What life has been like in Malaysia, since COVID-19: a young person’s perspective

In this series of articles, young people around the world continue to provide their lived experiences of COVID-19. Globally, young people are dealing with the current situation differently, and that is also true of how young people are being supported during this time. The majority of young people writing in this series of articles are between 18-30 years, with a few exceptions where young people under 18 years have contributed to this series on their experiences and perceptions of youth during COVID-19. In these cases, such as this writer, relevant ethical considerations have been followed.

This article is part of a series that describes the experiences of young people around the world during COVID-19. The challenges ahead of us all are undoubtedly daunting. The world will need all the innovation and energy it can to overcome and move forward from this pandemic. Young people today are connected like never before and are more committed to innovation, social progress, and a sustainable future. Young people bring a unique perspective at this time. Providing them with full and active participatory opportunities to share their lived experiences is essential. Investing in these young agents of change is not just necessary; it has the potential for a tremendous multiplier effect.

For the 1.2 billion youth in the world, today (for statistical purposes, the UN defines youth as aged between 15-24 years) -the most in history– the challenges during COVID-19 are particularly daunting. At the end of 2019, one-fifth of global youth were not in employment, education or training, and a quarter was affected by violence or armed conflict. This will have increased due to the current pandemic. In addition to COVID-19, young people have to deal with climate change, economic inequality, and social and political polarisation, and these challenges are also not going away.

This article focuses on 17-year-old Elisha Shakira Cornelies Wong’s perspective from Malaysia.

A little about me

My name is Elisha Shakira Cornelies Wong. I’m a graduating senior of 2020 in high school. I live in Malaysia, specifically a small island called Penang, also known as the Pearl of The Orient, where we are a famous tourist destination. This is my point of view on how my entire life changed overnight when Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin made an official statement that the country was officially going into lockdown. Life as I knew it would never be the same again.

Lockdown was swift

The lockdown began after Malaysia was recorded as the country who had the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia alone. This prompted the Malaysian government to take immediate action by commencing the lockdown on 18th March 2020. There were restrictions put into motion by the Malaysian government such as; closing all non-essential businesses, shutting down schools, barring non-Malaysians from entering the country and Malaysians from leaving the country as well, interstate travelling was banned, a curfew was instilled as well where every citizen had to be home by 8 pm precisely, and fines were given to offenders of these restrictions. Citizens with registered phone numbers were and still are, updated continuously on COVID-19 by the Malaysian National Security Council which is a federal agency through text messages. Every day there is an official statement that is made by the health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah at 6 pm on the number of active COVID-19 cases, the cases that have recovered and the number of deaths while also informing us on how many patients are in the emergency ward and how many need breathing assistance from machines. Malaysia’s pandemic started because of a huge mass religious gathering in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur where a grand total of 42,028 people were screened with 3,375 people turning up as positive for COVID-19. This ended up being the biggest cluster the nation had ever seen. This was the driving force behind the government’s decision to instil the MCO, also known as the Movement Control Order. I’m happy to say that although we are not a COVID-19 free country yet, we have the highest rate of recovery amongst other countries in the world.

The impact on my education

Being a senior in high school especially with it being my final year I was looking forward to all the school events that were going to take place and really striving in my studies for my final exam which determines if I go on to tertiary education. The lockdown was announced halfway into our first term break, which was going to last a week. There was a very sudden spike in the number of cases, therefore, on the last day of school before the first term break my family didn’t allow me to go to school, their reason being their paranoia. The thing is, I have a rented locker in my school where I keep all my textbooks, so when I wasn’t allowed to go to school, I could not retrieve my textbooks which proved to be extremely frustrating for me when we were in the midst of doing online school during the lockdown. The good part is I had a really good classmate who would send me pictures of any school materials which were in the textbooks which lessened the burden, so for that; I am grateful to her. Personally, I would say that Malaysia was not well equipped to handle online schooling as we had never been forced into a situation where an online school was ever necessary, so, it was a struggle for students as well as teachers. Some teachers right off the bat, such as my dedicated math teacher hosted Zoom, Cisco WebEx or Google Meet lessons with us while sending us homework using Google Classroom or through our WhatsApp group chat. Other teachers opted not to hold any lessons instead of preferring to just give us notes and exercises through Google Classroom. The main issue I faced was that I do not own a laptop, so I had to do everything through my phone, which was extremely testing some days.

