Chan described the government initiative to distribute face masks as a “gamble”, which was taken to calm nerves. He also said the government had been in a bind because it had to conserve mask stocks to ensure an adequate supply for health care workers, while battling the perception that it didn’t care about Singaporeans.

Evidently, masks do not just offer protection against Covid-19 to ordinary people, they also protect a government against widespread public resentment.

Hong Kong coronavirus panic a symptom of ailing ‘one country, two systems’

Granted, we’re lying on the ground because we tripped over ourselves, but mocking Hong Kong’s misfortunes – getting a laugh at the expense of people caught in their most vulnerable moments – still smacks of Schadenfreude and a complete lack of empathy.

Still, even if Chan is lacking the empathy gene, let’s hope he will be able to learn a lesson from Hong Kong’s experience.

The question he should perhaps ask is why, in the absence of any social or political crisis, some Singaporeans were also “behaving like idiots” and hoarding toilet paper, for example.

Months ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong responded to the Hong Kong situation with sympathy, and had the wisdom to ask himself and his fellow citizens some hard questions.

“Can this deep social angst happen here?” he said. “Can this social division befall us? And my answer is, yes it can if we are not careful. If it happens to us, like what’s happening elsewhere, we will suffer the same consequences as the other countries, only worse because we are that much more vulnerable.”

Let’s hope Chan’s comments provoke enough anger in Hong Kong for us to step forward, overcome divisions, rise from the ashes of hate and fear, and come together as a community. Let’s also hope Chan will notice that Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s pride came before her fall.

Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA