PSP’s Kumaran Pillai calls out 4G leaders for opening borders too quickly without focusing on vaccinations for all

Singapore — The Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) Kumaran Pillai called out the 4G leaders for their haste in opening up Singapore’s borders.

In a Facebook post on Monday (Jun 7), PSP’s media spokesperson and Central Executive Committee (CEC) member Mr Pillai shared that because of Singapore’s current Covid-19 situation, small business owners and sole proprietors face hard times and a drastic decline in income.

“This is very troubling and we really can’t afford to go on like this”, he wrote.

Mr Pillai explained that another group of people who are also badly affected by the pandemic are older people who are unable to adapt to newer technologies. This group includes hawkers unable to get on board with online delivery systems.

“Our first order of business is in building our herd immunity through a vaccination programme. I am aware that there are people who are sceptical about the efficacy of the various vaccines out there, or prefer one over the other”, wrote Mr Pillai. However, he added that in order to get over the current crisis, it is crucial that everyone is vaccinated as soon as possible.

Singapore began mass vaccination at the start of the year but lags behind countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel in vaccine roll-out because of supply constraints, experts said.

Slightly more than one-third of the population in Singapore has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and about one-quarter is fully vaccinated, according to a Straits Times report at the end of May.

“Someone wrote to me recently and said that Singapore faltered in its implementation. Our inoculation programme is slower than some of the other developed countries,” Mr Pillai added.

He said that Singapore should have ensured a substantial portion of the population is vaccinated before opening up the borders.

Because of the haste of the 4G leaders in reopening the borders, Mr Pillai said, now the weakest and most vulnerable amongst us suffer the most.

“Our 4G leaders were just too eager to show that we can do the impossible by opening up the borders too quickly. They were even planning to host a summit in Singapore. Now, we are set back by several months or even years. Hope of recovery is dashed because our 4G leaders just won’t listen to our people,” he wrote.