Contradictheory: Let's not get back to normal

A United Nations study that interviewed 500 families in low-cost flats in Kuala Lumpur revealed that a quarter of the heads of households were unemployed and a third had had their working hours cut – yet more than half were not covered by government social protection schemes. — Filepic/The Star

“America is back”. That’s what US President-elect Joe Biden is telling the world now, and for many outside the United States, it’s a welcome message. It’s a sign of things getting back to “normal” now that the controversial and divisive Donald Trump has been defeated.

Of course, in the last few years, whenever politics in Malaysia got bad, at the very least I could point across to the Trump administration and say, “At least we’re not that bad”.