Comment on Lim Tean’s post: Covid-19 response will hit Singapore’s international status

A person online, responding to a post by an opposition politician, has expressed concern over Singapore’s international status given the way the Covid-19 pandemic has been handled in the country. In particular, he felt that Manpower Minister Josephine Teo was lax in her handling of the controversial foreign worker dormitories.

On Monday (June 1), People’s Voice chief Lim Tean had shared an article that discussed Japan’s recent plans to open up to foreigners from certain countries as the powerhouse eased its lockdown measures. According to the article by Reuters, though countries like Thailand and Vietnam were included in Japan’s list of prospects, Singapore was not.

https://web.facebook.com/PeoplesVoiceSingapore/posts/2572744319660425

Mr Lim took this as a sign of the failure of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). He said: “The PAP messed up big time on the coronavirus!”

In response to Mr Lim’s post, Facebook user James Kok expressed his concern over how this can affect Singapore’s international reputation.

“I am afraid we are going to lose our international status due to our PAP government’s  poor handling of the Covid-19 outbreak,” he said, and warned that this loss of stature would affect the country’s trade relations, its competitive edge, as well as the confidence of foreign investors.

“The highest cabinet in the world has let down Singaporeans,” he said, adding that countries that would begin to consider who to let in would not likely include Singapore. “Even Japan, which had good bilateral relations with Singapore, has skipped us.”

Mr Kok then singled out Ms Teo for her handling of the foreign worker dormitories. He said: “The whole world is watching us and is interested to see how Singapore will perform after the Lee Kuan Yew era.”

/TISG