The Member of Parliament (working in a similar function to a Representative and/or a Senator in the United States) representing my electoral district, termed a constituency in my home country, is simply useless. He has a negative track record of working for the good of the disadvantaged.
First of all, as the current Minister of Health, he created even more fluff by renaming an ineffective healthcare program for low-income families, which is currently named CHAS, Community Healthcare Assistance Scheme. I acknowledge, this new scheme has better coverage, as it sets lower income requirements than the previous one, and extends to private clinics. However, the basic issue is not addressed. There is always a crunch of hospital beds for the poor, there are always incompetent doctors who are negligent and cause injury or death in patients (like what my grandmother went through, she suffered a heavy stroke after an orthopedic surgery and died in the operation, in a government hospital), and nobody can afford to die.
Although I understand Singapore has a better healthcare system than Canada, as seen in hospital wait times, even with two-fifths of Canadian taxes, I also think about the effectiveness of government healthcare for low-income families, and cringe. The poor have to wait to see a doctor (a full day to even get a doctor appointment, as what I experienced), get a bed (much of the time, for a year or more), and now, even worse than before, we do not get free healthcare ? we pay for all medical treatment, in proportion to both our income and our size of houses (which do not take into account household size). I think our healthcare system, already less than satisfactory for our citizens who really have to ?pay and wait to die? currently and priced out of a really top-notch private healthcare institutions, is now bogged down with simple incapacities and lack of capacities in our current privatized government-funded healthcare facilities.
In addition, for people with neurobiological conditions, such as autism, insurance does not cover us. Added with the commonplace unemployment within the Singapore special needs community, it is a dystopian situation in Singapore, where the government seems to see us as a liability that should be ?discharged? quickly. They?d very much rather see us staying at home every day, and bang out heads on the wall to death, like what some of our brethren in the autism community does in Singapore, than to get the unemployment money and do odd jobs, make good music or art pieces, or volunteer around the world for the even less fortunate, like they do in Germany and the Netherlands.
In addition, I note that this Minister once served as Education Minister. Some parents whose children have learning disabilities wrote to the Minister that they want to reduce class size even further, so that their children enjoy a closer interaction with teachers, with closer attention and guidance. I agree with these parents, because I was placed in a class with 35 students back in those days when class size was 40 and above, and I feel already a marked improvement in relationship with my classmates and teachers with 5 less students in the class. I believe a class with 20, maybe even 15 or 12 students, will have an even greater impact on children, than a class with 42 or 45 students. Guess what ? the Education Minister did not do anything to follow up. He did not even acknowledge a reply. What gives?
Also, he was first elected to an electoral district of 5 members, 4 of whom were Ministers, or ex-Ministers, plus 1 ?Mayor?, who manages the Council that is in charge of the whole constituency. He later on switched to a single-member constituency, but later on, this district absorbs a neighboring multi-member constituency (termed group representative constituency, or GRC, in Singapore) to be a 5-man GRC. The electoral system in Singapore is, every constituency elects either 1, or a group of 4 to 6 members of parliament. All seats are elected on a ?first-past-the-post?, best-winner/team-takes-all basis. As a result, these Ministers can be really complacent, seemingly taking the electorate for granted, because they can protect themselves with defensive mechanisms, while not really doing anything much for residents, due to their safety in numbers and being in entrenched position of continued dominance of the political scene in the constituency (and, to a larger extent, almost the whole of Singapore).
Although the Minister himself was active in constituency events, often appearing in constituency events, he did not take into consideration the plight of residents.
One of my fellow neighbors, Harry (featured on this blog earlier), was a case in example of not really being helped. He did look out for the Minister for employment assistance, after being unemployed for 3 months. He was referred to the Community Development Council/CDC, or rather, some employment council in Singapore. Herein lays the issue. In the CDC, he was asked to attend all the job fairs in Singapore. Then, he applied to every job in the job fairs. Every single job. Then he was told that because of his ?attributes? (I?d say, Asperger?s and not-so-attractive-personality-at-first-sight), he is not a fit in these companies, so he was rejected by every single one of companies that came for a job fair. It was until he came to a bigger employment center in Singapore, named E2I, that he finally found some jobs that suit him. But for him to get the job, first, he has to be ?off the CDC list?. So he went on to lead a hermit life, only having a diet of malted drinks and biscuits for the past 8 months. What a meaningless lifestyle it is, for Harry! And he remains unemployed, up till this day.
I wonder whether the CDC, or rather, the person who sent Harry to the CDC in the first place, had really lived up its purpose in giving Harry a job. Yes, Harry may not deserve a job currently because of his less-than-desirable attributes. However, he is competent (he has all A?s in his university entrance examinations, except for Mathematics, in which he failed because of much uncontrollable factors), he is conscientious, and he is dependable. He commits everything he does 100% all the time if he is asked to do something, even to a larger extent than I do. Does that so-called Minister even care about the welfare of his constituents that he is supposed to represent?
Much as I support the current government, I do not feel comfortable voting for the Minister and his team in my constituency, come next elections. Through that, I will be maintaining the status quo, that is, helplessness and desperation for those who are poor, unemployed, sick, old or disabled. You either free all the monopolistic markets to make them more competitive, for the society?s good, and protect individual rights in all individuals, or you actually give a minimum guaranteed standard of living to all, not to encourage sloth and allow it to be abused, but to provide a safety net for the disadvantaged in general.
I will vote for the other team in the upcoming general elections, scheduled to be held in 2016. I hope the other team will really act for the good of the residents, given their responsibilities in carrying out government functions in Singapore, regardless of them in opposition or in government. I believe I will have voted out a Minister of the government, but I will vote in the agents of change that make real change happen.
