With the continuous surge of total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Singapore, it had definitely strained the healthcare system.
Seeing how the current situation is stressing out the nation and the frontline workers, the Government had initiated a campaign to invite Singaporeans for a sing-a-long that took place in the evening of 25 April.
A troupe of Singaporean celebrities like Dick Lee, Taufik Batisah, and Vernetta Lopez led many Singaporeans in the sing-a-long to sing the patriotic anthem “Home” on Saturday evening. Participants were also encouraged to flash their torches at the window and record videos of themselves singing the song.
The campaign was reported to “show our appreciation to our frontline workers, migrant workers and all of you staying at home”.
Despite the number of positive responses on the Gov.sg Facebook page, the point of this campaign was questionable when the invitation attempted to attract people to participate by suggesting that they could spot themselves in a compilation video later on that night.
Not only that singing along to a patriotic song does close to nothing to support the frontline workers and the patients battling in hospitals, but the intention of the campaign was ambiguous as they also wanted to attract people who want to be on television for a millisecond.
Many questioned the point of this campaign and had called this entire shebang a distraction.
A woman named Saza Faradilla left a comment under the Facebook post, raising actual concerns about the salaries given to Singaporean healthcare workers instead of wasting time to carry out such “feel-good” and “ineffective” gestures.
“I still don’t understand, why don’t we just raise the salaries of our healthcare workers instead of wasting time and effort on these feel-good, ineffective gestures?”
As observed by Coconuts Singapore, some people said that the campaign was a deliberate attempt to “distract people from the embarrassing issues” that had surfaced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pointing at the horrible living conditions the migrant workers are exposed to.
Dannah Lam questioned if holding a huge sing-off would actually show appreciation to the frontline workers and migrant workers, as what Singaporeans should really focus on is using the right actions to support the people who are risking their lives amid the pandemic.
“If by singing helps to show [appreciation] to the frontline workers and the migrant workers? All they need is us doing the right things! Stay home for the frontline workers. And do the right things and correcting our wrongdoings and to provide better living condition for the migrant workers.”
“Not all this actings to show support. Government. Time for you to wake up from your LA LA land. You are paid millions of dollars to do your job for our country people and citizens of the world.”
Fir Ida said that the get-together kind of campaigns are “unnecessary distractions” from the real problem. He urged that the main focus should be ceasing the spread of the coronavirus and let life return to normalcy.
“These are all unnecessary distractions from the real problem. Stop the virus from spreading and recovery fast. We want our normal lives back.”
Looking past the karaoke session that somewhat masked the underlying issues that are yet to be addressed by the Government, Gabriel Khoo suggested raising the pay of the frontline workers.
“What is the point of this gesture? Just double their pay and triple their year-end bonus,” said Gabriel Khoo.
It is not news that 90 per cent of the confirmed COVID-19 cases consisted of migrant workers who live in sardine-packed dormitories. And it seems like there is a bigger concern for the Government and Singaporeans to look upon instead of getting hyped from their balconies with a flashlight in their hands.
