The government of Singapore is performing at an all-time high. The economy is recovering and emerging stronger.
According to aggregated data by Trading Economics, business confidence in Singapore in the first quarter of 2021 is at one of its highest levels at 32 points. This is in sharp contrast with the lowest levels at -56 points just a year ago.
The "gold standard" response to Covid-19 has paid off in many ways. One of the two coordinating ministers from the joint task force, Lawrence Wong, is now tipped as a possible Prime Minister candidate after Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat bowed out of the leadership race earlier in April.
However, our greatest takeaway from the pandemic ought to be that we have much to learn from the mistakes that we have made in the past year. In particular, the varied instances when we have mistreated foreigners residing in Singapore should give us pause. During the initial phase of the lockdown, migrant workers who were trapped in their dormitories described their living conditions as staying "in a prison".
Similarly, the expatriates in Singapore reported a growing sense of worry and anxiety. When a group of six men and one woman were caught gathering at Robertson Quay, the "visceral reaction" was brought up by the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu as an example of how tribal instincts of xenophobia were resurfacing. The rise of the anti-foreigner sentiments in 2020 may not go away for a long time if we do not watch these potential fault lines closely.
Like our Malaysian neighbours up north and the Italians in Europe, Singaporeans sang songs like "Home" at our balconies in solidarity with the front line workers at the height of the pandemic in 2020. While such a morale boost was much needed, we must be careful not to let our unity be at the expense of the foreign friends who live among us.
One of the greatest lessons that Singaporeans must learn is how intertwined we are with the rest of the world. As an open country, not just in terms of trade, business and travel, we are vulnerable to the vagaries of the world. In order to survive, Singapore must be a friend to all who are willing to be our friend, and not cherry pick based on economics or political ideologies. We have to be pragmatic that way.
As the Chinese saying goes, 过门都是客, "Those who crosses the doorway and enters our home is an honored guest". We should treat our guests as the good friends we always claim ourselves to be.
Our economy is immensely successful and there is no doubt that the economic rebound will be strong. However, this nation is built not only by its citizens and permanent residents but in large by the various groups of "guests" that form the migrant workforce, a population that continually chooses Singapore as their top expatriate work location over the years.
The first to come to mind would be migrant construction workers who receive very low levels of wages and suffered the worst restrictions during the months in Circuit Breaker. They suffered both in terms of heightened risks of exposure to the virus that was spreading in the dormitories, as well as the movement restrictions put in place to contain the virus and prevent it from spreading to the general population.
The second group that comes to mind might seem unlikely at first glance. Foreigners working in Singapore also suffered greatly during the lockdown as they were prevented from meeting other expat families even when the rules were relaxed for natural families to gather during the Safe Re-opening Phase. For many of these expatriate families, the other non-biological relatives were their chosen families here.
Foreign students were not spared. Many of my classmates here at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in NUS felt isolated from the rest of the student community with the strict movement restrictions put in place for student hostel residents. As a Singaporean, I could move freely from my home to places fairly easily. Through the interactions with my classmates, I realised that this was a privilege that they did not enjoy to the same extent.
From June 2021, all eligible residents will be able to get their jabs and should be able to do so by the end of the year. Vaccine hesitancy here is low, unlike in Hong Kong where Carrie Lam's administration have had to resort to various ways to incentivise residents to step forward to take the vaccine. With the situation improving now, Singaporeans should stop to reflect upon the mistakes made during the course of 2020 before Singapore hosts the world at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in August 2021.
Having public conversations now to learn from the mistakes made within the civil service and the government, as well as encouraging similar conversations to take place in both the private sector and civil society could be a timely nation building exercise.
The series of Emerging Stronger Conversations held between the months of June – September 2020 was a good start, but it has been criticised as lacking a clear feedback loop and being self-selective due to the way participants were recruited online. We have also learned more about the disease since then.
Furthermore, since the local situation is not as chaotic at the moment and the response plans for possible surges have been developed to monitor the situation and keep the infection numbers low, this may be the best time to humbly reflect on the last year.
And this would again demonstrate that the way Singapore is run is exceptional. In the fast-moving and complex world today, governments are bound to make mistakes when it comes to policies that are formulated, implemented and evaluated in real-time during crises such as the current pandemic. The real question is whether or not we will learn.
In his 2015 May Day Rally Speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong asserted that as a "small country in this part of the world and to survive, (we) have to be exceptional." This is a truism that will always ring true for the country.
Successfully hosting WEF would add a feather in the cap for Singapore for what has been a fantastic year so far. Let's make it truly exceptional by reflecting together as a nation and learning from our mistakes to make Singapore a more welcoming place to our friends from the world.
(Photo: grainfalls on Unsplash)