"We deserve another lockdown." Those were the prophetic words of Datuk Sheikh Johan (not his real name) after I sat down at his office in Anak Bukit, Kedah, last Sunday.
When I asked what made him think so, he took out his handphone and showed me a digital map of Kedah.
He pointed to a red zone in the centre of the map, saying that red spot was Kota Setar.
When I told him that Kedah was still a green zone, he explained that the green zone was only in the outer fringes of the state. Elsewhere, it was either red zones or orange zones. Even our state mosque, Masjid Zahir, had been a red spot for some time, off limits for Friday prayers.
Two nights later, I had a light dinner with my wife at our favourite food stall at Medan Selera near the stadium.
The stall owner, whom we have known for over two decades, told me the amazing story of this new, huge ferry boat in Kuala Kedah able to transport 600 passengers at one time to Langkawi.
When I told him that it should carry only a maximum of 300 people at one time, he told me that since the boat operator was allowed to do only one trip per day, he filled up the entire space with passengers.
He said: "Possibly we observe the standard operating procedures on land (in Kuala Kedah), but there's certainly no SOP out at sea". It is a Covid-19 time bomb waiting to explode.
When the government announced on Tuesday that Kedah and five other states would be under a new lockdown from tomorrow, Haji Shukri, my neighbour, was not surprised to hear it.
Yesterday morning, as we walked out of our surau after Subuh prayers, he said: "We knew it was coming. The blame is on us, not the government."
He was right. It is a common sight to see people not wearing masks in public, mothers and fathers carrying babies into supermarkets, shoppers not keeping apart when they go up or down escalators, at wet markets, grocery shops, when ordering food at mamak restaurants, food stalls and practically everywhere.
Perhaps it was due to Covid-19 fatigue, or the thought that the vaccine would soon be here, so it was okay to let our guard down, or simply due to the well-known "tidak apa attitude".
Some politicians (who should know better) are also to be blamed. They kept on harping that the Emergency was not necessary, that it was undemocratic, that the Covid-19 law was adequate.
They challenged the king's decision to declare the Emergency, they wanted Parliament to sit so that they could go ahead to topple the government, then have a general election so that they could get "a fresh mandate" from voters.
A foreign news portal (https://www.abc.net.au/) stated that Malaysia, "once praised by the World Health Organisation as 'united' against Covid-19, has gone back into lockdown."
The portal said that in October, Malaysia had fewer than 13,000 cases, but by Christmas Eve, we had surpassed 100,000 cases.
The government had lifted travel bans in early December, and it was no surprise that case numbers went up as the public crossed inter-state to visit friends and relatives, or go somewhere for a break. Since the Health Ministry believes that the Covid-19 curve "will flatten" only by May, the public should not expect to be free of this new lockdown any time soon.
Up to Jan 10, we had a total of 133,559 cases with 542 deaths. Three days later, we had 144,518 cases and 563 deaths.
Up to yesterday, the numbers had gone up to 165,371 cases and 619 deaths.
Although the government said this new lockdown for six states would end on Feb 4, my neighbours fear it would be extended.
We are, indeed, back to square one. We have only ourselves to blame.
The writer, a former federal counsel at the Attorney-General's Chambers, is deputy chairman of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times