this has been
written and discussed lots here, and it is basically an issue of
the clear divide of between the `haves' and the `have nots' which
in singapore has become more very apparent in the last few
years.
depending on
which side you are on, you will clearly `love' the standard of
living here in singapore or `loathe' the high cost of living.
the middle-ground folks are the shrinking lots.
the tenet of
good or acceptable standard of living in a country must be
applied to the majority of the population, or benchmarked against
what is the basic, acceptable and humane level
of living for the population in general. and this
benchmark is typically set by the government. if a government
policy so decide that no citizen goes hungry, it will
work towards that (granted there will be slips in the cracks), or
if the government decide against any safety net for the population
in general, then good luck to all.
the issue i see
in the current ruling elite in singapore is that the living
standard benchmark is set conversely to what would have been a
basic responsibility of any government;
i.e. to safeguard and provide for the needs of the
citizens in general. in singapore, in the name of
survival and competitiveness, the government deliberately cast
aside these basic governance principles that got them elected
by creating such a tenuous living conditions to its own
people that to me is baffling, or even ludicrous.
by `opening' up
singapore to the world, singaporeans will always get the short
end of the straw, because nothing will ever be good enough. you
need to work harder for less money, and with
an inequitable playing ground, how could singaporeans
compete? we will always be outpriced by the malaysians and the
other regional countries. Similarly on the apex of the
pyramid, singaporeans will never have all or enough of
smarties to effectively compete with the best brains of the
world, because our education system is not perfect and we are
only after all, a young nation. that the government
is subjecting singaporeans to all these unequal playing field
is outrageous and terrible injustice that Singaporeans are
subjected to. in this instance, survival is overrated here.
Unlike in a much
bigger market like the USA or its near equivalent markets where it
will have the propensity to absorb the best brain or take in the
lowest paid workers (even this is protected by the government in
the form of minimum pay to prevent employee abuse).this is because
the pie is big enough for all without any major fall-out.
Singapore, on the other hand is such a
small market. There isn’t simply enough room for being `all things
to all people’.
Will Singapore
perish if we are to `take things slightly easier’ and smell the
roses once in a while? I think not. After all, we are not the
biggest slackers in the world. The policy of 20 or more years ago
of strategically positioning Singaporeans as high value add,
educated and hard working individuals, imo is still valid. today,
no singaporean will want to be cheapest; but we do not have the
smartest-in-the-world-for-everything amongst us as well (a part of
the current ruling elite which is a bunch of clowns is a testament
to this fact) Rather than continuing on the road of building a
society where Singaporeans take pride in being the touted as an
exemplary city state where excellence is the byword in which the
nation is run, we are moving towards the path of being the gambling
capital in the region, the united nation of vice/flesh trade and a
stopover destination to ANYBODY(martians’ included if ever there is
one) who’s keen to pillage and take a
piece of Singapore for his/her own benefit.
no wonder
singapore’s standard of living is hard to beat, in whichever way
you look at it.