Unless trapped down a coal-mine for the last couple of months, there is no one who does not know the devastating effects of the coronavirus. There is no one who doesn’t know about the danger of crowded places like supermarkets. What people don’t know is how to reconcile that risk with feeding their families in the middle of the government’s knee-jerk reactions and constant zigzagging. So we have to cut ourselves and our compatriots some slack.

The anger directed at those we have been calling cocovid (brainless) is the result of a well-orchestrated communication campaign whose aim is to shift the blame from the mandarins at the helm onto us, the hapless citizens, who have to feed our children. Yesterday, that anger was directed at those who were hoarding. Today, it is aimed at those who didn’t. 

The sad reality is that while the government continues to thump its chest and while new cases and tragic deaths are announced in communication exercises marketed as press conferences – which have not lost the electoral tone one little bit – the echoes coming from the rest of the world are sobering. Dale Fisher, chair of the World Health Organization Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, had this to say about countries like us: “Any country really had January and February to get themselves prepared. And countries that didn’t take advantage of that lead time are now the ones that have got a problem.” But forget about the lack of vision and insight. Where do we go from here? What is the aim of the lockdown, necessary though it may be? Here is Fisher’s answer: A “lockdown is really any country’s second chance – it’s not an intervention in itself. It’s just buying time to set up all those measures of your testing and how you’re going to isolate the cases and how you’re going to enforce quarantine in close contact…” 

“This is no time to blame the government but to unite and follow instructions. However, it is also time someone told the prime minister and his team that the electoral campaign is over, so they really should get off the campaign trail and give us what is needed right now – answers and transparency.” 

While we are focusing our anger on each other just as the communication team wants us to, we are losing sight of the horror stories coming out of some quarantine centres that have become prisons with indefinite sentences. Each time someone tests positive for the virus, the other inmates have to be quarantined for longer. And the stories become even more woeful as we get to those infected. While a few have come out thankful for the treatment they received, there are stories of others being treated like lepers, put up in unsanitary rooms and left there without even a medical visit, being fed through a window opened and immediately slammed shut. The picture becomes even more clouded as we get to medical equipment. Two donations of medical equipment were announced among self-congratulations – thank you Jack Ma and Ethiopian Airlines on behalf of a government not very conversant with protocol, let alone manners. Where are they? Why are medical professionals sounding the alarm on the lack of protective equipment? Seven tragic deaths later, what is the situation in our hospitals? 

At a time when parliament is closed, press conferences have been reduced to one-way lectures very similar to those delivered on kes savon, where is the transparency?  

One should remember that the coronavirus is not only taking lives. It is also taking people’s livelihood, future and their very last penny. A relief fund was set up and millions of rupees are being poured into it. We are also forced to contribute Rs4 on each litre of petrol we buy. Has anyone asked how that money – our money – is being used? And while people are suffering, jobs are being threatened and we are borrowing even more, is it fair for ministers to continue to pocket Rs330,000 (Rs553,000 for the prime minister) in salaries and obscure allowances (petrol allowance: Rs30,305, driver’s allowance: Rs12,750, clerk allowance: Rs13,530, facilities allowance: Rs24,000, entertainment allowance: Rs22,000, duty allowance: Rs47, 250) while they are sitting at home? Is it fair for some cronies to continue to pocket fees from boards that are not sitting? 

In times like these, we want transparency and answers from those handling our health and our public purse. We can’t let our feelings for a few careless guys caught in the middle of a tragedy cloud the essential issues. This is no time to blame the government but to unite and follow instructions. This is the time to respect the lockdown to the letter and welcome its extension wholeheartedly. However, it is also time someone told the prime minister and his team that the electoral campaign is over, that even the courts are closed and cannot look into the petitions lodged by the opposition, so they really should get off the campaign trail and give us what is needed right now – answers and transparency.