the following is Sylvia Lim’s speech (Debate on President’s Address):
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May I first thank the President for his Address and the government for making the promises contained in the Address.
The Workers’ Party welcomes and supports the statement that Singapore’s success is defined not just by material progress but by our values and ideals. The Workers’ Party is ready to work with the government towards a better life for all.
However, it is important to point out that over the last few years many Singaporeans have faced harsh realities that do not match the sentiments contained in the Address.
A country’s headline figures, such as GDP growth, mask the realities of life for certain groups. Thus, to have segmented updates, such as the recent joint report by the Ministry of Manpower and Department of Statistics (released Oct 11), is helpful. One disturbing fact from that report is that after accounting for inflation, wages of Singaporeans at the 20th percentile of income have stagnated over the last decade. In other words, the real incomes of the bottom 20% of working Singaporeans have not increased in 10 years.
On the ground, we see that there are Singaporeans who feel unfairly treated vis-à-vis the foreign workforce. Divorces leave many families homeless. The demand for rental flats has risen. Seniors worry about healthcare costs. There are chronically ill patients who have even sold their homes to pay medical bills. As Dr Lam Pin Min said earlier, there are Singaporeans believe that they are better off dead than sick.
These issues, and the fact that they have been around for years, may lead some Singaporeans to question whether the vision in the President’s Address, will be translated to reality.
The Address is titled: A Home We Share, A Future We Build Together. With a vast divide between the haves and have-nots, how do we nurture such a shared home and future together?
At the Opening of the 12th Parliament, I believe that the government is seriously pondering over how to alleviate the ill-effects of certain policies. But moving forward, how should the government assess whether it is going in the correct direction and making a positive impact on people’s lives?
The Bhutan royal wedding hogged headlines over the weekend. As many of us know, the kingdom of Bhutan has an unusual way of measuring the country’s development. It is called GNH or Gross National Happiness. This indicator is garnering international attention, even among developed countries.
In July this year, Bhutan initiated a resolution at the UN General Assembly titled “Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development”. There were a total of 66 co-sponsors of the resolution and the General Assembly adopted it without a vote.
The resolution’s preamble states that “the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal”, and that “the gross domestic product indicator by nature was not designed to and does not adequately reflect the happiness and well-being of people in a country.”
Member states have been invited “to pursue the elaboration of additional measures that better capture the importance of the pursuit of happiness and well-being in development with a view to guiding their public policies.”
With such international interest, is it now time for Singapore’s government to conspicuously focus on happiness as a national goal? Should policies be articulated to show how they will ultimately achieve happiness for Singaporeans as a whole?
This may sound too warm and fuzzy for some, but in fact our government supported the resolution at the United Nations. Indeed, Singapore was one of the 66 countries that co-sponsored the draft resolution.
Since Singapore was a co-sponsor, may I ask the government to elaborate on what will be the practical effect of the resolution on Singapore? What indicators does it it intend to put in place to measure whether Singaporeans as a whole are achieving happiness and well-being? Might the government also tell us how its policies over the next 5 years will be guided by such indicators?
In fact, the concept of happiness at the national level is not new. The American Declaration of Independence states that among the unalienable rights of men are “…Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
Back home, our children pledge every day to achieve “happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation”.
Since independence, Singapore has focused on achieving prosperity and progress. Has happiness been forgotten, despite the words in our pledge? Or maybe it has been assumed that once there is prosperity and progress, happiness would automatically follow.
But has it? Does prosperity and progress come sometimes at the expense of happiness? Prosperity and progress are certainly important, but they cannot be ends in themselves. Surely they should be the means to an end – the happiness of Singaporeans as a whole.
What difference can this make? Let me give an example of an issue that might need to be dealt with very differently by the government if it pursues happiness, rather than maximum GDP growth, as the overarching goal: Singapore’s low fertility rate.
Singapore’s total fertility rate (TFR) should concern us greatly if we are worried about preserving our culture and identity for future generations. I note that surprisingly little emphasis was placed on this in the PMO’s Addenda.
In recent years, home prices have risen sharply. For couples who want children, one of the factors they consider in deciding when to have children and how many to have, is the affordability of housing.
A young couple who wants children but who is stretched by high housing payments over a long repayment period may delay having them, and may even have fewer children than they would ideally like to have.
In Hong Kong, a study by the Chinese University of Hong Kong suggests that housing price inflation could account for up to 65% of their decrease in fertility over the past forty years. (J Yi and J Zhang (2009). The Effect of House Price on Fertility: Evidence from Hongkong. Economic Inquiry, Volume 48, Issue 3.)
