LETTERS: Malaysians have been doing well to survive the changing environment brought on by Covid-19.
However, looking at the number of cases surging versus the daily vaccination rate, perhaps much more could have been achieved.
What are some of the takeaways if Malaysians were to adopt changes to lead their lives anew? Let us try and answer the following questions.
Are we prepared to give up some of the "things" we are used to in life? Who do you trust the most in ensuring your life is safe and secure? Are you scared of the Covid-19 virus and its variants?
Our answers will help define the sort of lifestyle changes that we are ready to accept. These are centred on the three areas of the personal, working life and post-Covid-19 environment.
It is important to start with our interactions with family members, relatives, colleagues and friends.
For many, the gravity of the pandemic has not sunk in yet. We need to give up our nonchalance towards life and gear ourselves to choose what is important and what can be put aside.
For a start, opt for simplicity. Surely in doing so, we are preparing ourselves to survive the coming environment free from Covid-19. We will eventually need to rethink our life all over again by living with less.
As to reorganising our working life from home, those areas that have to do with productivity, quality and accountability will have to be relooked. Are these well-received by our superiors and colleagues alike?
Our goals under this Covid-19 work environment too will have to be re-prioritised and repositioned to suit the workspace that we created at home. Are these sufficient to enable us to generate results with more efficiency in less time and hassle?
The biggest challenge yet for us to survive the post-Covid-19 environment, is one of how to start anew with everything that we are used to.
The answer does not lie in adopting a "siapa gua, siapa lu" attitude towards everybody. This kind of a "defensive" and "to each his own" manner in social behaviour will not help to ease our move into a post-Covid-19 situation.
The other extreme is to lock ourselves up at home. This posture is surely not conducive to take when we are living in an open and caring society. It reminds us of the instances in the past when people went back into caves and completely shut themselves off from society.
Looking forward, let us not ignore the lessons that we have learnt after living and surviving with the pandemic since March last year. If anything, it has made us much more aware and resilient in the face of a yet-unseen virus in our midst.
To top it all up, it has taught us to be thankful for what we are, and for what we have been able to accomplish through simplicity, frugality and true faith.
DR AZHARI KARIM
Former Malaysian ambassador
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times