Hougang's Story: Upgrading abode but downgrading quality of life

In the recent by-election episode, Hougang residents highlighted a paradox of our quality of life.

Upgrading our public flats, provisions of sheltered walkways, lift access to each level of our abode bring about an improvement of our quality of life no doubt, at least from the day-to-day aspect.

Such provisions of hardware are invariably associated to our political choice in our unique political climate. In simple words, we have to sell our votes during election in return for these hardware even though some of them, such as lift access and sheltered walkways will never be part of our personal possessions but the public. 

As such,  do we then gaze beyond the facade and usefulness of these hardware and think of some other aspects that impact the quality of our life deeper and wider?

Such as the persistent inflation, meaning high cost of living including medical care and education which form an essential part of living, especially to young couples for family planning and care for their parents.

When we enjoy the shade of the walkways on our way to the nearest bus stop or train station, have we given up on the reliability of our public transport which was once our pride; is the possibility of a price hike by the transport operator always at the back of our minds? Can the shade of the walkways shelter us from the ominous dark clouds of cheaper foreign influx that loom above our heads as these immigrants will replace us imminently?And when that unfortunate day does come, will there be  re-employment opportunities of the same pay and benefits for us? If not, how do we invest in our young and support our old?

While admiring the refurbished look of our public flats and estates, do we not feel the stress of the increasing cost of goods and services that seep into all aspects of our lives? In education, in medical care, in transport and in retirement. That will eventually erode our retirement funds, if we still have any left for retirement after combating the rising cost of living with our existing salaries, and on the assumption that we could still hold on to our jobs till our retirement.

I love modern and convenient hardware like any other residents. However, I cannot overlook the harsh reality on the grounds that will ultimately eliminate the meagre, short-lived benefits that come with the refurbishment. In fact, these votes-exchanged hardware provisions will invite more nightmares to our lives in the long run as our endorsement at the ballot box endorsed the direction which the current ruling party is bringing our nation to.

The sheltered walkways offer no comfort when I am thrust with a big medical bill of my parents that will inevitably eat into my retirement funds. I'd rather shelter myself with an umbrella in exchange for a more affordable medical care. I'd rather have a less pleasing looking estate in exchange for the current price of my food and services. The inflation rate for April is 5.4% (Here) and this is the rate that is here to stay for years. Can you imagine the price of my rice in twenty year's time when I retire based on the current pace of inflation?

Voters do have the ultimate right in deciding the kind of quality that they would like for their lives.

However, Hougang residents value their quality of life over the longer term than superficial hardware benefits. At the ballot box, they manifested their objections to the policies formulated by the current political party that inflict long term pain and stress on our citizens--young, mature and old alike. The Hougang residents saw through deficiencies of the current policies.


The Hougang residents opened my eyes to the hidden price tag of the hardware provisions that will be ultimately borne by all the people of this nation.

SIN-UK-SIN

A few years of absence does help to put things at home into perspective.

And the first thing is embracing the many hardware of home, be it the transport system or the convenience of services. Even if it’s only the façade, the cleanliness, orderliness and some modern-looking skyscrapers are at times pleasing to sight and enough to fulfill one’s vanity desires. The luxuries of a fairly comprehensible transport network in operation for more than 15 hours a day at an affordable price (although at an accelerated inflation rate); cheap eateries at all corners of the island day and night, some even with 24 hours service; a labyrinth of retail shops in business for the day and night and most days of the week; the novelty of Sunday full branch banking services at some places etc….. it became a drag each time at the thought of returning to the UK. No doubt, I cherish very much some of the conveniences mentioned above and the safety too.

The Cost of Convenience

The incident to which I was forbidden entry to a shop in Durham, northeast of Britain, at 4.30pm in the evening--half an hour prior to the closing time struck me hard. Not only for the inconvenience that it caused, but the revelation of the luxury of the working life of retail employees in the UK.

Short working hours and with a minimum wage protection. And it doesn’t just stop short at retail services only. And you know what I mean.

