TR EMERITUS

Where is the often touted exceptional leadership of this Government in the COVID-19 crisis? The COVID-19 crisis has undeniably cast a shadow on the People’s Action Party (PAP) Government’s carefully curated myth for infallibility. Where was the vigilance and initiative when the news broke of people “falling sick with a mysterious pneumonia” in Wuhan on 31 December 2019? However when you tout a quality of leadership that is so amply deserving of million dollar salaries, surely the expectation is a quality of leadership that delivers cutting edge initiative and vigilance. Super talents or super headless chickens and blur toads? Taiwan was vigilant and used their own initiative to set out an outbreak response right from the time they heard about people “falling sick with a mysterious pneumonia” in Wuhan on 31 December 2019. ‘When they heard about patients falling sick with a mysterious pneumonia in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Dec. 31, Taiwan’s health officials fired off an email to the World Health Organization asking for more information.’ However, Taiwan unlike Singapore did not rely on WHO. Their leadership team took the initiative to conduct their own investigation into the problem and immediately set up immigration controls once they realised there was a virus problem on 31 Dec. On 31 Dec, the island began instituting health screenings for all flights arriving from Wuhan. Between 13-15 January 13-15, two Taiwanese clinicians, along with experts from Hong Kong and Macau were on one of the first fact-finding teams to visit Wuhan and obtained game changing first hand knowledge that there was already “limited human-to-human transmission” and activated its Central Epidemic Command Center to coordinate an outbreak response even three days before Wuhan was itself locked down. Why did Singapore not send a similar fact finding Mission? Where was this “outbreak response” in Singapore? This “hyper-vigilance” and not taking anything for granted helped to safeguard the Taiwanese people from being affected by the first wave of the epidemic. Where was the boast of vigilance in “I think when you are dealing with an epidemic of a new virus, you are never complacent about it.“ Or the touted assume and be prepared for the worst stance of the supposedly “very very” serious Singapore Government? Or the medical expertise in our leadership team who have been quoted as saying : “Let me speak as a doctor. This is a new virus. It is very dangerous and wishful to believe that it will behave according to previous viruses”….. You will remember a certain CNBC interview where Singapore was congratulated as the “gold standard”. Where was all this “never complacent about it” in the steps this Government took initially and for that matter since then todate? Singapore was not so vigilant and we are paying the price for such failures and missteps today. Why did our million dollar ministers not have the gumption or initiative to take immediate action? Where were the necessary immigration controls in the crucial first days to stave off the infection? The COVID-19 crisis exposes the lie of the PAP myth of quality thread bare for all to see. I have confined myself here only to the very first days of the crisis now long past. The litany of missteps and failures that have ensued since those early days will be dealt with at the appropriate juncture as it is not my intention to undermine the ongoing efforts of the Government to deal with the crisis today for which I remain grateful even if critical.   Khush Chopra  Read More →

