The Workers' Party (WP) yesterday acknowledged the Government's efforts in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, but said that as a responsible opposition party it had put forward policy proposals on how Singapore can navigate a post-Covid-19 world.
Its comments in a Facebook post came in the wake of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's remarks that opposition parties have shown no recognition that Singapore is facing "the crisis of a generation".
Speaking at the People's Action Party's lunchtime online Fullerton rally, PM Lee said the country is in a moment of danger and alarm but opposition parties are talking as if the pandemic does not exist and Singapore can keep to its old ways.
"They have been completely silent on how to tackle Covid-19 - both during the last six months and in this election campaign.
"What contribution will they make in Parliament, adding 'contrast' to the discussions they say, if they get elected as MPs?" he added.
Referring to this, the WP said in its Facebook post that it had put forth policy proposals in its manifesto two Sundays ago to address the crisis.
The first chapter in the 42-page document was devoted to "tackling Covid-19 and thriving in a post-Covid world".
Over eight pages in the chapter, the party made 16 proposals.
It said: "We acknowledge the Government's efforts so far in dealing with this crisis. We support the safe distancing measures put in place to contain Covid-19 and urge fellow Singaporeans to comply with them - for their own safety and that of the rest of the community.
"At the same time, although the crisis is still ongoing, it is our duty as a responsible opposition party to make a constructive contribution to the policy discussion on how best to deal with this outbreak and emerge stronger as a nation."
Its proposals on how to handle the crisis covered issues from expanding testing to plugging gaps in the support measures to reviewing public communications.
Yesterday, the WP reiterated some of them, including forming an independent medical advisory board to make recommendations to the Government's medical team.
In its manifesto, the party had said this would pre-empt blind spots, pointing out that the Government's initial advice on the wearing of masks appears to have been driven more by concerns of a shortage of masks.
It also called for more widespread community testing and for the TraceTogether smartphone app, which works by exchanging Bluetooth signals with other nearby phones, to gather only data that is "absolutely necessary for contact tracing".
When vaccines become available, vaccinations should be required for residents of all ages and offered for free, so that the population here can quickly develop herd immunity against the virus, said the WP.
On thriving in a post-Covid-19 world, it proposed policies to prepare Singapore for future pandemics and called for existing problems to be fixed.
One of its suggestions was to convene an independent commission of inquiry after the crisis, to look at the lessons learnt and to institutionalise changes to the pandemic preparedness strategy, plan and protocols.
The party also called for a new, dedicated statutory board to proactively set and enforce standards for work and living conditions for all foreign workers on work permits.
To make Singapore more resilient, it suggested boosting domestic production capabilities for critical items so that supply is not subject to external disruption.
It also called for social safety nets for workers to be strengthened by introducing insurance to provide financial aid when a worker is made redundant.
