THE BRAVE LITTLE TAILOR

Many fairy tales paint a distinction between good and evil, catered to young readers who are naive to the varying shades of grey. In real life, such a binary separation rarely exists, and protagonists are often multi-dimensional, such as in the case of this brave little tailor. Published in the Brothers Grimm collection in 1812, the story tells of how a lowly tailor overcomes numerous obstacles, including attempts on his life, to eventually become king. The tailor boasts of killing “seven with one blow”, conveniently omitting that his foes were mere flies. With an inflated reputation and a confidence to match, the tailor attracted giants in many duels who, despite an obvious strength overmatch, were outwitted and outclassed. It tells a story of gumption, confidence, resourcefulness, but also trickery, manipulation, cunning and ambition.

At the start of the pandemic, fear was rampant throughout Singapore. Such an environment prompted leaders at all echelons, despite their own uncertainty, to step up with messages of confidence. It was a statement of defiance, that we too, could defeat “seven with one blow”. The SAF set up task forces to help — JTF(A), MOTF, CSSTF, EHTF, and HSTF. Apart from the task force commanders, ground commanders also stepped up. They had to fight many “giants” — woes and problems which seemed insurmountable. Contact tracing when the R-naught was shooting upwards, food provision for thousands with varied dietary needs, re-housing migrant works in barracks, and to look after dormitories when they were falling like dominoes to the spread of the virus.

On the medical front, to deploy thousands of pulse oximeters to pick up hypoxia before patients deteriorated, to coordinate the transport and isolation facilities for positive cases, to curate the “single source of truth” for swab and serology results, to set up a “field hospital” in the form of a Community Care Facility, to vaccinate at speed MINDEF/ SAF personnel who were required for essential ops. These were the “giants” that we needed to outwit and outclass. Like all grey zone threats, this foe wouldn't be cowed by a force-on-force method, but must be subdued with operational cunning, nimbleness and more brains than brawn.

One interesting phenomenon was how at the beginning of the pandemic, Singapore was rated as the country with the highest infection count in the whole Southeast Asia. We soon realised that we were extremely efficient at testing. In the face of a laboratory test reagent scarcity, we adopted a different tack. We were careful not to become an ostrich, and dial down the testing, but rather, we used area testing methods like pool testing and sewage testing to help us identify high risk clusters, before zooming in to isolate the individual cases.

Operational cunning carries a slippery slope risk when the ends justified the means, but I observed a high degree of integrity in the decision-making process, preserving the trust and social compact between the leader and those being led. At every stage, the well-being and health of the people were the primary focus, overriding other political, defence relations and economic calculus. This was evident in another anecdote related to the transport ventilators mentioned earlier. We had enough in the SAF, and shared the excess with the public hospitals in Singapore. But the global shortage also presented an opportunity to strengthen our relations with key foreign partners facing their own ventilator shortages. In the end, it was decided that we would keep all the transport ventilators in Singapore, given the uncertainty of the situation, placing our people's well-being above all else. As a fly on the wall, I understood acutely the dilemma involved in such a decision and was heartened by the well-placed trust.

THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER

The final fairy tale in this essay is also part of the Brothers Grimm collection published in 1812. The story is about little elves helping an old and impoverished shoemaker who is about to wind up his ailing business. While the shoemaker and his wife sleep at night, the elves busy themselves at the workshop, making beautiful leather shoes, which they leave behind every morning as they disappear to rest. This mysterious nightly affair makes the old couple a comfortable fortune and they decide to stakeout at the workshop to identify their benefactors. The couple see the elves hard at work but also notice that they aren't wearing any clothes. So the couple makes elf-sized shirts and pants, leave them at the workshop, and see how the elves happily put them on.

Ostensibly a whimsical tale of an unexpected windfall for the shoemaker, the fable is actually a tribute to the many little elves who toil while we sleep. And it reminds leaders to always look out for the unsung and unnoticed. Every time we wake up to things that work, clean water from the tap, the toilet flushes, the trains move, we should realise that they are not the result of happenstance. Similarly, when the medical centres open shop to treat flu patients and swab them; the medics and MOs who were not infected by COVID-19 themselves, the dispensary that was restocked every day, the SMS notifications of swab results, the vaccines that go into our arms. These are not by accident. At the peak of the pandemic, medics and MOs adopted a stay-in posture to reduce their infection risk from the community. Healthcare workers donned full Personal Protective Equipment in sweltering two-hour shifts. Laboratory staff manning their stations, doing PCR tests. IT colleagues working on the electronic medical records to send out the swab results to our mobile phones. Logisticians working overdrive to procure and deliver essentials to the ground. Manpower staff managing allowances and other tokens of appreciation to prop up morale. And NSmen made personal sacrifices showing that they could be counted on in times of need.

Like the old couple who hid at night for a peek, leaders too, will do well to see for ourselves the industry and commitment of those who toil. For not only does it strengthen our conviction to lead, it also affirms those whose labour is often unnoticed, and accords them the recognition they so richly deserve.

CONCLUSION

I return to the “SAF SARS Diary” published in 2004. That article was co-authored by Chief of Medical Corps, the late BG (DR) Wong Yew Sie, and the Head of the Preventive Medicine Branch, LTC (DR) Gregory Chan. The authors gave us a glimpse of their world and it was apparent how similar were the challenges. It was also apparent how the Medical Corps, the SAF and the country ultimately overcame the odds and the seemingly insurmountable. What the authors and their team had bequeathed wasn't just those pages of writing. The essay was a mere summary the actual treasure trove left behind — the mindset of preparedness, the humility of leadership, the spirit of resilience and optimism, the culture of gratitude, the wisdom of mentorship, the vast stockpiles, the repository of know-hows, the practices of pandemic drills, rehearsals and vaccinations.

Unlike the “SAF SARS Diary”, this essay is devoid of statistics and charts, but I hope it has captured the less measurable aspects of our current fight. When we opened the treasure box left by BG (DR) Wong and LTC (DR) Chan, we were heartened to find many tools that helped us tremendously. On behalf of the current team at the Medical Corps, I hope to pass on the same treasure box, replenished and stocked with new tools and insights, to the next team, so that when they open it, they too will find a useful nugget or two.