employment of Against this backdrop, state agencies a competent, reassuring, and familiar have made full use of conventional tone. By the same token, public and digital media to present the three agencies have endeavoured to reach a stages of Malaysia’s lockdown, namely wider audience and contrast the spread the “movement control order” (MCO) of fake news through the use of social ISSN 2532-6570 imposed from 18 March to 4 May, the media, SMS, advertisements and the “conditional MCO” established from aforementioned apps. 4 May until 9 June, and the “recovery MCO” that is expected to expire at the Hence, if public compliance with end of the year. Progression across the the MCO and rules various phases of the quarantine has has further propelled Malaysia at the been accompanied by a gradual and very apex of regional indexes, part of prudent relaxation of its regulations, the credit goes to a communication which have been strictly enforced with campaign that has been pursued in a more than 19,500 arrests during the timely and coherent manner, in line first month of lockdown. with Putrajaya’s “whole-of-government and whole-of-society” approach. The overwhelming majority of the Malaysian population, however, This collectivist orientation, that displayed a high degree of compliance resonates with East Asia’s Confucian with the rules and limitations tradition based on the prominence of introduced by public authorities. In social duties over individual necessities, this regard, many commentators has thus contributed in persuading have praised the communication some 95 per cent of the Malaysian strategy put in place by the two official population to comply since the very spokespersons for all matters related to beginning of the lockdown with the the government response against the stay-at-home order, as highlighted by the data provided by the Kuala Lumpur- 4 3 Justin Zack, “Police: Gerak Malaysia App based polling group Merdeka Center. Downloaded Over 1.3 Million Times So Far”, in , 5 May 2020, https://www.thestar.com. 4 Ralph Jennings, “How Cultural Differences my/news/nation/2020/05/05/police-gerak- Help Asian Countries Beat COVID-19, While US malaysia-app-downloaded-over-13-million- Struggles”, in VOA News, 22 July 2020, https:// times-so-far. www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/how- IAI COMMENTARIES 20 | 80 - NOVEMBER 2020 20 | 80 - NOVEMBER IAI COMMENTARIES

3 Malaysia’s Success Story in Curbing the COVID-19 Pandemic

Last but not least, the coalition Malaysia’s international positioning government led by Prime Minister and foreign policy trajectory, especially has also dedicated in the framework of the recent significant efforts to promote regional escalation of tensions between China initiatives aimed at containing the and the US. According to Malaysian social and economic impact of the scholar Kuik Cheng-Chwee, Putrajaya’s pandemic. Accordingly, during the diplomatic blueprint in an increasingly ASEAN special summit held in mid- uncertain, post-pandemic regional

© 2020 IAI April via videoconference, Malaysia scenario will likely accentuate its championed the idea of a special deep-rooted rationale based on the recovery plan designed to support concept of hedging, so as to avoid economic cooperation amongst its taking sides in the ongoing clash member states and to strengthen the between Washington and Beijing.5 connectivity of supply chains, through In line with such approach, Malaysia the establishment of the ASEAN is thus expected to double down Regional Reserve of Medical Supplies on its diversification efforts aimed for Public Health Emergencies (RRMS) at consolidating multidimensional ISSN 2532-6570 and the ASEAN Response Fund, which partnerships with an expanding range was official launched at the 36th ASEAN of international interlocutors, which summit held in June. are seen as a crucial antidote against the growing polarisation of regional Thanks to his positive job in managing politics. the unprecedented challenge brought about by the novel coronavirus, Nonetheless, the visible difference Muhyiddin has benefitted from a displayed by East Asian and European progressive increase in his approval countries in tailoring a timely and rating, especially amongst Malays effective response to the epochal and Indians. The Prime Minister, who challenge posed by the novel took office at the start of March after coronavirus can also pave the way defecting from the multi-party, multi- for cross-country learning. In such ethnic coalition Pakatan Harapan, regard, the lessons learnt from the may therefore consider calling a snap management of the first wave of the election to consolidate his narrow pandemic encompass the use of big data majority in the Malaysian parliament, to track the emergence of new clusters, which is also expected to vote in the the implementation of mass testing near future on the no-confidence campaigns and stricter border control motion against the government filed measures, which in the European case by Muhyiddin’s predecessor Mohamad have been put in place in a much more Mahathir. hesitant fashion compared to East Asia.

By the same token, the pandemic has also had reverberating effects on 5 Kuik Cheng-Chwee, “Hedging in Post- Pandemic Asia: What, How, and Why?”, in cultural-differences-help-asian-countries- The Asan Forum, 6 June 2020, http://www. beat-covid-19-while-us-struggles. theasanforum.org/?p=9920. IAI COMMENTARIES 20 | 80 - NOVEMBER 2020 20 | 80 - NOVEMBER IAI COMMENTARIES

4 Malaysia’s Success Story in Curbing the COVID-19 Pandemic

Against this backdrop, and in order to facilitate the sharing of best practices and foster stronger coordination in tackling the virus, the Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) has recently allocated 15.9 billion euro for the COVID-19 Global Response Fund,6 while also making provisions for the exchange of

© 2020 IAI experts and the introduction of joint training programmes, a first important step to improve the cross-fertilisation of ideas and expertise between Europe and Asia in the development of preventive measures to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

ISSN 2532-6570 5 November 2020

6 European External Action Service (EEAS), Coronavirus: Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Statement, 7 September 2020, https://europa. eu/!VJ94GT. IAI COMMENTARIES 20 | 80 - NOVEMBER 2020 20 | 80 - NOVEMBER IAI COMMENTARIES

5 Malaysia’s Success Story in Curbing the COVID-19 Pandemic

Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) The Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) is a private, independent non-profit think tank, founded in 1965 on the initiative of Altiero Spinelli. IAI seeks to promote awareness of international politics and to contribute to the advancement of European integration and multilateral cooperation. Its focus embraces topics of strategic relevance such as European integration, security and defence, international economics and global governance, energy, climate and Italian foreign policy; as well as the dynamics of cooperation and conflict in key geographical regions such as the Mediterranean and Middle East, Asia, Eurasia, Africa and © 2020 IAI the Americas. IAI publishes an English-language quarterly (The International Spectator), an online webzine (Affarinternazionali), three book series (Global Politics and Security, Quaderni IAI and IAI Research Studies) and some papers’ series related to IAI research projects (Documenti IAI, IAI Papers, etc.).

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