Chan Soo Sen
Singapore
“In this way, we could generate, nurture and grow the sparks of creativity. But all these ideas will still need to have things like incubators and the various start-up support schemes in order to make them into reality. All these would need funding support.”
“The fact that children give parents some money to have a good time in casino shows how complacent we can be. Mr Chairman, I want to propose that we must be more aggressive in publicising the ills of gambling. Let us take the example of smoking. Real pictures of health hazards are shown on the boxes to deter people.”
“Thank you, Madam. I just want to say that the Minister did not quite answer my question about having a special Chinese language programme or, if necessary, set up a special Chinese language centre for those who are gifted in Chinese. Perhaps I did not make myself quite clear.”
“Hence, I propose that the Ministry of Education consider implementing a Special Chinese Elite programme. If necessary, establish a Special Chinese Language Centre and peg the standard to the highest level.”
“As the public sector is a major employer in Singapore, may I ask whether the public sector as an employer is willing to recognise the medical certificates issued by TCM practitioners and allow medical benefit claims for TCM treatment? If not now, then how about some time in the future when professional standards of TCM further improve?”
“I hope that in the next few years, more emphasis will be given to the care and support for the caregivers – how to offer them emotional support, how to give them counselling support, how to organise programmes to give them some relief from the daily chore of giving care so that at least they may have, say, two or three hours a day t…”
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“Mr Chairman, Sir, I believe the Minister did not respond to my proposal to consider setting up a "Cool Singapore" agency to nurture our soft power with the web address of www.cool.sg, which I have checked and it has not yet been used. RAdm [NS] Lui Tuck Yew: Sir, I think it is something that we do not want to over-engineer. "Coolness" is almost something that comes when you are not shining the spotlight on it, because that puts a lot of heat and you would not be "cool". The more important thing is that we want this to come out naturally and, before you know it, people are taking notice and they are affiirming that what you do is actually on the right track. I mentioned the example CNNGo, which rated us as the second "coolest" people. We do not think of ourselves that way, but others – when they look at us, when they come to visit Singapore, when they get a flavour of what is happening in the society – think that we are doing all right. I think that might well be a better way to achieve it, rather than to engineer a process, engineer organisations, with the sole and stated objective of trying to be "cool". When one tries too hard to be "cool", he "ain't cool".”
“In this way, we could generate, nurture and grow the sparks of creativity. But all these ideas will still need to have things like incubators and the various start-up support schemes in order to make them into reality. All these would need funding support. Mr Chairman, we have created organisations to do this for research and development (R&D) to strengthen our hard power. I would like, therefore, to suggest to the Minister to consider setting up a "Cool Singapore" Agency to nurture our soft power. We could consider web addresses such as www.cool.sg in case www.cool.gov.sg is not "cool" enough. Together, a cooler Singapore will be a more successful one. Developing soft power”
“Mr Chairman, some four years ago in this House, I commented that Singapore is seen to be good and not seen to be cool. I also argued that having a cool image is actually very vital in the next stage of economic development because we cannot compete on cost so we must compete on innovation and creation. Having a cool image allows people to want to pay more for things that are created in Singapore. That is why people are prepared to pay hundred times the price for an Italian wallet rather than the Thai ones because Italy is seen to be more cool than Thailand. I must say that we have made good progress since then. We have staged a successful Asian Youth Games, absolutely spectacular. We had a charming Chingay parade and we have created new brand names such as "Awfully Chocolate". I think these are good progress but we have got to go further, both in terms of breadth and depth. Let us examine Singapore's strengths. Singapore's uniqueness lies in our multi-culturalism. We would be seen to be cool if we could blend our many cultures to create products, services as well as performances that are uniquely Singapore. I think we were seen to be even more cool if, wherever we regionalise, we could also seamlessly blend with the cultures of the host countries that we go to create products, services, and maybe cultural performances that are truly unique, and that both we and our host countries are proud of. I feel that to do this, we need to bring together people with deep knowledge in different cultures, as well as people with good creative and business sense, get them to work together, bounce their heads with each other, impact each other's professionalism in a stimulating as well as out-of-the-box environment.”
“Mr Chairman, I believe the Minister has not responded to my proposal to have a gambling awareness month every year. If one month is considered too long, how about starting with a gambling awareness week? 3.15 pm”
“The fact that children give parents some money to have a good time in casino shows how complacent we can be. Mr Chairman, I want to propose that we must be more aggressive in publicising the ills of gambling. Let us take the example of smoking. Real pictures of health hazards are shown on the boxes to deter people. I would like to propose to the Minister to consider an annual gambling awareness month, where programmes and activities will be organised to remind people the social ills of gambling. It may be illustrated with real or anonymous cases. We can have it during the school holiday month because that is the time when people are most likely to try to have a good time. I think this should be an addition to whatever that the Minister may be replying to Dr Ong's point on mechanisms that will be put in place. 12.45 pm”
“Mr Chairman, Sir, being the third person talking about gambling, I think quite a lot of points have been brought up. I will just share by way of anecdotes. Of late, I have been taking taxis. And I hear taxi drivers talking about picking up passengers who have lost everything. There are passengers who plead with the taxi drivers to say they do not have the $30 needed to pay for the taxi fare. These persons have lost everything. We also hear of children who, in good faith, give money to parents and say: "you go to the IR and enjoy yourself". I do not know how the relationship would turn out in chapter two. I just want to say that all these little anecdotes show that we are already beginning to see some initial indications of gambling problems. These may be just the tip of the iceberg, and the more serious cases may soon come. Gambling, of course, is not new in Singapore. In the past, we had regulated gambling very carefully. Strictly speaking, only bettings are allowed – we are referring to Sweep, TOTO and 4D. Such bettings will not make people lose their fortune. But one night in the casino can cause people to lose their life savings. I personally am not sympathetic to the billionaires who lose millions. If I have a billion and lose a million, I lose only 1% of my asset. What is the big deal? I can afford to lose. But I am very concerned about the working class losing their entire life savings and CPF. All of us would get a minor fortune when we reach 55 years old. We are able to dip into our life savings and suddenly we would see a lot of money. Some said that it is when men become the most attractive – God knows what I mean [Laughter]. But if one is complacent, and through gambling, he can lose everything.”
