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1 - Introduction: Populations, Precarity and the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Edited by Kevin S. Y. Tan, National University of Singapore, Steve K. L. Chan, Keimyung University, South Korea
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- Book:
- Populations and Precarity during the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 01 March 2024
- Print publication:
- 22 June 2023, pp 1-11
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Summary
The COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact
The outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus from late 2019 transformed, in many ways, the order of many things in our lives. This pandemic was a major global health challenge in the twenty-first century that has so far been unrivalled in scale and impact. Many lives were lost during the first two years due to its potentially dangerous effects on the human body, particularly among the physically and economically vulnerable. Although Southeast Asia had encountered earlier epidemics such as SARS and MERS in previous years, nothing quite prepared the countries in this region for the social and economic fallout that resulted from not just the disease, but also its corresponding effects on the infrastructural aspects of a country. This included the healthcare system, the education system, the transport system, entertainment industries, and even the capacity for residents of a country to access public spaces. Dubbed a “new normal”, such a challenging experience obviously changed the lives of many in various societies throughout Southeast Asia. Apart from the tragedy of those who succumbed to the pandemic, the ones who survived it will likely carry the burden of coming to terms with its consequences and the changes it has incorporated into everyday living.
Many will recall that during its initial months, governments around the world and even the media tended to regard it as an epidemic that was largely limited to a single country, China. Although it was in China where most researchers today would admit where the COVID-19 coronavirus first emerged, it was presumed that sealing the country's borders might contain the situation. Alarmingly, waves of outbreaks spread in varying intensity around the globe. Its rapid spread in a matter of months to almost every continent via a global network of travel and migration appeared to be inevitable. In the case of South Korea, for example, the city of Daegu recorded a cluster infection in a local church, starting a string of transmissions that would spin out of control. While the traditional approach of testing and contact tracing had initially worked well (Kim 2020), the scale of infection eventually spread everywhere. Finally, it became apparent that the COVID-19 coronavirus would become a full-blown pandemic that would exceed the severity of SARS and MERS, exhibiting similar characteristics to the influenza pandemic of 1918 also known as the ‘Spanish Flu’.
3 - New Normal, Old Ties: COVID-19’s Social Impact on the Singapore-Johor Bahru Connection
- Edited by Kevin S. Y. Tan, National University of Singapore, Steve K. L. Chan, Keimyung University, South Korea
-
- Book:
- Populations and Precarity during the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 01 March 2024
- Print publication:
- 22 June 2023, pp 28-49
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Summary
Old Neighbours
Singaporeans and Malaysians share a common social-cultural and political past. In fact, the origins of their respective sovereignties are highly entwined with each other (Baker 2014; Shiraishi 2008). This is because from 1963, the two countries were part of the same nation for almost two years. However, due to increasing political differences and ethnic tensions, Singapore was accorded an independence from 1965 that was never entirely planned nor self-determined. Nevertheless, in spite of political separation, the ties that have bounded their citizens have continued in the areas of economy, culture and even sports (Little 2013, pp. 635–51). A tangible testimony to such ties is best revealed when one observes the porous nature of the borderlands connection (Chan and Womack 2016, pp. 95–103) between the two countries, where continuing flows of labour, income and resources have contributed to the subsequent growth and development of Singapore and Johor Bahru (Hampton 2010, pp. 239–53; Hutchinson and Rahman 2020), the closest Malaysian city to Singapore. Rather than existing simply as a boundary, the border checkpoints and the lands adjacent to them express varying levels of liminality (Kurki 2014, p. 1061). An essential component that has enabled this is the existence of two causeways, or bridges, which connect Singapore's much smaller island-state to the rest of the peninsula occupied by its larger neighbour, Malaysia.
These two causeways connect Singapore to the southern tip of Peninsula Malaysia via Johor Bahru across the Straits of Johor. They enable travel over a body of water that stretches from 1.5 kilometres to 4.8 kilometres at this widest point. While both causeways serve similar functions, they vary in terms of their relative age. The far older Woodlands Causeway first became accessible for cross-straits traffic on 1 October 1923, but was only officially opened the following year on 11 June 1924 after full completion (Chua 2009). Even till present times, it has been referred to as “The Causeway” or the “Woodlands Causeway” by locals on both sides of the border. The second and comparatively newer bridge, is better known as the “Tuas Second Link” and it officially began operating on 18 April 1998 as part of efforts to lessen the burgeoning human traffic at the older Woodlands Causeway (Lim Tin Seng 2020).
Preface
- Edited by Kevin S. Y. Tan, National University of Singapore, Steve K. L. Chan, Keimyung University, South Korea
-
- Book:
- Populations and Precarity during the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 01 March 2024
- Print publication:
- 22 June 2023, pp vii-viii
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Summary
The origins of this edited volume stem from a two-day online webinar series on Managing Demographic Change in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Issues amidst the ‘New Normal’, which was held from 19–20 November 2020 and hosted by the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
At that time, the COVID-19 coronavirus had already spread throughout many parts of the world, and the situation declared a pandemic. It was something that many people had not experienced before, especially its wide-reaching global nature. Few communities, if any, were spared the impact of the pandemic. Within the span of a year, the pandemic not only claimed thousands of lives, but also closed international borders, disrupted air travel between countries and devastated the livelihood of countless others in societies all around the world.
The abovementioned workshop, therefore, not only provided a timely and important platform for a dialogue on the complex and multifaceted demographic issues emerging across Southeast Asia, but also connected them to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic on various communities and the lived experiences of many persons living in the region.
By 2022, however, it seems that the pandemic has been gradually receding. With increasing numbers of persons having been vaccinated against the COVID-19 coronavirus, many countries are gradually reopening with the resumption of international travel. Although there is more progress to be made in the fight against the pandemic, there has been a growing but cautious sense of hope that perhaps the worst is over. Many countries in Southeast Asia have reopened their borders with the recognition that the virus is considered “endemic” as part of a broader narrative of the “new normal” in a post-COVID-19 world.
This edited volume is, then, an important scholarly response to discussing the outcomes and potential futures that will result from such a “new normal”. Combining selected papers from the abovementioned webinar series, along with invited authors, a key theme that has emerged is the concept of precarity and its relationship with various populations throughout Southeast Asia. With the ongoing realities of social inequality and cultural diversity that many societies face, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the uncertainties that many encounter in all aspects of everyday life.