President’s Speaker Series welcomes Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung

Minister Ong shared the difficult decisions he had made across different ministries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Image by Yale-NUS College.

On 11 October, Yale-NUS College welcomed Singapore’s Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung in the Performance Hall for an invigorating discussion on a wide variety of topics related to his experience leading Singapore out of the COVID-19 pandemic and helping Singaporeans lead healthier lives.

The talk was the first iteration of the President’s Speaker Series for this year, an initiative by the College to invite leading speakers and thinkers for a lively exchange of ideas with Yale-NUS students, members of the wider NUS community, and the general public. Past invitees include George Yeo, former Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Noleen Heyzer, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

After a brief introduction by President of Yale-NUS College and Professor of Social Sciences (Economics) Joanne Roberts, Minister Ong set the ball rolling by recollecting difficult decisions he made across government ministries and what inspired them. As Education Minister in the early stages of the pandemic, he made the decision to keep schools open despite pressure because he firmly believed the risk of school closures outweighed the benefits.

“From where I sat, the dominant call was for me to close schools,” he shared, “so the first thing we did was to talk to the Ministry of Health, who shared that COVID-19’s impact on children was typically not severe. But the downside of closing schools, and all the educators knew this, was that the poor and the vulnerable students would suffer.”

Later, as Minister for Transport, he faced a similar conundrum on securing Singapore’s role as a key air and sea transport node when international transport faced massive disruptions during the pandemic. Seeing these interruptions as an opportunity, he ventured to allow sea crew changes and to create international “travel bubbles” to protect Singapore’s relevance in the global transport network.

“It showed that, despite COVID-19 related blockages globally, we are still an important node of the global supply chain,” Minister Ong reflected on his efforts to keep Singapore connected.

Eventually, as Health Minister, he was instrumental in simplifying COVID-19 healthcare protocols: rather than a complex system of Quarantine Orders and Health Risk Alerts, his ministry “pressed the reset button” and consolidated quarantine requirements into three easy-to-follow protocols. Even though it meant vastly reducing the number of people in quarantine, Minister Ong shared that, “looking at the data, it was a risk that I believe was worth taking, because the rules were simplified, and individuals knew what to do better.”

Summarising his experiences tackling these complex challenges, he shared three takeaways with the audience: follow the science, explain things clearly, and never waste the opportunities generated by a crisis. “In any crisis,” he remarked, “whatever you learn, you develop as capability, and you’ll be surprised at how much you can achieve.”

The conversation then shifted to Healthier SG, a landmark initiative by the Ministry of Health under Ong to make preventative care more accessible for all Singaporeans. Having just been debated in Parliament the previous week, and with the enthusiastic encouragement of moderator Assistant Professor for Social Sciences (Psychology) Jean Liu, the audience fielded a variety of questions on the topic including the place of mental health, the price of healthcare services, and more. Minister Ong assured concerned audience members that the Ministry is developing a plan on protecting Singaporeans’ mental well-being, and stressed the need to keep medical services accessible and affordable.

“I’m very heartened to hear that mental health will be included in future planning,” said Tham Mei Shuen (Class of 2025), in response to the Q&A session.

“All in all, it’s fascinating to hear insights coming directly from a senior policy maker.”

Watch the full talk here: