However, the question of how many others have been infected but remain undetected lingers on. Many still believe there are more cases in the country that have not been reported yet, and doubts about the effectiveness of the government’s monitoring, testing and contact tracing efforts are unabated.

The skepticism is understandable in view of the announcement by Singapore’s Health Ministry last Sunday that two Singaporeans and one Myanmar national visiting the Riau Islands of Batam on the third week of February had tested positive for the virus.

With this in mind, concerns about the government’s ability to deal with the virus are not without grounds. All this leads to the very basic question of the degree of the government’s readiness and capability in terms of crisis management.

Crisis, whatever forms it takes, presents both a threat to the performance of any organization and an opportunity for its development. Any crisis, from the positive viewpoint, provides the government opportunities to expand its capabilities in overcoming the crisis before it reaches its full scale.

A lesson learned from such a crisis situation will develop the government’s abilities in finding and implementing a set of specific decisions aiming to raise public awareness about the crisis and its possible development while minimizing adverse consequences.

It is unfortunate if we treat a crisis purely as a threat. Despite the fact that the social and economic impacts of the outbreak may lead to mass hysteria, as reflected in the panic buying of essentials and stockpiling of masks and hand sanitizer, this is just the right time for the government to extract and distill real lessons in crisis management.

No doubt the government is very serious in handling this crisis. However, we must understand that this is not simply a matter of transparency and seriousness. Rather, this is something to do with not only mindsets but skillsets and toolsets. It is the deficit in these aspects that has sparked the public’s doubt about whether the government really possesses the required capabilities and tools to overcome the epidemic.

The challenge for the government is to prove it has an adequate and effective crisis management system ready to be activated in such a crisis situation. This can be done by communicating with and educating the wider public about the big picture of the outbreak, instead of simply updating them about what’s in the news.

Information on, for example, the next likely phase of the epidemic, what to do in such a situation, including the scenario where many more people actually have been affected but are undetected, what anticrisis plan will be adopted and implemented, etc. are of more benefit than issuing statements that seem to understate the danger of the virus.

More real, workable and concerted efforts between the government and other stakeholders in this particular crisis, such as schools, universities and especially business players, will be more appreciated than statements about divine intervention protecting this religious nation. Our reputation as a nation is at stake.

The way the public responds to the government’s measures may look exaggerated or restless. However, the public has the right to know the government’s real strategy and mitigation plans to overcome the crisis.

This is not to say that the government has not taken any proper precautions and measures to contain the virus. Rather, we do not expect the government to fall into overconfidence.

Such a hubristic attitude has proven to offer no solution as in the case of the major floods that have hit Jakarta twice this year. We must realize that the COVID-19 is not a one-off issue or challenge. We should expect additional, further phases to the current epidemic or other epidemics in the future, and one variable most predictive of eventual success is preparation and preemption.

To be effective, our crisis management mechanism must include preparation for the next crisis or the next phase of the current crisis, rather than simply an ad hoc, reactive response. We do hope that our government has a war room set up with capable and reliable risk management personnel as well an anticrisis mechanism ready for activation when a new crisis occurs.

Again, this is not simply a matter of seriousness or transparency. Transparency, anyway, is not a window that can be opened and shut at the government’s will when it finds it useful. We are facing a crisis requiring the right mindset, skillsets and toolsets reflected in the existence of an effective crisis management system.

We are adult citizens expecting an adult government able to help the nation go through this crisis. Otherwise, we really have a serious crisis in our current crisis management system.

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Adviser in organizational and human capital with Rajawali Group. The views expressed are his own.