SINGAPORE — The senseless hoarding seen earlier this month (February) shows “a lack of trust” in the Government, said former Minister for Communications and Information Professor Yaacob Ibrahim during his Budget speech on Wednesday (Feb 26).

“Rumours and misinformation about lack of supplies helped to fuel senseless hoarding. This shows a lack of trust. Chaos could have broken out leading to unimaginable losses. This is something we all don’t want to happen in Singapore,” said Prof Yaacob on the first day of the Budget debate.

The Member of Parliament for Jalan Besar Group Representation Constituency said that the rush to stock up food items over the “fateful” weekend, following the raising of Singapore’s Disease Outbreak Response System Condition to Orange on Feb 7, is a reminder of the importance in getting communications right.

“During Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome), there was no social media. Today, we are inundated by news of all sorts from various platforms and from friends and strangers alike,” said Prof Yaacob.

While noting that the Government had responded decisively to the Covid-19 crisis and that he had full confidence in the ministerial team heading the national response, Prof Yaacob said that the issue of trust during the current crisis merits discussion.

He said the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma), which had been employed during the Covid-19 outbreak to curb misinformation about the crisis situation, is still viewed by some as an attempt by the Government to stifle dissent on the Internet.

“There is a sense among them that the Government is using this legislation for its own agenda rather than serving the needs of our people,” said Prof Yaacob.

He recalled how a similar concern emerged when he was Minister for Communications and Information.

In 2013, he moved to license online news websites which several had claimed would kill the diversity of online voices.

“As it turns out, the licensing scheme did not stifle the internet at all. Many groups continue to flourish on the internet. All we wanted, and I am sure all of us can agree to this, is responsible behaviour on the internet, especially when the issues affect the lives of so many Singaporeans,” he said.

As Singapore grapples with more complex issues, such as climate change, he urged the Government to build trust that “it is doing what is right for our people even though it means spending significant resources over a very long-term period to benefit future generations”.

On the use of technology, such as the closed-circuit television cameras placed in void decks for example, Prof Yaacob said Singaporeans trusted that the Government was using the camera data for good, but the same cannot be said for citizens in other countries that also have such cameras in common areas.

While Singapore has done well so far, there may be some who may raise issues of privacy and how their data is used. The emergence of data legislation globally such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and California Consumer Privacy Act may cause groups to question if Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act is sufficiently rigorous.

“For our digitalisation efforts to succeed, people must trust that their data is collected solely for the purpose of developing services useful for them,” said Prof Yaacob.

Among the questions that will be asked are whether the Government can protect its citizens from being manipulated by big tech giants and whether Singaporeans can trust the Government to use personal data for the benefit of all Singaporeans and “not some political agenda”, he added.

Reiterating that Singaporeans have high trust in their public institutions, such as hospitals, schools, the judiciary and security agencies, Prof Yaacob said it is because they are well-managed, staffed by capable people and have a record in delivering fair and good outcomes.

“We trust that these institutions will do what is right and just,” he said.

This trust between people and Government will be strained as Singapore grapples with issues as its society and economy digitalises, he added, noting that in other societies where trust had broken down, there was also the rise of populism.

“With social media and the rise of misinformation and alternative facts, sometimes it is unclear whether the lack of trust in government is an effect of all these developments or it is the cause for the rise of alternative centres of trust,” he said.

With the advent of artificial intelligence and machine learning, which are also associated with ethical issues, he mooted the creation of an independent “Digital Commission” that looks at these concerns from all sides dispassionately.

Such a commission would be similar to the Bioethics Advisory Committee that was established in 2000 and looked into issues of human biomedical research, he said.

“Just like the trust we have in our other public institutions, should we not consider similar public institutions that can build trust in our people in dealing with these new technologies?”

Prof Yaacob, who stepped down from the Cabinet in April 2018, said he raised the concern of trust in Government because of the unavoidable “nagging concerns of privacy and transparency” as Singapore digitalises its economy and society.

If Singapore does not deal with this early, then trust in the Government can be eroded, he warned.