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May 3, 2011
Focus on middle class a sign of changing times
Will PAP be able to meet aspirations that go beyond the material?
SITTING through the Prime Minister's one-hour press conference yesterday, one line near the end seared itself in my mind: 'These are the things which are really, truly on the top of Singaporeans' minds.'
Mr Lee Hsien Loong was referring to things like jobs, education, health care - the everyday concerns of an average Singaporean, someone who has children to bring up, elderly parents to look after, and many bills to pay.
'When you're not in the middle of an election campaign, when you are thinking about your future or thinking about your daily life, what is it that we're thinking about? You're not spending all your time thinking about an opposition constituency. You're thinking about jobs for yourself, better pay for you and your family next year, education for your children, health care for your parents.'
Earlier during the press conference I had received via MMS a photo of my 20-year-old nephew giving biology tuition to my 15-year-old niece.
My mind turned, as it often does, to the future of these two youngsters. Will they turn out well, be able to secure good jobs, raise families of their own?
So I fully understood where PM Lee was coming from when he said he wanted to refocus attention during this election on the important, long-term issues, such as education and health care.
These, after all, are what matter to most Singaporeans, and as the PM admitted, 'perhaps we have not fully explained what we are doing for the middle class'.
The middle class - loosely defined as those who are not poor, but not super-rich either - has grown tremendously in size since Independence and could be said to be the biggest beneficiaries of People's Action Party rule.
From probably a few hundred families at Singapore's founding, they now form more than half the population. It was therefore no surprise that Mr Lee decided to address their concerns yesterday - although one could say it is surprising that it took him, and the party, so long.
Perhaps the realisation that they are critical swing voters in this general election provided the nudge. Whatever the reason, it was a timely move.
The middle classes, not the poor nor the rich, have arguably been the hardest hit by events in the last decade.
First, the broad sweep changes wrought by globalisation and the emergence of giant economic rivals.
Competition from China, India and other fast-emerging economies in Asia brought downward pressure on wages for many in the PMET category - professionals, managers, executives and technicians.
According to the Department of Statistics, the median monthly household income from work in 2010 was $5,000, compared to $3,638 in 2000. This meant an average annual increase of just 1.6 per cent in real terms.
And while economic growth in the past year has been scintillating, it was not too long ago that Singapore was in deep recession following the 2008 global financial crisis.
Retrenchments for 2009 exceeded 23,000 - second only to the Asian financial crisis in 1998. These workers, and their families, would still be feeling the after-effects of their layoffs.
Financial crises hit the middle classes the hardest because they affect not only spending power but also aspirations. For many, the car-and-condo hope will have to be recalibrated to an MRT-and-HDB reality.
That's why the income ceiling for Build-To-Order flats from the HDB matters so much to them: Being able to buy one will leave so much more in disposable income.
To be sure, the middle class is not a homogenous group. Those on the lower rungs will worry most about rising costs and making ends meet.
To them, a $10 increase in fees for PCF (PAP Community Foundation) kindergarten classes will matter a great deal. That's why the recent decision - which took effect last month - to raise the monthly household income ceiling for childcare and kindergarten fee subsidies from $1,800 to $3,500 has been so warmly received. It makes another 12,000 children eligible for these subsidies.
Those in the upper middle class worry less about course fees and more about things like whether their children are able to get a place in the National University of Singapore medical school, or whether they should send their children to university overseas.
One thing that all have in common though is aspirations, and this is where the PAP has its work cut out for it.
It secured its mandate in 10 elections past with promises of a better life. It delivered on those promises in material terms. No one in Singapore goes for want of a job. Every year, the various economic agencies together create or bring in thousands of jobs, at all levels of the pay scale. Those in low-paying jobs have Workfare Income Supplement to turn to. There is no shortage of assistance schemes for the low-income group.
But Singapore is no longer a developing country, and the needs and demands of its citizens have moved up Maslow's hierarchy. Will the PAP continue to be able to keep up?
PM Lee yesterday spelt out some measures that his government has implemented in this direction - such as the School of the Arts ('with its very handsome building at Dhoby Ghaut'), and the most recent addition, the collaboration between the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Nafa) and the Royal College of Music.
Nafa is the first institution in the world outside the United Kingdom to offer the music degree course from this leading music conservatory.
My niece is no great shakes in the academic realm, but loves music and fashion. Perhaps by the time she gets of voting age, there will be a top-grade fashion design school in Singapore that she can enrol in. This middle-class kid with the chubby cheeks and cheeky habits is a face of the future.
The middle class is, almost by definition, the group that most wants to move further up the social and economic ladder, in the same way that many within it moved up from the lower-income groups in the past. Any party that wants its support must be able to deliver this promise of hope.
Prime News
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May 3, 2011
Generation Choice comes of age as citizens
Affluence taught them that they have a choice as consumers... Now, with this election, they are learning about the power and responsibility of exercising their political choice as citizens.
