You know recently this Mediacorp had the 'We Are One' or whatever donation lego bricks thing right? When I watched all the advertisements about people going down to donate their money to these needy people, I was highly annoyed.
They showed old ladies going down and young kids forking out their pocket money to help other Singaporeans who are in need of cash too.
Have you ever wondered?
The poor are helping the poor. If our dear PM or President could fork out 10% of their fat cheque salary per year (Last I remembered, I was taught in Intro to Public Policy that our President got like S$1 Million per year (maybe more) and he is exempted from paying tax), then wouldn't everything be solved?
I mean, these politicians claim to do things for the sake and good of Singaporeans right?
Why don't they prove their mens rea(claiming to help build a better and more prosperous and no-one-left-behind Singapore) with an actus reus(donating money from their salary to the needy)?
Hey, Mr President! Just 10%. Or if you're not feeling that generous today, how about 1% of it to the SPCA and another 1% to the Home for the Aged?
1%. That's like S$10, 000! Freaking enough for SPCA and some of the elderly to get by comfortably for a few months!
I mean, the government use our already poor taxpayers' money to build roads, get benefits for the needy like what Medishield and etc, isn't it time that these government officials give a bit more for the rest of us that actually contribute to their pay checks?
In other words, isn't it their turn now?
You said you'd want our country to prosper, for every Singaporean to feel a sense of belonging. Yet you set rules like no drinking water/eating sweets in the MRT. Purposely building the freaking MRT platforms open-spaced so that don't need to install air-cons and the rest of us Singaporeans who actually HAVE to take public transport perspire like mad pigs and travel to Ion to donate a freaking S$2 for a lego brick.
Or, you might argue that if you start donating to an organisation, other organisations will say it's not fair that you didn't donate to them. In that case, why don't you fix different organisations you could donate to a year? And it switches every year or something?
You'd say I'm bitter.
Of course I am!
They say civil servants get paid higher salaries to prevent corruption.
I say, intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation?
In layman terms: Before, a civil servant actually had the intrinsic motivation to actually want to help Singaporeans and enjoys it from the heart, but with this huge salary, won't it change to working for the money?
It's just the same thing with the American Teaching thing. They wanted to increase the pay for teachers with better records with their students. And people argued whether the teachers were working for the students to get better and at the same times get a nice reward or get better records for that nice reward?
Maybe, some of the government officials have donated.
Maybe, what they think is that they shouldn't always donate to the needy so we'd get complacent.
Or maybe, they let in more immigrants to help with our part-time job economy because no one wants to work hard for a low pay.
Wait a minute, won't you feel the slightest bit annoyed when you approach the cashier/sales girl and get greeted by a China Chinese national that can't speak English to save her/his life with the least bit of good-service attitude?
You say you want Singapore to have good service to bring in tourism. I say I want open jobs at Mac's/LJS/small shops to hire me when I'm old, bored and cashless but still healthy and not some other foreigner that just added to our high-density population in Singapore.
I mean, after all this, isn't it bloody obvious why many Singaporeans don't feel a sense of belonging here? The general public is thought of as, "The 'Elite' should not listen to the public consensus." etc etc (Again from Intro to Public Policy).
I have to tahan thirst in the freaking Mrt because they don't want me to acidentally spill it on the floor so they can hire less cleaners(probably). Maybe they're doing it for efficiency. But so? The standard of living here is so high and Singaporeans have to struggle hard everyday and we don't get a slightest part in policy decision making.
Do you remember the reverse osmosis thing when we had the Newater? I sort of remembered how the government wanted to know what the public felt about using it as part of our potable water and KABOOM! Suddenly I find out they've been 'secretly' adding it into our tap water supply.
I'm not saying we have a really screwed up government, I just feel like I'm just another minion of an overlord that dictates what we should/shouldn't do and I think it's quite oppressive. Not that I'm complaining.
I'm not one of the poor Iraqis under the Taliban's rule or slaves of another race.
But in this 'civilised' world today, the only thing I can say that reflects the similarities between the analogies and what I've been saying for the past few minutes is, what the hell man!?
Fatty's from China, which is a Communist country and even he told me that, "Did you know that Singapore is actually more Communist than China?"
It's quite shocking to hear a 'Communist' from a Communist country, telling you that your 'Democratic' country is actually more Communistic than his Communist country. Tongue-twister huh.
Although I agree that a lot of Singaporeans cannot survive if our government falls, but that because we've been living a too-safe life. But I feel that we should be given a chance for our voices to be truly heard and not get sued if we just get a bit overboard.
They might say that they do this and everyone lives in harmony, but..