While eateries in the UK can afford to close at 3pm on a Sunday—prime time for business in our context, and restaurants operating half day, many of ours run round the clock for business. Special mention to our hawkers who man many hours a day behind their stalls in a small and a high-temperature working environment to provide us with (still) affordable food anywhere anytime; while UK retail businesses can close for the day on the dot, ours allow customers to go on with their shopping well after closing time; our transport workers (bus drivers, cabbies) throng through the chaos of our traffic and endure long working hours too; employees of Sunday banking burning Sundays at work; being instructed by multi-million dollar ministers to work “cheaper, faster and better” is further challenged by the influx of cheaper manpower from overseas.

Scratching beyond that surface of convenience, such “luxuries” are enjoyed with a growing sense of guilt. Especially when the thought of it at the expense of our fellowmen (working cheaper, faster and better) creeps into mind.

The Big Picture

The years of absence, especially, saw the increasing growth of senior citizens working at foodcourts, fast food restaurants, toilets or making a living by sales of tissues and collection of cardboards; disabled people too took part in the “professions”—sights that are phenomenally rare in the UK society despite their “poor” infrastructures.

In a span of 5 years, this “efficient” growth of such strata of our society paints a big picture not, as we are often been instructed to focus at the big picture over small personal inconveniences?

A big picture of a nation obsessed by tangible values over the intangibles…epitomized by our minister who toyed with the idea of housing our senior citizens in land-cheaper Malaysia while our island could afford large no. of golf courses and private properties; where the collective contributions of our citizens towards nation-building is negligible saved for the elite and politicians; where ethics and morals are bartered for political and social securities and monetary returns; where future generations will be debt-laden for the necessities in life—family time, accommodation, transport, jobs and retirement; where quick fixes are used for long-standing issues with no sustainability and accountability.

Such BIG pictures struck fear right into my heart.

Selective Comparison

Indeed, comparing to the Sahara dessert, we live in absolute heaven. We can spend our lifetime, habitually using the plights of citizens of other nations with not the slightest intention of bettering the lives of those, but instead unabashedly, to glorify our “economic success” and justify our mistakes, notwithstanding the fact that the definition of success itself is disputable.

Is that not ill-mannered, narrow-minded and shallow of us?

Of being more preoccupied with self-glorification than learning the strengths of others so as to aspire to be better. No, we chose complacency instead.

And not forgetting that the act of comparison is always selective.

When I witness our poor being so much poorer than the “poor” in the UK (who has access to free medical care, free housing and benefits) and ironically we have more rich than the UK (we have the most number of millionaire in proportion to our population), it is unsettling for we, as citizens, to be instructed again, to accept that growing income-disparity, a global trend, as a normality, therefore leaving the issue to the wind.

While being mindful and appreciative of what we have, at the same time, we cannot allow these possessions, tangibles and intangibles, to bribe us into the apathy of the universal stand of morals and principle.

The Cost of being A Human

Denouncing socialism or welfare system does not eradicate the need of taking care of our senior citizens or the less fortunate strata.

Having spent more than four decades of achieving the psychological level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, living by the calculator to measure the cost of every human, from discouraging the third child to encouraging more births with monetary incentives; from streaming the more-abled students from the less-abled so as to utilize our resources; from monetary incentives to attract talents into the political arena….but a minister who owes his salary to the public calculates his own worth to the last cent will understand no value of any human lives besides himself. Are we any better in our heartware than 4 decades ago?

And we bear witness to a MP who told us that money brings proportionate dignity and respect; and a multi-million-dollar-minister who scrimped on a $30 allowance for the needy.

But ethics and morals, the fundamentals of any civilized and healthy society, are priceless. We cannot continue to blanket the abnormalities and injustices of our society, or leave them to providence, in exchange for the ever increasing cost of “political stability” and “social security”. Where the cost would be borne by the future generations, in tangible sense, for instance:

(i) Longer and bigger housing loan for public housing at a 99-year-lease.

(ii) Prices of new public housing and medical cost increase in many folds while median income remains stagnant in the last 20 yrs.

