MOM extends apology to Jade Rasif for its possible portrayal of her presenting an inaccurate account in its 17 May statement

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has extended its apology to former DJ and model Jade Rasif in its latest press statement as what can be said to be closure in the saga between Ms Rasif and MOM over varying accounts of Ms Rasif’s migrant domestic worker (MDW)’s quarantine order.

In the update on its Facebook page, MOM said that the ministry has reached out to Ms Rasif on Saturday (22 May) to see how they can address her unhappiness over its press statement on 17 May so as to bring matters to a closure.

It pointed out that Ms Rasif had left a comment in response to its 17 May FB post sharing that she had received two phone calls from the Police on being investigated for breaching a Quarantine Order.

“We understand that the Police have since clarified with Ms Rasif on the purpose of their calls, and that she is not being investigated for any breach of Quarantine Orders.” wrote MOM.

MOM in its 17 May post had said, “Ms Jade claimed to have been investigated for breach of quarantine. The family were not issued Quarantine Orders (QO), and there could not have been investigations made for breach of quarantine, when no QO was issued in the first place.”

The ministry further noted that the use of the word “inaccurate” and one of the points in its 17 May FB post could have portrayed Ms Rasif to be providing an inaccurate account on the Quarantine Order investigation.

“We note that the use of the word “inaccurate” and one of the points in our 17 May FB post could have portrayed Ms Rasif to be providing an inaccurate account on the Quarantine Order investigation. She shared with us that this had affected her negatively. We would like to extend our apologies to her for this.”

The ministry said it would therefore retract this point and redact the word “inaccurate” in its 17 May FB post.

In addition, it will also retract a point which stated that MOM had reached out to her family on the complaint made against the ambulance driver.

As for how its officers handled the phone call with Ms Rasif on 18 May, MOM acknowledged that its officers could have done better and been more tactful in addressing Ms Rasif’s questions.

“We assured her that we will improve on this aspect of communicating with our customers.”

MOM ended by stating that it will conduct an internal review of our communications and service delivery processes.

Ms Rasif posted a FB post following MOM’s statement, saying that she has graciously accepted its apology.

Background of saga

For those who are not aware, Ms Rasif shared on her Instagram on 16 May about her traumatising experience over her MDW’s quarantine order where her MDW was tested positive for COVID-19 after being released from quarantine just three days after arrival instead of the full 14 days.

Ms Rasif noted how the MDW had gone around visiting Singapore before being told she was tested positive and picked back to stay at the quarantine centre.

She also noted her surprise that the authorities had not asked her or her family to be quarantined or observe any Stay-Home Notice.

Just a day after Ms Rasif’s posts went online, MOM in a Facebook post on 17 May, dismissing Ms Rasif’s story and said that her account is inaccurate.

On the same day, Ms Rasif called out the Ministry for certain inaccuracies in its post including the dates they have stated which she claims do not match the ones printed on the movement order that was issued to her.

A day later, Ms Rasif shared that she has spoken to MOM and “presented receipts”. She noted that the MOM has “apologised and admitted that their press release was inaccurate, and made without sufficient research” after looking into the evidence she handed them.

She added, “I have extended the opportunity for us to re-release a joint statement to reveal the truth to the public.”

In an attempt to provide better clarifications regarding the case, Ms Rasif went on Instagram on Thursday (20 May) to share evidence of phone calls, text messages and emails she exchanged with the MOM.

She noted that she shared these exchanges to point out that her version of the story is not inaccurate, contrary to what MOM had earlier claimed in its press release.

Read: Timeline of Jade Rasif’s MDW quarantine saga with Ministry of Manpower