A Singapore Story
Five ministries. Seven public bodies. One international biodefense funding programme most Singaporeans have never heard of. This ten-chapter investigation traces the money from a 2003 laboratory leak to the amendment bill now before Parliament — using primary documents, not speculation.
The title of this report is deliberate.
“Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction” is the name of a United States Government research funding programme under which grants have been awarded to institutions in Singapore. This report examines some of those publicly documented funding relationships and asks whether Singapore has adequate oversight of high-risk biological research.
When I followed the public funding trail, I found this research funded by seven separate Singapore public bodies across at least five ministries — the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Health, the National Research Foundation, the National Medical Research Council, the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, the Ministry of Finance, and A*STAR — alongside collaborations involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology and additional foreign funding bodies. Those findings led me to a broader question.
How should Singapore ensure that biological research with the potential for catastrophic consequences is properly overseen?
This report does not allege wrongdoing by any institution or individual. It asks whether our current system of oversight is adequate, and whether greater transparency and independent review are needed to safeguard the public.
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