National Development Minister Lawrence Wong today (July 5) refuted comments made by Singapore Democratic Party (SDP)'s Paul Tambyah about an advisory issued by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) about testing workers for Covid-19.

He clarified that the Multi-Ministry Task Force (MTF), which he leads together with Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, relies on the advice of medical experts who asked MOM to put out the advisory.

Tambyah, who is standing as a candidate for Bukit Panjang SMC, was speaking on July 3 about MOM testing workers at a forum at NUS.

Wong said that while he "fully respects Professor (Paul) Tambyah as a leading expert in his field", he found it "very disappointing that he has deliberately chosen to distort the facts just to try and score some political points".

Singapore handled the pandemic "really well" initially

At the NUSS forum, Tambyah said it was "widely acknowledged" in January and February that Singapore had handled the pandemic "really well" by following the basic principles of public health, isolating and identifying cases.

He said that in February, there was a cluster of cases of Bangladeshi workers at the Seletar Aerospace construction site, that was handled well, in a similar manner.

Tambyah then spoke of a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) statement about testing workers:

"And then what happened was the employers started thinking hey you know, my workers are living in the same dormitory maybe we should bring them for testing. And then what happened was Ministry of Manpower issued a statement telling the employers they were not allowed to bring their workers for testing, and if they brought their workers for testing, they would lose their work pass privileges.

They actively discouraged the testing. And then in March, you know, all hell broke loose. You know, we had the returning travellers coming in from US and Italy, and then we had the dorm outbreaks occurring."

He added:

"And I have an opinion as to why that happened, I don't know for sure. But you know that was the time they started talking about an early election. And you wonder whether the ministerial committee lost their focus on public health and started thinking about the election."

Wong: MOM relied on scientific evidence and medical advice from experts

But Wong, who is a People's Action Party (PAP) candidate standing in Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, said that MOM did not go against the advice of medical experts when issuing the statement:

"Professor Tambyah claimed that MTF has not been relying on advice of medical experts, and specifically that the Manpower Ministry issued an advisory to employers telling them not to get their workers tested against the advice of medical experts. These are baseless and false allegations. First, the MTF has always relied on scientific evidence and the advice of medical experts in our work and in coming with our decisions."

Wong added that the medical experts are an integral part of their team, and they are involved in all their deliberations. Every time that the MTF holds a press conference, Director of Medical Services in Ministry of Health Kenneth Mak is involved.

Wong also clarified that it was the doctors and medical experts had asked MOM to put up an advisory to clarify with the employers.

Added Wong:

"I fully respect Professor Tambyah as a leading expert in his field, but it is very disappointing that he has deliberately chosen to distort the facts just to try and score some political points

I had fully expected and I was prepared for the SDP to do this, but I had expected better of Professor Tambyah."