Reply To: Week 4 Topic discussion 1

[Hteik Htar Tin]

PM Lee communicate with the public as early as possible 2 weeks after the new situation while President Trump shared the information only after declaration of Pandemic by WHO.
PM Lee clearly mentioned who was taking leading role for handling the Covid 19 situation and relieved the public not to be panic by comparing the past experience.
President Trump directly talked about the serious health threat in modern history, not considering about the feelings of public. PM Lee mentioned the practical detail points to care about corona virus but President Trump only focused to do personal protective measures.
In doing the right way, PM Lee clearly show authoritative leadership type and communicate with Singaporeans to gain sense of ownership. President Trump relieved the working citizens not to worry about their wages if they have to take leave due to virus and repeatedly talked about the economy rather than the infection. He also guaranteed to find solutions not to suffer financial hardship due to medical bills.
PM Lee did not confine the movement in the country because the mortality was not high in that situation and President Trump took immediate action for travel and trad restriction from Europe and China to reduce the imported cases. So, both of them are credible to be good communicators in emergency risk communication while the empathy can be easily felt in PM Lee’s speech compared to President Trump.
Both leaders promoted the action to follow by citizens but President Trump used some technical terms and sense of showing paternalistic form. PM Lee encouraged to show empathy and share responsibilities for vulnerable groups and medical professionals when the infection became serious.
Both PM Lee and President Trump made the cooperation with community and did rapport building about mentioning their preparedness on investigation, treatment and prevention strategies to fight the novel corona virus.