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Generational clash as Buttigieg, Sanders battle in Democratic debate

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AFP
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Bernie Sanders, a Democratic Party candidate in the Primaries - Wiki Commons

by Michael Mathes with Chris Lefkow in Washington

Democratic White House hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg — riding neck-and-neck in the polls ahead of the next primary contest — clashed in an animated debate Friday over what path the party should take to beat President Donald Trump.

Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana who at 38 is a fresh face on the national stage, defended himself against charges of inexperience and in a dig at Sanders urged Americans to elevate a nominee who will “leave the politics of the past in the past.”

The 78-year-old leftist Sanders, eyeing the moderate Buttigieg as his possible chief adversary, aimed his own shots at his far younger rival on the debate stage in Manchester, New Hampshire — casting him as the candidate of Wall Street.

“I don’t have 40 billionaires, Pete, contributing to my campaign,” Sanders said.

Buttigieg and Sanders finished atop the pack earlier this week in Iowa’s chaotic caucuses, and both hope to renew the performance Tuesday in New Hampshire, as the Democratic Party seeks to pick a challenger to Trump in November.

But Sanders, a veteran senator seeking to launch a political revolution, was in the firing line from several other rivals, including former vice president and fellow septuagenarian Joe Biden, branding his policies too radical to unite Americans.

The 77-year-old Biden, fighting to keep his White House hopes alive after finishing an unnerving fourth in Iowa, insisted liberal policies like Sanders’s flagship universal health care plan would be too divisive, expensive and difficult to get through Congress.

“I busted my neck getting Obamacare passed, getting every Democratic vote. I know how hard it is,” he said.

Biden performed more aggressively than in previous showings, seizing a chance to argue that today’s global tensions required an experienced senior statesman to guide the nation out of a dark period.

Despite the Iowa setback he also made plain he still views himself as best placed to mount a centrist challenge to the Republican Trump, who this week survived an impeachment trial that did little to dent his electoral support.

“Mayor Buttigieg is a great guy (and) a patriot,” Biden acknowledged.

But as a mayor of a small city he “has not demonstrated his ability to — we’ll soon find out — to get a broad spectrum of support” from American voters.

A national unknown one year ago, Buttigieg’s ambitious campaign has resonated with voters who appreciate his articulate explanations of policy.

Rivals argue he is an untested newcomer on the world stage — but in Manchester he once again drew on his experience as a military veteran to seek to cast himself as a credible commander-in-chief.

And he advanced his central argument for generational change as the best way to take on society’s and the economy’s new challenges.

“The biggest risk we could take at a time like this would be to go up against the fundamentally new challenge by trying to fall back on the familiar,” Buttigieg said.

– ‘Trump’s worst nightmare’ –
Also on the stage in New Hampshire were senators Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang and billionaire activist Tom Steyer.

Klobuchar, a pragmatist from Minnesota, put in a forceful performance as she voiced her opposition to liberal colleagues Sanders and Warren, arguing that their plans to fundamentally change the US economy would turn off voters.

“I think we are not going to out-divide the divider in chief,” she said. “Truthfully, Donald Trump’s worst nightmare is a candidate that will bring people in from the middle.”

Biden appeared more energetic than usual on stage, although from the outset he embraced a stance he has rarely had in recent decades: underdog.

“I took the hit in Iowa and I’ll probably take it here,” Biden said, in an apparent recognition that Sanders is likely to win New Hampshire, the state that borders his home state of Vermont.

As the debate seven clashed, another candidate loomed in the background.

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg chose to ignore the early nominating contests and has spent heavily on advertising, hoping to make a splash on “Super Tuesday” on March 3, when 14 states hold primaries.

After New Hampshire, the candidates turn their sights on Nevada on February 22, South Carolina on February 29 and then Super Tuesday.

cl-mlm/ec

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

Malaysian PM downplays AirAsia probe after CEO steps aside

By
AFP
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Former Malaysia's prime minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks during an interview with Agence France Presse (AFP) at his office in Kuala Lumpur on April 13, 2018. - Malaysian ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad warned on April 13 elections next month will be the dirtiest in the country's history due to cheating by the "monster" prime minister, but insisted his opposition coalition has a fighting chance. (Photo by Mohd RASFAN / AFP) / TO GO WITH Malaysia-elections-Mahathir,INTERVIEW by Sam Reeves

Receiving money to “offset” buying planes and equipment did not necessarily constitute bribery, Malaysia’s prime minister said Thursday, days after AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes stepped aside temporarily in the wake of a $4 billion Airbus graft scandal.

AirAsia founder and CEO Fernandes and company executive chairman Kamarudin Meranun deny allegations of misconduct, but have stepped aside after Airbus last week settled a court case in Europe which alleged the planemaker paid bribes to win contracts.

Airbus agreed to pay $4 billion in fines to regulators to settle the case, but the scandal was further illuminated by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) releasing the names of several airlines allegedly involved — including AirAsia and its long-haul unit AirAsia X.

AirAsia said Fernandes and Kamarudin would step aside temporarily while the issue is investigated further.

Asked about the case, Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he was not in a position to make any decision about it, but added: “Usually when the government purchases anything, we always ask for an ‘offset'”.

“If we get something for buying at a high price tag, why shouldn’t we accept it?” he said at a press conference.

“If the money that we receive goes into our pocket, then that is bribery. But if the money is for a specific reason, it is an ‘offset’, not bribery.”

A French court last week said Airbus had agreed to pay 3.6 billion euros ($4 billion) in fines to Britain, France and the United States to settle corruption inquiries sparked by suspicious sales.

Court documents on the British SFO website said EADS France SAS — which was later renamed Airbus Group SAS — paid $50 million as sponsorship for a sports team owned by two unnamed AirAsia executives.

“Key decision-makers” in AirAsia and AirAsia X allegedly rewarded the firm with an order of 180 aircraft from Airbus, it said

AirAsia is Airbus’s biggest customer, but Fernandes and Kamarudin have denied their former Formula One team was involved in any bribery scandal.

jsm-sr/fox

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

What’s in a name? WHO tiptoes around what to call virus

By
AFP
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0
(Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT

by Dario THUBURN

Keen to avoid stigmatising the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began, or Chinese people, the World Health Organization is treading carefully on naming the new virus.

The UN health agency’s official temporary name for the disease, which it has designated as a global health emergency, is “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease”.

The date refers to when it was first identified on December 31, 2019 and “nCoV” stands for “novel coronavirus” — the family of viruses it belongs to.

“We thought it was very important that we provide an interim name so that no location was associated with the name,” Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s Emerging Diseases unit, told the agency’s executive board on Friday.

“I’m sure you’ve all seen many media reports that are still calling it using Wuhan or China and we wanted to ensure that there was no stigma,” she said.

The final decision on a name is expected within days and is up to the WHO itself as well as coronavirus experts on the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).

But picking a more specific name is fraught with dangers.

Under a set of guidelines issued in 2015, WHO advises against using place names such as Ebola and Zika — where those diseases were first identified and which are now inevitably linked to them in the public imagination.

Sylvie Briand, head of WHO’s Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness division, said this week that the use of a place name created “an unnecessary burden”.

– ‘Unnecessary and unhelpful profiling’ –
More general names such as “Middle East Respiratory Syndrome” or “Spanish flu” are also to be avoided as they can stigmatise entire regions or ethnic groups.

“It is the responsibility of us all to ensure that there is no stigma associated with this disease, and the unnecessary and unhelpful profiling of individuals based on ethnicity is utterly and completely unacceptable,” said Michael Ryan, head of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.

The WHO also points out that using animal species in the name can create confusion such as H1N1, which was popularly referred to as “swine flu”.

This had a major effect for the pork industry even though the disease was being spread by people rather than pigs.

H1N1 was also sometimes also called Mexican flu “which was not very nice for Mexican people,” Briand said.

People’s names — usually the scientists who identified the disease — are also banned, as are “terms that incite undue fear” such as “unknown” or “fatal”, the WHO said.

“We’ve seen certain disease names provoke a backlash against members of particular religious or ethnic communities, create unjustified barriers to travel, commerce and trade, and trigger needless slaughtering of food animals,” the WHO said in its guidelines.

Instead, it recommended that any new name should be descriptive and include the causative pathogen if known, as well as being short and easy to pronounce.

