Can the grassroots stop being so deluded, please?

Post by Fabrications About The PAP.

In the face of criticisms that the PAP government in Singapore is out of touch (as evident from this speech by Singapore author Catherine Lim and this post by blogger Alex Au), it fills me with much dismay when I read Facebook shares by the pro-PAP website "Fabrications about the PAP" that make light of one of Singapore's most pressing social problems: an aging population ill-prepared for retirement. 

In the post shared above, PJean says that not everyone who pushes cardboard boxes on a trolley is poor. According to her, the old lady is an example of someone who sells cardboard even though she doesn't need the money to survive.

Further, the old lady apparently told the author that she lives with her son's family in the Pinnacle@Duxton (a HDB estate comprising four and five-room flats). While a unit at the Pinnacle may command an unnaturally high price now, when it was first released in 2004, the prices were normal.

The author then concludes that Singaporeans must "sharpen our ability" so that we can discern the "correct group of people" we must help, from those who are just selling trolleys of cardboard for spare change that they don't need.

Credit: PJean SC Lim, via Fabrications about the PAP

I applaud her willingness to help those who "genuinely need help and assistance", but there are several problems with her views. Let's start with the easy problem.

First, PJean has taken a number of unexplained leaps before arriving at her conclusions. Without proper verification of facts, she has convinced herself that this old lady is indeed quite comfortably well off and that there must be many people like her, selling cardboard to while away their time. For example, PJean tells us that based on her attire, the old lady is "elegant".

Certainly, the elderly lady is well-groomed and not bedraggled, but it is a stretch to use the word "elegant", which creates the impression that the old lady, despite her trolley of cardboard boxes, is someone with significant cash to splurge on sophisticated-looking clothes.

I wonder if PJean knows that, at Chinatown Complex - near the HDB flat where the old lady supposedly lives - a set of floral polyester-material blouse and pants costs between SGD$20-$40 (the cost of two cinema tickets on Sunday plus a Popcorn)?

Also, the only accessory evident from the photo is a jade bangle, which PJean has called "precious jewelry". Elderly Chinese ladies, rich and poor, like to wear jade bangles as they believe that jade can ward off evil. Perhaps the author is not aware that jade bangles come in a vast range of prices. Bangles made of low-quality jade can be bought at Chinatown for as low as SGD$20. (Sorry, that's not enough to pay for your Sunday movie tickets). Once again, perhaps it would have been better for PJean to verify her facts with her interviewee before making her conclusions.

However, to give some credit to the young lady, at least she has a social conscience and cares enough about her fellow Singaporeans to speak with the elderly. And she is not entirely wrong about there being a handful of old people who have family members who can support them. For instance, my dad has heard about an old tissue-selling auntie who has a son who is a doctor. The old auntie also allegedly lives in a landed property.

But then I can only use the word "allegedly" because even if her son is a doctor who lives in a landed house, it doesn't prove that he is giving her a decent allowance or that she's staying with him. There are enough tales of high-income children abandoning their old folks to caution us not to make unverified assumptions. Just because the family members can support the old folks doesn't mean they are doing it.

I have recently encountered to an old bachelor uncle living with his nephews and nieces in a five-room flat. The so-called relatives leave him to his own devices during the day and let him wander around the neighbourhood eating scraps offered by residents in the estate. The only reason why they have not kicked him out of the flat yet is because he's the co-owner. Smart move, uncle.

Photo A (Credit: The Real Singapore)

Photo B (Credit: TNP)

Based on their appearance, can you tell which of the people above is the "correct" person for the government to help?

Despite looking very different, it is possible that both of them need government assistance with their daily lives. No information is available online about the old auntie hunched from her heavy load, but the younger lady certainly needs government help. An article on her plight can be read via the photo credit link.

Ironically, despite the intentions of PJean and the pro-PAP group that shared her post to caution Singaporeans not to take things at face value and mistakenly render help to undeserving folks, the superficial comments on the old lady's "elegant" appearance already contradict what they are trying to achieve. 

The worrying problem is that Fabrications about the PAP, which is sharing posts that attempt to explain away the problems of the poor in Singapore, comprises members of the PAP grassroots.

Yup, the people who are the "voice of the majority", the glue to "strengthen ties between the ground and the government". It is unfortunate that many of them appear to be themselves out of touch with reality on the ground.

I have written in an earlier post that many of the participants on the Fabrications about the PAP page are not ordinary citizens who are ranting about their favourite political party. The photographs on their Facebook pages show some of them attending grassroots events and taking group shots with various Ministers, such as Minister Lim Swee Say, who is Minister at the PM's Office and the Secretary-General of the NTUC (National Trades Union Congress). My earlier post also showed that the ardent anti-welfare participants of the forum have unwittingly revealed through their comments that they live in homes that are bigger than the homes of the majority in Singapore.

Perhaps due to lack of understanding and heart-to-heart interactions with the low income in Singapore, their views of the impoverished in Singapore are limited to caricatures of bedraggled beggars in tattered clothes and smelly shoes. They cannot understand why, for example, a young family with six children might need government assistance to get by (for example, the Malay lady in the BBC video earlier this year).

