No good deed goes unpunished, as what Tan Min-Liang learned recently. 

The Singaporean founder and chief executive officer of gaming hardware company Razer had to deal with naysayers who found fault with his initiative to donate a million surgical masks across the world. 

On his Facebook page, Tan posted a screenshot of a message he received on Wednesday (April 22), in which someone tried to shame him, accusing him of forgetting his Singaporean roots and giving out masks to other countries instead of his homeland. 

To add some context, Razer has temporarily converted a portion of its production facilities to produce surgical masks in lieu of gaming peripherals during the global Covid-19 pandemic. The plan is to donate up to one million masks to the authorities in different countries, starting with Singapore where the Razer Southeast Asia headquarters is located.

It’s an initiative that won Tan and his team praise from the internet (not that hard, considering the Razer chief’s cult following) and from Ryan Reynolds himself. 

But not everyone’s happy.

Tan took the opportunity to set the record straight. In a calm three-point response, the entrepreneur clarified that Singapore was one of the first countries to receive the donations in the self-funded initiative. 

Since the mask-manufacturing line was established in Singapore, masks have been shipped to other countries as well, said Tan, including Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, and more. He also assured that he intends to continue shipping globally “as long as we can help”. 

“I'll do what I can for Singapore because I'm Singaporean and will continue to contribute as long as I can,” he asserted. 

“But we are all citizens of the world and we need to understand we are all in this together.” 

Of course, his comments were met with overwhelming support. 

Razer confirmed today (April 24) that its fully automated mask production line in Singapore is now operational, 24 days since the project was initiated. According to the company, production has begun and is expected to have a manufacturing capacity of approximately 5 million masks per month. 

“Unlike many other mask manufacturing facilities that manufacture in non-controlled rooms, the Made in Singapore face masks by Razer are manufactured in an ISO 13485 certified controlled room environment and the masks produced will be certified according to local and international standards,” the press release noted. 

Aside from Tan, other prominent figures in the realm of tech have all made efforts to provide aid in some way or another amid the global Covid-19 crisis. 

AliBaba founder Jack Ma has pledged to donate emergency supplies such as face masks and testing kits to 24 Latin American countries and some of Asia's poorest nations to combat the coronavirus. Tesla chief Elon Musk has promised to manufacture and offer free ventilators to all countries where his company operates. Twitter's Jack Dorsey has pledged $1.4 billion for Covid-19 relief efforts. 

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ilyas@asiaone.com

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