“We are really trying to be as neutral as possible, but as helpful as possible as well, because we need to name things with the same name everywhere in the world if we want to tackle the enemy in the same way,” Briand said.

dt/nl/har

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

Trump impeachment witnesses lose their jobs

By
AFP
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0
US President Donald Trump. (Photo: Screengrab from YouTube)

by Sebastian Smith / Anita Chang Beattie

US President Donald Trump on Friday fired two of the highest profile witnesses in his impeachment probe, sparking accusations that he is on a campaign of revenge.

Trump recalled his ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, just hours after Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a decorated soldier who worked at the National Security Council, was ordered out of the White House.

The firings came two days after the Republican-majority Senate acquitted Trump of charges that he abused his office and one day after he gave a victory speech branding his opponents as “evil.”

Sondland, a political appointee who got his post after donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, said in a brief statement, “I was advised today that the president intends to recall me effective immediately.”

The ouster of Vindman, a respected officer who was wounded in Iraq, was even more abrupt, when he was ordered out of his NSC offices at the White House.

He was “escorted out of the White House where he has dutifully served his country and his president,” his lawyer David Pressman said in a statement.

“Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth,” Pressman said.

Vindman’s twin brother Yevgeny, also a lieutenant colonel who worked as an attorney in the NSC, was fired simultaneously, US media reported.

– Taking revenge –
Trump has described the impeachment process as a hoax, denying there was anything wrong in his push for Ukraine to open a politically embarrassing investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s family.

On Friday, Trump told reporters that he wants Republicans to retake control of the lower house of Congress in the next election and to “expunge” his impeachment.

When asked earlier Friday whether he wanted Vindman gone, Trump responded with a veiled threat.

“I’m not happy with him,” he said.

“You think I’m supposed to be happy with him?” Trump said.

Pressman said there was “no question in the mind of any American” why Vindman had been ousted.

“The truth has cost LTC Alexander Vindman his job, his career, and his privacy,” he said in a statement. “He served his country, even when doing so was fraught with danger and personal peril.”

Pressman said this was why “the most powerful man in the world… decided to exact revenge.”

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden echoed this, tweeting that the two firings were “petty retaliation” carried out “for telling the truth.”

There was also outrage from Biden, who interrupted a debate with other presidential hopefuls in New Hampshire to encourage the audience onto its feet in honor of Vindman.

– Key testimony –
Vindman served as director of European affairs on the National Security Council, with responsibility for Ukraine.

Crucially, he was present during a July 25 phone call during which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into Biden.

House Democrats argued that the call was part of a plot to coerce a foreign ally into helping him ruin Biden’s chances in November’s presidential election.

Subpoenaed by Congress to testify at the House impeachment hearings, the Ukrainian-born Vindman gave damning evidence.

“It is improper for the president of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a US citizen and a political opponent,” Vindman said in testimony that riveted television viewers.

Sondland told lawmakers he followed the president’s orders in seeking a “quid pro quo” deal for Ukraine to investigate Biden in exchange for getting Zelensky a coveted White House visit.

Sondland said Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani led the effort at Trump’s direction to pressure Zelensky for the investigation and that top officials in the White House and State Department knew about it.

That testimony helped build the case leading to Trump becoming only the third president ever impeached by Congress, before his acquittal this week.

bur-sms/acb

© Agence France-Presse

/AFP

WHO launches investigation into SG conference linked to three Wuhan virus cases

By
Miren Gonzalez
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0
Photo: WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks on the novel coronavirus outbreak/YouTube screen grab

SINGAPORE — The World Health Organization (WHO) is investigating a conference held in Singapore in mid-January. Three foreign participants of the meeting — one from Malaysia and two from South Korea — have since caught the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

The meeting of a multinational company, involving 94 overseas staff, was held at the Grand Hyatt hotel.

The dots between the Singapore conference and new cases of the virus were first connected by the Malaysian health authorities, when they confirmed the case of a 41-year-old Malaysian who had been at the meeting. They added that there were people from China at the conference, including one from Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus outbreak.

According to South Korean media, the two Koreans and the Malaysian now infected with 2019-nCoV shared a buffet meal at the meeting.

Singapore staff at the meeting numbered 15. On Wednesday (Feb 5), four displayed symptoms of 2019-nCoV and have since been referred to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

The name of the multinational company or its particular industry have not been disclosed.

The fact that the three confirmed cases are linked to the meeting in Singapore is evidence that 2019-nCoV is spreading through human-to-human transmission outside of mainland China, said WHO.

