SINGAPORE: Less than three weeks after the General Election where the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) won a resounding victory, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced his first full Cabinet lineup on Wednesday (May 21).

The new Cabinet marks a significant reshuffle that includes three coordinating ministers and confirms Mr Gan Kim Yong as the sole deputy prime minister. It also features 15 full ministers and two acting ministers across the Prime Minister’s Office and 16 ministries.

This is the first complete team formed under Mr Wong since he succeeded Mr Lee Hsien Loong last year.

Mr Wong, who remains the finance minister, also appointed nine new political office holders, drawn from the backbench and among first-term MPs – a number he described as “one of the highest in recent history”.

Mr Wong said he has “a solid team behind me”, highlighting that he has four senior leaders, comprising one deputy and three…

29-year-old Vivian Balakrishnan, a former student activist, debated with newly elected PAP MP K. Shanmugam on Lee Kuan Yew’s remarks that questioned the loyalty of Malay Singaporeans.

Fast forward to 0:13 to hear Vivi's insult, someone later further says: "must have been a lousy school."

Singaporeans wish to know what minister Dr Vivian Balakrishna meant when he iterated he would assume “full responsibility” with regards to the TraceTogether brouhaha.

If he truly regrets what has transpired, he should come clean, apologise upfront and bow to Singaporeans before resigning.

Only by doing so will he be deemed contrite.

Simply saying that he “regrets” the “anxiety caused by his mistake” (without directly admitting fault) while still continuing to be paid millions just goes to show how empty his words (do these even qualify as an apology?) are.

Will this be a repeat of the YOG incident where he came away unscathed despite the ginormous budgetary gaffe committed?

The Government of the Republic of Singapore proposes that wearable devices be adopted for use by the general population in near-future efforts to reliably achieve contact tracing of persons that have recently come into contact with a Covid-19 infected person.

Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation initiative, Vivian Balakrishnan, announced the proposal on June 5. He cited poor inter-operability of the existing Trace Together smartphone app across various brands of smartphones as well as the Government's subsequent non-compulsory usage stance as reasons for developing a wearable device. 

Such a device, if proven to be successful in trials - and subsequently made available to everyone - would allow contact tracers to locate a person's whereabouts based on their proximity to other persons' phones, cell towers, or potentially their wearable devices themselves.

This will be done regardless of whether the person has a phone or not; regardless whether their phone is switched off…