Two weeks ago, Lim Soon Heng made a draconian suggestion for how Singapore might deal with the Covid-19 outbreak that has ripped through migrant workers’ dormitories, propelled overall infection rates to among the highest in south-east Asia and prompted an unusual bout of soul-searching in the city state.
The president of Singapore’s Society of Floating Solutions wrote in The Straits Times that some of the city’s 1m migrant workers could be shipped to “beautifully landscaped floating islands” to protect the rest of the city’s 6m population from future pathogens. At least Mr Lim did not suggest banning the mostly Bangladeshi, Indian and Chinese migrants from interacting with locals as that would “smack of apartheid”. Phew.
Life in Singapore felt almost normal only a couple of months ago. It had seemingly contained the virus, even as the rest of the world was shutting down. But everything changed in early April with the migrant workers’ outbreak. It has shone a rare light on marginalised communities and shattered Singapore’s aura of infallibility around its pandemic response. It has also sparked fervent debate in a quasi-authoritarian democracy that has been ruled by one party for over half a century and where protest without permit is allowed in only one park.