COVID-19 movement restrictions: individual rights vs collective safety

Abstract

“Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains.”1 This famous phrase made by Geneva-born political philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau back in 1762 is one especially relevant in this COVID-19 era of today where individuals have severely been restricted in their movements since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. In Malaysia, applications such as MySejahtera further enable the government to track and limit the movements of citizens whilst simultaneously issuing them warnings in events of breaches to restrictions posed by the government. In light of mass protests of citizens from the likes of Austria, Australia, the United States, France, Italy, the Netherlands and other liberal democracies, 2 a rather compelling question can be raised. Does the necessity of collective safety outweigh the rights of individual privacy and freedom? This is a question which has been at the forefront of the minds of governments and authorities in establishing standard operating procedures, rules and regulations for which there appears to be no concrete answer. In this text, we have approached the views from various schools of jurists in restricting the right of movements in Malaysia during the Movement Control Order (MCO), declared by the government in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus. A discussion is done on the necessity of tightening the basic human rights in favour of gaining collective safety in the context of jurisprudence.