The real effect of Malaysia’s 2nd Ebola scare

So on Monday, we got news about an Ebola scare in Malaysia. This is the second case on our soil, with the first being in Perak and the second in Sarawak. Both cases were confirmed negative, much to our relief.

According to reports, the Ebola suspect in Sarawak was a 24-year-old Zimbabwean student from a private university. After having contact with Nigerian students who came back from their homeland, the student developed flu-like symptoms before admitting himself to a hospital.

When news broke out to the press, our social newsfeed were in a mini-frenzy with umpteen shares that came with panicky statuses, and justifiably so too – Ebola’s growing death toll of 2,500 and counting, coupled with its horrific way of killing its victim, is bad enough to warrant panic.

We talked about it in detail in our previous article (which was also updated to add the news about the second suspected case), so go have a look if you have the time.

But while our friends got into a sharing spree, some stood up and said that the public shouldn’t be sensationalising the news – especially when it hasn’t been confirmed. So it begged the question – are we Malaysians handling the scare rationally? But first, here’s what we need to point out…

We’re not the only country with Ebola scares

In fact, we’re just one of the many, many, maaaany, countries nursing post-Ebola panic. The Philippines, Russia, Spain, Italy, Australia, Austria, Singapore, the States, Sweden, Hong Kong, Germany, India, China… These countries have had their share of scares with suspected cases mushrooming here and there, hitting the panic button of their own citizens. However…

… these countries have reported a big fat negative

After rounds and rounds of investigation, no confirmed cases have been announced so far. One had malaria, some had the generic flu… The virus is still mainly contained in West Africa, which shows that the precautions taken are considerably effective. (Good job, authorities in West Africa and the rest of the world!)

It doesn’t mean it’s bad to take precautions…

While a lot of us had panic attacks and resorted to being proactive ourselves (i.e. limiting ourselves from travelling, wearing masks at airports), we’re not saying that it’s bad to take precautions. Without everyone being on high alert, the virus could’ve slipped by us without even knowing. But it does get bad when we start to disprove others and inject fear (and hatred, if the fear develops), like in this Lowyat forum thread:     

We’re being kinda douchey to our African brothers

Yes, brothers, because there’s evidence that the Chinese have African DNAs and Malaysian Chinese peepur came from China and Malaysian Chinese peepur are bros and adiks to everyone else Malaysia. So technically, we’re all bros, bros. But that’s not the point.

This is.

Africans in Malaysia have enough problems to deal with already, most of which unfortunately stemmed from a few bad apples. The banning of Africans in Ridzuan Condo is an example. “Criminals.” “Dangerous.” “A nuisance in our country.” And now to add to the list, “Ebola people.” And the next thing to do: to take to sensationalise the news on social media and/or shun the crap out of them.

We all know very well that these are just negative stereotypes, so why harp on them? Or in other words, why you gotta be so ruuuuude? Don’t you know they’re human tooooooo? 

Spreading the irrational fear about West Africans will not help the situation. If anything, it makes it even worse – ESPECIALLY for these harmless guys! As the physical disease continues to spread, the last thing we need is for a mental and social disease to follow suit.

Racial profiling amongst the standard Melayu/Cina/India races is already an issue in the country, so why do we have to rope in the Africans and do the same to them? So they’re not Malaysians to begin with, but if we preach that the blood that run from Melayu/Cina/India are of the same colour, how is that different for Africans?

Sure, there are other things to debate about on the subject of Ebola – are our authorities doing enough to prevent the disease? Are airport scanners really doing their jobs? Are we too lenient about who we let into the country? It takes two to clap, and seeing that the cases have been negative, perhaps the authorities deserve some credit.

To end on a lighter note, here’s something we stumbled upon while doing some research on Ebola. We’ve played this countless times in the office, it’s pretty infectious. Ending a bit potong stim tho’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_WOR22-SnY