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https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opin...ore-can-draw-right-lessons-coronavirus-crisis
In contrast to the first two decisions that were “known unknowns”, one cannot defend the (non-) decision on foreign worker dormitories in that light. This is not something the government – or Singaporeans more generally – did not know about and which they are only now discovering. The decision not to act on TWC2’s report highlighting (again) the living conditions in the foreign workers and how they were a ticking time-bomb at the start of the pandemic reflects a mix of delusional optimism and denial. It is what Donald Rumsfeld would have called an “unknown known”: a risk or a danger that was knowable, that the government could and should have known about had it bothered to investigate. In short, it was wilful blindness or ignorance, and the government should be held to account for not acting sooner to reduce the risks of a major outbreak in the foreign worker dormitories.
In contrast to the first two decisions that were “known unknowns”, one cannot defend the (non-) decision on foreign worker dormitories in that light. This is not something the government – or Singaporeans more generally – did not know about and which they are only now discovering. The decision not to act on TWC2’s report highlighting (again) the living conditions in the foreign workers and how they were a ticking time-bomb at the start of the pandemic reflects a mix of delusional optimism and denial. It is what Donald Rumsfeld would have called an “unknown known”: a risk or a danger that was knowable, that the government could and should have known about had it bothered to investigate. In short, it was wilful blindness or ignorance, and the government should be held to account for not acting sooner to reduce the risks of a major outbreak in the foreign worker dormitories.
