Malaysia is in the middle of a Japanese Encephalitis (JE) virus attack.  This year the annual outbreak  took on a fiercer swirl.  Superior human ingenuity is reduced to incapacity by this fatal piggy  infection.

Some sections of the Malaysian community are in distraught.  All kinds of dialogues, rumors, speculation are going on in markets, coffee shops, dinner tables, meeting rooms, offices and PRESS Sessions.  Chattering, debates accusations, sighs, sobs and many strong questions without answers.  High emotion, finger pointing, desperation, grieve, tears, exhaustion, anger and hopelessness.

Hold your breath, have a glass of cold water in your hand.  I will repeat these going on’s only if you promise not to be provoked.  Promise? Okay, here goes...

Let's stop for a moment, fellow Malaysians.  Let's explore that one very important question. Who is the real problem?  Humans or pigs?  Is it a lack of vaccine or lack of will?  Do we resolve the problem or do we please the government officers?

Listen carefully.  Drink the cold water to keep your cool so you can hear what people are really saying...

It is the pigs. It is all those God-damn pigs.  Let's forget about them.  Why not  just import pork, suggests a Malay newspaper.  Quite true, after all world pork prices are at all time low!  How can?  Pig farming employs 10,000 people, another 10,000 in the supporting industry.  They together create a value-added economy worth some $1.2 billion.  Last year's exports to Singapore totaled $430 million! Recession or not, we need every bit of those foreign currency!

Not all pig farms are bad.  Some 130 big farms, the bigger ones, accounting for 40% of total pig population, they run on sophisticated standards.  That is why they meet the stringent import conditions in Singapore.” So is it the small farms that are the bad apples?

Sure, it is the fault of those money-minded profit-seeking farmers.  They don't care about hygiene.  They just do the minimum to get maximum profit.  Pollution?  What  pollution?  Don’t you know how pig sty is supposed to look and smell?  Risks? What risks?  So they are causing the problems.  But what about the enforcement officers, where were they before?  How come they only found the bad apples today?

How can we poor farmers improve on facilities?  Or hygiene standards?  The land below our feet is TOL (Temporary Occupation Lease).  We don't even know how much longer we can farm here.  All our requests for resettlement and development fell on deaf ears and brain dead heads.  We can only go from day to day.  Planning, upgrading, new technology, who has time for that?

How come?  I thought JE was first reported in 1951.  We have Mardi, we have research institutes, and I checked their mission statements and what they are supposed to do.  How come we know so little and our way of handling the situation so chaotic?  Hasn't Malaysia just passed our 41st birthday?  They tell us that Japan reemerged a world power from total ruins in 25 years after the Second World War.  We did not quite get the lessons from the once celebrated Look East Policy, did we?

To solve the problem...  Easy...  We legislate!  We can't control the weather and the mosquitoes, we control the farmers!  Or better still, we ban the industry! Sure, who doesn't know that is the easiest way out?  Who needs all the hard work of finding a solution?  Malaysia Boleh – must work smart, not hard, understand?  We know “Working Smart” is the mantra of the management books, in whatever language they are written in.

No, not all the pigs are affected.  JE only caused problems to the pregnant sow and piglets.  The pigs are not dying, people are.  Why is the cabinet directing the vaccination of all the 2.6 million pigs?  Are we inoculating the people?

The veterinary experts observed, The fault may not entirely be with the Japanese Encephalitis.  Not all the death cases show positive results on JE.  However, the politician insists authoritatively, The deaths are caused by JE.  Does anybody understand English?  An unconvinced public, Who is really in charge here? The professionals know better or the politicians?  Can somebody tell us?  Aren't  politicians supposed to have expertise in the people's business? Then what do they know about “pig business?

If the problem is not caused entirely by JE, what is the other proximate cause?  Can we have some transparency here?  JE infested pork is safe for human consumption, but what about the unknown virus infection?  What risks are involved here?  Without full information, why are prominent community leaders staging "pork eating campaigns?"  Do they know what they are doing?

The politicians are making the decisions. Sure, that is our Malaysian culture. Professionals must respect their bosses.  How about the bosses respecting professional knowledge for a change?  How professional are the professionals if they allow their political bosses take the professionally not so correct path?

The farmers exclaimed, What is the government doing?  How come it has taken them so long?  Does anybody out there know what is going on?  Why be surprised?  Don't you know, once you have given them your vote, you turn your life over to them.  That is it.  When you need them, it is your turn to beg.  When you need them most, you beg hardest.  They become the master and the people the servant.  I rather turn to the Gods, they are more reliable. God, I am offering you food (burning incense sticks), please answer our prayers.

Aren't they supposed to know what to do, they are the government? They are the experts!  Then why we have so many research institutes?  Sure, that was what they tell you at elections, if they formed the government, they become superman.  They can fix everything for you.  Did I get it right?  In the first place, is this promise realistic?  Why am I so foolish to believe them?  How come they know more about farming than my family who has been doing this for generations?  Or is this my problem?  How come I don't know enough even if I have been doing this for decades?

