Survey Shows 41% of S’poreans Think Authorities’ Response to COVID-19 is Good

The hundreds of countries grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic have had varying levels of success in containing the outbreak.

Their success is, of course, largely dependent on how competent their leaders are.

Some health ministers advised their citizens to drink warm water to kill the coronavirus, while some presidents suggested injecting bleach into one’s body to treat the disease.

You know who you are.

The measures implemented by governments all over the world will only be effective, however, if people have faith in them and follow the rules.

Confidence in the authorities is essential to combating the disease, but less than half of our country think the gahmen’s response to the Covid-19 crisis has been good.

Survey Shows 41% of S’poreans Think Authorities’ Response to COVID-19 is Good

41% of Singaporeans rated their political leaders’ response to the Covid-19 outbreak highly, according to an international study released on Wednesday (13 May).

This might sound low, but the study found that people around the world are generally losing confidence in their leaders’ ability to deal with the pandemic.

In the survey, respondents were asked to rate their national political leaders’ response to the crisis on a scale of 1 (very bad) to 10 (excellent).

The survey, which polled more than 12,500 people across 23 territories around the world in April, was conducted by technology firm Toluna and Singapore-based social research agency Blackbox Research.

A total of 300 Singaporean respondents were selected at random across key demographics, according to TODAYonline.

While only 41% of Singaporeans viewed our leaders’ response to Covid-19 positively, we were still ahead of other countries like Thailand (22%), South Korea (21%), France (14%), Hong Kong (11%) and Japan (5%).

Conversely, in countries like China (86%), Vietnam (82%), New Zealand (67%), and Malaysia (59%), citizens had more confidence in their government and approved of their handling of the pandemic.

Pandemic Unprecedented In Some Countries

There may be a key difference that is contributing to a lack of confidence in some political leaders, though.

As Blackbox chief executive officer David Black said, many of these countries have never dealt with a pandemic before, and because governments are scrambling to deal with a crisis they did not expect, “public confidence suffered as a result.”

Meanwhile, many Asian countries have dealt with epidemics before like SARS and MERS, so citizens of these countries are “putting a great amount of trust in their governments to have the necessary measures in place.”

Singapore in 9th Spot Among 23 Territories

When other factors are taken into account, such as citizen sentiments in corporate leadership, the community, and the media, Singapore scored an index of 48, placing us at the 9th spot among the 23 countries polled.

We’re also 7th among countries in Asia.

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Being 9th in a small class of 23 would not impress any Singaporean parent, but hey, it’s better than coming 23rd, right?

Japan: Now, that’s just mean.

With a score of 16, Japan came in last, due to a lack of confidence in political leadership, and poor community performance during the crisis.

China topped this list as well, with a score of 85, followed by Vietnam at 77.

New Zealand is the sole “Western nation” to rate highly, with a score of 56.

Surprised At Poor Preparations

Most Singaporeans think the country was well prepared for the outbreak, as only 34% of the respondents were surprised at our ‘poor’ preparations.

This study was conducted in April, though, when the number of infections in the country was suddenly skyrocketing due to the outbreak in dormitories.

Early on in the pandemic, everyone was praising Singapore’s response to the outbreak, including the World Health Organisation.

Still, even with over 26,000 Covid-19 cases,  42% of the country believe we will emerge stronger from the crisis, while 26% felt otherwise.

These numbers may not sound great but we’re actually ahead of most Western countries like the US and the UK, reported TODAYonline.

A higher percentage of people in China, South Korea, and Japan were confident that their country would emerge stronger.

Man, China is really killing it in this study.

Trust In Accurate Information

Most importantly, 93% of Singaporean respondents felt that the Government had kept the public informed with accurate information about the coronavirus.

If we can’t even trust what our leaders are saying about the coronavirus outbreak, then why would we listen to their advice on how to respond to it?

If a Singaporean political leader told us on live television that sticking biscuits up our ass could prevent us from contracting the coronavirus, we’d probably ignore him when he asks us to avoid large gatherings.

The fact that the gahmen has been completely transparent with us throughout the pandemic has certainly helped built trust and encouraged cooperation.

I mean, do you remember them even acknowledging that there were some false positives? Your NS commander would have covered that up if you get what I mean.

Let’s hope we really do emerge stronger from this crisis.

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