COMMENT | "Abah's" joke about using the "rotan" on those ignoring the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) does not seem to have gone down well with a certain section of the voting public. This, of course, is to be expected. The reality is that many people who support the various political power structures that make up the Perikatan Nasional government got the joke.

The vast majority are comfortable with a paternalistic attitude and the politically incorrect humour that comes with it as long as a certain level of economic comfort and political stability is maintained through a system of entitlements that forms the basis of Malaysian politics. There is this canard that political types propagate that Covid-19 does not recognise rank or status. While the virus may not make such distinctions, such distinctions matter when it comes to overcoming the health and economic consequences of getting this virus.

The fact is that rank and status is the main reason why we have a resurgence of this virus because of the recently concluded Sabah elections. The reasons for the polls and the way that SOPs were disregarded makes a mockery of Abah's statement that there were no double standards when it comes to enforcement and regulations. When you have rank and status, the rules governing the halting of the spread of the virus does not apply to you, and this privilege is extended to the rank and file which put not only their lives in danger but also their communities.

The same rules, of course, do not apply to the average joe rakyat. Beyond that, the idea of quarantining for two weeks and not being able to earn an income is a question that the people who do not have that rank or status, which immunises them from the economic consequences of this virus, face every time the virus rears its ugly visage aided by irresponsible people. Think about it this way. The virus infects a dumb politician because he or she goes on the campaign trail and the state ignores SOPs violation. An average joe becomes part of the politician's cluster and then has to figure out how he or she is going to go through the quarantine process or the infection process. Meanwhile, the paid political operative gets to quarantine in the comfort that his or her rank and status provides.