“Thank you, Madam. I just want to say that the Minister did not quite answer my question about having a special Chinese language programme or, if necessary, set up a special Chinese language centre for those who are gifted in Chinese. Perhaps I did not make myself quite clear. I am not talking about higher Chinese, I am talking about peak Chinese – Chinese at the highest level that can be comparable with the students who go into Beida and Qinghua. Therefore, the concept is perhaps to get the students, who are particularly gifted in Chinese language all over Singapore, and get our resources from NUS, NTU or even our foreign network, get them together and shoot for the stars so that we can have graduands who have got a command of Chinese good enough for the best in China so that we can derive our good diplomats, business leaders or even songwriters to continue our interaction with Chinese and not lose our competitive advantage because more and more in other countries are also learning Chinese.”
“Hence, I propose that the Ministry of Education consider implementing a Special Chinese Elite programme. If necessary, establish a Special Chinese Language Centre and peg the standard to the highest level. When our Singaporean students graduate from the centre, their standard will be comparable to that of Peking University and Qinghua University students. I am specifically referring to students who are Singapore citizens. Malaysian-born or China-born students can also be included, so long as they are Singapore citizens. Their presence can be an inspiration to other Singapore students. Hence, everyone will improve in the face of competition, reaching the highest peak. Special education”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A*.] Mr Chairman, a few years ago, I was in Beijing and attended a Mandarin speech competition. All those who spoke in Mandarin in the competition were foreigners and the winner was a girl from Russia. If I closed my eyes and listened to her, I would have thought that she was from Beijing. She spoke Mandarin so well that she put me to shame. Recently, when I was in China for a business trip, I kept hearing foreigners speaking Mandarin, and more of them are getting better and better at Mandarin. Although their pronunciation may be a little odd, their intonation is not bad. The Chinese understand them and have a great deal of respect for them. Not long ago, I went to the National University of Singapore to attend a Chinese Song Writing Competition for students. The standard of the competition was very high. However, at the prize presentation ceremony, I found out that all the prize winners were either Malaysians or mainland Chinese, and very few are Singaporeans. Just like Mr Ang Mong Seng, I am very worried that we will lose our bilingual competitive edge. We must have a group of truly bicultural elites, and this elite group's bicultural standard must be comparable to the best in China. I am aware that with the rise of China, there will be greater interest in learning Chinese among Singaporeans. I have no doubt that under the tremendous efforts of the Ministry of Education, the average standard of Chinese here will improve gradually. I am not talking about the average standard, but the highest standard. Do we have high peaks, so that we can have a group of elites who are genuinely bicultural, able to communicate with the best in China at the same level?”
“As the public sector is a major employer in Singapore, may I ask whether the public sector as an employer is willing to recognise the medical certificates issued by TCM practitioners and allow medical benefit claims for TCM treatment? If not now, then how about some time in the future when professional standards of TCM further improve?”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A*.] This year marks the 10th year since we started the registration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners. Singapore is the only country other than China that legislates the registration of TCM practitioners. With the registration, there has been a significant improvement of professional standard and image of TCM practitioners. As a result, as my colleague Ms Ellen Lee mentioned, TCM has increased its popularity, with more and more Singaporeans seeking TCM treatment. Does the Ministry of Health have plans to further raise the standard of TCM practitioners and the quality of TCM practice in Singapore in the future? Are there plans to encourage our local universities and institutions to do more in terms of research and development of TCM? Recently, some TCM practitioners told me that due to the restrictions of the current legislations, TCM organisations could no longer offer Degree courses in TCM with overseas, mainly mainland *Cols. 3831-3832. Chinese TCM universities. If this is the case, would there not be negative impact on our efforts to raise the standard of TCM practitioners in Singapore, as some TCM practitioners who intend to upgrade their professional standards will not be able to obtain a Bachelor Degree locally. Another area of concern amongst the TCM circle in Singapore is whether the Government has any plans, at some point of time, to recognise the medical certificates issued by TCM practitioners, or to allow medical benefit claims to be extended to TCM treatment. As my colleague Ms Ellen Lee pointed out, are we going to recognise the medical care provided by TCM practitioners? To date, the Government's stand is that it depends on the policy of the respective employer.”
“Mr Chairman, Sir, the tourism sector had a very good year last year. I wonder how much of this is due to the impact of the Integrated Resorts. I would also like to ask what would be the steps that we want to take in order to sustain this growth for the long term. I remember in the early 1970s when we started our tourism industry, we marketed Singapore as an "Instant Asia". What will be the emphasis on the Asian part of the heritage that we are going to put in our strategy to promote Singapore as a tourism destination? For example, heritage towns like Joo Chiat, which is my constituency, what would be the plans that the Singapore Tourism Board have in promoting us to wholesome tourists, not the kind of tourists that my constituents are worried about? How about eco-tourism? We may only have a small plot of primary forest, but the advantage is that it is very diversified in terms of ecology. Furthermore, the size is also quite manageable. We do not have to go to the Amazon and get lost. In Bukit Timah, we usually would not get lost and we see a lot of things. What are the steps that we can do in order to promote these as Singapore's instant eco-tourism? How about making Singapore into a "cooler" place where the tourists coming here can find this place enjoyable, relaxing and really fun, not the kiasu kind of an image that they have of Singapore? How do we encourage tourists coming here to slow down their pace a little, enjoy our eco-system, enjoy our heritage and enjoy our nice and cool place? I understand that the average tourist stays about four days. If they extend their stay by one day, we have 25% more money to make.”
“I hope that in the next few years, more emphasis will be given to the care and support for the caregivers – how to offer them emotional support, how to give them counselling support, how to organise programmes to give them some relief from the daily chore of giving care so that at least they may have, say, two or three hours a day to go and do their own things. Sir, I want to say that this problem of the caregivers, unfortunately, falls in the crack between two Ministries. It starts because somebody gets sick. In that sense, it is initiated from the Ministry of Health's portfolio. Then, as the pressures mount, it becomes an MCYS problem with regard to the caregivers. Because it falls within the crack between two big Ministries, my concern always is that the two Ministries are exercising courtesy and think that the other Ministry may solve the problem. Therefore, I want to propose that the Prime Minister's Office organise a taskforce comprising these two Ministries and other bodies to see how we can have a long-term plan to support our caregivers, 20 to 30 years down the road.”
“Mr Chairman, Sir, I want to echo Mr Yeo Guat Kwang's support for caregivers. But I just want to project the time 20 years down the road when I will be 75 years old, therefore, I have got a personal interest. The ageing population and smaller family sizes plus a preference for home care: add all these things up, and it means we need good or very good committed caregivers. Caregivers are indeed unsung heroes in our medical system. Mr Yeo Guat Kwang said, not much attention has been paid to their welfare. For the time being, there are not that many of them. Twenty years down the road, the number will be much higher. It is really a big time bomb waiting to explode, and I want to say my heart especially goes out to those caregivers who care for patients who have got mental problems. If a patient is sick, you nurse the person and he is able to appreciate your efforts. But if there is something wrong with the mind, let us say that the person is suffering from dementia or in a coma, this situation can last a very long time. Over time, the poor fellow does not even recognise the caregiver. The caregiver is a loved one, who loves the person but is not loved by the person and not even recognised by the person. If we add up all these things, it is really an impossible problem to cope with on the part of the caregiver. At the moment, the emphasis is on caregiver training. We have been focusing on training them to be caregivers.”
“As the environment and climate change are becoming a major issue worldwide and Singapore strives to be a model eco-city, would the Minister consider providing an Environment Education budget for schools to teach and be actively involved in educating their students in all expects of the environment, how it affects our daily lives, and how we can safeguard it for future generations - in short, what sustainable development and global warming are all about? Understanding climate change, global warming and sustainable development is, I feel, today a must, especially, when as a nation, we are trying to put a number of major initiatives into place, like energy efficiency, recycling and developing Singapore into a clean energy centre. More importantly, Singapore needs more technicians and trained engineers to cater to the renewable and energy efficiency businesses that we are developing and attracting to come and set up in Singapore. Early influence and understanding of this subject will hopefully give us the trained manpower required by this very lucrative sector. Sir, on this subject, I would like to enquire whether the Minister will consider providing engineering and technical scholarships or bursaries with short-term bonds so that more students would be attracted to take up these scholarships. FutureSchools@Singapore”
“Sir, of the three basic principles that I have mentioned, ie, to spend in a responsible way, to spend for value-add, as well as to build up the reserve for emergency, allow me to just emphasise on the words "spend for value-add". It is spending that adds value to the society and self. We spend on upgrading ourselves for self-improvement. Since the Minister of State had earlier mentioned that private and continuing education is going to be more strongly regulated, this will give us better value for money. Also, give to the worthy causes that help the less fortunate in society, that help to promote social cohesion in the process of helping the less fortunate, and give generously to the patronage of arts. These may be habits of spending, but these are spending for value-add. It is important for us to distinguish between the amount of spending as well as the value we get back, not only dollars and cents, but also values in the case of heartware. Could I ask the Minister to outline whether the Ministry has any plans to explicitly reinforce and inculcate the value of thrift? Compulsory Environmental Education / Activities in Schools Er Edwin Khew Teck Fook (Nominated Member): Sir, the education provided by our schools and tertiary institutions in Singapore is one of the best in the world, as we have kept our curriculum relevant and have systems in place to ensure that students of all capabilities are being catered to.”
“Sir, in a consumer society, we have every opportunity to spend. In fact, if we look at some of those very nice glossy magazines which talk about very attractive people and we ask them, "What is your passion or hobby?", it is "To shop until I drop." It sounds very cool. To shop until I drop makes me a hero of a consumer society. But what if I drop and I cannot get up again? I become a martyr of the consumer society. While we want to have heroes, we must avoid having martyrs to spend and spend and spend until one drops. From being cool, it will become cold. And if this value becomes a national value over time, when more and more of our young people get used to the concept or idea of spending until they drop, then it can eat into our usual good habit of having prudent Budgets and building up our national reserves, and our country's future will go from being cool to cold. Sir, do not get me wrong. I am not against spending. I am not trying to pitch a value of "miser-y". I am just appealing to the Ministry of Education to do something concrete to explicitly inculcate a value of thrift. For me, thrift does not mean not spending. Thrift does not mean not giving. To me, thrift means spending in a sustainable way, spending for value-add, as well as building up a reserve for emergency and old age, because all of us want to live long. All of us want to continue to spend, and all of us also want to retire early. Sometimes, the three do not add up. It is only through prudence and the inculcation of the value of thrift that we can do all three together through to our good old age.”
“In the past, during the Seventh Month Festival or occasions to give thanks to the gods, we would still have the Hokkien wayangs. Some of the temples, like the Taoist temple at Koo Chai Ba, would put up some traditional dialect wayangs. But, nowadays, they use getai singing instead. The organisers do not even ask whether the gods would enjoy this type of performance. They simply go for the modern getai. And with getai, the traditional dramas would have no place in these festivals. So, if our traditional culture were to become extinct, who shall we blame? But, if we were to have a National Cultural Fund, and everyone donates maybe 1% of their salary – that is not asking too much – and we ask the Government to match it dollar for dollar, then we can invite some of those “national treasure” exponents of these traditional arts from China to come and promote this traditional culture. There is hope that we may preserve the rich cultural heritage left behind by our ancestors to us. Would this not be a good thing? *Cols. 1581-1584. Recognition and Rewards for Artists”
“If each of us can donate 1% of our income to set up a National Cultural Fund, and ask the Government to match us dollar for dollar, I think we would have a very big endowment fund to support our cultural activities in Singapore, particularly the traditional arts. Why am I talking about "traditional arts"? Because events like concerts by Michael Jackson – I am not running him down – can easily find people who are willing and eager to support him and to buy tickets for his concerts. But for traditional arts, such as traditional roadside dialect wayangs, whether it is Cantonese or Hokkien operas, the troupes are finding it difficult to survive, as they are always having difficulties raising the money to keep their activities going. I have spoken to some of the volunteers who are organising these activities. They said, "Every year, when we present a show, we have to put in a lot of money. There is a certain cost. The tickets cannot be sold. Nobody would buy the tickets. So we have to look for a few big sponsors or patrons for donations. Even with the donations, we have problems selling the tickets because nobody is interested to buy the tickets, and the theatre would be empty. What do we do? We have to go to the homes and invite the old folks to come to the shows, free of charge. We have done our best." Do not forget that most, if not all, the existing sponsors and patrons are quite elderly now. In 10 years' time, they may not be around or too old to continue supporting these voluntary organisations. I observe that the new sponsors are not forthcoming. There are no new patrons to take over. What is going to happen to our traditional arts?”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A *.] Sir, I remember, every year, when I visit my father-in-law's house, I would do one thing, ie, to browse his collection of old books. Every time, I would take one of these out-of-print books home. Over the years, I must have taken more than 30 of his old books and these books are not available at the shops anymore. They were printed in the 1950s. In the 1950s and 60s, these books were priced at $1 to $2 each. At that time, $1 or $2 was a lot of money. I asked my father-in-law, “As a Chinese teacher, your salary then was just $100-$200. So, every month, you would spend about 1% of your salary on books. But you did not have the time to read them, you just kept them at home, and eventually got stolen by your son-in-law. Why did you persist in doing that? Is there any meaning in it?” My father-in-law said something which I will remember for life. He said, "If I don't buy the books, who is going to support the authors?" Recently, some 40 years after my father-in-law’s supportive efforts for the authors, one of my former classmates wanted to publish a book on his collection of poems. He solicited for donations from all his classmates to meet the publication cost. He needed about $4,000-$5,000 to print the book. I asked him, "Why don't you just publish it and you can earn your money back when the books are sold?" He replied, "Nobody would buy the book. I have to pay for the printing cost. Once the book is published, I would give a copy to each of the students of my alma mater, and I would have accomplished my mission. Even if nobody buys it, I do not mind." Compared to my father-in-law 40 years ago, I feel that we are moving backwards in the support of our culture.”
“15 pm As for the past, we already have all the masters that I mentioned earlier. I do not know where their works are. I think it is worthwhile to bring their works together to have our proposed Pioneer Artists' Museum, to deliberately collect all these arts and lay them out in proper manner, introduce them, firstly, to be fair to our history of innovation. This is a souvenir shop to keep, but, more importantly, to also inspire our future generation of fusion artists. This has happened in the past. It has got to happen in the future. These are the people who have made it. How about you finding yourself in our Pioneer Artists' Museum sometime in the future? Recognition and Rewards for Artists”
“Frankly, Malayan Chinese literature, in large part, means Singapore Chinese literature, because a lot of them actually worked in Singapore. It is just that, at that time, this place was called Malaya. So Malayan Chinese literary style. Again, Chinese writers coming to this part of the world influenced by each other's way of creativity and looking at the local subject matters and issues and evolved into a unique style of writing. If this has happened in the past, I am sure it can happen in the future so long as we get the compound right. The correct compound consists of people who are steep in multi-cultural creativity, in the sense that you have somebody who is equally good in Chinese arts as well as Western arts, there is a chance that he would evolve into a kind of unique fusion art. If you have somebody who is very good in Chinese arts as well as Malay arts, eg, Chen Wen Hsi and Liu Kang, it evolved into a Nanyang style of painting. What we need are multi-cultural types of artists. We now have an opportunity. We are going to have an Arts School. Part of the objectives for our education is to be multi-cultural. I would like to urge that the Arts School pay much attention in the multi-cultural approach to arts education so that we may have a chance to evolve our unique style of fusion arts that we can truly call Singaporean. Of course, this is for the future. If this happens, then we will have something that we can truly be proud of and feel very, very cool about – our unique fusion art. It is not only East-West. It is also East-East. It can also be North East-South East, South East-North East, South East-South West. In case you do not know what I mean, we can have many, many styles of fusion arts for the future. 12.”
“So we have the opportunity to appreciate each other's arts, and a lot of our traditional artists come here with the immigrants and they meet, make friends, exchange and create unique brands of arts. Fusion art is not, as what I have said earlier, people of different ethnic groups putting on each other's costume and dancing, performing western dance. That is, in a sense, a kind of fusion art. But then we remember chemistry. I remember when we studied, one of the first experiments that we did was to mix iron powder with sulphur and, after mixing it, that is called a mixture. A mixture can be separated through physical method. You use a magnet and you can remove all the iron dusts. Or you use – was it called carbon disulphide? – you can dissolve all the sulphur, let it evaporate and you separate the sulphur from the iron. But if you heat it up, it becomes some kind of iron ferric type of compound. It can never be separated again. I think, for our fusion arts, we have achieved the mixture stage. The challenge is whether we can achieve some kind of a chemical reaction compound stage so that we will create something that is really unique. As I have said, this has already happened in the past. We have this very famous style of painting called the Nanyang style. This is basically the Chinese artists who came from China to Southeast Asia and who were influenced by the Malay way of painting as well as the Western way of painting. They looked at the Southeast Asian subjects and then they evolved into some unique way of painting. We have people like, for example, Liu Kang and Chen Wen Hsi. These are very, very famous world-class, or at least regional class, fusion artists. In the case of writing, we also have a group called the Malayan Chinese literature.”
“Sir, I must say that Singapore has a better "cooling" spell now culturally. We have been successful in organising the Youth Olympics Games. That makes us cool. Last year, I was in China and I had the opportunity to be at the Singapore Seasons in Shanghai as well as in Beijing. I remember telling the Minister at the end of the show that I felt very good as a Singaporean because we were demonstrating to the Chinese that we were there not only for economic mutual benefits but also for cultural exchange. And that was cool. For the two Singapore Season events, there are two things that made the events very cool. One is our fusion food which I thought everybody enjoyed – Chinese, Singaporeans, everybody. There was also this thing called the fusion arts which I saw – big cultural items, multi-racial artistes going up, putting on each other's costumes, dancing, and I think the opinion for that one is a little more mixed. Some said it was neither here nor there, it was a weird mixture. Some of my Chinese guests who were there told me that actually they did not know what it was all about but that it was interesting. I suppose "interesting" is a very polite way of saying that, yes, it is something that I cannot understand, but thanks for the effort anyway. I think fusion art is something that we can have a unique opportunity to be innovative about, because Singapore is really a place where a lot of cultures meet – East and East, East and West, North East vs South East, South East vs South West – everybody seems to meet here because the monsoon meets here and brought our own forefathers together.”
“But I am also told that in some of these more disciplined private armies, any of the members found to be consuming drugs may be shot. They know very clearly that these are the things for them to make money, but these are also the kinds of thing that can consume them. As a nation, it is vital that our people be educated that, while these IRs will bring us much economic benefits, we must arm and protect ourselves against all its ill effects. Community Engagement Programme”
“Sir, all of us look forward to the good economic benefits that the Integrated Resorts can bring about. So do I. Imagine the investments, the construction activities, the many job opportunities as well as the tax income. However, I am sure many Members share my concern over the gambling activities that the casino within the IR would bring about. Gambling is a vice. It is highly addictive. It destroys personal character. It destroys family and it destroys community. It can lead to many undesirable activities, including criminal activities. I would like to ask the Ministry whether we have developed a strategy to prevent and deal with all these ill effects, and whether the House may be updated on the programmes that have been initiated or to be initiated to deal with this. Sir, I am particularly concerned about the more vulnerable people who may be targeted by the operators. My heart especially goes to those people who currently have no income, eg, older persons who have just withdrawn their CPF, housewives or unemployed persons who have just received their retrenchment benefits. If they were to get too carried away, they risk losing everything plus their family and the community who are supporting them. What steps have been or will be taken to educate our people on the ill effects of gambling, and to ensure that they do not start in this road of no return? I would also like to know whether programmes and schemes will be initiated to develop our capabilities in counselling the gamblers as well as their family members, together with the kind of support that we could offer to them in order to kick this bad habit. Sir, I understand, for example, that drug is a kind of vice. And we know that there are private armies that help to protect drug activities.”
