Letter to People’s Association Chairman, Lee Hsien Loong and Deputy Chairman Chan Chun Sing
Dear Sir,
It beggars belief that such a large scale, non-essential event was given the go-ahead to proceed despite a Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) orange alert in place on the 7 February. For it to be given the tag of a “private function” misleads the public into thinking it was a small family function or such when it was later revealed that the two events hosted a combined total of a few hundred people, most of whom attended singing classes under the purview of People’s Association (PA) and/or Resident Committees (RCs). On top of it, the event(s) were held in the premises of SAFRA Jurong.
I think the public would like to know if PA/RC had any knowledge of a function being organized that gathered a few hundred people in an enclosed air-conditioned environment. The attendees of this function were part of the PA/RC singing classes.
If PA/RC were not in the dark, what happened to the oft-touted social responsibility advocated by our government in a bid to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus? As a grassroots body, where is the “lead by example” approach?
Why hadn’t SAFRA Jurong erred on the side of caution given the scale of the function in question when DORSCON orange was already in place? Even private condominiums have ceased the booking of all function rooms and bbq facilities in a bid to do their part to contain the spread. The AOG Church which had originally planned for a function to be held on the 8 February, had made the socially responsible move of cancelling the event after the DORSCON alert was raised to orange.
This, to me, is a classic case of playing Russian Roulette on the part of the singing coach(es) and whoever was responsible for letting this event take place. Well, the suspense is over and unfortunately for the larger community and our medical workers, those who chose to play this risky game lost. We now have this SAFRA Jurong case as the second-largest cluster in Singapore. It is not a game we can afford to keep playing given our limited resources.
Yours faithfully,
Maurice Tay