In Singapore, analyses by local economists show a similar link. Assoc Prof Tilak Abeysinghe, Deputy Director of the Singapore Centre for Applied and Policy Economics, NUS, has been studying the issue of housing affordability for some time. He notes in an article in the Straits Times on September 1st this year, that in Singapore, the data showed that between 1977 to 2010, there were generally “fewer children when house prices head(ed) north”.
He notes that the total fertility rate of Singapore has a close link with how affordable housing had been two years earlier. When housing was more affordable, the fertility rate in Singapore actually rose two years later. He concludes the article by saying: “Although the fertility rate is stubbornly less responsive to many factors, it is possible that sustaining housing affordability may help at least in arresting the decline in the fertility rate.”
Improving the TFR is a critical issue if Singaporeans are to remain the core of our society.
If economic growth is overwhelmingly the government’s goal, then achieving higher housing prices at the expense of fertility may not be considered a problem.
But if the happiness and the sustainability of Singapore society is the overarching goal, then there is a need to unravel the exact relationship between high property prices and fertility, and what responses might arrest or even reverse the decline in fertility rates. We will have to look beyond immediate procreation incentives to the bigger picture.
My point is: Since the government has co-sponsored the resolution to stress the importance of happiness and well-being in guiding policies, what tangible changes can we expect in the government’s general approach? Will government policies from now on be framed to focus on whether they lead to happiness and contentment for Singaporeans as a whole? Will we be coming up with our own national index of happiness and well-being?
Our founding elected leaders believe that happiness is important to be included in our national pledge. Let us continue to put these beliefs to action. We have been achieving progress and prosperity; let’s give happiness the rightful place in our pledge for this Parliament – “so as to achieve HAPPINESS, prosperity and progress for our nation”.
PAP don’t know how to make the people happy, they will be out of a job. How many millions does a PAP Minister need to be happy, just a little more. PAP MP must not ignore or put down Sylvia’s idea, because at least 1.2 million people are unhappy with PAP.
Do We Need $75,000 a Year to Be Happy?
By Belinda Luscombe Monday, Sept. 06, 2010
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2019628,00.html
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USA citizen need $75K to be happy, how much does a Singaporean need. If PAP minister did not do his homework, he shouldn’t talk nonsense whether the Bhutanese are more or less happy versus Singaporeans. He should be humble and serve the Singaporean voters. Winning arguments at all costs will cost him dearly in 2016.
I think Sylvia Lim has made a very good example of how GNH or Gross National Happiness will work for the people instead of using the old method of GDP. It’s not the real indicator of people’s happiness. It may apply to the very rich ministeres and the top 20% of the population. Instead of listening to the MP’s views and carefully evaluate the ideas, some ministers are still behaving in the same old ways of ignoring the people’s wishes. MPs are reflecting the voters sentiments and to ignore that, it will be a silly one. Ministers have paid a heay price for thier collegues arrogant attitudes and this is only the beginning.
Tony
Dear saliva, donot be naive, singaporean as a whole, kiasu, selfish only cares for gambling. The uncairing in china about the 2year old girl is happening in singapore everyday. One month ago, while waiting to crossed the roads towards aljunied mrt. I saw this chinese oldman laid helplessly on the ground, fell from his bycicle, so many cars passes by and pedestrians nobody bothers. I quickly helped him. He was quite heavy, a sudent helped to bring up the bycicles. Donot blamed the gov, we as a whole to be blamed. The last one I helped 10 years ago, this old man fell into a whole in pasir ris, togather with my jewish friend we lift him up and called the police. The state he was in about 3 hours, we as a whole a pathetic citizens.
Ex-Health Minister very lucky did not get voted out. Now become MND Minister very proud again. You think you very clever can ramp up HDB Production. Why don’t you be population minister and ramp up babies.
Why people are so unhappy that they wish for LKY to go heaven. Why people leave the country or don’t feel like doing NS anymore. Why Minister/MP must have body guard and kenna burn. PAP is in power because of their unfair tactics and people selfish voting pattern. Not because PAP is very excellent. People are not willing to pay your salary expectation because you are not worth it in their eyes.
PAP Minister are very happy, only 5 months can earn $1 million. Make a few speech and collect salary for 5 years and lifetime pension. Guaranteed high post somewhere even after retirement, step down or voted out. Are you master or servant.
