Friday, December 08, 2006

One Elite, One Non-Elite, One Singapore

Was reading the speech by MP Jessica Teo on Beware of Politics of Envy (Dec 7).

Here are my comments to another commenter named Yeo Joey and also to her speech.

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“Elites must be humble and be sensitive on when will confidence cross over and be perceived as arrogance; non-elites must strive hard and believe in themselves. ”

Do you know why there is such a divide? Becoz many of the policies implementions came from the ‘elites’. The results affect the ‘non-elites’. And it always seem that the policies favor the ‘elites’, ‘white-horse’, upclass, whatever you call it. Ask a common man on the street.

Take $200 dollars from a common man is different from the $200 taken from a rich man. It’s still the same amount, but it is relative.

Whom do you think were affected the most in the CPF cuts?

Now the economy is displaying strong growth, will there be a restoration as promised? If not, why promise it when there is no intention to fulfill it?

Individual character? More like perception of how society ‘grades’ you based on your achievements in life - scholarships, cars, salary grades, academics, etc. Like it or not, people change to the perception others place on you.

Need more? See WSM, and know the significant divide is already happening in the mindsets of people. Just a rant from a kid? I think not.


On a side note:There are people who don’t take home 150k annually. For the non-elite, to strive hard without a good wage increase as compared to the increasing living cost seems unfair? Perhaps you should look at the household income percentile over the years.

How do you expect one to believe in oneself when the opportunities are limited, and people place a non-elite stigma on you?

Oh yes, the non-elites strive hard, work overtime, while the government asks the common man to pro-create and then increase the cost of living? How to? More GST hikes?

What makes you think the new poor does not work and strive hard? Do you know many of them takes up 2 jobs - day work and night shift to feed their families? And yet their take home pay may be less than even 1/4 of even my salary?

As the society moves on, these people don’t have degrees or academic backgrounds to push them through the ‘new’ globalization (everybody blames it on globalization. I have no idea why).
And then they face retrenchment at the magic 40. Will another company employ them? Did not these people also contribute to the society and economy of Singapore in the past?

Whose fault? Of course it’s not the government. Yet neither theirs.

I hope to bring you and MP Jessica to attention that not many people have the luxuries and opportunities perhaps like you do. There were many who left secondary school education in the past to work to provide for the family, ultimately contributing to the economy of Singapore. They are now 40-50+ of age. Can they and their family make it to the next 10 years?

Re-training? LOL.

Whatever happened to One People, One Nation, One Singapore?

Perhaps it can be changed to One Elite, One Non-Elite, One Singapore (forgive my satirical humor).
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is one good post for ONE Singapore. All the talk about elite and non elite is just a talk of the haves and the have nots in society, the VERY rich and the poor in absolute terms).
Good post overall!