It noted that this was “deeply concerning and could signal a much larger outbreak”.

“WHO is coordinating with relevant ministries of health in relation to it,” WHO spokeswoman Olivia Lawe-Davies told Reuters.

“As countries are stepping up surveillance, the detection of more cases of local transmission can be expected.”

Mr Gerald Kheng, a representative of the Grand Hyatt, said the hotel had been given a deep-cleaning after it was told of the linked 2019-nCoV cases by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday (Feb 4). Mr Kheng said he was not aware of any cases of the virus among staff or patrons of the hotel.

Investigations by the WHO into the incident are currently ongoing.

Singapore’s current total of confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV stands at 33. /TISG

Maid who hit baby repeatedly with hanger jailed for 6 months

By
Miren Gonzalez
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0
War War Myint Aung used a clothes hanger to repeatedly hit her 19-month-old charge when he would not stop crying. Photo: YouTube screen grab

SINGAPORE — A domestic helper from Myanmar was jailed on Thursday (Feb 6) for six months for hitting her 19-month-old charge repeatedly with a hanger to make him stop crying.

When questioned by the parents, the maid lied about the boy’s bruises, citing an accident, but a hospital confirmed that they were inflicted on purpose.

War War Myint Aung, 27, pleaded guilty at the State Courts to one charge of ill-treating a child.

The courts revealed details of the case: On April 12, 2019, Ms War War’s employers, the baby’s parents, left their son in her care when they went to work.

At around 1pm, War War gave the boy some lunch. As she was washing the dishes, the baby started to cry.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Lim Yu Hui said that “the accused carried the victim to make him stop crying but to no avail”.

War War decided to change the boy’s diaper, thinking that this would make him stop crying, but that did not work either. So she picked him up and carried him again.

As the boy continued to cry, the accused took a clothes hanger from the bathroom, held him by his hand and hit him several times with the hanger. Bruises were later found on his back and right cheek.

DPP Lim said the victim “moved around to avoid getting hit but the accused continued to hit him”. She then placed the hanger outside on the balcony.

When the child’s parents returned from work, they found bruises on his right cheek. When they asked her about it, War War lied and said that the baby had fallen while she was in the toilet.

The father later found bruises on the boy’s back and confronted the domestic helper about them. Again, War War insisted that the boy had received the bruises from the fall.

Seeing multiple bruises over their son’s body and realising that War War’s story was inconsistent with the injuries, the parents called the police.

War War was arrested for mistreating a child. The KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, where the boy was examined, found multiple linear bruises ranging from 2cm to 4cm in size over the child’s back and arms. The doctor confirmed that the bruises were not accidentally inflicted.

In court, District Judge Marvin Bay said: “A deterrent sentence is called for in this instance to ensure that all caregivers give pause before resorting to the infliction of violence to young children under their care.”

He also spoke of the emotional and psychological effects the child would sustain from the incident.

Under the Children and Young Persons Act, War War could have been fined up to S$8,000 or jailed for up to eight years, or both. /TISG

Public transport satisfaction “high in 2019” but netizens question its accuracy

By
The Independent
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0
Photo from Facebook @SMRTCorpSG.

Singapore – The Public Transport Council (PTC) released the findings of its Public Transport Customer Satisfaction Survey (PTCSS) on February 7 (Friday) and noted that satisfaction with public transport stayed high in 2019.

“Mean satisfaction scores for reliability saw its largest improvement,” said the PTC when the results of the annual survey conducted from September to October 2019 were announced.

According to the findings, the mean satisfaction score for public transport was at 7.8 (out of 10) for 2019, compared to 7.7 and 7.9 for 2017 and 2018 respectively.

The biggest improvement came from MRT reliability, said the PTC. The score, which went up from 7.6 in 2018 to 7.9 in 2019 could be attributed “to the significant improvement in the MRT network’s Mean Kilometres Between Failure (MKBF), from 690,000 train-km in 2018 to over 1 million train-km in 2019 – a result of increased maintenance efforts by public transport operators and Government’s investments over the years,” the council added.

Satisfaction for bus services also ranked high with a mean satisfaction score of 7.9 while the score for waiting time was at 8.0 compared to the score of 7.4 in 2018. “This could be the outcome of the improved service levels with the Bus Service Reliability Framework, which incentivises the operators to minimise excess wait time for commuters,” the PTC said.

A total of 4,997 commuters at MRT stations, bus interchanges and bus stops during both peak and off-peak hours served as the respondents for the study. They were asked to rate a specific list of service attributes, such as safety and security, reliability, waiting time, accessibility, and comfort, from 1 to 10 based on satisfaction.

Netizens, however, are doubting the validity of the study, given that it was the PTC who commissioned the PTCSS to conduct the survey.

“Ownself survey ownself to make ownself happy,” noted a certain Jiale Leong while another hinted that “Self-appraisal is the most cost-effective for them (PTC).”

Photo: FB screengrab/PTC
Photo: FB screengrab/PTC

Still, there were those who agreed with the results, such as Jack Tsoi and Robin C H Chua who also gave high marks. “Very few breakdowns with much improvement,” said Mr Tsoi. Mr Chua commented, “not only reliability has gone up, [but] the travel speed has also gone up.”

Photo: FB screengrab/PTC

Meanwhile, Mr Andrew Bulldawg Lee shared that the only real thing that went up was the fare.

Photo: FB screengrab/PTC

Details on the survey results could be accessed below:

#BetterRidesSG: Between September and October last year, 4,997 commuters were randomly selected and asked to rate, on a…

Posted by Public Transport Council on Thursday, February 6, 2020

“There is more to life than nCoV,” posts Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan

By
Beatrice Del Rosario
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0
Photo: from Facebook public photos / Khaw Boon Wan

In the midst of worries about 2019-nCoV cases in Singapore, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan has been doing his rounds and posting about the progress of the public transport sector.

On Thursday (Feb 6), at 3.07 pm, Mr Khaw posted an update on the MRT network’s expansion. “While everyone is seized with nCoV and engaged in battling this serious medical outbreak, there is more to life than nCoV,” he said.

He reported that the Land Transport Authority had signed a contract with Korea’s Hyundai Rotem Company, officially ordering 62 trains for the Jurong Region Line. The JRL is set to be operational by 2026. “New trains will come with new features: Wider train doors, more space for wheelchair users and strollers, advanced sensors and diagnostic systems, etc.,” he said. 

On top of this, Mr Khaw said that, much to the delight of the One Transport Team, the Mean Kilometres Between Failure for all MRT lines had already passed the one million kilometre mark — which is cause for celebration as the achievement signifies reliable rail performance. Furthermore, increased measures have been taken in order to maintain the sanitisation and cleanliness within public transportation. “Together, we will help one another live through this outbreak,” he said.

In another post, Mr Khaw talked about the impact that 2019-nCoV has had on the aviation sector. “Flights between China and Changi have shrunk by 70, 80%. While China travellers made up 11% of Changi traffic, they accounted for one-third of the retail sales,” he said. “It affected the shops and also the sales staff as many of them largely earn through sale commissions.”

Thus, Mr Khaw paid retailers a visit, as he preferred to speak with them on a personal level.  “I assured them that we know their pain and we are preparing a package to help them tide over the crisis,” he said. “We are in it together, and they will not be battling the virus alone. This is what Singapore is about — together, we will ride it out.”

In yet another post, Mr Khaw shared with the public that, according to the results of the 2019 PTC’s Public Transport Customer Satisfaction Survey, there has been “continued improvement in commuters’ perception of our bus and train services”. Reduced wait time for buses and the 1 million MKBF achievement, have resulted in an increase in the number of commuters. 7.69 million people rode a bus or a train each day in 2019, making for a record average. “This is a 25% jump from the ridership in 2012,” he said.

Despite the feat for the public transport sector, Mr Khaw said: “We are pressing on with expanding our bus and train networks, so that our city can be even more liveable.”

Netizens expressed satisfaction with the improvements.

Photo: From Facebook comments / Khaw Boon Wan
Photo: From Facebook comments / Khaw Boon Wan
Photo: From Facebook comments / Khaw Boon Wan

Expelled Yale-NUS student sentenced to jail for taking shower videos and upskirt photos

By
Miren Gonzalez
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0
The judged sentenced the accused to 27 weeks of jail time. Photo: YouTube screen grab

SINGAPORE — On Friday (Feb 7), an expelled Yale-NUS College student was given a sentence of 27 weeks’ jail time for filming his housemates in the shower and taking upskirt photos of women on campus.

