Sharon Claire /

I am a regular Singaporean. I was born and bred in Singapore. I studied in our local schools and universities and, unlike a whole bunch of my schoolmates, actually bothered to recite the Pledge every morning. I have lived in almost every residential type in this country, from a rental flat to a HUDC (does anyone even remember that anymore?) to a condominium to a 3-room HDB flat. I take public transport everywhere I go, partially because I do not possess a driver’s licence, but also because it’s more environmentally friendly.

I earn more than the national average, which is not saying much. If I’m careful with my finances, I will be able to clear the loan I took from the HDB in about 15 years.

I have pastimes. I like to dance, I like to sing. Above all, I love to cook and read. Once in a while, I like to go on short holidays to nearby places.

I am pretty average, by most standards.

~

Even 10 years ago, I knew something was wrong.

I watched silently as they justified high ministerial pay with the rationale of “so they wouldn’t jump ship to private corporations where they would earn loads more money”. I frowned: “Shouldn’t they be serving the country because they want to make Singapore a better place, and not because it gives an equivalent pay to what they can get outside? That’s not right”. Yet I brushed it off as youthful idealism.

And I watched as their pay increased while my dad and mum struggled through their ever-increasing health problems to make ends meet to put us through university.

I watched silently as yet another PRC coffeeshop attendant wiped my table, not fully comprehending what was happening or why. My hostel roommate, a lovely girl from China, confided to me one day that the Singapore government had gone overseas and recruited all these students, promising them jobs in the bioscience sector, but now there was a glut of bioscience graduates with no jobs. I brushed it off as being a simple dip in the economic cycle and, following a recovery, everything would be fine. I even reassured my roommate that that would be the case.

I wonder where those extra graduates are, now.

I watched silently as the officer signed off on the forms that would land me in 30 years’ debt for an 80sqm space. A space I could pretend to own, at least until I defaulted on the repayments for too long. They handed me the keys, and I wondered why I allowed myself to be persuaded by my fiance to buy a flat now (“because the prices are going up already and while we can still afford it”) – when only one of us was working, with a pay that had not even crossed the $2.5K mark. How on earth were we going to service the loan?

I later found out that he had never been more right in his entire life.

I watched silently as yet another person tried to squeeze onto the bus, and winced as the door whacked into that person’s back while closing. It seemed strange that not all that long ago, a crowded bus did not have people balancing precariously on its steps, hanging on for dear life as the driver barrelled down the road. Is it my memory that is faulty? I hear the now-familiar refrain of “Please move in! I’m closing the door!”, and the sound of EZ-link cards dutifully scanned – a method to prevent fare cheats – and recall an occasion when I was four and accompanied my grandmother to the nearby wet market. We were on our way back, and had stopped at the bus stop just outside our block to catch a breath. An SBS bus stopped, and the driver opened the door and called out, “Aunty! Do the two of you need a ride? Come aboard, I won’t charge for it”.

I realised I would never see that happening ever again.

I watched silently as yet another Fairprice and yet another Sheng Siong opened, and recalled the old uncle who ran the mamak shop at Block 19. I remember reading the report where they interviewed him about small shops surviving in a world where supermarkets and hypermarkets were increasingly the norm. I closed my eyes and recalled the smell of the shop, dark and reeking of dried provisions, wafer biscuits and fresh fruit. But young eyes are not meant to see the dust gathering on the bottles of detergent, nor the yellowing of yesterday’s news laid out faithfully every morning. I went back three years ago, and Uncle, who always remembered my mum and always smiled when my mum introduced me (“Remember this one? This one was the small fatty ‘bombom’. The youngest”), was gone. He had died not long after that interview.

And I realised that very soon, I would not be able to bring my children back to do the same, because like Uncle, that shop would be gone

And I watched silently, as yet another grandmother piled a cardboard box onto her cart, yet another uncle rummaged through the bin for a drink can, yet another aunty placed packets of tissue paper on my table. I even recall thinking, with a certain amount of bemusement, that they used to put 3 packets for $1, and now they were bundling 5 for $2. Even tissue packets are subject to inflation. I thought of my late grandmother, and how I always regretted not being able to take her out for a meal with my first paycheck, because she died in the middle of my O’Levels. I wondered what she would have made of all this.

Suddenly I realised that I was glad she couldn’t see it at all.

~

I watched silently as my country changed before my very eyes

And I did nothing about it.

I let other people dictate what my country should become.

I let them tell me that this is progress, that this is necessary, without asking whether it really was.

