‘We are very sorry’: Josephine Teo apologises for confusion, anxiety over NRIC unmasking saga

She claimed that the initial strategy for implementing the policy change was to be implemented “in a gradual, coordinated manner with appropriate communication.”

” But what happened in this instance is that, because of a mistake, the numbers mistakenly got put out, then it became an topic, and then everything got accelerated”, she said.

The government, according to Ms. Indranee, will do everything in its power to discuss, explain, receive feedback, and communicate with the public as quickly as possible.

However, when unforeseen disruptions to communications plans come together, as with the ACRA event, “what’s really important is to be able to let all of you know what happened, and also to show our honest regrets and apologies that it happened, and to convince people on this”, she said.

Mrs Teo said the tragedy was “really unlucky” as it arose out of a mistake.

” If things had gone according to plan, we would have had the opportunity to do the proper connections. And that is just really anything that should not have happened, but it did happen, and for which we are really sorry”.