Former National Solidarity Party Chief Lim Tean took to social media to express his indignation at the SingHealth data breach and he felt that the members of the Committee of Inquiry could have been better picked to suit the situation.
According to the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI), the four-member committee is tasked with looking into the events and contributing factors leading to the cyberattack on SingHealth’s patient database system, as well as recommend measures to reduce the risk of such attacks in future.
Mr Lim said that because the composition of the Committee was of the utmost importance, “instead of having the greatest independent experts in the World examine and investigate the fault in the system, we once again have a coterie all linked or previously linked to the establishment”.
He also expressed that this rendered the Committee not as effectual as they could have been.
Mr Lim then said, “Besides the Chairman Richard Magnus who was the former Chief District Judge, the other 3 members all are either linked to the establishment or were formerly linked”.
He added that Lee Fook Sun, was a former Brigadier General in MINDEF and was with the ST Engineering Group for 17 years until he retired in 2017. He is also a board member of SMRT and DSO National Laboratories and a corporate advisor to Temasek International Advisors Pte Ltd.
He then went on to say that Mr T.K.Udairam was the former CEO of Changi Hospital. He is currently the COO of Sheares Healthcare Management, which is wholly owned by Temasek.
Mr Lim also added that “Ms Cham Hui Fong is the assistant secretary-general of NTUC and has been for the last 27 years”.
Many netizens also expressed their unhappiness at the data breach.
While a certain measure of accountability is expected from the COI and SingHealth, it might not be entirely fair or relevant to judge the upcoming performance of the Committee on their prior vocational designations. They do have their work cut out for them and the results have yet to be seen.
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obbana@theindependent.sg