Have a read on this piece in the Economist:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/10/inequality-and-happiness
It seems PRC & Indonesian citizens are the least happy and the Danes & Dutch are the most happy.
If PRC & Indonesian citizens are the least happy, we should stop importing them even if they are “happy” to move to Singapore. They are culturally/socially and probably economically/politically unhappy people.
Instead we might target low to middle income Danes & Dutch to move to S’pore if we really need foreign talent since
if “happiness” is infectious, one would rather happy people like Danes & Dutch than unhappy people like PRC & Indonesians joining Singaporean ranks.
And instead of building up ties with unhappy countries like PRC and Indonesia (investing there, sending kids on study tours there etc) we should be building up ties wtih happy countries like Denmark and Netherlands since they seem to have more that we can learn (e.g. environmental issues, political freedom issues, civil rights, tolerance, social equality, and other social issues etc)
Ask the PAP to come up with a Happiness Index is so difficult for them is it. PAP is hard of hearing, they must go for a communication course on how to listen properly. We never ask you whether Bhutan is more happy than Singapore.
There are still idiots who doesn’t understand Sylvia’s underlying message.
The idiot’s arrogance has blinded their eyes!
A 2007 article from NYTIMES
“How much money does it take to keep a Singapore government minister happy? The government says a million dollars is not enough, and on Monday it announced a 60 percent boost in ministers’ salaries, to an average of 1.9 million Singapore dollars, or $1.26 million, by next year.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will see his pay jump to 3.1 million Singapore dollars, five times the $400,000 earned by President George W. Bush. It is a pay system created in 1994 by Singapore’s founder, Lee Kuan Yew, pegging the salaries of government ministers and top civil servants to the money they might earn at the top of the private sector.
We should measure the Happiness Index using the Ministers, we will be number 1. In fact we will be in a different league…the elite LEEgally corrupted league
I have been reading about the uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab Spring Movement. All these communities cowed by their own governments are characterized by one fact. The fact is they believe that if you obey and do not show your profile strongly by protesting and objecting, you will be left alone to earn your living unmolested. Story after story proved this fact wrong. The bullying policeman or State agent seems to feed on fear like an addict. The more fear you emit, the more anger they generate.It was found that the meekest among the Egyptians suffered the most. Those of the citizenry who make attempts at defending themselves fared better. Perhaps psychologists should make a study of this counter intuitive phenomenon. The meek, contrary to dogma, does not inherit the earth. They are beaten into the earth.
In our situation in Singapore, we certainly are not beaten by the political police until our skull oozes grey matter and our teeth hang out by the skin. Nevertheless, if we remain cowed and passive, keeping a low profile, hearing no evil speaking no evil, shall we be able to go through life unmolested. No.
I have personal experience with the ISD that it is NO.
Tyrannical behaviour has its peculiar pleasures. It has a positive feedback loop.The more scared you are the more they lay it in.
In Singapore we have the problem that the PAP office holders write their own paychecks in fabulous sums, which necessitates shiploads of cheap foreign labour into the country to fatten businesses which in turn feeds back into their fat paychecks. All the while they keep telling you , how well they have brought this country into the First World. I just pass a bin compound in my mind’s eye and I see an old lady bent double picking dirty cardboards. I walk into the MRT station and strange unmusical sounds assail my ears and I turned to the musician and see that he is an old man in a crumpled T shirt with shorts trying to make music from an unfamiliar instrument. It is not like this in every MRT station. Sometimes they make music that fills my lungs with nostalgia. Walking into the MRT station, I meet newspapaer sellers and a number of tissue paper sellers. The Singaporean makes good use of tissue paper from wiping faces to reserving seats. I thought to myself. How much can a tissue seller make? Is it all a vast and tragic waste of time and waste of life? How does it come to this, in a country whose leadership pays themselves a dozen times more than that of Superpowers?
For you see, the Government and the businesses have a very poor impression of Singaporeans, especially the old ones. Why, they can cheaply import nubile China girls so why deal with these unsightly heaps of decaying humanity.
To cut a long story short. My fellow citizens, in Singapore you will not get your brains bashed in but the something else is at work on you more deadly than sudden painful death.Your country is sold off under your nose.No work is available to you that can be done more cheaply by FT. You will get workfare thrown at you. You will have to keep that mouth of yours shut while all this is going on.
Remember that being afraid will bring a greater penalty than speaking out and asking for change. Do not pretend to be happy while you are not.things will only get worse.