The future of the country is “anything but hopeful” when the ruling party exhibits “unmistakable signs of decline and incompetence in its handling of state affairs but insisting on silencing dissenting voices and maintaining absolute control,” said Singapore Democratic Party (SDP)’s Secretary-General Dr Chee Soon Juan on Wednesday (10 March).

In a Facebook post, Dr Chee pointed to three major “errors” by the government in the last year which illustrates this, starting with the apparently mistaken clearance of the a large patch of the Kranji Woodlands forest earlier this year.

The veteran politician pointed out how many things had to go wrong for that to have happened, from “forms that needed to be filled to signatures sought, contracts awarded, logistics arranged and monies paid”.

“And yet, the word from officialdom is that the forest was “erroneously” razed,” he said.

“If – and it’s a big if – the story is to be believed, this is the kind of cock-up that has become emblematic of this country’s leaders,” Dr Chee added.

“Someone – referring to government departments, ministries, and scores of officials and personnel–was “asleep at the wheel,” he slammed, adding that “The sheer breadth of the incompetence beggars belief.”

He then pointed out that the Kranji Woodlands debacle was not a “once in a blue moon occurrence”.

Dr Chee went on to reference the TraceTogether snafu in June 2020 when Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan assured the public that data from the TT programme would be used “purely for contact tracing”.

Of course, about seven months later, National Development Minister Desmond Tan had revealed in Parliament that the data may be used by the police for criminal investigations.

In fact, the police had already used the database in an investigation an early as May.

Dr Chee commented, “The funny thing is that in the intervening seven months when Mr Tan contradicted Dr Balakrishnan, who is also in-charge of the government’s Smart Nation project (not joking), not a single person in the vast army of ministers and civil servants pointed out the error.”

Another incident was the Singtel data breach announced in February this year which resulted in the personal information of 129,000 of its customers being stolen.

Dr Chee added, “If this sounds familiar, that’s because something similar had happened before. Twice.”

He referred to the 2018 SingHealth data break when hackers stole the information of 1.5 million patients records; and again 2019 when the Ministry of Health (MOH) revealed that the HIV Registry was hacked and data of nearly 15,000 individuals on the registry was leaked.

Noting the Committee of Inquiry that was launched following the SingHealth debacle which conducted an extensive investigation before coming up with 16 recommendations published in a report, Dr Chee quoted Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean’s launch of the Operation Technology Cybersecurity Masterplan “to strengthen our national cybersecurity defences.”

Dr Chee chided, “All this might as well not have been done because two years later, the Singtel breach happened.”

The veteran politician added that these three incidents happened within the last 12 months. Before that, there were several other serious breaches and incidents as well, which Dr Chee listed.

“Not long ago, there was the hepatitis-C virus outbreak at SGH which claimed several lives; the bribery scandal at Keppel O&M involving at least 17 senior executives which paid $73 million over a 14-year period to secure oil-rig contracts in Brazil; the “lapses in anti-money laundering controls” in DBS over the 1MDB corruption; the series of government bungles during the initial stages of the Covid epidemic which led to a lockdown costing incalculable damage to businesses and jobs – just to name a few incidents.”

In addition to these examples, Dr Chee also highlighted the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) continued “oppressive ways of investigating, suing or prosecuting the PJ Thums, Jolovan Whams, and Terry Xus of society”.

“Even the innocuous act of holding a sign or [me] organising an afternoon to collect signatures for a petition for a walkway has been declared illegal,” he added.

Dr Chee concluded, “When you have a ruling party exhibiting unmistakable signs of decline and incompetence in its handling of state affairs but insisting on silencing dissenting voices and maintaining absolute control, the future for this country is anything but hopeful.”

He fellow party-mate and Chairman of the SDP Dr Paul Tambyah shared Dr Chee’s post on his own Facebook page with the comment, “There is a need for more accountability, surely.”

Subscribe
Notify of
86 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

Chee speaks in Yale-NUS – The Future of One-Party Rule in Singapore

This op-ed is written by Sherlyn (S) and Wei Jie (WJ), two…

【冠状病毒19】第二阶段解封措施 民众可探访收容机构亲友

我国阻断措施逐步解封,民众获准到疗养院、福利院和庇护所等探访亲友,但是会集聚大批民众的活动地点,如大型宗教活动、电影院或图书馆等,都未解封。 卫生部指出,在第二阶段的解封措施下,只要遵循防疫措施,民众可到疗养院、福利院、庇护所、或残障成年人收容所进行探访活动。而看护年长者、体检和医疗美容服务也将会重启。 然而,会集聚大批民众的活动,如演唱会、展览、商展、大型宗教活动和会议都未能解封。 当局指出,依据国内外经验显示,聚集大批民众的活动将有可能引发大规模感染群,因此目前尚未批准恢复有关的活动。而相关的活动地点也包括了图书馆、博物馆、电影院、剧院、夜店和景点。 目前,政府正和相关业者商讨可采取的预防措施,包括如何保持安全距离等措施。商定后,政府将会告知相关业者有关的申请复业程序及日期,但是肯定日期仍然有赖业者和机构在措施落实方面的准备和能力了。

Dr Cherian George calls out the defence of ‘pseudo-freedom’ of the Singapore press

The conversation about press freedom is not a new one – not…

季候风转变随海浪漂上岸 海滩惊现200米长垃圾堆

我国东海岸公园沙滩上惊现200米长,由塑料瓶、木制碎片和家庭用具的垃圾堆,让常在该区慢跑和健身的居民大吃一惊。 一名经常到该公园散步的银行职员的《海峡时报》读者Laura Stanners,于周二早上(5月28日)看到有关情况后说道,“这是最大量的垃圾,最糟糕的是,我既然在这个海滩上看到”。 但是,随着海浪冲上岸的垃圾逐渐增加,加剧了现场状况。 环境局清理工作更频繁 当国家环境局(NEA)受询及有关情况时,直接指出在其网站上已经给予答复。网站上指出,在5月至10月的西南季候风期间,会有海上碎片漂上岸,包括海上垃圾。 因此,当局将会安排更频繁的海上清理工作,从原本的每周四次,改为每天两次。 37岁的家庭主妇Beachgoer Irene Lim怀疑这些垃圾是来自公海,而非本地垃圾虫的手臂。 “毕竟海滩太大了,你不可能在各角落设置相机、留意观察。这可能只是一次性发生的事件。” 然而,此次可怕景象,也让游客留下深刻印象。…