COMMENT | When good governance fades, hopelessness sets in

COMMENT | In April, single mother Lisa Christina was sentenced to a month in jail for breaching the government's movement control order (MCO). She spent eight days in prison before her sentence was replaced with a fine of RM1,000.

A few weeks later, Nurulhidayah Ahmad Zahid and her husband Saiful Nizam Mohd Yusoff were each fined RM800 for similar breaches. While penalties are at the discretion of the magistrate, there was a twist to this because she happened to be the daughter of former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. It didn’t cause much of a furore but it got tongues wagging on the double standards.

Later, Deputy Health Minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali and Perak executive council member Razman Zakaria were fined RM1,000 each for violating the MCO.

Instead of being judged by higher standards and the penalty being appropriately higher for someone holding high office, the perpetrators got away lightly.

On Monday, it was revealed that Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali and his family visited Turkey from July 3-7. The minister did not undergo the mandatory quarantine of 14 days and he attended no less than 12 functions, including attending the Dewan Rakyat session on July 13.

The irony is that almost every day, without fail, Senior Minister (Security) Ismail Sabri Yaakob announces the number of arrests for those breaching the MCO and that includes not observing quarantine requirements...