The Moral Dilemma

So the stronghold of the GRC system was finally broken yesterday by the "star team" of the workers' party. I'm genuinely glad we now have a handful of opposition members in parliment. Honestly the number now is just nice for our government to be effective and yet maintain duality on the ground.

I have many thoughts on this election but I'll use Aljunied here.

I find it a pity that George Yeo, a mild and an extremely nice guy (mum had exchanges with him when George was a BG in the SAF), had to be the fall guy for the PAPs short comings. I very much rather a joker like Wong Kan Seng, Mah Bow Tan or Khaw Boon Wah go. But then again, no minister is indispensable. It just so happen George Yeo was in the firing sights of change.

The issue is apparent. Poor Singaporeans are suffering too much. In economics we learn that the purpose of the government is to intervene to ensure the "welfare" and the economic objectives of the people are met. This government has made policies which have allowed far too many poor people to fall through the nets of safety that current schemes provide for for the poor. The ruling government has shown in the past 5 years that they have been clearly out of touch with the working class. Living high and mighty up there like a club that is the PAP.

A friend recounted an incident that happened to him a few months back that made him question the moral authority of the current government to govern. His grandmother was hospitalised for 2 weeks. The bill came out to be over $10000 despite no special treatment being administered or whatsoever. When the grandmother was discharged, she had to take a lot of medicines to help recover fully. However, the family could not afford the many different disgustingly expensive medicines that the doctor prescribed. The doctor then presented to the family members the list of medicines that were deemed "not as important" and asked them which one they didn't want. My friend and his family were shocked. Under the current scheme, a person has to sell all his assests and be completely 100% unable to help himself (i.e. with his house sold etc) before the government will step in to save your life.

I'm not asking for a welfare state, we all know that will lead to disaster and rob the pockets of our children and grandchildren. But for a healthcare system to degenerate to such a level is just vehemently disgusting. It reminds me of Michael Moore's Sicko show that I watched a few years back. I thought then that this will never happen to Singapore. but in the past 5 years, things have proven otherwise. Singapore only spent 1.6% of her GDP on healthcare last year. Something is clearly clearly wrong.

There are many more heart burning issues I have. But I'll keep it for next time.

I think more can be done to help the poor who fall through the safety nets. The cry has one forth and I can only pray the government open it's ears.

Don't get me wrong. I still think a PAP government is best for Singapore, but I feel that the government has been so out of touch with the working class and the poor folks that they need to lose a few constituencies to wake up and realise something is very wrong.