I let them turn my people into mindless, uncaring automatons, concerned only for themselves, waiting for the next ‘dividend’, trying to get ahead and leaving others behind, except when maybe a charity show rolled around.

I let them put my fellow Singaporeans in debt while I comfortably pay off my loan.

I let them take away the financial security of my people.

I let them tell me that the Pledge I faithfully recited and teared over during National Day parade broadcasts is an “aspiration”.

I let them tell me that money is paramount, not heart.

I let them silence my voice by denying me a chance to vote.

I let them do all that.

And if you do not use your vote, YOUR VOICE, then you, too, have let them.

~

I will not claim to know exactly what goes on on-the-ground. I acknowledge that my life, beyond a couple of blips, can be considered charmed by many out there, even privileged by certain standards. Unlike some of the candidates, I cannot lay claim to having gone from poverty to wherever I am, because I never experienced true poverty. I do not claim to know the ins and outs of the policies that have led us to where we are today. I will not even say I have the solution to go back to a better time, because I don’t.

But I know what I have seen.

And I will no longer let them use my vote, MY VOICE, to let them turn my country into what THEY want.

I will use my vote, MY VOICE, to tell them what I want my country to be like.

And I vote for Singapore.

Visit TOC’s General Election website for more GE news.

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

Fire incident at two-storey house along Stirling Road

A fire incident happened at 57 Stirling Road about 4:50pm yesterday (29…

两马国人涉走私1万余口罩 被印尼当局逮捕并充公

两名马国人涉嫌将约1万2千个口罩走私回国,被印度尼西亚当局逮捕,而这些口罩也被充公。 据印尼当局表示,两名嫌疑犯分别为44岁及42岁的马来西亚籍人,两人称他们打算分发这些口罩给马来西亚儿童,防止他们感染武汉冠状病毒(COVID-19)。 两人原计划于周三(11日)登上飞往吉隆坡的班机,却引起了苏门答腊岛(Sumatra)棉兰市(Medan)国际机场官员对两人起疑,并搜索他们的行李。 印尼警方证实,在将口罩没收后,两人将会在未被控任何刑事犯罪下,遣返回国。 印尼于本月传出首起确诊病例后,已引发民众抢购防疫用品,其物品也随之涨价,促使当局严格取缔。 警方早前也在在雅加达近郊城市唐格朗(Tangerang),发现接近60万片外科手术口罩。 当局指出,“各地口罩价格飞涨,且一直处于断货,很可能是因为囤积者为了赚钱试图牺牲公众利益。 警方表示,一旦定罪,嫌疑犯可能会面临最高五年的监禁和巨额罚款。 今日印尼贸易部长苏帕曼托(Agus Suparmanto)亦宣布,由于疫情扩散,印尼将暂时禁止口罩出口以确保内需,直至国内供应无虞才会解禁。

2017温室气体总排放量5250万吨 工业占六成;建筑、家户居次

卫生部、环境及水源部高级政务部长许连碹博士周一在国会表示,来自建筑与家庭用户的空调排放量,占总排放量相当大的比例。 许连碹回应马西岭-油池集选区议员王鼎昆的相关质询,表示2017年,新加坡的温室气体总排放量就已达5250万吨,其中楼宇与家户的排放量占了19巴仙,仅次于占六成排放量的工业领域。 此外,14巴仙的排放量则来自陆路交通,而在废物能源发电厂焚化城市废物约占3巴仙。 她续指,新加坡一直致力于减少排放量,为此,还于今年实施了碳税。同时规定所有新建筑物,以及进行重大翻新建筑均需达到《建筑控制法》的基本标准。此外,建设局也提出建筑业主或发展商提高能源效率,采取更高效的冷却系统以替代空调需求。 除了针对建筑,许连碹也提出由国家环境局所提出的两项计划,例如强制性能源标签(Mandatory Energy Labelling Scheme,简称MELS)以及最低能源效率標準(Minimum Energy Performance Standards,简称MEPS),以减低家庭用户的排放量。 MELS指以能源标签来为消费者提供更多环保的选择,若大空调获有五个打勾,证明是最具环保的空调,鼓励消费者选择更环保的空调。…

【冠状病毒19】7月17日新增327确诊 九社区病例

根据卫生部文告,截至本月17日中午12时,本地新增327例冠状病毒19确诊。 新增确诊大多是住宿舍客工,惟有九例社区病例,其中六人是本地公民或永久居民。 本地累计确诊已增至4万7453例。 此外,今日也有三例入境病例,抵新后即遵守居家通知。