State media’s verdict on Geylang Serai food poisoning disaster: it has NOTHING to do with the government!

State media’s verdict on Geylang Serai food poisoning disaster: it has NOTHING to do with the government!

Even before the investigations into the Geylang Serai food poisoning disaster are complete, the state media has already reached a verdict: it has NOTHING to do with the government!

In the Sunday Times yesterday, there were six reports on the tragedy alone whereas there were only one or two on each day for the last few days.

The gist of the above articles are as follows:

1. Poor public hygiene is a contributory cause to the disaster - Singaporeans are at fault for not paying more attention on their own personal hygiene.

2. There many “dangers” in the environment such as rats - therefore, nobody is to blame for the discovery of rats at the premises.

3. Food handling is to blame for the disaster - had the food handlers at both the Indian rojak and the Mee Siam stalls been more vigilant, the outbreak would not have occurred.

4. Singaporeans don’t really care about the hygiene rating system of hawker stalls - therefore it matters little if the Indian rojak stall gets a “C” or “D” rating as Singaporeans will still continue to patronize it.

5. The government has been taking a proactive approach to prevent a similar repeat - yeah, that’s what they always say after a major screw-up, why not they do it earlier and have to wait till the loss of 2 preventable deaths?

Nowhere was it mentioned about NEA’s role in ensuring public hygiene at these eating outlets as if it was not involved at all! The reports were downright biased, one-sided and misleading! Is this the kind of standard we expect of a national English Daily?

While I concur that every Singaporean has a part to play in ensuring public hygiene and food safety, it is not fair to attribute the blame squarely on us.

If we are responsible for everything, then why do we still need to pay million of dollars for a Minister to be in charge of the Environment?

The Straits Times should have adopted a more balanced and objective stance towards the incident instead of rushing in to exonerate the government from any blame.

It could have asked the NEA or the relevant ministry serious questions such as the last time they conducted a check on the implicated stalls, the officers in charge of the check and their reports etc.

Instead, they chose to remain silent on the role of the government and focus solely on the food handlers, diners and even the environment!

It is human to err and lapses are inevitable. That’s why we need NEA to detect these lapses and take action against errant food stalls with poor public hygiene.

Nobody expects the minister or his Permanent Secretary to check the premises themselves, but they should ensure that the stalls were checked on a regular basis especially temporary market stalls which are not owned by NEA.

In one of the reports “Four wrong steps to food poisoning“, the writer Abdul Rahman revealed that he had a diarrhoea frequently after eating food from the Indian rojak stall.

I am unsure if other customers suffer a same fate as him, but by giving the stall a “C” rating, is NEA signaling that such atrocious hygiene standards are acceptable to them?

It is of little relevance if diners are bothered by the hygiene ratings. Any stalls with a rating less than “C” should not be allowed to operate in the first place.

The government needs to account for the following:

1. The deficiency of its present hygiene rating system: I cannot fathom how the food sold by a stall with a “satisfactory” rating can lead to the worst food poisoning outbreak in Singapore with two deaths. Nobody dies from gastroenteritis in a developed country. It is a real shame for us especially when the Singapore government is the highest paid government in the world, all the more it is unacceptable for such a public health disaster to occur here.

2. The 61 rats were found at the temporary market. These rats did not appear overnight from nowhere. They had infested the place for weeks or even months! Without the disaster, would the pest controllers be called in to flush out the rats? Even if most Singaporeans do not care about the hygiene rating of a stall, surely they will mind having their meals together with these uninvited rodents? Why weren’t these rats detected earlier? How could NEA miss them in its spot checks? These are BIG RATS, not small flies and mosquitoes.

3. The failure of its spot checks to detect hygiene problems in the two stalls. The seafood used by the Indian rojak stall was reportedly found to be contaminated with the Vibro parahemolyticus bacteria which causes an explosive form of watery diarrhoea. Did NEA conduct checks on the way food was handled by the stall holder? Or the refrigerator used to store the food?

Can we honestly expect these stall holders to know if their food is contamined with pathogens and if their food handling methods are inadequate to kill them?

Since they have been given a “satisfactory” rating by NEA, they must have assumed there is nothing wrong with the way they handle and cook their food.

It is ridiculous to expect ordinary Singaporeans - diners and hawkers alike to shoulder full responsibility for public hygiene at eating outlets.

SM Goh said: ‘If you have poor hygiene, spitting in public places, littering, food all over the place, rats running around the market, that’s very ungracious behaviour’ (read article here)

To be fair to Singaporeans, while we may not be as gracious as the Japanese, our hygiene standards are much higher than some countries in the region. There will always be people around who spit and litter. As for leaving food all over the place and rats-infested markets, it is more of a maintenance than a hygiene problem.

Are diners responsible for clearing the leftover food and litter? Should we bring rat traps to catch the rats ourselves? Or perhaps NEA should just put a “Eat at your own peril” signboard at every hawker centre in Singapore to make life easier for themselves.

It is undeniable that Singaporeans should be responsible for their own personal hygiene, but at the same time, the government should examine its own role in the incident and lessons to be learnt from it.

If Singaporeans are expected to take the rap and responsibility for every mistake, big and small, then the PAP should cut down the size of their bloated cabinet and take a pay cut.

Given the amount of money Singaporeans are paying to line the pockets of these ministers and permanent secretaries, we have the right to demand that all public eating outlets are kept squeaky clean with good hygiene, no litter and most importantly no rats.

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