First of all, as the current Minister of Health, he created even more fluff by renaming an ineffective healthcare program for low-income families, which is currently named CHAS, Community Healthcare Assistance Scheme. I acknowledge, this new scheme has better coverage, as it sets lower income requirements than the previous one, and extends to private clinics. However, the basic issue is not addressed. There is always a crunch of hospital beds for the poor, there are always incompetent doctors who are negligent and cause injury or death in patients (like what my grandmother went through, she suffered a heavy stroke after an orthopedic surgery and died in the operation, in a government hospital), and nobody can afford to die.
Although I understand Singapore has a better healthcare system than Canada, as seen in hospital wait times, even with two-fifths of Canadian taxes, I also think about the effectiveness of government healthcare for low-income families, and cringe. The poor have to wait to see a doctor (a full day to even get a doctor appointment, as what I experienced), get a bed (much of the time, for a year or more), and now, even worse than before, we do not get free healthcare ? we pay for all medical treatment, in proportion to both our income and our size of houses (which do not take into account household size). I think our healthcare system, already less than satisfactory for our citizens who really have to ?pay and wait to die? currently and priced out of a really top-notch private healthcare institutions, is now bogged down with simple incapacities and lack of capacities in our current privatized government-funded healthcare facilities.
In addition, for people with neurobiological conditions, such as autism, insurance does not cover us. Added with the commonplace unemployment within the Singapore special needs community, it is a dystopian situation in Singapore, where the government seems to see us as a liability that should be ?discharged? quickly. They?d very much rather see us staying at home every day, and bang out heads on the wall to death, like what some of our brethren in the autism community does in Singapore, than to get the unemployment money and do odd jobs, make good music or art pieces, or volunteer around the world for the even less fortunate, like they do in Germany and the Netherlands.
In addition, I note that this Minister once served as Education Minister. Some parents whose children have learning disabilities wrote to the Minister that they want to reduce class size even further, so that their children enjoy a closer interaction with teachers, with closer attention and guidance. I agree with these parents, because I was placed in a class with 35 students back in those days when class size was 40 and above, and I feel already a marked improvement in relationship with my classmates and teachers with 5 less students in the class. I believe a class with 20, maybe even 15 or 12 students, will have an even greater impact on children, than a class with 42 or 45 students. Guess what ? the Education Minister did not do anything to follow up. He did not even acknowledge a reply. What gives?
Also, he was first elected to an electoral district of 5 members, 4 of whom were Ministers, or ex-Ministers, plus 1 ?Mayor?, who manages the Council that is in charge of the whole constituency. He later on switched to a single-member constituency, but later on, this district absorbs a neighboring multi-member constituency (termed group representative constituency, or GRC, in Singapore) to be a 5-man GRC. The electoral system in Singapore is, every constituency elects either 1, or a group of 4 to 6 members of parliament. All seats are elected on a ?first-past-the-post?, best-winner/team-takes-all basis. As a result, these Ministers can be really complacent, seemingly taking the electorate for granted, because they can protect themselves with defensive mechanisms, while not really doing anything much for residents, due to their safety in numbers and being in entrenched position of continued dominance of the political scene in the constituency (and, to a larger extent, almost the whole of Singapore).
Although the Minister himself was active in constituency events, often appearing in constituency events, he did not take into consideration the plight of residents.
One of my fellow neighbors, Harry (featured on this blog earlier), was a case in example of not really being helped. He did look out for the Minister for employment assistance, after being unemployed for 3 months. He was referred to the Community Development Council/CDC, or rather, some employment council in Singapore. Herein lays the issue. In the CDC, he was asked to attend all the job fairs in Singapore. Then, he applied to every job in the job fairs. Every single job. Then he was told that because of his ?attributes? (I?d say, Asperger?s and not-so-attractive-personality-at-first-sight), he is not a fit in these companies, so he was rejected by every single one of companies that came for a job fair. It was until he came to a bigger employment center in Singapore, named E2I, that he finally found some jobs that suit him. But for him to get the job, first, he has to be ?off the CDC list?. So he went on to lead a hermit life, only having a diet of malted drinks and biscuits for the past 8 months. What a meaningless lifestyle it is, for Harry! And he remains unemployed, up till this day.
I wonder whether the CDC, or rather, the person who sent Harry to the CDC in the first place, had really lived up its purpose in giving Harry a job. Yes, Harry may not deserve a job currently because of his less-than-desirable attributes. However, he is competent (he has all A?s in his university entrance examinations, except for Mathematics, in which he failed because of much uncontrollable factors), he is conscientious, and he is dependable. He commits everything he does 100% all the time if he is asked to do something, even to a larger extent than I do. Does that so-called Minister even care about the welfare of his constituents that he is supposed to represent?
Much as I support the current government, I do not feel comfortable voting for the Minister and his team in my constituency, come next elections. Through that, I will be maintaining the status quo, that is, helplessness and desperation for those who are poor, unemployed, sick, old or disabled. You either free all the monopolistic markets to make them more competitive, for the society?s good, and protect individual rights in all individuals, or you actually give a minimum guaranteed standard of living to all, not to encourage sloth and allow it to be abused, but to provide a safety net for the disadvantaged in general.
I will vote for the other team in the upcoming general elections, scheduled to be held in 2016. I hope the other team will really act for the good of the residents, given their responsibilities in carrying out government functions in Singapore, regardless of them in opposition or in government. I believe I will have voted out a Minister of the government, but I will vote in the agents of change that make real change happen.