I think such an understanding of poverty is extraordinarily limited, considering that it was not so long ago that we were a Third World nation. There's a lot of patriotic harping on our "progress" from Third World to First, but do we still remember how it was like to be poor? Many Singaporeans think that all poor people must look something like this.

Credit: Stock Pictures

In my opinion, there is a very urgent need for the Singapore government to offer a gauge of what poverty means. Without any idea of who is poor and who is not based on income, we will continue having people with superficial assumptions. Many assume that a poor person must be homeless and sleeping in the streets. And a poor person cannot even own one single piece of jewelry, regardless of the fact that the item may cost less than SGD$100 and it may be their only piece of jewelry.

Must the low income in Singapore give up every single valuable, sentimental possession they own - their homes, their watches, their bangles, - and be reduced to financial and emotional destitution before we can open our hearts to them?

While giving too much social assistance can extinguish the resilient spirit of a nation, the flip side of not giving assistance - hardened, cynical hearts - is worse for social well-being. It leads to a culture of apathy, where people think that what happens to others in their community is none of their business, and that the poor are just complaining. Surely the poor can "get rich" if only they got rid of all their "bad habits".

Such a view implies a national forgetfulness - forgetting that we have built the community together, forgetting that Singapore is such a small place that all our lives are intertwined. Friends and relatives who used to live together in the same estate have lost touch because of the government's resettlement programme. That person you are calling a "good for nothing who only wants to con gahmen's money" could be a son of your mother's nice neighbour in her youthful years, or the daughter of the food stall auntie who would always save the biggest chicken wing for you, way back in primary school.

Having said all that, I have to acknowledge that there must still be nice people among the PAP grassroots. You gotta be nice to want to spend your time helping others, right? Perhaps they are the real silent majority. Unfortunately, the vocal ones who interact with Ministers and post on Fabrications about PAP have led me to think that there is a significant number among the PAP grassroots who are holding on to limited views of the poor, and who are only too happy to quickly jump to conclusions and prove that the PAP's governance of Singapore has all but eradicated poverty.

It is very dangerous if they are feeding these ideas to the Ministers. One cannot expect government officials to spend all day with the masses, and I hope that our PAP grassroots can be more self-critical. I don't really care if they target the Workers' Party. They are pro-PAP so I don't expect anything else. But please make an effort to understand the ground better and acknowledge the views of those who have respected you enough to share them with you.

Finally, there's this unbecomingly foolish post on the increasing demand for wagyu beef. No information is available on the author, except for the fact that he owns a shophouse. I can only call the post foolish (take note, the post, not the man), because he seems to be unaware that people living in high-end properties, including well-to-do Singaporeans and expatriates, also shop at NTUC supermarkets. (Yup, they don't get their food airlifted from Paris.)

Moreover, the article states that the beef is sold at NTUC Finest, which provides groceries for a more high-end crowd compared to the typical NTUC.

Credit: ST

I revised this post on 24 April to include another example of explaining away problems below. First, they have done a comparison of wages among different countries but closed one eye to purchasing power. Ironic, considering their frequent criticisms of bloggers such as Roy Ngerng for their poor understanding of economic theories. I guess there are pseudo-economists on both sides of the fence.

Then, when questioned about the mushrooming of pawn shops around Singapore, one of them says that the people who pawn their valuables are not poor, citing an example of a man who pawns a Rolex. Thus, effectively ignoring the rest of the people who are pawning their wedding rings and dowry jewelry to make ends meet or pay their debts.

Post by Fabrications About The PAP.

I wish that the PAP grassroots can be less defensive of the status quo. If the people in Singapore were really satisfied with their lives, they would not have gravitated towards the opposition parties in GE2011. While there are some angry rebels without a cause among the opposition voters, even the PAP leaders have acknowledged that they had made mistakes in crucial issues such as not giving enough attention to healthcare infrastructure, housing and public transport. Further, the PAP is taking active steps to make up for their previous inaction. It is thus very mind-boggling why the grassroots is persisting in sweeping problems under the carpet. "Old-aged ladies selling cardboard? No problem! Pawn shops? They don't indicate anything! They are only there for people to sell their expensive timepieces!"

I don't mean to be rude to these people who care about Singapore, but some of their arguments are bordering on the delusional.

By the way, the people who resort to using pawn shops are usually in urgent need of cash. They approach pawn shops instead of money-lenders or banks because they do not know if they can ever repay the money. The pawn shops offer prices that are lower than the actual value of the items (so that the shops can auction them later and earn a profit). A man who wants to sell his Rolex watch will not do so at the pawn shop unless he's really desperate.

I truly hope that the PAP grassroots can change their attitudes towards the social problems we are facing. There is no benefit to Singapore - apart from assuaging the bruised egos of PAP members - in denying that many Singaporeans are finding it hard to make ends meet. I always believe that the PAP is a pragmatic party. If the people whom they turn to for ground-up sentiments do not change their views, the party will not change. Wise men have said that the only constant in life is change. Will Singaporeans want to support a party that can't adapt to changing social needs?