It is the media, the Chinese newspaper especially.  They showed those horrible pictures. It is them. They must sensationalize the news in order to sell newspapers, they blame it on the competition.  Don't you find them very shallow?  After so much ink and paper, I still don't know the symptoms of JE.  What do they know ?  They have not done much research, seek out the experts or have even ask the right question.  But be careful, they will pick up any complain you may have and blow it up. {If anyone of them sign up for organ donation, ask them to keep their brains!}  All they do is to scare the people, as though it is not tragic enough to have deaths among us.  Do they know that our rice bowl is broken into pieces now?  Who is buying pork?

For heaven sake, it is food safety.  We have to warn the public.  It is our job, our ethics.  Don't the farmers and associations know that it is they who have the most to lose, if the public got scared?  Why aren't they careful in managing this problem right from the start?  Don't they know they need to communicate a professional and reliable perception.  Yes, when something goes wrong, as they sometimes will, Food Company takes great care to tell consumers the whole story, NOT just the good story.  The media, sure, is just doing their job.  But if they have all the facts, they can present a more balanced picture.  If they don't have the facts, and don't bother to find out, they leave the public guessing!  That's why I am not reading newspapers today.

The leaders have no credibility?  The public has no confidence?  You mean the Minister of Health's assurance is not good enough?  For heavens' sake, he is the MINISTER.  I know, I know.  Who doesn't know that guy?  He is the most ‘breast friendly” minister – he himself said so.  We know who he is – but reality is pork sales is falling.  Maybe Monsanto should start working on a gene that can be  implant in humans to make them believe in the Minister's word!

One association leader said, we are grateful to what the Ministry is doing for us. But in another breath he softly whispers to everyone,  Why are they doing so little?  “Just between you and I, they are not quite sure.

Why can't you take destiny in your own hands?  Why can't you just follow your professional sense, and God Damn it, stop all the talks, ACT!  Oh, no, no, no.  We have to wait.  We must give face to the ministry.  We can not upset them.  Damn it, are you running for Mr. Popularity contest?  Can you check the dictionary what CRISIS means? <phew!>

The P word is in vogue – Paranoid, Porkless Meals, and Put out the mosquitoes. How come it is so expensive, one (inoculation) jab can cost $80 in Kuala Lumpur, altogether we need three jabs equals RM240!  You know why people are driving to Seremban to get it done?  There the good doctors only charge $5 for the service and $30 for the vaccine.  Sure Kuala Lumpur is a big city, doctors have bigger appetites!  Don't you understand?

These are very exhausting talks.  Enough is enough.  Let's rewind the clock.  Let's go back to October 1998 and start over...

This year's JE outbreak is getting serious.  Let’s go on full surveillance.  We declare a state of close watch and monitoring, get everybody involved.  The Ministry of Health, Veterinary Science Department, representative from the farmers association.  We must document each and every case carefully and share the information with all concerned. Let's stay on the line and update each other on what is going on.

Let's activate our links and network around the world.  Let's talk to the experts who had handled such problems before, never mind if any of these experts are no longer in power positions so long as they are involved in the research.  Let's send them our diagnosis and sample.  Give them all the facts, fast, as they happen.  We need to ask our friends elsewhere to help us keep watch on the so many unknowns that we have no answers to.

Yes, no matter what, ACTION is all that matters.  Problem solving is first and foremost. Never mind who bears the costs.  That can be sorted out later.  Who is in charge, surely must be the professionals.  ACT now, we can not err on indecision.  We can make the mistake of being cautious, but it is a mistake worth making!

Media, government and industry, this is our attitude towards each other – PARTNERS.  Politicians must not think or pretend they are Mr. Fix It All.  They are there to guide, support, counsel, facilitate and provide the leadership to get everyone together, and  to keep all eyes on the ball.  The industry knows best and the right thing to do – the industry must drive the action program, come forward to advise the government the right action steps.  The media can ask and highlight questions important to all, and keep the dialogue going.  In this age and time, the only way to handle the press is to be honest and open with them.  No one can go wrong upholding honesty as the only policy.

Superman can only be found in the movies.  Nobody has all the answers; together we will find them.  We need to talk with each other, not at each other.  This is nobody's fault, not the farmers, the industry or the government.  It is OUR problem, Malaysia's, and Malaysians’ challenge.  It is everybody's responsibility.  Don't bother about who is who, let's just find out what is the right thing to do and do it fast.

Let's document every single incident and every little detail.  Let's check out all the facts and get the best brains in the country and overseas to work on it.  Next year when the rainy season calls again, and when mosquitoes start to rear their ugly heads; we know exactly what to do.  Only Malaysia has unique tropical conditions, we have to find the way to manage this problem.  Malaysia Boleh means not giving up, we would not let go of any value-added industry easily, especially we possess so many comparative advantage in this in our part of the world. Let's strive on.

Isn't this better? Wow, what a relief.  There is so much strength when highflying emotion is turned into deep and strong commitment.  Finger pointing turn to taking the lead.  Compassion, dedication and iron willpower will keep our hopes high.  Before anybody notices it, the 1998 JE got buried into our history book, and Malaysia emerged as  united, cohesive and healthy again.

By the way,  did anybody discover that teamwork makes everything so much easier.  It lifts that heavy burden off our shoulders.  We learn and grow as a community, together.  Especially in learning how to cope with a crisis.

Kuala Lumpur, March 9, 1999

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