A Citizen's Right to Return Home

I read with disquiet and appal the account by Charlotte Bellis, a pregnant New Zealand citizen who had been unable to return to her home country. [1]

Her plight is far from unique. Due to the controversial "Managed Isolation and Quarantine" (MIQ) system, tens of thousands of NZ citizens have been unable to get home.  [2]

The MIQ system was implemented by the NZ Government in defence of the covid pandemic. Under the MIQ system, anyone entering New Zealand is required to isolate at an MIQ facility for 10 days. NZ citizens must book and secure MIQ facilities as a pre-condition to get back into their country. 

Unfortunately, the number of NZ citizens wanting to return home far exceeds the very limited quantum of isolation facilities available for booking under the MIQ system. Charlotte Bellis was among the huge numbers of NZ citizens locked out of their own country by their own Government's hand. I can only imagine the anxiety, frustration, despair and hardships that the stringent MIQ system has imposed on NZ citizens.   

Unwanted separation from home and loved ones has become a worldwide symptom of the covid pandemic which has seen all countries barricading their doors, some more tightly than others.  It is harsh when countries close the door on non-citizens.  But things become eerily strange when a country locks out its citizens along with the foreigners. 

Hearing about the desperation of NZ citizens who cannot get home, it struck me that being able to return to one's own home country must surely be a given - a "needless to say" expectation - for any citizen.  I don't know much about NZ's bill of rights, so I have no comment as to whether or how NZ's MIQ system squares with their civil rights laws.

More pertinently, does our Singapore Constitution have anything to say about that?  

I dived into the Singapore Constitution and fished out this clause, to my relief: 

Section 13(1) of the Singapore Constitution states: 

"No citizen of Singapore shall be banished or excluded from Singapore."

 

I am relieved because (unlike some other clauses in the Singapore Constitution relating to civil liberties), this particular clause has no "ifs" and no "buts".  I love it when a statement of a citizen's right is simple and unequivocal.

As a mother of a son studying overseas, I distinctly recall the panic in March 2020 when I scrambled and managed to put my son on an SQ flight back to Singapore as the pandemic took the helm.  At that time, plane loads of Singaporeans flew home to hunker down with their family and loved ones.  Having each other made the ensuing lockdown days bearable and meaningful. 

The unwelcomed pandemic has been overstaying for two years now.  We have had to put up with much constraints to our movements.  As for travelling, that has become a complicated affair with rules shifting and changing constantly.  But Singaporeans who wanted to, have always been able to get home. And so it should be.

Some years ago, I was in plane landing in a foreign country.  As the plane touched down, some passengers broke out in a spontaneous applause.  Let me clarify that the landing was nothing unusual. The plane ride was not bumpy or scary, so the applause couldn’t be expressing relief for landing safely.

Curious, I asked a local why passengers clapped when the plane touched the tarmac.  The local explained that it was the custom for his nationals to applause when their plane touched down, to express their happiness at coming home. I immediately understood.  We all love to travel.  And - needless to say - we also love to come back to home.         

Postscript:  

On 1 February 2022, Charlotte Bellis issued a statement that she had received approval to return to NZ.

On 3 February 2022, the NZ Government announced that from 28 February 2022, NZ would be reopening their border and that the MIQ system, which had been in place since April 2020, would end for all but "high-risk" unvaccinated travellers.[3] 

Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss

4 February 2022

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[1] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-charlotte-bellis-an-open-letter-on-miq/U4WQGYTJHUP36AGVOBN3F6PJSE/

[2] https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300508296/miq-the-dark-shadow-across-new-zealand-that-has-to-lift

[3] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-outbreak-nz-reopens-border-from-february-28-most-returnees-can-self-isolate-no-miq/CMUN2XHWHWMD4V5IRLCCWDWVVY/

Taking the Vaccine is now a National Imperative

For the last 18 months, we have been battling an invisible enemy without respite.

In stealth, the enemy travels across borders incognito, hiding in plain sight, stealing a ride into our very midst. 

The troops it marshals for its destructive aims are none other than us ourselves.  It recruits anyone regardless of passport, age or occupation - and whether vaccinated or unvaccinated - to be its unwittingly secret agents, its unwilling accomplices and its involuntary soldiers.  

The invisible enemy defies capture. Instead, it forces us to take captive our innocents, to serve as prisoners-of-war in its stead.  To ringfence the contagion, close contacts of infected persons are identified and sequestered.  I have myself had to serve a mandatory quarantine order.  The isolation was an ordeal.  I never want to do it again nor do I wish it on anyone.

Besides damaging our physical health, the enemy also wreaks havoc by disrupting our economy and damaging our social relations.

The enemy deploys the most effective weapon of destruction tested by all histories of nations: Divide and Conquer.  We are seeing people turning against each other, becoming fragmented shards provoked to blame, name and shame. 

In the struggle to cope with the disruptions and economic fallouts, there is every temptation to cut corners and to steal a march. Some will remain resolute and impassive, but some will falter and fall. Those who have acted irresponsibly must face the consequences, but in our haste to blame others for recklessness, let us not forget who the real culprit is and how devious the culprit is.  For the enemy has up the ante by evolving into something more contagious than before.  

Let's face it – we are at war.  Tough times require tough responses and decisive action.

After 18 months of rolling border closures and lockdowns, our economy is battered and our lives are tattered.  Shutting our gates, hunkering down and remaining isolated, is not sustainable. The enemy is cunning and determined to stick around. 

After 18 months of battle, it is clear that a successful national vaccination programme is the best hope to exit the pandemic.  It is also clear that there is a limit to our endurance. 

No one has guaranteed that vaccines are 100% safe.  But what are the alternatives? What are we up against? Is time on our side? 

For every argument, there will be a counter-argument. For every set of data, there will be a set of alternative data.  There is a time and place for healthy scepticism, reasonable debate and careful evaluation. But there must come a time to make a personal decision – to take up the personal risk of making such a decision – and to take decisive action.

As I see it, taking the vaccine is now a national imperative. Once the nation is well-vaccinated, we can get on the road to restoring what the pandemic has taken away from us.  Helping others will always involve personal risks and detriments. But we need to unite our efforts to save our country, our economy and our future from the destructive effects of the pandemic.

To those who have volunteered to be vaccinated, I say thank you for your sacrifice and the risk you took, for sake of others and for loved ones.

In this pandemic which affects us all, there is a big picture to consider. In the big picture, so long as the nation is insufficiently vaccinated, our borders will never be fully opened, our economy will be hampered, and people's lives and livelihoods will remain in limbo.  

To those eligible for vaccination but are hesitant to take the vaccine, do consider joining the vaccination drive.  In my humble opinion, time is not on our side.

Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss