PREPOSTEROUS. This is what we say to the idea that studies be conducted on why businesses flout standard operating procedures (SOPs). It is as preposterous as it is to stop the punishment on the corrupt just to study why people take and give kickbacks.
If at all there is room for debate, it is this: Are the SOPs World Health Organisation-compliant? The Health Ministry has assured the nation that they are. The debate should end there.
To study to change the SOPs of industries will be ominous. We do not put the SOPs for the common man on hold to study why there is errancy among them.
For sure there are many errant men across the length and breadth of the country. No freezing of SOPs or fines here. Or worse, we lock them up. The law saw no distinction between an errant vendor of curry puffs and a cardiologist.
There may be compassion for one or the other, but it all depends on the circumstances. Discretion will intervene to dispense justice. But what can be up for study, though, is the nature of punishment.
Should it be a fine of RM10,000 or RM100,000? Or the imprisonment of the directors of the offending companies? Or even the revocation of business licences? These are matters for punishment studies. The idea is to deter errant behaviour.
Errant behaviour during pandemics is costly, not only to businesses, but also to the nation. But some industry players are not after this. They are seeing dollars where they should see sense.
Such businessmen want the cost of complying with the SOPs to be shifted onto other shoulders, preferably onto those of the government. This was evident on at least one occasion.
Take the case of the Malaysian Employers' Federation (MEF) reaction to the amendments introduced to the Workers' Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act that mandates a minimum space requirement for workers' accommodation, basic facilities as well as safety and hygiene standards. Give us time, the MEF pleaded with the government.
This despite the ample time given to the employers from the moment the legislation was an idea to the time it was passed into law. And more. Though the amendments to the act came into force on June 1, the employers were allowed a grace period until Aug 31.
Then there was the quibble about the act's requirement of housing six to every 1,500sq ft. Perhaps they want to squeeze in 40 workers as some have done.
Why ask us to house the foreign workers in such a big space when some Malaysians live in spaces much smaller, the MEF was quoted as asking a business daily on Nov 26 when the industry players' noise went national.
This is logic gone terribly wrong. And to top it, MEF's comparison is most unkind to Malaysians. Dollars sometimes does this to sense. There is much truth in what the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers says: "Industries must do more to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, can't survive if full lockdown again". Good advice.
Perhaps the FMM realises a total lockdown like that in the United Kingdom to be a certainty if discipline is not forthcoming from industry players. Sure, SOPs have added expenses to the cost of doing business, but the cost of non-compliance is even costlier.
If we want to live through this pandemic, we need to do what medical science tells us: businesses have no business disobeying SOPs.