You know something? Singaporeans are well taken care of by a | Singapore Matters
You know something? Singaporeans are well taken care of by a competent govenment that cares, so much so that most of the time, we are shielded from the full brunt of a crisis.
Before you could feel the full brunt of chicken shortage, the government had activated their supply chains and worked with importers to bring in chilled chicken from Australia. And now, we could soon have chicken from Indonesia as Singapore looks to take care of chicken slaughter houses here and their employees, besides our stomachs.
At the start of the pandemic when countries interdicted mask supplies, Singapore acted fast to bring back our mask production line from Taiwan, invented high quality filter so that we would never lack high quality masks ever again.
The Government acted decisively very early on in the pandemic to save jobs, save businesses, support the self-employed and the lower income groups, preserve capabilities in sectors such as aviation which was hardest hit, so that they could easily take off again when the situation improved.
There were hardships but we were shielded from the full brunt of the pandemic. There was no deep scaring in the economy.
The government has done so well to take care of people that the consequence is that people do not fully understand or appreciate it when the government talks about facing a volatile, unpredictable and increasingly more dangerous world.
People spend their time on social media complaining against the government and calling for them to be voted out.
When DPM Lawrence Wong announced a relief package to help Singaporeans and businesses, they dissed the measures. Instead, they want the GST hike postponed. Some even want other taxes suspended.
This is because they are not the government and can focus only on the present and on one thing - inflation. The government, on the other hand, has to focus on both the present AND future challenges. They have to ensure that all their social programmes to help people can continue to run uninterrupted even when there is inflation. If we suspend taxes, do we also suspend social programmes to help people?
Some ask for the sky. They want free transport for 3 years to cope with inflation. Otherwise, vote them out, they said.
Suspend taxes, give free transport. Now, where is that money coming from? Print money? Or just spend from reserves and deplete them?
The Government will find ways to help Singaporeans cope as the situation unfolds around the world. But as Singaporeans, we also have our part to play by tightening our belt and bite the bullet. This is how we overcome together and be resilient.