The 26-year-old man, whose identity cannot be revealed because of a gag order imposed by the court, committed the offences between August 2017 and March 2019. There were at least four different women who were involved in the incidents.

At the end of October 2019, he was dismissed from Yale-NUS College for breaching its “code of conduct and for posing a safety risk to (its) community”, as stated by Professor Joanne Roberts, the college’s executive vice-president of academic affairs.

District Judge Adam Nakhoda said that the majority of the charges were for the shower videos that the perpetrator took. Three charges were for taking upskirt photos of his classmates.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Gabriel Lim had pushed for a 30-week sentence, but Judge Nakhoda ruled on 27 weeks. This was seven weeks longer than the 20 weeks asked for by defence lawyers Josephus Tan and Cory Wong.

For each count of insulting a woman’s modesty, the accused could have been given a maximum year’s jail sentence, a fine, or both.

The judge noted that “the level of intrusion” in the charges of filming others in the shower was high, because the man was able to capture the victims’ faces.

The photos and videos, which would automatically upload to cloud storage, were stored on the student’s laptop.

The judge took note of the fact that the accused admitted that he would rewatch the videos whenever he felt overwhelmed by school work.

Judge Nakhoda added that sentences need to be “sufficiently deterrent” as technology makes it easy these days to save and rewatch videos such as the ones the accused took.

He spoke of an “abuse of trust” , noting that after the student was confronted by one of the women he had filmed, he had deleted the recordings, but copies still remained on his hard drive.

Judge Nakhoda said that the most critical thing was to send a strong message to potential offenders that their actions will be punished, in order to protect the potential victims.

He did note that the accused has shown remorse, cooperated with police, and has made efforts to change his ways; he gave the student time to speak with his family after the hearing.

/TISG

DORSCON Orange effect: supermarket shelves cleared out of food and other essentials

By
The Independent
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0
Source: Gilbert Goh

Singapore – Various supermarkets were filled with long queues while its shelves were empty on February 7, Friday, believed to be an effect of DORSCON Orange.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Friday that the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level had been stepped up from yellow to orange. This was due to the few local cases of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that originated from Wuhan, China, without any links to previous cases or travel history to China,
DORSCON Orange indicates that the nature of the disease is “severe and spreads easily from person to person, but the disease has not spread widely in Singapore and is being contained.”

Below is a chart for more information on the different DORSCON alert levels.

Photo: Taken from gov.sg

According to the MOH, the “Government has planned for such a scenario involving community spread” and will be introducing additional precautionary measures in particular areas to minimise the risk of further transmission of the virus.

Additional precautions for large-scale events, daily health checks at the workplace, and heightened protection for vulnerable groups such as healthcare institutions and schools were some of the areas mentioned in the MOH press release.

The DORSCON Orange level announcement, however, had urged some people to go into a panic-buying mode. By Friday evening, photos and videos of people lining up at long queues in various supermarkets after emptying out the shelves of toiletries, noodles, rice, canned goods and other daily necessities.

Source: Gilbert Goh
Source: Gilbert Goh
Source: Gilbert Goh
Source: Gilbert Goh
Source: Gilbert Goh

In response to the shopping frenzy incident, Group CEO of NTUC Enterprise Mr Seah Kian Peng, advised everyone that “there really is no need to buy and stock up.” In a media advisory released the same day, FairPrice said that “there are available stocks in our warehouses and we are looking to send them to our stores expeditiously. We call for calm, as supply of daily essentials remain available, and there is no need to stockpile.”

FairPrice added that they are employing an ongoing strategy of source diversification and are partnering with suppliers from multiple countries to ensure the country has a stable supply of essentials at affordable prices.

“I know many other supermarkets are also facing the same situation. Stay calm,” added Mr Peng.

Please share. There really is no need to buy and stock up as we have supplies. I know many other supermarkets are also…

Posted by Seah Kian Peng on Friday, February 7, 2020

Many from the online community supported the announcement and noted that panic buying would only affect the mood of the other shoppers. “SG will not run out of food tomorrow, but if we stock up, it will create a false psychological fear that food is not enough for every family,” said a certain Lester John Lee.

Photo: FB screengrab/@Lester John Lee
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