Perhaps he was responding to remarks about his “public absence” as the country grapples with the 3,000 daily cases. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong suddenly popped up yesterday (Oct 9), with just a day’s notice, to address Singaporeans on the Covid-10 situation.
Like many Singaporeans, I made time to watch the live telecast. All I had in return, however, was mainly an update on all the data and strategic updates that have been given by the Multi-Ministry Task Force so far – with one exception.
Yes, we know that the government started off in the early stages in January 2020 with the benefit of only the SARS experience. Yes, we are aware that saving lives and protecting the healthcare system was the priority as we tried to go for zero Covid in the pre-vaccine period. Yes, we are equally relieved that the vaccines are here and that the vast majority have had their jabs. There was, in essence, hardly anything new, enlightening or inspiring in his address. Don’t we know all this already?
What did we expect?
Maybe a more candid PM who would skip all the old facts and talk more personally and productively to the nation. What were his fears when the pandemic started reaching Singapore? Why was the eye off the ball in the early stages when the virus was raging through the foreign workers dormitories? Did Heng Swee Keat underestimate the severity of the pandemic in the first Covid-19 budget? Did the government overlook the extent of the resistance of many older dialect-speaking Chinese Singaporeans to vaccination, wearing of masks and social-distancing? Was the government caught by surprise that there were so many elderly Singaporeans confined to their homes who were unable to respond to calls for vaccination without outside help?
In short, we expected PM Lee to be an active part of the battle and not take a presidential above the fray role which should rightly be played by a person we are already paying quite well to be a president. We do have one, don’t we?
Perhaps we expected too much.
All said and done, the main contribution from the PM’s live telecast was this:
I quote The Straits Times: “Singapore is entering a trying period in its fight against Covid-19, with daily cases expected to continue rising for some weeks, the healthcare system remaining under pressure and the Delta virus variant slowed but not stopped. But with each passing day, Singapore is getting stronger, more resilient and more ready to live with the virus in its midst – and this “new normal” is anywhere from three to six months away, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.”
We finally have a time frame – by the latest six months, meaning, by April 2022. This is encouraging since it serves as something that is more substantial and tangible than merely saying that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Some plans can be now be made, apparently.
This revelation was brought up again for elaboration in the Q and A session of the MTF press conference which followed the live telecast. The questioner asked how this time frame was arrived at. Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said this was based on advice by experts and the experience of some countries in Europe. He said these countries had a high level of natural immunity after having undergone earlier waves and when they started reopening their economies, some of them did not see a resurgence in cases, instead, their numbers stabilised. But Wong threw a caveat: it does not mean that “our measures would remain static and unchanged, they would still be calibrated”, depending on circumstances.
Indeed, apart from the three to six months road map, the two most important Covid-19-related developments which concerned locals on Saturday were NOT from the PM live telecast. They came from the MTF.
First was the mini-bombshell, though hinted at for some time now, that the unvaccinated will be denied entry to shopping malls or be allowed to eat at hawker centres.
Second is the simplification of all the quarantine and testing protocols into three levels of must-dos. Self-tests and social responsibility will be the norm. The idea is to release resources for more serious Covid cases. It is now time to right-size for less stress on the system and for long-term sustainability.
These two big moves are, in fact, overdue. They should have been the main, indeed only, agenda on Saturday’s live telecast – minus the distraction of a largely neither here nor there non-address.
Tan Bah Bah, consulting editor of TheIndependent.Sg, is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a local magazine publishing company.