Another thing I would say is that the lack of response from students was also a big issue, getting them to turn on their cameras or speak into their mics was a challenge for teachers, even getting some of them to submit homework online was an issue with a few of them blatantly avoiding it. I felt extremely worried and anxious as the thought of sitting for my final exam, which we call SPM, lingered on my mind day and night. This was because I felt as if all of us were working so hard and we were on such a smooth pace in our studies, only for everything to be halted it felt like a regression of sorts. We didn’t receive a lot of emotional support from our teachers or the school in general; I guess our teachers had their own families to worry about as well amidst the pandemic.

My personal life

As for my personal life, I live with my grandmother, cousin and aunt. My aunt was forced to work from home, meaning that we saw each other’s faces 24/7. Through the lockdown, we all had settled into a sort of a daily routine of our own. I had not set one foot out of my apartment during the lockdown either mainly because my grandmother wouldn’t allow it, so I mostly confined myself into my own room which is basically more or less a square box. If I’m honest, I tried to be productive, but I am known as the queen of procrastination so throughout the lockdown it’ll be a lie to say that I was picking up a new hobby or I was journaling because, in all honesty, I was scrolling a lot through social media trying to pass the time. I didn’t really have a lot of contact with my friends aside from school-related topics which were a frequent subject in our conversations.

I would say my main companion throughout the lockdown was my boyfriend, who lives in the United States. We would be on a video call all day long just keeping each other company, which was good considering that both our countries went into lockdown around the same time, so that helped me keep my sanity intact at the same time strengthen our bond. Some days I would be occupied with schoolwork which I would do while connected with my boyfriend online, who honestly kept me diligent and focused because I know I would procrastinate on it. So, I would definitely say that he acted as my main support system throughout the entire lockdown period, he played a huge role as a confidant and my best friend in general. I also spent a lot of time playing a well-known mobile game called PUBG which stands for Players Unknown Battleground with my younger cousins who also had nothing much to do so I would say I bonded a lot with them through that video game. There were some times when I would feel a little down cause being in a compact apartment leads to disagreements and arguments amongst relatives so it would lead to me just shutting my bedroom door and blasting music in my ears as loud as I could. So, I would say that my life had become pretty mundane throughout the quarantine.

Panic buying toilet paper?

As for the public, it seemed like mass hysteria to me honestly; it was as if everybody felt as if God was ‘punishing’ us or that it was the end of the world. All I knew was, toilet paper was just flying off the shelves, and till this day, I never understood why. I remember in the supermarkets, or grocery stores there would be these extremely long queues of people who were buying bulks and bulks of groceries, and this was mainly panic buying, in my opinion, this took place within the first month or so of the quarantine before it lessened. There was definitely a shortage of hand sanitizers and surgical masks with the prices spiking up to around RM100 (equal to 25$ USD). I think social media had a huge role in this pandemic; I would see all these false news stories being spread around through Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and so many more platforms causing even more hysteria.

Malaysia did an excellent job

In general, I think that Malaysian citizens really abided by the strict regulations and restrictions of the lockdown that was placed by the Malaysian government, which deserves to be commended. As of right now, we are currently in RMCO which stands for Recovery Movement Control Order which means schools have reopened; all non-essential businesses are open and small gatherings with a certain limit are approved. The government has created an app called ‘MySejahtera’ which citizens use to check their locations at any business whatsoever using a simple QR code; this allows the government to locate any potential COVID-19 risks quickly. Everybody is still advised to practice social distancing and to wear a mask in public. Overall, the pandemic has really changed a lot of things in Malaysia, and I’m sure the rest of the world. The quarantine had its ups and downs, but I’m truly happy that Malaysia is recovering from the pandemic.