Singapore General Election 2011

ARE YOU LISTENING?

Throughout the General Election campaign and its aftermath the word that kept popping up is LISTEN.

Everyone claims they want to listen. Candidates from the opposition initiated this approach by stating that they have been listening to the voters and responding to their cries. They then listed the litany of woes of those who especially find their present living situation difficult and the future bleak. Government candidates had to defend and even apologise that they have not listened enough to the grievances of the citizens and promise to do better the next time. The opposition pledged further to continue to listen carefully and help them to speak for them. Most of the citizens who have arrived with their different degrees of comfort are indifferent and felt they do not need to listen and support the status quo and voted as they have voted decades ago.

It is necessary for us to listen to all the classes of people in the community. We are pleased to listen to those who succeed and able to manage their lives. We need to listen and empathise with those who are struggling for the basic necessities of life in the midst of our relative affluence. The suffering of others in our human community is also mine as a fellow human being. When one suffers all share in the suffering.

Some issues have surfaced in a stark manner that need to be addressed for the total well-being of the nation. Are we really listening to what the people are saying. All will have to work together in the solving of the issues that we hear about.

1. High Salaries. We have reached beyond the embarrassing stage that those who hold political office are paid the highest salaries in the world and beyond comparison with the more developed and larger countries. It is on the scale which is truly “out of this world.” Others even regard it as obscene and a form of corruption. It can no longer be justifiable by any means or measure. The opposition has shown convincingly that they were able to recruit equally outstanding and talented people who were not tempted with astronomical remunerations.

2. Casinos. While it is true that the government revenues have increased significantly and that a large number of new jobs were created, the question remains whether the gambling industry is the one that we need to engage in and the kind of jobs that we need to train workers for. The social costs are alarming and unbearable. The human/family lives are too precious to be squandered. The “house” is calibrated to win always and millions of dollar are being siphoned out daily to the owners of our casinos. Lives are being sacrificed at the casino altars

3. Minimum Wage. Wages need to consider the living wage for our workers and their families. Foreign workers who compare their own living conditions in their own countries are willing reluctantly to accept lower than living wages while there are here by themselves. Corporations in our borderless economic world will seek out countries that pay the lowest wage for workers in order to maximise their profits. Without a minimum age policy we are exploiting poor foreign workers and enriching the companies especially in the manufacturing sector. Human resource is the one that we can provide for we lack natural resources.

4. Gerrymandering. It is obvious enough that there is gerrymandering to ensure the continued control of those in power. Whatever name we use it is a deliberate attempt through the electioneering process to benefit the party in power. The degree and the manner which we have done in the GRC’s have made its continuance highly problematic. We do not train people for political office by getting them to hang on to the coat-tails of successful office holders and bypass the proper election process of having the candidate to contest in his or her own single constituency.

5. Widening Gap. The ever widening gap between the rich and poor has no other option but to narrow. When the poor cannot afford to retire and continue to work in order to survive we see that could be one’s fate when one retires. When we depend upon our children’s medisave to pay our hospital bills we are spending not only our children’s inheritance but their present savings. The need for more equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth is crying out from the more deprived segments of our community.

6. Social capital. When I watch the tremendous crowds attending the political rallies, I look at other massive crowds gathered in many parts of our world today demonstrating for change and succumbing even to the violent overthrow of authoritarian regimes that have been in power for decades. There is an urgency to build up the social capital of people who are committed to peaceful change. We need people to show fairness and to commit to compassion and to engage in caring for one another.

These are the pressing issues that come to mind when we listen to the voices from all directions when we go through a general election. They are the voices for change. If changes do not occur fast enough violence becomes the only option and we all suffer. We listen to the pleas and the cries of the people who suffer from the pressures of these problems. We can eavesdrop and listen to the voices from afar and they are reaching our shores. The listening process must necessarily lead to action to solve these issues in our society. Are you listening?