Post-pandemic opportunities for Singapore HARVARD VERITAS

4. WFH solutions

The Covid- 19 crisis has accelerated the future of work by at least a decade.

Many companies, normally unwilling to embrace telecommuting, are now comfortable using remote home- based distributed work- from- home ( WFh) operational frameworks. This has accelerated acceptance of such platforms and in a manner has served as a large- scale pilot or proof of concept for what may become the future norm for many functions.

This significant paradigm shift holds a tremendous potential for enormous opportunities. Singapore could create a council or body to encourage and facilitate collaboration between corporations, government agencies, telecommunication companies and service providers etc.. The objective would be to lay down the standards and framework for creating a robust eco and support system for this new world. The key is to come out with a digital platform strategy.

‘Always on’

To facilitate this network, bandwidth will need to be significantly increased and service level consistency guaranteed, adopting an “Always on” standard. Potential conflicts between service providers at the last mile delivery points/ curbside need to be resolved and a protocol established.

We need to look at the possibility of providing “on tap” connectivity and large- scale virtual secured networks services with multi- level security built in as a standard. Those could be unmanaged or various network management services could be provided. The objective is to enable almost anyone to migrate to secure distributive systems at will with the minimum fuss.

Singapore’s telecommunication companies should work with solution providers locally and globally to ensure that the best- in- class regional business continuity planning ( BCP) facilities are co- located in Singapore. The government may want to encourage efforts that would ensure that the entire BCP supply chain is simultaneously and congruously present in Singapore by designing multiple autonomous BCP zones, which would provide redundancy respectively to each other.

The entire eco system should be designed as autonomous distributed service zones to enable load sharing and to provide multi- level redundancy. For similar reasons, multiple secure server farms within Singapore and perhaps with others strategically located across Asia could provide a cost- effective platform offering a compelling value proposition which less developed countries could tap into.

If we gain first- mover advantage and establish the common standard, with traction from smaller less developed countries in Asia and Africa tapping into our platform, with economy of scale, Singapore could become a major player in this area.

An important prerequisite for this would require us to re- look at and bolster data protection legislation and bring those in line with global requirements.

5. Internal consumption sectors

Recovery will be predicated on many factors both local and global. Many business sectors will be largely reliant on the return of sufficient consumer liquidity before they see measurable improvement in operating dynamics.

Meanwhile to accelerate and aid recovery, initiatives to stimulate demand for domestic goods and services have to be created.

For instance, government initiatives to subsidize Singaporecentric leisure and vacation activities could boost domestic tourism and aid employment in related segments. Weekend activities could be created or sponsored across the city parks and malls to help kick- start local employment- heavy sectors. If such activities have associated health benefits, all the better. During the post- depression times, many Western economies experimented with such domestic demand- boosting measures.

Given that many future jobs are likely to revolve around freelancers/contract/part-time workers, as companies restructure themselves in a post-Covid-19 world to have a lower-cost structure, steps need to be taken now to help boost the livelihood and real income of freelancers. Freelancers are likely to increasingly grow into a sizable segment of the workforce and become a growing driver of domestic demand.

Never waste a crisis

“When the winds of change rage, some build shelters while others build windmills” – Chinese proverb.

At an individual level, this crisis has led many like myself to re- pivot our lives and focus on what is most important.

For Singapore, it is also a time to re-pivot as a society. Forging a position of leadership and an unrivaled reputation for providing best- in- class products and services, Singapore emerged over the past decade as an economic powerhouse and the go-to place for anyone trying to do business in Asia or with Asia. We must learn from the crisis and recalibrate to be future-ready.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or ARMM, experience. Do we take these into consideration in dealing with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Communist Party of the Philippines- New People’s Army- NDFP? A political science teacher observes the deterioration of recent master’s theses by military officials. Academic atmosphere or scientific character should have ruled not just in the military institutions but also in our public policymaking.

Professor Antonio Contreras’ June 30 column in (“Militarized”) notes the militarization of the operation of the Inter- Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases. More than militarist measure, we need socio- politico- economic reforms. The enemy is the structural injustice, not the rebels, revolutionaries, insurgents or separatists. The Philippines needs more mature political community.

Rigoberto Tiglao’s June 29 column in (“Red nun: Not just a communist ally”) reflects the danger of irresponsible red- tagging of progressives and militants. Data show individuals red- tagged are later on murdered by “unknown” assailants. Such demonization is unacceptable in civil society and the academic community since the 1992 Republic Act ( RA) 7637, which repealed the 1957 Anti- Subversion Act, or RA 1700, which rendered the Cold War paranoia irrelevant.

While some countries embrace communism as part of their legal political parties, we, in the Philippines, seem to believe in the obsolete axiom that maintains that nothing good comes from concepts countering contemporary capitalism characterized by the monopoly of capital, resulting in fascist politics. But militarism doesn’t monopolize the solution to systemic social problems; other approaches and disciplines can surely provide points to ponder toward a peaceful Philippines by making peacebuilding everybody’s responsibility amid and after the coronavirus pandemic period.

Noe M. Santillan Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Social Studies University of the Philippines Cebu