“Sir, what I have mentioned about family values is we should try to put values like setting up of a family and having children as a priority in life. And I have argued in my speech that we need to start when the children are young - to inculcate this kind of values. I also believe that if we do not put this into the KPI of the people, this will be just taken as one of the many priorities. So, the question is whether we consider this as an important priority in our educational objective for our children. And as I have concluded at the end of my speech, this is about sustaining Singapore and sustaining our long-term growth. 5.15 pm RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew: The Member knows that we conduct sexuality education in schools where we talk about relationships, parenting, marriage, and so on. I think the difficulty is that the results of what he has talked about - marriage, procreation - come years later. While the schools have sexuality education where they emphasise filial piety and the different aspects of trying to remain strong as a family, what he has mentioned, it is rather hard to measure principals and the schools against that particular outcome. Hence, the difficulty in that dilemma as a result of what he has talked about.”
“I just wonder whether the Minister would want to respond to my earlier proposal to include, as part of the KPIs for the principals, activities and programmes to promote family values. RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew: I note his point. Mr Chairman, it is something that we would consider. But let me say also that there are already quite a number of steps that the schools have taken, particularly in the formation of parental support groups and the involvement of the parents and families in the life of the school. His point was with regard to inculcating family values. That is something that is already being done as part of their CME and Social Studies. It is something we would consider, although I am reluctant to really add even more measures, more KPIs and, therefore, more pressure onto the school principals and the leadership.”
“In fact, we heard just now that we want our students to learn to think, to learn languages, to balance between ying and yang, to have IQ and EQ, to be loyal citizens and God knows what else. But how about to be a family person, to start a family, to bring up a good family so that our next generation will be fine and Singapore's success will be sustained? So far, no hon. Members have mentioned this as yet. I would like to submit that in education priority, family value education is important. I would like to propose to the Minister to include some form of family education or family value programmes in the KPI of our principals and teachers so that this thing called family can be put into sharper focus before we start pursuing all those important things that we want our students to have, because we ignore building up our family at our peril. It is about Singapore's sustainability and long-term success. Character Building”
“Mr Chairman, Sir, a few years ago, when I was still in Government, I attended a pro-family seminar and I gave a very, very moving speech, talking about the virtue of family values. At the end of it, one particular young person came to me and said, "The problem with you Government is that you want to interfere in all these things, including how many children we have." I said, "So do you plan to get married and have children?" He said, "Certainly not. Your speech will not change me." I said, "All right. May I ask you this question? Who are in your family?" He says, "My family comprises my father, mother, sister and my dog." I said, "So, imagine, if you were to stay single and not have any children, what would be your family 60 years later?" Goodness gracious, he was stunned! The sister probably will still be around. Parents, 60 years later, probably would not be around. The dog, well, I know, it probably would not be around. Then I said, "Look, if you were to be married and have children and encourage them to have family values, they also get married and have children, who will be family 60 years later?" Then he understood. Sir, the point is this. Family is a very, very important component that will be required when we are down. When we are old, poor, when we have problems, we need our family. When we are successful and making a lot of money, family does not seem very important. But the problem is that a family is not instant coffee. You do not just put something into the hot water, stir and there comes a family. It has to be planned and executed deliberately. You have to invest the time, energy and emotion in order to have a good family. So where does family education feature as a priority in education? I submit it is not very high.”
“Similarly, the Hunanese will speak with a Hunan accent, and the Shandong people will have difficulty understanding. As such, it is very common for them to display Chinese subtitles. I do believe that there are plenty of subtitle experts in China. If cost is the main concern, maybe we can consider outsourcing the typewriting of subtitles and captions to the China experts. Besides Chinese News, I would like to further extend this idea to include literature and history documentaries, etc. While watching the Chinese documentary, and as we discuss our traditions and culture, the narration of the history can be put down into words using the Chinese subtitles. And I hope that the Malay and Tamil community can also consider putting subtitles in their Malay and Tamil News, if they think that it is a good way to learn their mother tongue. After all, most of the reading materials, such as newspapers, books and signboards, are written in English. To ensure that our younger generation continues to master both Chinese and the English language, we can help by exposing them to Chinese subtitles through educational programmes, and I believe it will be very useful to the learning of the mother tongue. *Cols. 2625-2626. 2.15 pm”
“[For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A *.] Mr Speaker, Sir, when I was young, I learnt English by reading the subtitles on the TV screen. After watching the Chinese News, I would follow up to catch the English News so as to train my listening skills. Many of my friends who are English educated Chinese Singaporeans told me that they learn their mother tongue by reading the Chinese subtitles appearing on the karaoke TV screen. As they sing along, they will be able to follow the Chinese lyrics and have since learnt many Chinese characters. If we consider both scenarios, ie, if we can have Chinese subtitles on our TV programmes, it will play an important role in promoting the learning of the mother tongue and helping our people in the use of the language. Therefore, I am most happy to know that our Channel 8 News has already inserted the Chinese subtitles. In this regard, I would like to request if MICA could encourage our Chinese media to display Chinese subtitles and captions during the telecast of all Chinese News bulletin slots. This will help to increase the probability of our TV audience being exposed to the Chinese characters and in turn promote the learning of our mother tongue. Having said that, I believe one important consideration will be the costs involved. However, I would like to share my experience in China. It is a very common practice for their programmes to display Chinese subtitles and captions during the Chinese dialogue. In China, the people in different cities/provinces have a different Chinese accent. During a TV interview, if a Beijingese speaks with a Beijing accent, the Fujian people may not understand what the Beijingese is talking about.”
“We must be able to accept other people's viewpoints and values even if we do not quite agree with them. We must accept that there must be a certain amount of untidiness even chaos because, like what the Asian sage says, "pure water will produce no fish", ie, "qing shui wu yu". And we must also be willing to be patronage of arts, willing to buy books, to pay good money to see good performances of the local variety. I know if Pavarotti comes, we can pay $200 for one ticket because he is "cool". But for local traditional operas, we have to give tickets away and plead with the people to come. If that continues, we are going to kill our own culture. So, I feel that we have to develop a "cool" Singapore image, but I think I am not that pessimistic, because if we look at our younger generation, ie, my children's generation, they are more expressive, willing to share, willing to scream more and they really are charming and charismatic. We are also going into Arts School and various varieties to give values to arts, both visual and performing. But like what my parliamentary colleagues have also shared, we need a more coordinated effort in order to make Singapore really "cool" in the next generation. So could I propose that MICA lead an effort, maybe with participation from other Ministries and agencies like MTI, MOE, MCYS, to look into how we can create an environment to facilitate a "cool" Singapore, perhaps in the next five to 10 years. This is not something that can be created overnight but I think the society is already changing in that direction. All we need is for us to work together, to search our soul, to discover our soul, to discover other people's soul, and be really "cool" about it. It is about environmental change.”
“Mr Chairman, the Singaporean brand name is known to be good but it is very rarely known to be "cool". And yet, in the next day's career development, being "cool" is important in justifying greater returns for our goods and services. If we were to go to any Southeast Asian country and we buy a leather wallet, if it costs $2, we want to bargain until it is 50 cents. But if you go to Milan and the same leather wallet costs 200 Euro, we happily pay the 200 Euro and say how wonderful that particular wallet is. Why is that so? Because the Italians are seen to be "cool" and the Southeast Asian is seen to be not as "cool", not because the Italian bull is anything better in producing leather that is Southeast Asian variety. The same goes for McDonald's and Starbucks, vis-a-vis the equivalent of paus and coffee produced in our local coffeeshop. It is all a matter of being "cool". If we look at certain other countries, for example, like Korea, if you look at Korean films 30 years ago - I have looked at some - it had only two themes. It was either Korean war or some sad stories in a family that everybody dies. But today, Korean films are very different. It has created a very "cool" image of Korean culture and the Chinese here call it "han liu ". I think it must have facilitated the value of Korean brands. So I think it is more "cool" to own a Korean-branded car or Korean-branded handphone. Sir, the point is this. In order to make the Singapore economy continue to grow, we need to create a "cool" Singapore image. But to create a "cool" Singapore image, we need to do quite a bit of homework. We need to reinvent ourselves, we need to change, we need to be able to come to terms with our own feelings and able to express it confidently.”
“Several of my colleagues in Parliament have mentioned about the role of housewives and house husbands. I will also mention another group of people, ie, the grandparents who look after the grandchildren. In our traditional families, there are three generations under one roof. However, our housing policy has become so successful that the three generations under one roof are slowly dwindling in number. For the grandparents, they can make a great contribution by looking after their young grandchildren. If we encourage grandparents to look after their grandchildren more, then the senior citizens or grandparents will feel that they can contribute to the family. The young people also will know that they have more people to look after them and they can also learn the traditional values from the grandparents. From these traditional values, we can learn a lot of family values as well. If grandparents can play a greater role to look after their grandchildren, then when their grandchildren are grown up, their family values will certainly be stronger. In this way, the pro-family values will be transmitted from one generation to another. Sir, I hope that the Government will consider giving housewives and house husbands more encouragement and support for their contributions to the family. We should not forget that the grandparents look after the grandchildren. Mr Speaker, Sir, I support this Budget.”
“Only when we have cultivated this kind of value, will the elderly people in our society feel treasured and respected by the country. When we go to the clan associations, people have also mentioned that in many societies, older people will get certain privileges or concessions. For example, in public transport, MRT and bus services, they give them concessions. When they go to a cinema show, they take part in cultural activities, they travel, they also have concessions for admission tickets. Why is it that Singapore seems to be inadequate in this aspect? Can we do something more? We need to put in some more efforts in this area. In this regard, if our MRT and bus companies feel that they are not able to do something adequately, then the Government's budget should include some assistance to them. We can print senior citizens’ concession cards for those who are 60 or 65 years old. There should be no fixed target. We should give them some kind of special concession. Personally, it is not very much, but to our senior citizens, this is a very important initiative. To those people like me who are not old enough yet, I think we know that we have not been forgotten. We know that the society has not forgotten the old people. We can be certain that when we grow old and become old, we will get the respect we deserve. This is the meaning of the quotation that I made from Mencius. As for taking care of our children as well as other's children, I am not saying that we should give concessions to young people. What I mean is that for those caregivers who are looking after the children and they are not working, they do not receive anything from Workfare. In this regard, can we also give them some kind of support and encouragement?”
“I think we should put more resources into preparing this group of people for this prospect, helping them to find new jobs, to go for retraining and even invest in some counselling services to help them as well as their family tide over these difficult years, plus maybe educating them to be more realistic in their expectations as well as to prepare for the ups and downs in the cycle. Mr Speaker, Sir, I mentioned that I am going to mention four groups. So I will mention the last two groups in Mandarin. (In Mandarin): [For vernacular speech, please refer to Appendix A *. ] Mr Speaker, Sir, for the last two groups of people, I feel that we should express something to encourage, support or assist them. I can use Mencius' words to summarise this: "To Look after the elderly, as well as *Cols. 2035-2038. one's own; look after the children, as well as one's own" (老吾老以及人之老，幼吾幼以及人之幼). We have mentioned earlier that family ethics and morality are very important. This is to maintain the stability in our society. These words from Mencius reflect the thinking of Confucianism for an ideal society and ideal family. I feel that our Budget should look after the older group of people in the society because we will eventually grow old one day. If we do not want to grow old, then we will have to leave this planet earlier. The older people have already contributed to the society. We are doing the same too, eventually we will grow old, and realise that we have contributed to the society. Therefore, it is important that we make every effort to cultivate and develop a sense of respect for the elderly before we grow old ourselves.”
“If we could give them some rental and property tax rebates in recognition of the contribution that they have made to community cohesion, and some of these benefits really cannot be costed, I think that will provide them with some encouragement to go on and it can add to the richness in community life. The second group that I thought deserves some mention are the PMETs - the professionals, managers, executives as well as technical people. We know we have got Workfare. We know we have made very good progress in terms of job placements. But then my experience and many of my residents in Joo Chiat are PMETs. Some were retrenched. I have been trying to help them to look for jobs and really, so far, the success in this area has not been very encouraging. I also see my own friends, my primary school classmates, some work in the banks. A few years ago, if Members remember, there were retrenchments in the banking sector and these boys - I came from a boys' school - I never saw them cry when they were in primary school, I saw them cry when they were in their mid-40s and early 50s. We know that we have low-skilled, low-income workers. But as we go ahead, we are going to have more and more better-educated people because our education has been progressing over the years, and these people, because of globalisation, managerial delayering and outsourcing, shorter technological cycle and all the various reasons that we are familiar with, they will face the risk of having to change jobs and having to look for new jobs. We say that they look forward to income tax reduction and did not get it. In fact, for many of them, the greatest fear is what to do if they were faced with this prospect of losing their jobs.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, like more than the 20-over Members before me, I rise to support the Budget Statement. In fact, I think this is an excellent Budget. It encourages competitiveness. At the same time, it also shows care to the less successful, giving, at the same time, without affecting the work ethics. In fact, it continues to encourage work ethics. I am very optimistic that with this kind of a spirit, Singapore will continue to develop and surge ahead, and there will be more that we can then use to support the people who are less successful. Since I said that I agree with many of the statements that have been made before, I will just highlight four particular groups which I thought I will just add some additional comments. Firstly, I think the group of neighbourhood shops that has contributed towards community cohesion feel that somehow in this Budget, they have not been given so much attention, because they look at things this way. They face very strong competition. They face a change of consumer pattern and preferences. Some of them bought their shops when the price was high and thereafter servicing the loan and facing the few years of difficult times. They also feel that the CPF employer's contribution has gone up, and the cost has increased. Some of them also face rental increase and they feel that there are relatively not many good things in this Budget for them. I hope that we could give some recognition to the fact that these neighbourhood shops have contributed towards community cohesion. In fact, if we think of the good old days when we were young, one thing that reminds us of where we stayed was the very, very friendly neighbourhood shops, the shopkeepers, the coffee shops, and so on, that we spent our time in.”
“Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah): With reference to Mr Chan's speech, if we did not have TV in Singapore, it might just have more than happiness and it might solve our immigration problems. 5.52 pm”
“Just look at some of them, they help people organise the events. For three or four nights, they do not sleep. They keep on coming back. But at the end of it, they feel so happy. They come back again. When I talk to some of them, they say, "I am really very stupid. I do all these things for no return." I want to say that the community will be much happier if there are more stupid people like them because when we do good deeds, we feel good. We feel good, we do more good. We do more good, we will feel more, more good. We feel more, more good, we do more, more, more good. You know what I mean. It becomes a good society that encourages doing good deeds and giving. If I were to be in a society that is good in giving, good in mutual support, I know that if I have to plunge into this fierce world of globalisation, I would rather be in that kind of a society. Because if I get injured, I know that there will be people who genuinely care. In a globalised society and globalised economy, overall, we will have more. And the most successful will also have more. So there will be more in the community to share, not necessarily with the Government only. I am talking about the community. If we have a spirit of giving, then we can worry less for the people who are less fortunate. So as we look at this new world that we are rushing into, we are plunging into, we must prevail because we have no choice. If we lose, we are finished because Singapore is so small. But let us build a society that is rich in giving, rich in mutual support. Therefore, I want to appeal to our fellow Singaporeans to always be happy and always be upbeat, and Singapore will be okay, Singapore will be unbeatable.”
“I think I see this in the Holy Bible and, certainly, you see this in other cultures. So to be able to help shows people that you are useful. To feel useful, you feel happy. You help others, others feel happy. Happiness is multiplied. So we have a happier society. All this seems to sound very obvious. But I fear that if we do not remind ourselves and we just plunge into globalisation, it may not be very obvious in the heat of the moment. When people suffer further setbacks in work, and if work is the only thing that they have, then the world will collapse. And they cannot get up again because they have lost everything. They have lost even their identity which is purely with work. But if their identity consists of three parts - it consists of work, it consists of their hobby as well as their spiritual belief and it consists of their circle of people, their family and friends - then, perhaps, if they temporarily lose their job, they have two other worlds to return to. Maybe they spend more time with their family for a little while. They give them encouragement, so they bounce back. Maybe they go back to work in their church or temple for a little while to seek some spiritual peace, and they will be strong enough to bounce back again. Maybe the few months of quietness are good for them overall as a person. When we want to plunge into a marathon race on globalisation, these are the important considerations. Over here, I would like to pay homage to a group of people who are always happy. These are the volunteers. By definition, they give. I know many of them are very ordinary people. They do not have a lot of income. Some of them may not be working. But when they go and do their voluntary work, they spring to life. They work very hard.”
“I think Confucius said this. When friends come from far away, it is really a happy moment. Of course, in the old days, only when friends came, you had the excuse to kill the only chicken that you had and shared. Therefore, there is hospitality. But to be able to meet people, it is a great source of happiness. I want to mention this point about people. Because my concern is when I look at our younger generation, my children's generation, if I want to see him, he will not come and see me. I call him, there will be no answer. I SMS him, that fellow has not replied. If our interaction is going to be less and less personalised, we are going to be a less happy society. When we call a certain department or agency, even the private sector, you are referred to press "1" for this, press "2" for that and press "3" for that. And at the end of it, it says, if you really want to talk to us, press this number, and when you press, it is engaged. Why can we not engage some senior citizens to run more helplines? I do not think they are asking for very much. They are very, very good in handling this type of situation. In fact, when we first set up the CDC, I have a CDC helpline. We got volunteers. We gave them some small allowance and they run the helpline for 1 1/2 years. A lot of people called, and that group feels very happy because they have been able to help others. So this is generating employment opportunities for older persons, maybe like me, giving happiness to everybody - those who call as well as those who receive calls. So why not? And very importantly, happiness is about giving and about helping people. The Chinese say, "zhu ren wei kuai le zhi ben", helping others is a fundamental of happiness. I think all cultures believe that it is more blessed to give than to take.”
