by Roy Ngerng
Should the government be allowed to hold the financing of your social services hostage, so that they can use it to buy votes?
Social services should be provided because it is a basic right for each person, and should be provided to ensure everyone has an equal chance to live healthily and grow.
Its financing should not be held back and given when a ruling party think it’s convenient for them to use it to buy votes.
Protection for healthcare and retirement should be given to everyone on an equal basis, it shouldn’t be given where some get more while others are denied, simply to buy votes. Protection of people’s health and retirement should not be given only for the usefulness of their votes. This lacks compassion.
Moreover, the so-called Merdeka package are things like Medisave top-ups and subsidies for MediShield premiums.
But you are prevented from claiming the Medisave and MediShield because the government puts a cap as to how much you can claim.
As I’ve written before, of the Medisave contributions Singaporeans pay every year, only 10% is returned for medical expenses. And of the total Medisave contributions paid so far since 1984, only 1% have been used for medical expenses.
The rest of the 99% is taken by the GIC and Temasek Holdings to earn, where the excess earnings are not returned to Singaporeans.
Therefore, even with this so-called package, top-ups and subsidies, much of it will only go back to the GIC and Temasek Holdings.
As such, not only is the People’s Action Party government withholding the financing of basic services and holding it hostage to buy votes, but after the vote buying, the money will still largely not go to the people who have allowed their votes to be bought – it will go to GIC and Temasek Holdings.
Is it worth it? To allow ourselves to be held hostage by something that belongs to us in the first place? We should be demanding for it back, and not have to beg for it with our votes.
If it’s not given back to us, we should deny them our votes, not reward them.
