Singapore PM concedes Covid-19 missteps, warns against leaving PAP’s ‘Garden of Eden’
- Lee Hsien Loong’s first major speech since the July election addressed emergency measures, migrant workforce concerns and more political opposition
- He cautioned against viewing success under the ruling party as an ordinary state of affairs: ‘You leave the Garden of Eden, you cannot go back’
In a wide-ranging address to parliament, Lee said “in the fog of war, it is not possible always to make the perfect decisions”.
“Yet we have to decide and move. We cannot afford to wait. The key is to watch things closely, learn from experience, and adapt our responses promptly as new information emerges and the situation changes,” he said.
A significant portion of his speech was also dedicated to addressing the future of his ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) and national politics at large, with the opposition Workers’ Party having made historic gains in July’s general election.
On the response to the pandemic, he said if given a chance to do things differently, the government would have issued an earlier mandate on wearing masks, and quarantined all returning Singaporeans instead of just those returning from certain countries so the virus “did not spread to their family members, colleagues, and friends”.
