The Fawning Follower Strikes Again

You have to hand it to the Singapore system for creating its defenders from the most unlikely of places. The system has turned children of dissidents into its spokespeople (think of Janil Puthucheary, son of Dominic) and it has foreigners from the advanced countries lecturing the locals about how good they have it (I think of the number of times I’ve been told by Europeans to be grateful for what I have in Singapore).

Generally speaking, I don’t disagree with those who sing our praises. The facilities in Singapore are pretty darn good and as I’ll never tire of saying, as a father of a young girl, I’m thankful for the safety of this little Red Dot. We are in so many ways what a society should be – rich, clean and green.

Having said all of that, we are by no means a perfect society and as citizens or even residents, we have an obligation to point out the flaws of the society that we live in. Call it a process of giving feedback to the people that we pay to keep the show going. As Singapore’s government is inclined to see its self as a business, the analogy of the unhappy customers being the greatest source of learning is the most apt analogy that should be used when it comes to the government’s critics. It’s bad enough when the government which prides itself in being like a business behaves in an arrogant fashion towards its intelligent critics, it is even worse when you get foreigners justifying what is a fault.

The Fawning Follower who calls himself a Critical Spectator, has struck again. This time, he’s taken issue with Kirsten Han, a freelance journalist, who has had some articles published by the Washington Post, criticizing the government’s handling of Covid-19 outbreaks in the dormitories that house workers. The Fawning Follower has gone as far as to describe “Betrayal” as theme of Ms. Han’s career. The Fawning Follower’s Facebook posting can be found at:

https://www.facebook.com/CriticalSpectator/posts/2826267214147654?__tn__=K-R

As a matter of full disclosure, Ms. Han and I are related. She’s a second cousin once removed. However, this is a distant relationship and I wasn’t aware of it until my mother pointed it out to me. Ms. Han and I have met once and we don’t interact on Facebook or any social media.

Having disclosed that, I believe that the Fawning Follower is barking up the wrong tree when he calls Ms. Han is traitor to her country, ideals and the poor and underprivileged she claims to support. If you read through his post, you’ll find that his main beef with Ms. Han is the fact that her operation “New Naratiff” is based in Malaysia. The Fawning Follower takes issue with the fact that while Ms. Han has published articles that have been critical of Singapore’s handling of migrant labourers but not doing the same with Malaysia.

As he did in his previous post on the “Workers Dormitories being a Sign of Success,” the Fawning Follower fails to get the point. Just because everyone else behaves in a certain manner or in a worse manner, it does not make a certain action right. Then there’s the issue of where the focal point is.

Sure, Malaysia’s treatment of migrant labour may be worse than Singapore. Migrant labourers in the Arabian Gulf are known to be treated badly as was voiced many times in Qatar’s efforts to hosts the World Cup. However, just because Malaysia and Qatar (and the rest of Arabia) may treat their migrant workers worse that we do, it does not justify how we treat ours.

Then there’s the point that the place where covid-19 is blooming is in Singapore and the focus on how migrant workers are treated is thus far on Singapore and as anyone who has dealt with migrant workers, you’d know that they’re not exactly getting the best deal.

Sure, Singapore’s government has been generous in its support for the migrant workers. However, when you consider the amount of money that the government makes in terms of the levy, the government has a moral obligation to ensure the basic well being of the workers.

The Fawning Follower clearly does not understand the basics of how a society functions and by extension he does Singapore, particularly the government no favours. Instead of rushing the bash the “critics” he should consider being a “Critical Spectator” and watching out for the government he claims to admire.

Our Oooppps Moment

Singapore has just won something it doesn’t want to win. It has become the country in Southeast Asia with the greatest number of Covid-19 cases thanks to a record spike of 1,426 cases on 20 April 2020. Singapore had been lauded as a model of how to manage the pandemic. The government implemented contact tracing policies and somehow, our numbers remained relatively low without a full lockdown. Then things changed. In the last two weeks, we’ve seen our numbers jump. From two-digit daily increases, we started seeing daily increases of three digits on a daily basis.

What happened? How did Singapore’s thus far “Gold Standard” management suddenly collapse? For me, I don’t think it’s a case of the Singapore government’s lack of capability in crisis management. Rather, it’s a case of the neglected part of Singapore coming to bite us back.

If you look at the dramatic rise in the number of infected cases, you will note that its primarily from the foreign worker population who are concentrated in foreign worker dormitories. As mentioned in a previous posting, these workers are primarily from South Asia, working in labour intensive industries and for the most part live in a different, more brutal reality from the rest of us. A second cousin once removed said it best in an article in the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/16/singapores-new-covid-19-cases-reveal-countrys-two-very-different-realities/

Whatever is said of how the government has managed the pandemic, I’m inclined to agree with Professor Donald Low of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who argued that the one area in which the government should be blamed in the area of foreign worker management. Professor Low’s analysis of the government’s handling of the pandemic can be found at:

http://www.academia.sg/academic-views/coronavirus-right-lessons/

Professor Low rightly distinguishes between “known Unknowns” and “Unknown Known.” Everything about the virus was based on “known unknowns,” in as much decisions were based on available information at the time and the decision makers had to do with what they had.

The issue of foreign worker dormitories is however, is a “unknown known.” This is an old issue and NGO’s such as TWC2 have raised this issue before in the public domain. This is not the first time that foreign workers have died from diseases due to unhygienic living conditions as a 2012 article from the Straits Times reveals:

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/rat-borne-disease-suspected-in-foreign-workers-death

The system as they say, is stacked against the foreign worker and employers do have the right to view foreign workers as an exploitable asset. Getting medical leave, for example, can be perilous for the worker’s economic well being as the list from TWC2’s website points out:

http://twc2.org.sg/2019/09/15/survey-of-doctors-reveals-barriers-to-healthcare-for-migrant-workers/

There is no possible way that the government could not have been aware of this potential time bomb. One can only attribute the lack of serious action in this area to “self-interest.” These workers are the ones who keep strategic industries like ship building and construction running. Hence, the government has not been willing to “raise costs” for employers.

The more worrying trend, is that the population, particularly among the older Chinese are inclined to think of our dark-skinned workers (the proverbial “darkies”) as dispensable too. The Chinese daily, Lianhe Zaobao published a forum letter from a reader that blamed the migrant workers for the current situation:

https://mothership.sg/2020/04/migrant-workers-zaobao-letter/

While Singaporeans have come out, calling out this writer for obvious racist attitudes, the frightening thing is that plenty of people seemed to agree. The following article from Rice Media provides some valuable insight into what the letter reveals about society:

https://www.ricemedia.co/current-affairs-commentary-zabao-forum-letter-singapore-echo-chambers/

The Law Minister, Mr. K Shanmugam has gone public to decry the underlying racist attitudes, but as welcome as having a high-profile minister cone out to state the obvious, this sounds like rushing into the ICU for a problem that was diagnosed a decade ago.

Singapore’s mortality rate from the virus remains relatively low. While the government has done a relatively competent job, in as much as it has taken care of the population that votes. However, it has completely disregarded a segment of the population which does not have a voice.

A government that is renowned for having superb foresight has been caught by a glaring blind spot. This is an organization that holds a lot of power. It could have tried to listen to the voiceless. As a society we need to understand that treating people like humans is in our self-interest.

Too much energy is focused on international window dressing. In the early days of this pandemic, our ministers became prone to comparing our well-disciplined machinery to the “idiots” in Hong Kong, which up to that point was racked with street protests. Just as Singapore recorded its first four digit increase in cases; Hong Kong recorded its first day without a new case. As Professor Donald Low argued, humility and humanity should be the lessons we learn from this virus.