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The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) opposed the Bill which was read for the second and third time in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb. 2), with Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai urging the government not to erode public trust during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) (Amendment) Bill formalises how the government can use contact-tracing data collected by digital contact tracing systems, such as TraceTogether and SafeEntry.

During the debate on the Bill, Leong said that the government should not use contact tracing data during police investigations, and called upon the government to "keep to its original promise".

The public's trust in the government is broken: Leong

According to Leong, Singapore's contact tracing programmes have intruded extensively upon the privacy of the people.

"Singaporeans have long accepted some erosion over their civil rights, and by extension their privacy, in order to ensure public safety", said Leong.

He noted that there was a public backlash against TraceTogether in June 2020, but those concerns were alleviated as Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative Vivian Balakrishnan and Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean made public announcements, promising that collected data will only be used for contact tracing.

Leong claimed that "this trust was broken" during last month's Parliamentary session, when the government admitted that it gathered data from TraceTogether for the purposes of a criminal investigation.

Leong also added that between TraceTogether and SafeEntry, the government can create a "map" which shows where an individual goes, and who he associates with.

"Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair. This broken promise has broken the public's trust in the government," said Leong.

Leong urges government to preserve trust in public health measures

He emphasised that the PSP is not objecting to this Bill "for the sake of objecting", and have actually considered supporting it, with certain amendments.

However, he said that it is important to preserve trust in public health measures, stating that it is of utmost priority during a pandemic.

He argued that keeping contact tracing data solely for public health reasons is not unprecedented, as the Australian government has publicly committed to ensuring that the data collected cannot be accessed by the police.

Leong also noted that the Covid-19 pandemic will neither be the first, nor the last pandemic that Singapore will face, and any action the government takes will have a bearing on the government's actions in future crises.

He said that passing this Bill actually goes against the government's objective of rallying everybody together to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, as it does not go far enough to assure citizens that the government "keeps its promises".

What if TraceTogether is needed to track a kidnapped child?

In response to Leong, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Indranee Rajah asked him what PSP's position would be, if the use of TraceTogether data is necessary to investigate a child kidnapping, with no other evidence available.

"So would I be correct then, in understanding that in the example given by Minister Vivian, that if there was a child kidnapped, and let's say there's no other sign of any evidence, the only thing that you have is TraceTogether data. Mr Leong's position would be no; that we will not access that data. Is that the position?"

Leong said that his party's position will not change.

"Yes, our position will be that", said Leong.

He said that with regards to the Bill, his party believes it is more important to prioritise public trust over public safety, even after considering the various trade-offs.

Indranee then responded: "I thank the member for his clarification. He is right. There is a trade-off. But we would not trade a child's life for something like that".

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Top image via MCI/YouTube.