“This is all around us and the waves are going to take many many months, and maybe more than a year or two to settle. And we in Singapore are watching our dykes, trying to keep ourselves safe and preventing any of this from coming in, and having a situation that goes out of control.”
These were the words of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 27 March during a televised speech.
The analogy of a tide, used by the Prime Minister to describe the situation of the city-state in the context of the global pandemic, has been mobilised to justify the self-isolation that was introduced at the end of March in the wake of a hike of imported cases. This drastic measure appears at odds with the foundation of Singapore’s model as a hub for trade and migration. How did Singapore resort to this approach and what challenges does this represent for its future?
The first wave and the “Singapore model”
In early April, Singapore still appeared to be in a privileged situation as a significant proportion of the world’s population had been locked down. Most schools were open, people were still allowed to move around freely, go to restaurants, libraries, museums, and to work. Yet, the city-state recorded its first case of the coronavirus originating from Wuhan as early as 23 January, and saw a worrying surge of local infections in early February, while the rest of the world still watched calmly the developments of the epidemic.