“If we want a more contemporary example, consider what Mrs Josephine Teo cited just now, "xiao ren wu de xin sheng". She said, "ping fan ye shi yi zhong kuai lei", just be ordinary, be happy too. But I would disagree in that particular song that says VIPs rushing around, they are not happy. Maybe they are also happy. Each one of us has our own formula to be happy and there is no need to measure happiness using a single yardstick. Like just now, Mr Chiam said, because Malay set up the Yayasan Mendaki, Chinese set up CDAC, the Indians set up SINDA, therefore it shows that our society is divisive. I do not know whether Mr Chiam knows that when I took over as the first CEO of CDAC, what was the first thing I did. I called up Mr Zainul to make an appointment to see him, to learn from Yayasan Mendaki. Then I called up Mr Iswaran who was then CEO of SINDA to say, “Look, would you want to teach me how to run a self-help group?” We learn from each other and yet we do not measure using a single yardstick because different communities have certain specific problems that can be better addressed using their community’s commitment and passion. So there is no need to measure happiness using a single yardstick. Today, it is CDAC, Yayasan Mendaki, SINDA, and I think the Eurasian Association, you are happy ever after. Happiness is also about interacting with people. Again, the Chinese says that "du le le, bu lu zhong le le" - if you are happy on your own, you include others, you will be happier. Happiness shared is happiness multiplied. It is just like depression. Share the depression half, the other way round. If you share happiness, it becomes endemic – everybody is happy. There is also a saying that "you peng zi yuan fang lai, bu yi le hu".”
“The place with the highest happiness index is this country called Bhutan where, until a few years ago, there was not even television. Their pastime is archery, maybe climbing mountains, and they are happy. We will never have enough money - money always not enough. But how to discover happiness and always be upbeat, I believe, is the key to our sustainability in this marathon run. In fact, "happiness", lest we all forget, is one of the important word mentioned in our National Pledge - the last sentence says so, “… so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation”. We achieve prosperity, we achieve progress, forget about happiness. So I think it serves to remind even in our National Anthem, the word “bahagia” if we are to define a bit more broadly, “bahagia” must include happiness. I hope Mr Hawazi and Mr Masagos will agree. I am no Malay expert. Therefore, pursuit of happiness and be upbeat is a very important objective in our national psyche. In fact, all the Asian civilisations had a lot of things to say about happiness. I am not very familiar with our Malay culture and also our Tamil culture when it comes to proverbs. But I can start with some examples among the Chinese proverbs. Happiness, firstly, if they come from the individuals, from inside, you will find something that you are passionate about, then like Confucius said: “san yue bu zhi rou wei”. There was a stage where he found something that he was very passionate about in researching, so in the three months, although he lived relatively well and he ate meat every day, he did not know what meat tasted like. I suppose that must be very, very happy. I suppose we can learn from that too.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I also rise to support the Motion of Thanks. All of us know that with a globalised economy, competition is going to be very fierce, and it will get fiercer. But we also know that we shall prevail, and we must prevail. We know that we will prevail because we invest in our future, we have taken long-term views, we prepare our people and we have a solid social compact. [Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Matthias Yao Chih) in the Chair] However, this is not going to be smooth-sailing. It is going to go up and come down, like the Hokkien song says wu si kee, wu si low (buay sai buay hia kee buay hia low). Sir, our state of mind must be able to deal with these ups and downs. When the going is good and when we are up, we should not be complacent and go and buy jewellery and spend it all. We want to invest and keep some for the future. Maybe we should give to others to promote a spirit of giving in our society. When times are bad, maybe somebody would give to us. And when things are down, we should not despair. We should have this spirit of par see buay chow or par chow buay see, that we will always be able to bounce back. We must have this high spirit - never say die! Therefore, I would say that if there is one thing that I want to call on my fellow Singaporeans or our fellow Singaporeans-to-be, I would say discover happiness and be upbeat, and help others to also discover happiness and be upbeat. Happiness is a state of mind. It does not depend on whether you are wealthy or not. I know of very rich people who cannot sleep at night, very unhappy. I know of relatively poor people who are very happy. Frankly, if we are talking about a nation, people say that our happiness index in Singapore is not very high.”
“The grassroots movement is controlled by the chairman of the respective committee. The PAP member only acts as an adviser. We only offer advice when asked.”
“Sir, the grassroots movement is never politicised. So I do not know why it should be depoliticised. I cannot understand it. Secondly, as I said, if individual grassroots leader wants to join a political party, that is his wish. We leave it to him. We never force grassroots leaders to join the PAP. In fact, the majority of the grassroots leaders are not PAP members. It is only a small number that are PAP members.”
“Sir, the so-called gearing up for the general election by the grassroots leaders is the press headline. The grassroots leader who said this was saying it as an individual. He did not say it on behalf of the grassroots movement. As I said, there are grassroots leaders who are PAP members, and we do not deny it. Maybe, the press did not distinguish between their different roles. So when they said it, they were expressing their own political belief, and not speaking on behalf of the grassroots movement. The answer to his second question is that it is just not true. The PAP, or the Government, did not politicise the People s Association. The People s Association is a Government agency and in a democracy like ours, the Government agencies are never politicised. It is just like, say, Ministry of Trade and Industry, it is not politicised. Thirdly, if a grassroots leader wants to join the Opposition, he will not be asked to resign from the service. That is true. As I said, we respect the people s own political belief. If he wants to join the Opposition and yet still wants to go on, so be it. But I thought all Opposition parties believe that the grassroots organisations, as it stands, ought to be demolished. At least, the Workers Party believes so. So I will be very surprised if some of them want to join the Opposition and yet still want to remain as grassroots leaders. It is basically, ideologically, incompatible.”
“It is actually a strategic exercise to look into how we can improve our engagement with our clientele. Because we know that the population, tastes and needs are changing, we do not want to stay complacent. We want to move with the needs of the community and, therefore, from time to time, we may engage consultancy studies to advise us how to go about it. There seems to be a feeling that because we are engaging in this image building exercise we are going to spend a lot of money. Let me say that this study is costing only about $300,000 this year, which is basically a very small part of the overall PA's budget allocation. This $300,000 will help us identify strategically how we can better position ourselves to serve the community better. We feel that this is a worthwhile investment that can equip us better for tomorrow. Mr Steve Chia also mentioned about the image of the PA; that because we are so caught up in this "PA image building exercise", we have become irrelevant. By no means. In fact, the People's Association has a mechanism that has worked well. Our grassroots leaders have been able to go to the community and residents to offer them personalised MCYS programmes. And they are really doing very well. The only thing is we recognise that we need to change, therefore, we want to find out how to change. This is not to say that we are totally lost in direction and, therefore, we do not know what to do. So, I do not think he should stretch his conclusion to the extreme.”