Need no rocket science to prove that cost of living outstrips our incomes, rising tangible cost impact quality of life, retirement funds for ourselves and our children: that is the intangible cost. Working longer hours to keep reins of the tangible cost is adding burden to our intangible cost definitely.

* * *

When we begin to realize political and social securities fail to compensate the deep sense of insecurity inside our peoples on our future quality of life and retirement, we know that GDP alone cannot suffice in measuring the quality of our lives. Frighteningly, it plays no role in ethics either.

Surely, a successful nation is not defined by the number of hubs or the number of eye-dazzling architecture, but by both tangibles and intangibles. And only such a nation is truly worthy of respect, which again is neither quantifiable in dollars or cents.

蒙面侠

有蒙面侠坐上了我们的地铁。戴上眼罩，就大辣辣地坐在爱心座位上。有了眼罩，对老、弱、残、孕者视若无睹的举止便能合理化。另一批蒙面侠见状而义愤填膺，拍下此蒙面侠画面的举止后上载到网上。然后，隔着键盘的安全距离，戴上面具，在虚拟空间里正义凛然地责备霸占爱心座位的蒙面侠。

莫名地想起那名法国老奶奶。

一名中年男子在火车上使用电脑。电脑发出启动声。只见一名身材瘦小的白发老妇，步履蹒跚地走过去要求男子消音。男子也欣然照办，没有滋事。

任何社会必然拥有一套众人所认同的对错行为规范。

法国老妇人从容与自信地要求男子尊重她在公共场所里宁静的权利，而男子也能够接受并尊重这权利，老妇人信赖社会的力量。那是一种在行为规范遇袭时能集体同时现身捍卫规范的社会力量。这种隐形的力量让男子不敢妄为、让老妇人毫无惧怕地坚持自己的公共空间权益。

老妇人拥有社会的后盾，并非孤军作战；她独自捍卫的也非个人权利，而是群体下的每个人所应能享有的公共权利。这是一种双向的影响。

我们的地铁车厢图文并茂地出示了爱心座位。制定了规范，还是有人违规。我们的社会规范遇到挑衅了，我们却选择当蒙面侠，让自己继续隐身或是期盼他人现身来替我们捍卫规范。

可是，群体力量是个体点滴积累而成的。如果连自己都不能为自己所信奉的规范而挺身而出，又何来权利要求他人为我们这么做？

心跳

五月前后的两个星期里，让我见证了奇观。

往体育馆的路上，一队又一队的人，井然有序地移动着。并不是一场演唱会，也没亮眼的星星，却让这些人，在忙碌了一天后，脚步坚定不误地从岛国各处蜂拥至此。

原来群众大会就是这么一回事。

馆内座无虚席，跑道上、草地上都站满了人。附近的组屋走廊上也都是黑压压的人头。没有座椅，更没有食物供应。有人席地而坐，但大部分的人只能站立着，一站就是几个小时。也有些莫名其妙的阿姨全副武装上阵，坐在凳子上、扇着风，却在群众里大声地与身边人高声地话家常；也有人正扒着饭盒、有的热出了一身汗、有的站累了又坐，休息了又站起；可以站在泥浆里、也能撑着伞……目的各异地现身参与大会。

毫无金钱的驱使竟能驱动数以千、万计的人。长期以来，浑然不知五年一度的这般奇观的存在。与群众站在一起，我开始听到国人的呼吸声。原来新闻、报章未必能让人增广见闻，反让自己成了井底之蛙。

台上的演讲者各出奇招。只有货比货过后，才知台上的心跳声，不管距离，台下的人是听得一清二楚的。关爱的词藻，说得再激昂，缺了心跳，也只是破绽百出。一个人的热情、谦诚是能透过言语、举止感受到的，以至一名十二岁的小孩还从此决定发奋图强。

让自己的信念触动他人，然后延伸下去，这就是启发的能力。不是恐吓、物质诱惑、愚弄所能及的。也唯有发自内心，才能发出的一种真正力量。