In February, just as Covid-19 cases were beginning to spread, Malaysia was plunged into a political crisis which resulted in a sudden change of government behind closed doors—a gross betrayal of the mandate of the people, who in 2018 had voted in a new coalition government for the first time since the Federation of Malaya in 1957. Fortunately, the same month, public health authorities recommended decisive action to implement pandemic protocols, including an early Movement Control Order (MCO). Indeed, at first, Malaysia ended up being a success story in managing the pandemic even as the MCO proved economically unviable.