Tuesday, 25 May 2021 05:00 AM MYT
BY ASHMAN ADAM AND JERRY CHOONG
A general of view of the traffic at Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur March 5, 2021. Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
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KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 As Malaysia struggles to bring the Covid-19 pandemic under control, the government’s decision to implement a third movement control order or more popularly known as MCO 3.0 wasn’t entirely unexpected.
Albeit not as stringent as the first MCO in March last year, this third rendition comes into play as the country sees consecutive days of record-high daily Covid-19 cases as well as deaths.
(Left) Muhyiddin, then MB of Johor, writing the opening passage for his state in ‘The Great Malaysian Novel’ on March 5,1992. (Right) The March 26, 1992, report in Section 2 on the contributors for the Perak chapter of ‘The Great Malaysian Novel’ that included MB Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib.
Almost 30 years ago, about 1,000 Malaysians, including Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, wrote a story together. This was The Great Malaysian Novel, a project organised by
The Star.
I was motivated to write about it after reader Lim Kuan Cheen, noting that
The Star was celebrating its 50th anniversary, posted on his Facebook saying he remembered a story writing campaign in the mid-1980s that started with a chapter and the whole nation was invited to continue the story”.