Housing was a key factor to give the people a stake in the country in the early days of our nation building. When the people have a home, a stake, ie a HDB flat, there is something to fight and defend for. There was then a reason for National Service. It is a tangible asset that Singaporeans were told that is worth defending for even to the present.
Today, many Singaporeans who have served NS are told that they cannot buy HDB flats for one reason or another. After serving and sacrificing for the country in donning military uniforms, trained to fight and defend his land and his home, he is told that he cannot buy a HDB flat.
This is sounding comical. NS men to defend a country he has no stake in. Maybe what they said is true. We are still not a nation and nothing worth defending, particularly for those without a stake in his country. And the inequality becomes more ridiculous when new citizens and PRs are allowed to buy a stake in the country, a HDB flat, without serving NS, without pledging to fight and defend this country with their lives. All they need to do, maybe to be good in their civilian professions, which some equated them as national service. Even hawkers and taxi drivers must be doing national service, serving the people.
And those NS men deprived of buying a public flat will still have to defend this country and the foreigners and new citizens and their assets. This is uniquely Singapore in its most uniquely way.
I just want my 9K, backdated. Other than that, I leave it up to you all.
ReplyDeleteI no flat. So what am I defending? Who am I defending?
ReplyDeleteno flat, no car, do NS for what?
ReplyDeleteWah, you guys getting smart by following our leaders. They said that there is no such thing as sacrifice and they need to be compensated adequately to step forward to serve.
ReplyDeleteA HDB apt is not a stake. We can sell it and migrate.
ReplyDeleteThe best stake is a citizen-ownership democracy where everyone gets an annual income from the commonly owned wealth. We get wealth just by being a citizen because we own this country.
http://cod-democracy.blogspot.com/
I always pretend that to be so, my country, my land and the reserves belong to all the people. If that be so, then when we reach retirement age, no need to worry about hospital bills, and a small allowance for retirement.
ReplyDeleteNo need millions, just a couple of thousand a month to get by. Only when one can draw a retirement allowance from the country can one claim that the country is his, and worth defending.
Better still if one can get millions for retirement. That is real ownership.
Oh, not to worry. They are going to kick start Singaporeans' preparation for retirement, on the pantat, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteFunny, if you have to work until you drop, what is there to kick start anyway?
Unless they are going to use the reserves to top up the retirement accounts of Singaporeans that many are dreaming of most of the time.
Keep dreaming. As the advertisment said, dream big and strange things happen. Hahaha.
House or no house, there should be no National Service. Defending a country comes from the patriotism of anyone residing here, be he/she a citizen or not. Love for a country comes from the feeling one has for the place one had settled down for good. If me wants to migrate, why the heck do i care about loyalty to the place me am leaving?
ReplyDeleteNational Service has got nothing to do with patriotism, the latter cannot be enforced just like love. When there is no feeling, how wonderful the other party is, is useless. However, one will sacrifice, even with life to devote oneself to whatever one loves. A mother will fight a tiger to save her child. A Singaporean will do his/her best to prevent Singapore from being occupied by aliens liked many netizens are doing. Some, like Redbean and me would not even want our national assets to be sold to foreigners even when the sales result in good profits. We won't sell our offsprings even if it will make us billionaires.
Please do not conflate conscription with patriotism, they are two separate entities. Me am a patriot but do i want to protect the people i do not love? The answer is NO, but be warned, don't touch the people i love, even if me can't fight you because of age, I WILL HAUNT YOU TO MY LAST BREATH.
patriot
Mr Chua, we are supposed to be good citizens and serve NS in the vain hope that the PRs and new citizens have not gamed the system by not letting their children remain as non-PRs or non-citizens. When we are all old, we will all retire to our bunks in our reservist units. Our wives will go overseas as maids and our daughters will marry non-locals so as to avoid having daft children by marrying the locals. Our sons will have to go somewhere else to work as factory workers and come back for 2 weeks every year to serve reservist because it is their patriotic duty.
ReplyDeleteWhy not pay a few companies of FT mercenaries soldiers to defend Spore since Singaporean are not appreciated by their own government ?
ReplyDeleteMore like a mercenary govt supported by a conscript army paid with NS allowance.
ReplyDelete