In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore’s General Election (GE) has been called following the dissolution of the Parliament by President Halimah Yacob on 23 June at the request of Secretary-General of the People’s Action Party (PAP) Lee Hsien Loong.
Given that the number of COVID-19 cases has not been lowered since announcement of the GE, Progress Singapore Party (PSP) member Lee Hsien Yang took to his Facebook on Wednesday (8 July) to raise his concerns about the escalating cases of COVID-19 infections among the local community as well as in the dormitories.
“COVID-19 cases in the dormitories have remained stubbornly in the three digit range more than 3 months since the problem first erupted,” Mr Lee wrote.
Citing a chart which shows the community cases after the circuit breaker measures were eased, he pointed out that the number of cases “remain significant”, adding that “it is worrying”.
PAP is highly irresponsible to insist on holding the election because it wants to win for itself, even if it puts the lives of Singaporeans at risk, says blogger Roy Ngerng Yi Ling
Citing the same chart, Taiwanese-based Singaporean activist and blogger Roy Ngerng Yi Ling also criticised the PAP for its negligence to call for GE amid the pandemic, resulting in the growing number of community cases.
Writing on his Facebook post on Wednesday (8 July), Mr Ngerng asserted that the PAP should not have opened up the country so quickly and chose to hold the GE now, adding that it will only give rise to more COVID-19 cases in the country.
He said, “The PAP should have listened to Singaporeans who said not to open up so quickly, and not to hold the election. Instead, the PAP insisted on holding the election because it wants to win for itself, even if it puts the lives of Singaporeans at risk.
“This is highly irresponsible of the PAP,” Mr Ngerng added.
He doubted whether the PAP can still earn the trust of Singaporeans, saying: “Can Singaporeans still trust the PAP to be the government? Can Singaporeans still trust the PAP to continue to manage COVID-19?”
In a separate Facebook post on Tuesday (7 July), Mr Ngerng also stressed that the PAP not only refused to listen to Singaporeans to call off the election but also “won’t even listen to the people” when it comes to combating the pandemic.
“Singaporeans already told the PAP not to open up so quickly, but the PAP refused to listen. Singaporeans already told the PAP not to hold the election until cases have declined to zero and stabilized for a while, but the PAP refused to listen.
Yet, Lee Hsien Loong still dared to say that the PAP has kept COVID-19 under control.
And they say they want your mandate. Mandate to continue to manage the COVID-19 pandemic badly?
The PAP won’t even listen to you, on how to better manage the pandemic.”
As of Tuesday noon, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed an additional 157 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore, bringing the total number of infection cases to 45,140.
There are 20 cases in the community. Of these, 12 are Singaporeans/Permanent Residents, while eight others are Work Pass holders.
