Daily Lessons from Life 11 August 2013 - PM Lee to address healthcare, education and housing issues at National Day Rally

"PM Lee to address healthcare, education and housing issues at National Day Rally - CNA 10 August 2013 SINGAPORE: Healthcare, education, and housing -- these are the top three concerns that emerged from the Our Singapore Conversation (OSC), and they will be taken up "substantively" by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally on August 18. That was one of the outcomes of OSC, a national project to get Singaporeans talking and thinking about the future of the country. Coming to a close after one year, the dialogue has involved more than 47,000 participants. One year on, the Our Singapore Conversation was wrapped up where the first dialogues were held -- at the National Library. From open-ended chats to focused discussions, organisers said five core aspirations emerged during the process. They captured the direction participants feel society should be heading towards. One is assurance -- that basic needs like housing and healthcare will be affordable; a strong kampong spirit; and trust -- both in government and between Singaporeans themselves. The other two are opportunities in terms of making a good living; and purpose -- Singaporeans want a purposeful life that celebrates achievements beyond the economic. Education Minister Heng Swee Keat said: "When we have all these aspirations, are they sufficiently representative? "Certainly this has been the most comprehensive engagement effort... We went out of our way to look for different groups of people. In the different corners we were able to touch, similar aspirations were raised. That gives us some confidence that the process has been able to throw out meaningful similarities." Adding to the Conversation, a survey of some 4,000 people threw up similar findings on what Singaporeans want. It also showed many would prefer a more comfortable pace of life over their careers. What is certain, Mr Heng said, was that the dialogue has helped shape policy making along the way. He said: "Policy making in government is an ongoing process and it takes into account a whole range of different factors. The external environment, the resources that we have, where we are today, and so on. But clearly, the aspirations of our people that are well crystallised during the OSC process enrich the discussion on policy and helped to shape the direction of the policy." Organisers said that the year-long dialogue has shown that for Singaporeans, conversation and engagement are becoming increasingly important. There are also stark differences and much diversity in the way people think and feel about the same issue." Well it gets done. I was involved in some of the OSC sessions giving my 2 cents worth. Lessons for me are: 1. the top 3 concerns revealed Singaporeans are still very much at the lower level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Model - Survival and Security needs. Affordable healthcare for the rapidly ageing population who not necessarily have enough to see themselves through their 'long' lives, assuming their kids' have just enough to take care of their own immediate families. It is a long known issue where the Health Ministry has been conducting studies to find ways on how to handle this explosive challenge. Affordable housing for the younger Singaporeans who are encouraged to start their families and have more kids so as to at least replace themselves so that the nation can reduce the reliance of importing more foreigners and entice them to become new Singaporeans has also been a hot topic for many years. Here, the thinking is still unclear. The perpetual contradictions of: to keep assets prices rising for the existing properties' owners vs. keeping assets prices affordable for the potential new owners. Of course, the key is really: public housing vs. private housing and if public housing is a way to 'inflation proof' or 'realisable assets for retirement'. A less stressful education system, and perhaps a fairer one too, has been around for years too. Is it still true that education is the way out of poverty and a better life? What of competition that 'devalue university degree'? Is it true that more educated Singaporeans will be able to get better paying jobs, assuming jobs creation is not an issue? Here, I am not sure if the MOE has set eradicating the multi-million dollars private tuition industry as one of its objectives or not. Also, if the 'education of the parents on 'every school is a good school' vision has taken root or not? Much is expected of the PM's 18 August 2013 speech indeed. 2. interestingly this OSC Reflection does not highlight the differences in aspirations and expectations on current inadequate infrastructure, NS serving and non-NS serving Singaporeans and foreigners and new Singaporeans, etc. The 'noises' if you like. This is perhaps good. As OSC Reflections are just collecting input. It is NOT to provide the solutions. Hopefully the aspirations and expectations are properly sorted out and address later. While big similarities were noted. It will be great to note also what are the top 3 biggest differences. 3. A Singaporean that is competent to learn and perform flexibly, that is committed to sense of fair play and public spiritedness, that is kind and compassionate about helping each other to be more mature and thinking population and nation will definitely help Singapore to be successful on a sustainable basis. Competent Singaporeans - are we able to learn and perform instead of just remember and regurgitate? can we answer some of the concerns and peeves of some of the employers, local ones included, who felt Singaporeans workers and PMEs are simply NOT good enough? Fair play - knowing that overpaying oneself can be, and is, a shameful thing to do! Allowing wealthier folks to go to the private tuition industry to help their kids progress faster and higher when 'NOT every school is a good school yet' is wrong! Kind and compassionate and thinking - just from the AsiaOne Forum and some of the online forum, we can see how some contributors, maybe not all are Singaporeans, wrote and expressed their views with muddled thinking and vicious attacks with a vengeance. These behaviours cannot be good for the nation. It is DONE. Let's see how the POLICY MAKERS will make of these input.