Singapore—Opposition leader Chee Soon Juan called out Finance Minister Lawrence Wong for having said last December that he had kept his promises about making vaccines available to all Singaporeans.
Dr Chee, the secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party, contended Mr Wong was taking undue credit, which the opposition leader says is not uncommon for People’s Action Party (PAP) ministers.
“Herein lies the nub of the problem. Our ministers are specialists in the credit-claiming department but turn very modest when it comes to taking (actionable) responsibility for mishaps,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Friday (May 21).
“And like only true autocrats can, they blame those around them when things really fall apart. Whether it’s the Little India riot or the Hep-C virus outbreak or the MRT breakdowns, it’s always some poor bloke down the chain who ends up taking the rap.”
Mr Wong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force tasked with dealing with the pandemic, said in a Facebook post last December when he was Education Minister that he was making good on a promise made the previous June.
He wrote in his post, “Promise Made. Promise Kept.”
“9 June: I shared in my ministerial broadcast that we will secure the vaccines and make them available to all Singaporeans who need it.
14 Dec: We announce that the first batch of vaccines will be here by year-end. If all goes according to plan, we will have enough to vaccinate everyone in Singapore by Q3 next year; and the vaccines will be free.”
Dr Chee reminded everyone of Mr Wong’s words, comparing them to this situation: “Take your spouse’s money, buy her a gift and then proclaim to her: ‘Promise made. Promise kept.’
“I don’t know about yours, but mine would get into an absolute fit and return me the gift – in the form of a projectile,” he added.
He went on to explain that all Mr Wong had done was to use public funds to purchase the vaccines. However, he added that the minister is “conspicuously mum about how the Task Force screwed up majorly when our immigration defences were breached”.
Dr Chee cited the Changi Airport cluster, now the largest one in the country with a number of individuals tested positive for the variant B1617.
“An 88-year-old cleaner (yes, you read it right: 88) caught the virus from someone coming from India. This led to a resurgence of infections all around the island triggering restrictions reminiscent of the lockdown last year.”
“Many have been affected by surge in infections, from taxi drivers to older hawkers to workers, and so on.
“Like I said, it’s always the poor blokes who end up paying the price. Like I said, too: Life for the ministers just keeps purring along,” he added.
The SDP leader also cited three instances that led to a rise in Covid cases that he called “moments caused by three ministerial lapses”.
The first was when the PAP hinted that elections would be called in March last year, early in the pandemic, when the number of infections was already on the rise.
The second instance was when Malaysia went into a lockdown, also in March last year, and instead of shutting down the Causeway checkpoint, Malaysians were enticed to still come to Singapore.
“A 39-year-old Malaysian worker was later tested positive; his travel history indicated that he was in Malaysia prior to entering Singapore. His movements were traced to the Mustafa Centre which as the Straits Times reported, is ‘believed to be the starting point for hundreds of cases.’ These hundreds of cases led to thousands, then tens of thousands in this country and caused the infamous and euphemistically named Circuit Breaker,” he added.
His third example was when Covid cases in India started to rise again, flights were still allowed to come to Singapore, with the Government “only closing the proverbial gate months later by which time the horse had already bolted to Timbuktu.”
In a parenthetical remark, Dr Chee added, “In an irony of ironies an Indian minister now warns of the ‘Singapore variant’ spreading to his country. Talk about get a kick in the you-know-where.”
He then urged the public to check their wallets first the next time a minister says he has kept a promise by giving something free.
“Then return the gift when you next visit the ballot box,” Dr Chee wrote.
/TISG
Chee Soon Juan: PAP will be wholly to blame if the disease triggers another unthinkable lockdown