THERE has been a huge and cry over the gathering of nearly 1,000 people outside the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex on Tuesday for Datuk Seri Najib Razak's SRC International trial verdict.
The problem was not because they supported Najib, but because it was a blatant disregard for public safety during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite repeated urgings from Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah to observe standard operating procedures (SOP) like social distancing, these people were in close proximity with each other, many also without face masks. And, they ignored repeated warnings from the police to observe the SOP.
Several members of parliament expressed concern over the episode, and rightly so. Dr Noor Hisham himself has expressed disappointment.
There can be no two ways about it. This was an irresponsible, selfish and arrogant act. It is all well and good to show your support to your leaders or idols. But when you put yourself and others in danger, then that is just ridiculous.
How else can one term an act which may now endanger all the family members of each individual who attended the gathering? And it is not just their family members — it is every single person that comes into contact with every single attendee of the gathering.
Consider the chain reaction. The person who gets infected after coming into contact with someone who participated in the gathering can pass it on to his family members, friends and those with whom he comes into contact later.
The possible exposure to Covid-19 makes this mass gathering a ticking time bomb. The probability of the infection spreading is exponential.
It may become such a huge cluster, with its attendant sub-clusters rivalling the Sri Petaling tabligh cluster. We will know within two weeks whether any cluster will come out of this incident. It takes one person only who is positive for Covid-19 to create a cluster.
The police say they will call in the organisers. Good. But the authorities should, perhaps, go a little further than that. If ever there was an argument for proactive screening of Covid-19, then this would be its textbook case.
Shop owners are required to keep a record of those who enter their premises. We highly doubt that the organisers kept a record of who attended the gathering, so tracking down those who were there would be a lot more difficult. But it has to be done.
And, it has to be done quickly. The longer we wait, the more people will come into contact with a possibly infected person. All those who attended should be quarantined, tested for Covid-19 and fined.
After all, they posed a danger to public health. Contact tracing also needs to be done. It is not just so we can figure out whether anyone else could be infected. It is also because these contacts have the right — and fully deserve, it must be said — to know that they had been put in danger of infection by someone who acted irresponsibly.
They have a right to know that their lives may be in danger.