1/14/2006

2 votes for mature oldies a bad choice?

That restructuring has hit Singapore's elderly (economic definition here: any one over 45) the hardest has become patently clear, shown by the government allocating the biggest bag of goodies to them. Some media people call them the crucial swing vote in the coming election. The expectation (at least until the perks started to fly) was that many of them would vote against the government. That got me thinking. There must be some old-timers in the PAP who must be saying, "Thank God, we didn't give an extra vote to Singaporeans between 35-60 years who were married and had children!" the above is from an article by seah chiang nee in the littlespeck.com. in brief, chiang nee's contention is that it is a good thing that the proposal for the oldies to have two votes will backfire on the pap this time given their hard times. i choose to disagree. i think the $1 billion dollar handouts will score quite well among the oldies who needed the dole. and a few dollars will mean a lot to them. they can be easily satisified given their dire straits. no need to throw peanuts at them. hungry people are quite easy to please. they don't think too well either. many suffering from dementia. and if $1 billion does not do the job, next time can increase it to $2 billion and call it workfare plus.

2 comments:

Speedwing said...

Hi Redbean, I think it is good to know that the oldies are getting the recognition that they are of value, at least in the coming GE, if nothing else.

I really like you statement about "workfare plus". Who knows, it may really come true.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

well, what would you do if the dried orange skin you left in the fridge got too dried up and no longer useful?

but make hay while the sun shines. take when given, even if it is crumbs. even for another 3 days of roti prata.