laopokcar_g
Banned
- Joined
- May 22, 2005
- Messages
- 37,950
- Reaction score
- 12,193
1. Putting GDP at the forefront, above its people
- In the immediate aftermath of the Wuhan lockdown, the gahmen chose to tread carefully to not offend Xi. Instead of assessing how best to protect its people against the unknown contagiousness of the virus, they conveniently played for time by using the xenophobia tag against the many crying for a decisive closure of its doors. The Wuhan ban came a day after this tag was used. Besides being a slap on the face of the person who uttered it, it showed how meaningless and poorly thought of it was. It is like you shoot down a suggestion in a meeting just so you get air time, only for the suggestion to be implemented the very next day.
- Whilst China is an important and friendly trading partner for us, it's a double edged sword here in that we are the most (or second most after Thailand) popular destination for tourism and work for Chinese nationals. Surely our actions have to be as fast as China given our influx of Chinese nationals? We are almost like a province outside of China! Surely someone would have appreciated the severity that China is expediently locking down Wuhan and many neighbouring cities, something that was unheard of?
- In contrast, Macau was fast - in giving out masks, shutting down casinos even though the casino taxes make up more than 80% of government taxes. They put people above GDP. Since the closure, it's been seven days and counting of having no new cases. Meanwhile in Singapore, we are now told to prepare for the worst.
2. Allowing market forces to play out
- The shortage of masks in Singapore was easily solved by other countries like Taiwan and Macau whereby the government rationed and controlled the sales. They treated their citizens like adults, admitting when they had insufficient supply. They trusted the citizens to understand and to ration their own usage.
- I'm sure we would all have greatly benefited from a similar system in Singapore. We are mature enough to understand priority goes to the healthcare workers and needy and the common folks might have to ration their usage. We could have planned our travel/work from home schedules accordingly if we have insufficient masks for the week.
- Please don't tell me healthy people do not need masks, and that it does not spread through casual contact. Have we not had cases of casino workers, quarantine officers, co-workers in conferences seemingly getting the disease from 'casual' contact? We all work in a globalised workforce and I am sure your meetings and interaction with your co-workers in the office would be more than just 'casual', however they define it.
- The lack of trust both ways showed in the raiding of supermarkets. The average Singaporean would look at the assurance of masks supply vs the empty shelves in pharmacies and then think the same could happen for food supplies. Of course the gahmen just conveniently blamed the behaviour of the people, forgetting that it all arose cause no one truly believed their elusive stockpiles, be it masks or food. Or rather, a packed warehouse does not translate to the citizens being able to use it, at least that is the current case with masks.
3. Instead of sharing plans and strategy, there were just meaningless motherhood statements
- Too many to list here but you know lah. "united together" "wash your hands" "don't discriminate healthcare workers" "we learnt from SARS"
- No one know what plans they had in converting hospitals or wards should the spread get more serious. There was no assurance they have had every angle thought out. One day it was not serious, then no community spread, then limited spread and now of course, prepare for the worst
- The weather is more predictable than the severity of the situation in Singapore. Of course not forgetting we started off with a it's not as deadly as SARS evaluation.
I took effort to type this WOT so please tell me what you agree or disagree in a civil manner non-EDMW style.
- In the immediate aftermath of the Wuhan lockdown, the gahmen chose to tread carefully to not offend Xi. Instead of assessing how best to protect its people against the unknown contagiousness of the virus, they conveniently played for time by using the xenophobia tag against the many crying for a decisive closure of its doors. The Wuhan ban came a day after this tag was used. Besides being a slap on the face of the person who uttered it, it showed how meaningless and poorly thought of it was. It is like you shoot down a suggestion in a meeting just so you get air time, only for the suggestion to be implemented the very next day.
- Whilst China is an important and friendly trading partner for us, it's a double edged sword here in that we are the most (or second most after Thailand) popular destination for tourism and work for Chinese nationals. Surely our actions have to be as fast as China given our influx of Chinese nationals? We are almost like a province outside of China! Surely someone would have appreciated the severity that China is expediently locking down Wuhan and many neighbouring cities, something that was unheard of?
- In contrast, Macau was fast - in giving out masks, shutting down casinos even though the casino taxes make up more than 80% of government taxes. They put people above GDP. Since the closure, it's been seven days and counting of having no new cases. Meanwhile in Singapore, we are now told to prepare for the worst.
2. Allowing market forces to play out
- The shortage of masks in Singapore was easily solved by other countries like Taiwan and Macau whereby the government rationed and controlled the sales. They treated their citizens like adults, admitting when they had insufficient supply. They trusted the citizens to understand and to ration their own usage.
- I'm sure we would all have greatly benefited from a similar system in Singapore. We are mature enough to understand priority goes to the healthcare workers and needy and the common folks might have to ration their usage. We could have planned our travel/work from home schedules accordingly if we have insufficient masks for the week.
- Please don't tell me healthy people do not need masks, and that it does not spread through casual contact. Have we not had cases of casino workers, quarantine officers, co-workers in conferences seemingly getting the disease from 'casual' contact? We all work in a globalised workforce and I am sure your meetings and interaction with your co-workers in the office would be more than just 'casual', however they define it.
- The lack of trust both ways showed in the raiding of supermarkets. The average Singaporean would look at the assurance of masks supply vs the empty shelves in pharmacies and then think the same could happen for food supplies. Of course the gahmen just conveniently blamed the behaviour of the people, forgetting that it all arose cause no one truly believed their elusive stockpiles, be it masks or food. Or rather, a packed warehouse does not translate to the citizens being able to use it, at least that is the current case with masks.
3. Instead of sharing plans and strategy, there were just meaningless motherhood statements
- Too many to list here but you know lah. "united together" "wash your hands" "don't discriminate healthcare workers" "we learnt from SARS"
- No one know what plans they had in converting hospitals or wards should the spread get more serious. There was no assurance they have had every angle thought out. One day it was not serious, then no community spread, then limited spread and now of course, prepare for the worst
- The weather is more predictable than the severity of the situation in Singapore. Of course not forgetting we started off with a it's not as deadly as SARS evaluation.
I took effort to type this WOT so please tell me what you agree or disagree in a civil manner non-EDMW style.