I believe the current PAP gov has lost the plot totally. Its heart to serve the people have long been overridden by pure greed. At every election, they resorted to chicanery to stay in power by gerrymandering. I keep finding for rational reasons on why our defence budget overshadow our health spending by a mile.
Let me attempt to show why i think this PAP government has lost its moral compass and political credibility.
While i understand that national security is important, it surely cannot be more important than its people's well being.
The poor skips medical treatment due to high medical cost but our defence budget keeps on increasing year-in year-out.
A few questions we need to ask ourselves;
1) Are we in a volatile region where war can break out any moment like the middle east?
2) Is Singapore facing civil unrest like Thailand, Myanmar etc?
3) Is Singapore facing turbulent protest every other month that our army needs to be deployed every now and then?
4) Is Singapore facing the threat of annihilation from other hostile countries?
5) Are we involve in live combat in places like Afghanistan and Iraq to justify the increase in defence spending?
6) Are we anticipating any country to attack us and threaten our sovereignty?
7) Do we really need to purchase all those subs, state of the art military firepower that money can buy?
8) Do we have to conscript our boys a full 2 yrs of national service?
What we need at this moment to name a few;
1) More budget allocated to healthcare spending
2) More hospitals to assuage the recent bed crunch
3) Universal health insurance scheme where every citizen is covered
4) An increase in public assistance monies for the elderly
5) Affordable flats for the homeless
6) Wipe out poverty in Singapore. Yes it can be done with heavy gov intervention rather than heavy defence spending
7) Swiss standard of living
So tell me, are we not taken in for a ride by these ppl whom we chose to rule over us? While they are quick to recognize their own contributions, they are oblivious to the peoples' sacrifices towards nation building by continuously dismissing and withholding our rights to the spoils and wealth of the country.
Osman Sulaiman
*Comment first appeared on https://www.facebook.com/osman.bin.sulaiman/posts/10152122052342550