The spike of Covid 19 infections among our foreign workers living in cramped and poorly-ventilated dormitories has exposed not only the country’s addiction to and exploitation of low-wage workers. It has also put the spotlight on the inequitable social and political structure on which the Singapore economy is built. This has led to the emergence of a growing population of the working poor and also the elderly poor, even as the country positions itself as one of the world’s wealthiest nations. The SDP is organising an online forum titled "The world has changed with the pandemic. Can Singapore?" Live stream: https://www.facebook.com/yoursdp/ Date: Saturday 23 May 2020 Time: 2 p.m. Post your questions for our panellists during the live streaming. Set up a watch party. https://www.facebook.com/yoursdp/posts/10159015239203455 The speakers are: 1) Constance Singam 2) Alfian Sa'at 3) Kirsten Han 4) Tan Tarn How 5) Prof Paul Tambyah (moderator) Speakers’ bios -------------------- Constance Singam is a writer and civil society activist. In the last 35 years, Constance has led women's organisations, AWARE and the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations, co-founded civil society groups TWC1, TWC2 and TWC3, and has been a columnist for various national newspapers and publications. Her works include co-editing A history of the TWC: Building Social Space in Singapore, Re-Presenting Singapore Women and The Art of Advocacy in Singapore and two memoirs Where I was: A Memoir from the Margins and Never Leave Town without Chilli Sauce. She blogs at https://constancesingamblog.wordpress.com Alfian Sa’at is a poet, writer and playwright. His published works include three collections of poetry, ‘One Fierce Hour’, ‘A History of Amnesia’ and ‘The Invisible Manuscript’, a collection of short stories, ‘Corridor’, a collection of flash fiction, ‘Malay Sketches’, three collections of plays as well as the published play ‘Cooling Off Day’. Alfian has won Best Original Script at the Life! Theatre Awards four times. In 2001, he won the Golden Point Award for Poetry as well as the National Arts Council Young Artist Award for Literature. He has also been nominated for the Singapore Literature Prize three times, for 'Corridor' (1999, Commendation Prize), ‘A History of Amnesia’ (2004) and his translation of the novel ‘The Widower’ (2016). His plays and short stories have been translated into German, Swedish, Danish and Japanese. Kirsten Han is a Singaporean freelance journalist and curator of the newsletter We, The Citizens. Her work often revolves around the themes of social justice, human rights, politics and democracy, with bylines in publications like The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Foreign Policy. She received an Honourable Mention from the World Justice Project’s Anthony Lewis Prize for Exceptional Rule of Law Journalism in 2018, and a Human Rights Press Award for her commentaries on "fake news" and freedom of expression in 2019. Her essay, "The Silhouette of Oppression", was published by Epigram Books in 2019. Kirsten is also a founding member of We Believe in Second Chances, a group advocating for the abolition of the death penalty in Singapore. We, The Citizens can be found at https://wethecitizens.substack.com/ Tan Tarn How is a playwright and arts activist. He is also author of the children's adventure series The Sengkang Snoopers. A former journalist with The Straits Times for 16 years, he blogs at tantarnhow.wordpress.com. Paul Ananth Tambyah is currently Chairman of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). He was a founding member of the human rights organization MARUAH, and has been active in civil society for the last two decades. He is an academic infectious diseases physician and Professor of Medicine at a leading local university. He is also President of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, the leading infectious diseases society in the region. He has published widely on healthcare reform and social justice issues, including migrant worker rights and the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS.   #4Y1N #SDPNOW      Read More →

Mr Lee Kuan Yew and comrades were elected to power in 1959, they have guts, drive, a mission to serve and probably a vision for the future of Singapore. All were shattered when Singapore was kicked out of Malaysia in 1965, took him and the team awhile to re-envision what is to become of an island with no resource and onto nationhood. He had a vision, a mission with achievable objectives, tagged with milestones for the motivation of the nation. Some trials and errors, but still a big achievement by any standard. He is not perfect, high-handed, even oppressive when comes to any opposition. I would rate Mr Lee Kuan Yew an 8 upon 10 points on the 80/20 rules. Is Singapore Inc. still relevant today? 2G leaders lead by Mr Goh Chok Tong in 1990 had envisioned then that Singapore would be managed with a mission, to elevate the lives of Singaporean to a Swiss standard by the turn of the century. Followed by ‘SINGAPORE 21: VISION FOR A NEW ERA’, the nation was inspired. Charts and numbers were flashed in National Day Rally Speeches. Mr Goh worked his way up the political ladder with commercial experience running NOL, much had been achieved in the blooming years of the 90’s. To me, he is a nice guy but unaccountable for failed mission of achieving the Swiss standard of living for the nation. For not admitting failed objectives and why, and accountability, 6/10? Mr Lee Hsien Loong became 3G leader in 2004, he should have carried on the vision, mission and objectives of the Pioneers and 2G and further refine them. A flash-flood of foreign influx made locals’ lives miserable, affecting cross-sections of the population. Incomes and standards of living seemed to have stagnant in the last 15 years, with citizens going jobless or underpaid. There are many faults and failures that do not need to be mentioned. If we have not done badly with 3G management, we definitely have not done well. Any score above 4/10 for LHL would invite scolding and swearing. If the PAP’s ability to maintain its control largely has been attributed to Singapore’s economic growth and social welfare then, what have stopped them from doing better? Let alone much worse off. We believed in their preaching: “A party of action, not of words”, “with you, for you”, “no one will be left behind”....... so many visions that should have been measurable objectives and not subjective, we were disappointed time and again. The 4Gs have shown incompetent in managing the COVID-19, avoidance, evasive and arrogance for some. It’s too preliminary to give a score, but I’m worried they would fail miserably on managing the nation. God save Singapore if 4G is worse than 3G. Are 4Gs able to tell us where are we going to as a nation? In 60 years, Vision may change, mission to serve is absolute, and the objectives measurable. Be accountable to the people whom put you up there in the first place, be responsible even if incompetent sets in. Be honourable, stop bullying underdogs. A party in power with integrity do not pass laws to oppress, put up a good fight that we can respect.   M Gen        Read More →