Tan Kin Lian's Blog: The hidden ugly side of Singapore

Monday, July 06, 2009

The hidden ugly side of Singapore

Does this article give a fair description of the life of the poor in Singapore, or is it an exaggeration? Give your opinion here.

12 comments:

Tan Kin Lian said...: Let me start with my opinion. I think that this story does represent a very small fraction of the poor in Singapore and that most of the low income groups are not in this distressed situation. They seem to be able to cope fairly well.

Some families may be in this condition due not only to the low income, but to other factors, such as gambling, drinking or a sick family member.; July 06, 2009 8:22 PM
Anonymous said...: Unfortunately in every country including first world nations, there will be a section of the population still living in poverty and in a country with limited land and space, ownership of a car and big flat will never be as easily attainable as in countries with more land like our neighbours. If the majority of the citizens here are living in better conditions than those in more resource rich countries, then I would say we should not play up the negative & forget the majority good.; July 06, 2009 9:15 PM
Anonymous said...: I believe that in every society, there will people in a distress stage. the key is what does the socity providea as a safety net for these people that count.; July 06, 2009 9:21 PM
Anonymous said...: Hello herewith is opinion of REX:

Right from the start, the writer of the post made a sweeping statement "And this is the lives of 80 percent of ‘true’ Singaporeans who live in the republic’s Housing Development Board (low cost) flats". It is playing with numbers, a very dangerous game. We know that 80% of Singaporeans live in HDB flats. But the writer twisted the numbers to say THIS example IS THE LIVES (grammatical aberration detected) of 80% of Singaporeans!!! What a scandalous irresponsible statement.

Other than that the example quoted does depict the situation as a specific case, I have no reason to doubt its content. The richest country in the world, or any country in the world, will have similar stories somehow. Why Singapore bashing.. this is wrong.

In my opinion, the only thing i dislike about the government may be summed up in the following paradoxical axiom,
Singapore PAP government is immensely PRO Singapore but at the same time grossly ANTI Singaporean.

REX; July 06, 2009 9:21 PM
Anonymous said...: Dear Mr tan,

You can see more such "poor Singaporeans" cases at the MP meet-the-people session. As whether it is a very small fraction of such cases, only the PAP govt knows.; July 06, 2009 9:22 PM
Anonymous said...: Ouch... that is such a sad story. I really hope no Singaporean lives like that. But wishing that it isn't so will not change the facts. And the fact of the matter is there ARE Singaporeans living like that. Our government prides itself on efficiency but this efficiency seems to be directed at MNCs and towards woo-ing foreign talent. Externally to the world, we are a clean and green society with good roads and infrastructure, but internally in the hearts of the heartlands, there are the poor and unfortunate souls who struggle just to get 3 meals a day. In between paying for their rising electrical bills, rising transport cost and rising GST, they still have to fight for employment from cheaper foreign labour, or from “more qualified” foreign talents.

If only our government (from the Ministers to the senior officers) are more compassionate and empathic towards the citizens they are supposed to serve. To the PAP: We are not lesser mortals! We elected you so that you can better our lives: by giving us a good and safe home, giving us liberty of speech, giving us career opportunities and growth. We don’t want you to price public housing above the means of most Singaporeans. We don’t want you to censor the media/use the media as your propaganda tool. We don’t want you to import your glorified foreign talent who predictably take flight once they have sucked us dry. Oh, and we don’t want you to remind us that we are lesser mortals (MP Charles Chong) or to rub your exorbitant salary package and employment perks in our faces by going for $10k French cooking classes ala senior civil servant, Tan Yong Soon. Or to demonstrate your lack of empathy as in the case of the low IQ boy vs two low EQ ministers at the chair smashing meet-the-people session...

Anyway I digress. My point was that the government must be more empathic. I feel that there is a great divide between the elites of PAP and the common folk. Perhaps in order to inculcate some caring, all government officers should have a compulsory 3-day home stay with a destitute family to teach them about suffering... and more senior civil servants must be subject to biennial “reviews” to keep them grounded. I mean, they are paid so much, surely they forgot what it is like to starve. And if they cringe at the thought of mingling with lessor mortals, perhaps civil service is not their path after all...
P.S Just living a day in the shoes of the poor is very different from a 5 min meet-the-people session... You really see the suffering.; July 06, 2009 10:17 PM
Anonymous said...: I easily blow away $80 for a job; July 06, 2009 10:31 PM
A Singaporean said...: I largely agree with the sentiments of the writer. Obviously, those well-to-do will thing that the current system is good because they are not suffering and they always cite the "safety net", but the "safety net" is often not working because our government is focusing and developing on the wrong things, things that are detrimental to the very people of Singapore.

Other than the numbers game already pointed out by REX, I also disagree with the comment that car ownership should not be a privilege in the tiny Singapore - the writer should see for himself the cost of traffic congestion - and we should be expanding and improving our public transport network instead. The Circle Line and Downtown Line are projects in the right direction, but they seem to come a few years late when trains are already too overcrowded, and we need more of these. Or rather, we could just stop the inflow of foreigners.; July 06, 2009 11:42 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: I asked two young men from poor family background to give their views on this matter.

Both of them gave a positive aspect to life in Singapore. They said that the poor in Singapore is quite well off, compared to the poor in other countries.

They are prepared to work hard to make a better life and future for themselves. Wow - they are positive.; July 07, 2009 11:29 AM
Anonymous said...: Dear Mr. Tan,
The Singapore environment provides a lot of opportunities for peole who are talented, and smart. This place is heaven to them. unfortunately, if you are not that talented or smart, life is a challenge here. So is this heaven or hell, it depends on your station in life here but the government obviously can do more to help the not so successful.; July 07, 2009 5:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Have done survey work on low income families before. The article is an exaggeration but it puts a personal face on otherwise cold survey numbers.

Some things which might be of interest.

A very large propotion of people in this group have a spouse who is in jail for drug or other offences. This puts tremendous pressure on the families as the remaining parent has to work and bring up the kids.

To make ends meet, many of these families live as large extended family units so you will be quite surprised by the number of people that you find in a 1 or 2 room rental HDB flat.

Unemployment for this segment is way above the national norm.

In line with our government's "no free lunch" philosophy, the amount of assistance they get from a myraid of groups is ridiculously small.

To get it, they often have to agree to attend all sort of courses and training. I suspect that many of them attend these courses not because the skills are relevant but because it is a pre-condition to continue to receive whatever meagre assistance they are getting.

Some of the courses they get "drafted" to attend are quite funny if the actual circumstances were not so sad. For example, in recognition that they can perhaps not get a job, they often get sent for cake making or other cooking courses. The idea I suppose is to equip them with skills so that they can turn entrepreneur and start their own hawker stall.

Of course if you think through, this is silly because if they had capital to start a biz, they probably wouldn't be in this low income group. No bank would lend them money and the Sg government would most certainly not give them a grant.

So other looking good as a KPI, these training schemes probably do more to help the vendors conducting the courses rather than the low income families they were intended to help.; July 08, 2009 3:58 PM
Anonymous said...: Are there really poor Singaporeans? On numerious occasions I found at food centres customers leaving behind about half-eaten meals including drinks on tables thereby wasting money & food resources while poor folks in less developed countries are starving or retrieving food from garbage dumps.; August 13, 2009 1:20 AM