What Happened?
“Is this really necessary? Come on!”
That was the caption of the video @MulRahmat posted on Tik Tok on 19 March 2022. The video captured what appears to be a passionate Safe-Distancing Ambassador (SDA) who was in his element at Burgs in Vivocity.
In the video, the man placed a measuring tape. He was supposedly measuring the distance between two diners to a tee.
After he whipped out his trusty measuring tape which has been the cause of agony for many restaurants around Singapore, he knelt down to take a photo of the tape. His dedication to his craft caught the attention of a diner clad in green, whose chair was the subject of measurement.
@mulrahmatsincere question: I thought the safe distancing has been a little relaxed?♬ original sound – Mul Rahmat – Mul Rahmat
Aren’t Safe Management Measures (SMMs) relaxed already?
Mul, who posted the video, was under the genuine impression that SMMs had been relaxed. However, some TikTok users pointed out that safe distancing is still required in mask-off situations like dining.
One user, SurfingBanana, questioned the apparent lack of safe distancing between the safe distancing ambassador and the patrons.
The Reactions
Some of the most-liked comments in the video appeared unimpressed by the SDA’s actions. A few users likened the SDA’s actions to “wayang”.
Others argued that SDAs, as a whole, are now redundant.
Do we still need SDAs?
on 19 March 2022, Singapore crossed the 1-million mark for COVID-19 cases. At this stage of the pandemic, do SDAs actually serve a purpose?
We posed this question to our audiences on Facebook and Instagram. A majority of those who agreed that the role of SDAs should cease to exist pointed to their redundancy.
There were multiple references made to wastage of taxpayers’ monies. Some also used the opportunity to question the purposes of not only SDAs, but TraceTogether too.
Most of those who disagreed did not engage with the question of the value of their roles. Rather, their arguments focused on the men and women who may lose their jobs.
Gary wondered out loud about why people were “scare” of them if we “didn’t do wrong”.
On the point of unemployment, Bhas Khunju reframed the issue to one of underemployment instead.
Others, like Maddy and Adi pointed out how potential unemployment shouldn’t weigh too much in decision-making as SDAs should have known that the role was a temporary one from the get-go.
Earlier this month, we made the case for TraceTogether to be phased out. On SDAs, we can’t seem to think of any convincing reason why the role should continue. Even if we agree that social distancing is necessary, we all could do with less policing.
If you have some strong opinions on the relevancy of SDAs, we would love to hear from you. Send your thoughts to admin@wakeup.sg or slide into our DMs on Instragram.
This article was first published in Wake Up Singapore!