Kuala Lampur, April 3 -- It's been four years but there are still memories from the early days of the pandemic that haunt me from time to time.

The first day in lockdown, when it was so quiet I thought I was going deaf.

The ensuing days when ambulance sirens kept sounding each hour to the point I felt one would come for me soon, but for a mental health breakdown.

The loneliness which led to me distracting myself from the ever present dread by learning to shop on Taobao.

It wasn't all bad. While the neverending pleas for aid and assistance on social media were heartbreaking, for once, Malaysians stopped making their daily lives about the artificial divides of faith and race.

Kita tolong kita (we help us) was the rallying cry as in the...