Daily Lessons from Life 24 June 2012 - More S'poreans encouraged to step forward to help community

"More S'poreans encouraged to step forward to help community: Chan Chun Sing - CNA 24 June 2012

SINGAPORE: It takes a community to build a community, and more Singaporeans are encouraged to step forward to help one another to build an inclusive society.

Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Chan Chun Sing made this point during a ministerial community visit to Punggol South on Sunday.

After spending some three hours interacting with residents in the area, Mr Chan said he was impressed by the residents' efforts to help one another. For example, he observed how senior citizens enjoyed subsidised breakfast under the "Community Breakfast" project, where participating coffeeshops offer discounts to those aged 50 and above. He added that while this is prevalent in other communities, more can be done.

Mr Chan said: "Going forward, our social needs in our society will increase. There will be many opportunities for us to work together and there are a lot of need for us to work closely with one another." We shouldn't have a situation whereby because I bought a premium flat, then social facilities shouldn't be located near me, because it's a community facility that's shared by all the people in and around the place."

Responding to a resident's question on the government's engagement with Singaporeans, Mr Chan said although there's greater engagement, the issue now is how to manage the public's expectations. He noted that the public has a higher expectation of the government and how it deals with issues raised by Singaporeans. He added that there has to be some give and take in the engagement process."

Lessons for me are:

1. communities must have the right values for them to begin to think about helping each other within the communities. The right values of 'wealthy is the people who ask not how much they have but how much they can give', ' be independent and know how to fish instead of looking to be fed only', etc come from individual and supported and cemented by that of the national leaders and national agenda. Reinforcement help!!;

2. leaders must lead with 'what can I do for the majority of the people instead of how can I benefit my family and myself'. Failing this, there could simply be NO chance for sustainable success. Leaders have the biggest impact and influence on shaping the macro environmental culture that encourage people to do the right things right always!;

3. leaders must help the people to understand and appreciate how the 'give and take' process work in the whole consultative engagement cycle between the people and the government. Unless it can be established that the issues are lives and deaths for the nation, the government MUST give every opportunity for ALL diverse views be expressed and then considered/debated before selecting the most effective ones that the majority endorsed and execute! Once that 'input collection' is done, ALL must fall in line and concentrate on execute the common and aligned goals! Period. Still as dead water when contemplating and move agilely with speed and decisiveness like thunders strikes!

More Singaporeans coming forward to help is great. Keep them coming ...