For his mum, I saw a different facet of life. She headed for the dustbin and started to rampage the dustbin for used aluminium cans I guessed to sell to waste collectors in exchange for a paltry sum of money. Again, this is my guess that she needed the money to feed herself and her dependant.Although I know little of the mum and her son, the very sight has engraved a deep impression on me and sets me thinking about the following questions for which I do not have a ready answer to. It does not matter to me whether I have the answer or not but what matters to me is whether more can or should be done to help these people.
My very first thought is the yardstick by which we measure our society ought to be more holistic. It is common for us to make public our accomplishment of having the world's best this and that as a measure of our progress as a society. I stongly feel that society ought to be measured by what exits at both end of the spectrum of our society. What the elites could or has done as well as how well the bottom 5% of our society scrap a decent living for themselves. I am not proposing a communistic regime here but a social democratic framework that Singapore espoused herself as one. Jesus did say that he will measure us by how we treat the least amongst us.
My next port of call was the equality of opportunity. Lets not kid ourself that we have all the social and economic levellers to ensure equal opportuity for all children who are citizens of Singapore. I am glad that the government has instituted compulsory primary education in Singapore. This would at least provide a more level playing field to ensure that irregardless of the socio-economic background of our parents, we would not be too grossly disadvantaged and be given equal opportunity to primary education as a minimum. As I think deeper, equal opportunity actually means equal access to education on a standard provided by the government. Not equal opportunity really if we think deeper.
In closing, to be fair to Singapore government and also to most other governments, it is a difficult task to manage a society on metocratic basis with proper socio-economic equaliser to break the poverty trap and enhance socio-economic mobility both ways. They have done what they think is best for society without destroying the work ethos of the society that excessive welfarism could bring. I believe that for government, their hands are pretty tied as they have to operate within a frame work of policies and procedures that produces tranparency, fairness and predictability in outcome. However in so doing, the social safety net would inevitably miss people on the fringe of their policies. For these, private charities or charity on a personal level that have a more flexible and discretionary safety net could help. The recent spate of possible mis-management in some of the larger private charities has spawned a call for more transparency, accountability and check & balances to be in place. Let's not go over board and put the private charities into a straight jacket. We must remember their place in society and not throw away the baby together with the bath water.
lkypeter@gmail.com Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye (c) Peter Lye 2014
1st Nov 2005