ESM Goh calling for review of social policies

I was quite excited when this piece of news popped up on the evening news. After all Chok Tong was once the mover and shaker of our little island and instrumental in all the major policies. When LKY opened the door to Chinese nationals to the island, he responded with his forward policy to India with the signing of the landmark and earth shaking CECA. Both policies have benefitted Singapore greatly, I think, though some may disagree, in terms of population growth and its accessory rewards of a vibrant economy and property prices, bringing great prosperity to the citizens and to those renting homes and of course the train and bus companies.
 
The influx of PRC Chinese and India Indians have greatly affected the social fabric of our society and, despite the great economic benefits, there are increasing social ills and concerns simmering among the population. So, I thought Chok Tong, with his experience and wisdom as the Emeritus Senior Minister, would be sharing them with the younger ministers to rebalance the social compact.
 
We have grown over the years from frowning at Singaporean quitters to glorifying foreign quitters to our shores. Both have serious consequences if left alone to flourish unguided by govt measures. I must say the glorification of foreign quitters have been so successful, more successful than the Stop At Two policy, that it will grow on its own steam to steam roll over the last remaining few pathetic and talentless Sinkies left on our shore. If this trend continues, we would need to build a museum to house the memories of the pioneering generation or to legislate a reservation to protect their welfare and existence.
 
For a start Chok Tong is calling for the forming of a committee to take social policies more seriously and to look into the interests of all the stakeholders, probably this would include all the new stakeholders as well. Forming committees to understand problems is a good new beginning. We just had a great committee looking into the problems of rioting in Little India. And the Tourism Board is also setting up a fund for the tourist industry to understand what the tourists really want to see in Singapore. Such committees are really useful as without them many policies, money and effort would be wasted without knowing what are the right things to do. Cannot imagine how so many policies and activities were formulated and executed in the past without the benefits of the valuable inputs of committees. Would it not be better to form more of such committees ahead of policy formulations and, like in the case of tourist attractions, not to build gigantic and unauthentic attractions that the tourists did not want to see? Millions and billions of dollars could be saved, time and manpower too.
 
Setting up committees and conducting research and surveys are a good start to all good policies and tourist attractions.

Kopi level - Green