COVID-19 as a National Security Issue in Malaysia: A Comparison with the Italian and Australian Perspectives

COVID-19 pandemic affects variations of countries’ national strategies, policies, and plans of actions while at the same time these arrangements afflicting their residents by implementing a variety of health and legal measures to flatten the COVID-19 curve. This stretches from prohibiting overseas travel, forbidding interstate travel, encouraging work from home closings of some public areas, compulsory wearing of marks and hand sanitisers, quarantine, social distancing, and a mixture of various actions. Malaysia in implementing its laws and regulations on COVID-19 is empowered mainly by the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342) together with its newly imposed COVID-19 regulations and the old Police Act 1967 (Act 344). The movement control order coupled with the social distancing measures has appeared to be the effective actions in flattening the COVID-19 curve. The study attempts to map COVID-19 as a national security matter for the benefit of public health and national security concurrently within the scope and limits of Malaysia’s public health measures and prevention of diseases, in the protection of security and public order. This paper then proposed for COVID-19 and other future health crises or pandemics as national security issues. This in turn legitimising the health, security, or emergency measures, either developing on the existing laws or moving towards a more practical form of law in line with future unforeseeable threat and intervention. The Australian and Italian laws relating to COVID-19 are analysed to provide better insight and suggest solutions enabling countries facing a future emergency or crisis issues.