Initially containing 18 people in a household, a terrace house at Taman Public in Likas is said to be the first to raise the white flag in the state capital after almost running out of food stocks. The house has since been left with only 9 occupants while the rest has been sent to quarantine centres after getting infected with Covid-19.

The house was declared as a cluster in the housing area and has undergone an enforcing EMCO (Enhanced Movement Control Order) for 14 days. The remaining occupants have successfully completed their home quarantine whilst waiting for their swab test results.

Azhar Mustapha, one of the occupants, said it was his cousin and her husband, who is also staying in the same house that brought up the idea to raise the white flag. There were three families living in the same house and all are believed to be related and originally from Semporna.

Azhar told FMT, “Our food was running out after most of us were left without work since the MCO started on June 1. Our finances were also running out. My cousin and her husband got the idea after reading about the white flag campaign on Facebook.”

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Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin and Likas Assemblyman Tan Lee Fatt visited the house before the EMCO and noticed the white flag. MP Chan said, “We needed to check on the situation before the EMCO (Enhanced Movement Control Order) was enforced and we saw the white flag. That was the first white flag I saw in Kota Kinabalu. We stopped by to ask and found out their predicament.”

Food supplies were handed out to the occupants and made sure that no physical contact was involved.

This news was first published in Free Malaysia Today.