This cock sucker shld read this article.
Will Covid19 be the circuit breaker of the political careers of Task Force Members?
With Covid19 new cases hitting a record 447 as at April 15 2020, bringing Singapore’s total infections to 3699 cases, it may spell doom to the political careers of Task Force members.
As the Multi-ministry Task Force was set up to look as a platform to showcase the 4G leaders, some of them may be regretting for jumping onboard with great expectations of higher political appointments after the Coronavirus has been sufficiently tamed.
But things do not always turned out as expected especially when the entire 10-member team moves in one direction, in one voice, with no foresight and only listening to themselves. In fact, sufficient alternative voices from Peoples Voice Lim Tean, the four doctors who wrote an open letter calling for the use of face masks by everybody, the letter by local NGO Transcient Workers Count Too (TWC2) called for the government to rehouse the workers “to give reassurance to the residents and non-resident community.” “The letter was prescient, appearing in the national newspaper a week before cases first appeared in migrant dormitories.” (The Diplomat: The missing link in Singapore’s Covid19 strategy, 14-4-20).
I have also contributed several articles in Facebook on the importance of wearing a mask even if you are well, not to use conventional strategy to fight a guerrilla warfare (Coronavirus), not to play a chest game by prioritizing politics and economics over public health and cautioning the Task Force that “Routine reporting can lead to grave oversights.” (2-3-20).
True enough, the worst has happened and despite PM Lee’s announcement on Apr 3 to shut workplaces and schools from Apr7 “to curb spike in virus cases”, and his assurance that “ the outbreak remains under control” (ST 4-4-20), the reality today is different: from a position of “the government will no longer discourage people from wearing masks” to “Masks must now be worn in public,” from 14-4-20; from 65 new confirmed cases and 1114 in total with five deaths on Apr3 to 447 new cases, bringing the total to 3699 and 10 deaths on Apr15. The vast majority of these cases involve foreign workers living in dormitories (404 out of 447 new cases).
Every morning, ST greeted us with a Covid19 advertisement on the front page in Red. Yet, the PM and the Task Force are reluctant to upgrade Dorscon Orange to Red. Why?
Most probably, the Task Force is unable to accept the reality of the current dire situation and hence continue to keep Dorscon Orange which does not convey to the public the seriousness of the widespread infections in the dormitories of foreign workers. If the Dorscon Alert Levels serve no meaningful purpose, why make a big do about it ? It seems no other countries adopt such a system of public alert but they dare to take strong and decisive measures to lockdown the country, close schools and universities, ban foreign travelers from entering into their countries and even carried out mass testing like in Korea and Germany. Even our neighbor, Malaysia implemented movement order restrictions and closed the Causeway with one day’s notice with Singapore scrambling to admit thousands of Malaysian workers by providing $50/- per worker per night housing subsidy to their employers so they could remain here to keep the economy going. I doubt PM Malaysia felt he lost political capital by implementing the sudden lockdown and movement order restrictions.
On the contrary, I think the 10-member Task Force of politicians have lost an immense amount of political capital (whereas economic losses can’t be avoided despite their great reluctance to a lockdown and limit the damage) by taking only “incremental measures” and doing “calibration” along the way. Are they unsure of themselves or lacking confidence in their task? This can’t be a mark of outstanding leadership.
With 43 dormitories located in various parts of Singapore and housing over 200,000 foreign workers (FWs), all living in closed and congested environment, how can Manpower Minister Josephine Teo, as Task Force Member, overlook such hotspots under her ministry? All FWs require work or employment permits from MOM before they can work here.
Since MOM knows the congested living conditions of FWs, the Manpower Minister should have directed improvement measures on the dormitories long before they become clusters of infection. Why isn’t the TaskForce proactive in preventing this massive infections in FWs dormitories?
The two co-chairman of the Task Force are Health Minister Gan Kim Yong and ND Minister Lawrence Wong (who overlooks HDB.) Why would the Task Force accommodate FWs in 21 blocks of vacant HDB flats in Bukit Merah when it is safer to keep all FWs away from HDB heartlands during this critical time? I believe this won’t happen without ND Minister’s approval.
The Task Force is thin on medical expertise, not to mention in the specialty of infectious disease. Only Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Transport & Ministry of Communications and Information, is a medical doctor. The other is A/Prof Kenneth Mak, a General Surgeon who sits in as Director of Medical Services. Unfortunately, he took over the post on Dec16, 2019, just as the pandemic started in Wuhan. Why did Health Minister Gan Kim Yong approved a change of guards when the former DMS has experience in handling the Zika virus infection in 2016 and Monkeypox in 2019 and had set up the NCID during his term of office? We need medical professionals who know about infectious diseases, not any politician who can just talk. Mr Gan must know that he is dealing with lives and deaths, not politicking.
Among the PAP parliamentarians, there are
about 10 medical doctors, some are senior consultants though not in infectious diseases. Why didn’t the PAP government fully utilize the medical manpower it has in its fold? Even more strange, the chairman of GPC Health, Dr
Chia Shi Lu was not even appointed Task Force Member when he is entrusted with the Health portfolio by Parliament.
In the Medical Service, there are ample qualified doctors with specialty in Infectious Disease. For the sake of public health, the government could have crossed party lines by co-opting Prof Tambyah, Senior Consultant, Division of Infectious Disease, NUH into the Task Force. In TTSH, Prof Leo Yee-Sin, Executive Director of NCID is a highly qualified infectious disease specialist, personable and eloquent. Why is the PAP government so closed-minded in the deployment of qualified people in the Medical Service as Task Force members, to the detriment of people’s health and safety? This is not the kind of government we want for 5 more years.
With Dr Janil Puthucheary as the only medical doctor in the Task Force, has he lent his medical expertise to advise his political colleagues the best actions to be taken to protect people’s health and safety, against Covid19 , like the debate on the Health Advisory “Do not wear a mask if you are well” debate? If not, he should not be in the Task Force at all because he isn’t different from his political colleagues who require scientific evidence to wear a face mask in a pandemic.
On reflection, it is great that the PAP government is so adamant in calling for GE2020 in the midst of the pandemic. The PAP government wants a strong and clear mandate to handle the pandemic and further entrench its power for another 5 years.
To all Singapore citizens, an Election held at this crisis time will give us the best opportunity to assess and evaluate all the 10 members of the Task Force performance in fighting Covid19 and keeping the people safe.
If they are unable to handle this specific task of quickly and successfully containing the spread of the infections and keeping fatality down, they do not deserve to remain as politicians with million $$$ annual salaries.
This is my opinion as a Pioneer citizen.
Wear mask now, keep safe, stay home.
Kok Ming Cheang