Part of the crowd at the PAP rally for Yuhua Single Member Constituency at Jurong East stadium. Some 2,211,102 Singaporeans are expected to go to the polls on Saturday. -- ST PHOTO: NEO XIAOBIN
NEVER in her life has arts coordinator Jessica Lim, 28, seen Singaporeans so interested in an election.
Last Wednesday - Nomination Day - she was at Deyi Secondary School to be 'part of a historic moment'.
'Never in my history, not since I was born, have I felt such ground-level engagement in politics,' she said.
Some of her friends follow election-related news closely.
Others did not even know which Group Representation Constituency (GRC) they lived in, but are making it a point to find out now.
'It never seemed to be a relevant thing to know,' she said, articulating the views of this second group, 'until this election when suddenly, they have to vote'.
Leaders from both the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) and the opposition have said this general election is about leadership renewal, but something equally important is taking place - voter renewal.
A new generation of voters like Ms Lim, born in the 1980s, is coming of voting age in an era when political competition is on the rise; and more qualified candidates have come forward to offer voters credible alternatives to the PAP's slate.
The situation was vastly different just 10 years ago.
Between 1991 and 2001, the number of contested seats was on a downward trend, sliding from 40 out of 81 seats in 1991 to 36 out of 83 in 1997, and to just 29 out of 84 in 2001.
As a result, a majority of eligible voters sat out these three elections and did not vote.
In 2004, The Straits Times coined the phrase Generation Walkover to describe those Singaporeans who reached voting age in the decade from 1991 to 2001.
They were born between 1970 and 1980, grew up largely in the era of then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, and did not experience the turbulence of the early years of independence.
The PAP was effectively the only party they knew and their main form of political activism was in the giving and collecting of feedback, the ST article said.
The tide begun turning five years ago.
The last general election, in 2006, was the first since 1988 in which the PAP did not form the government on Nomination Day.
The opposition managed to recruit enough candidates to contest 47 out of 84 seats.
This year, the number of contests has gone up significantly. The opposition is challenging the PAP in 82 out of 87 seats.
Some 2,211,102 Singaporeans are expected to go to the polls on Saturday, double the 1.22 million who voted in 2006.
Young couples are making night rallies their new date destinations. They have plans for Polling Day parties.
First-time voter John Dasson, 26, and his girlfriend Jillian Pakiam, 24, were at the PAP Ang Mo Kio GRC rally in Yio Chu Kang stadium last Friday, at which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivered his first rally speech of this campaign.
Mr Dasson told a journalist who was blogging live from the rally site: 'We are about to be part of the future.'
There is a sense that this election may prove to be a turning point in Singapore's history - not just because political leaders term it a watershed but because voters themselves make it so.
One attendee at the Workers' Party rally for Aljunied GRC in Serangoon Stadium last Friday compared the atmosphere to that at a rock concert.
Across the Causeway, young Malaysians are reading the regular stream of election-related posts on their Singaporean friends' Facebook feeds.
In their comments, the Malaysians expressed surprise at their Singaporean peers' newfound interest in politics, and they 'like' it.
Indeed, those in their 20s belong to the Facebook generation, and many of them are following the election campaign through YouTube clips and blogs their friends recommend.
They are also Generation Choice.
Affluence taught them that they have a choice as consumers, in deciding on the brands of clothing and accessories they want to don and tote around, as a way to express their identity.
On the World Wide Web, they discovered a plethora of choices in the news and views they wish to consume, and the platforms - beyond the official and the established - on which they can express their preferences.
Now, with this election, they are learning about the power and responsibility of exercising their political choice as citizens.
First-time voter Jeanette Kwek, 25, a business analyst, lives in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC. She feels torn between the PAP - the party she has grown up with and feels most comfortable with - and the credible slate the opposition, in this case the Singapore Democratic Party, has assembled to contest in her ward.
'My friends and I worry that if we vote on the basis of not wanting a particular minister, then in the end, the PAP might not come to power when some of their policies are sound. I will need more time to think,' she said.
Some have thrown their hats into the ring themselves.
This election has the largest number of young candidates in recent memory.
Twelve of them, aged between 23 and 29, are contesting - 10 under opposition banners and two under the PAP's lightning symbol.
Many others have volunteered to help the parties and their candidates campaign.
The sense of political renewal extends beyond the young, to older Singaporeans whose interest in politics either lay dormant or waned as a result of consecutive elections marred by many walkovers.
Whatever the outcome of this Saturday's polls, this election is already remarkable for the way it has energised Singaporeans of all ages.
It has seeded a sense of ownership that extends beyond the flats they own.
It has fulfilled a longing in many hearts to be part of something larger than themselves.
It has given citizens a choice, and a chance to realise for themselves the stake and the say they have in Singapore's future.
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