What's in it for me?

Haha, so Singaporean. When the elections come, we ask ourselves, what's in it for me.

This 2011 elections that is coming up is really a watershed event in the making. I feel this is the first elections whereby the voters are really starting to wonder why we need to have PAP as our government. Years ago, this prospect of even considering voting the opposition was quite far fetched and suicidal. But this elections, I feel people are really giving the opposition and what they have to say some serious thought. It's not so popular anymore to be pro-PAP. 

What does this SAHM have to say about the elections and what I hope for in the newly elected government?

Recently, a homeschooling dad wrote (what I felt) was a somewhat angsty letter to the ST forum asking why our homeschooled children are not entitled to edusave whilst we are also tax payers, like the rest of singaporeans.

I wonder if I too would have felt strongly enough about the matter to write in to the Ministry of Education or to the ST forum page myself. Perhaps, in my twenties, I would have. But I have grown older and perhaps more jaded about the system that exists in Singapore: a system that wants squares pegs that will fit in their square holes. If you are a round peg, you don't fit. In other words, you will not be accepted, and you will stay out of the "goodwill box", so to speak.

As a graduate who chose to stay at home to raise my own children, I do not enjoy the incentives that working mothers enjoy, such as extra money for sending their children to child care centres. To the PAP government, I have left a gap in the workforce, and I ought not be rewarded for doing so. Not that they have considered that I am doing my part to raise a small troop of well balanced, confident, humble, trust worthy, honest, resilient (or so I aim for them to be) young citizens of Singapore.

To top it off, in the education of our children, we have chosen to march to a different beat by keeping them out of the public school system. What audacity that is, to even think 2 people, a lone mom and dad, can do a better job than the tried and tested school system, the mighty MOE?

One opposition party candidate revealed in her rally speech (I never thought about it very seriously) that our ministers' KPI is measured in terms of GDP growth, which translates into bonuses. *see below.

Well. There we have it. Singapore has a government whose main goal is to grow money. What could be wrong with that? We have become one of the richest nations in the world, thanks to the leadership and foresight of the PAP government. (The people's buying power is small, but the national reserves are doing very well. $300 billion well, to be exact.)

But you see, when a government's policies are geared toward growing money, things get sacrificed along the way. If we take an honest look at our lives, how different are we from slaves, grinding at the mill from dawn till dusk? Oh, we are better than slaves, we go on holidays all around the world the moment our leave allows. We live from one holiday to the next holiday just to give more meaning to our otherwise dreadful, mundane lives. The job is seen merely as a means to an end (ie. that next trip to Jap.. oops, I almost said Japan. I mean Switzerland or Turkey, depending on your appetite for travel and adventure.)

True passion for life gets sacrificed at the foot of the money god. Did you read that as monkey god? haha, so did I. Well, not much difference I guess, because sometimes, money makes a monkey of us.

Hardly anyone dares to think how on earth a family can survive on a single income and still provide for their children all the way to college. In the minds of many Singaporeans, it can't be done. This is group think and really, a result of years of brainwashing and propaganda.

Over this chinese new year, I spoke to a young lady, a fresh graduate, young, ambitious- she already got herself started on her money making career climb in a trading firm. She looked like she was going to take on the world when she described to me what she does. Confident, self assured.

When came my turn to tell her I am a mother of five and I homeschool them, she was naturally amazed because it is not often that one meets one of my kind. She told me, well, that's very interesting. But I don't think I can do that. I'm not cut out for it.

She was probably being polite.

And I thought to myself, of course you think that way. You were not trained in school to think of yourself as a mother spending time with her children all day, watching them play and grow, bringing them to the bathroom ever so often, cooking their meals, kissing their tears away. You were taught maths and science and economics, and you were valued by excelling in these. Cooking and cleaning are lesser jobs for lesser people in that realm. 

The time the government will ever turn their policies to give aid to women to stay at home for their family and children's sake is the time when the social problems resulting from the absent mother or father become an economic liability. Well, I don't want to wait for my children to be a statistic before I accept the government's help to stay at home. I need to do what is right for my family, regardless of incentives or disincentives.

So, what is my election wish? That we can have a government that will run policies that are more inclusive of people, regardless of their economic worth (potential or actual). And that would be really nice.

_____________________________________________________________

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY9yU2r9ywM at the 6:03 mark.

 

Comments

[chlorine]

Hi Sue,

An interesting blog about the elections. Now that I'm joining you to look after my children, kiss their tears away, put them in the timeout chair when it's called for, bring them to the toilet ever so often and kissing my fat paycheck bye bye, I hope that the government can and will take better care of us people.

In NZ, the government gives the people money (I think it's about $110 per week for each child that the family has) to help them raise their children. Kindergarten fees are subsidised by the government as long as it's less than 20 hours per week. Visits to the doctor for any kind of injuries incurred through accidents are free. Vaccination for babies is free. The people are even given $5000 per household to insulate their houses against the coming winter cold.

My wish this election?

1) Perhaps a more equal distribution of funds to people who live in opposition wards to upgrade their precinct. I feel for those who are loyal citizens, pay their taxes on time and yet are penalised and blatantly told that they will continue to be discriminated against, unless they vote for PAP. Thought we have a system that is 'based on justice and equality'?

2) More support for parents who have lower ability children. A friend who has an autistic son spends considerable part of her salary bringing him for weekly therapy sessions which are very costly. Little support given.

3) More help to be given for the destitute and less time to be spent on debating in parliament whether they should be given $10 more per month. Afterall, our ministers get paid $4 million a year, don't they? What's the big deal about $10? With rising living costs, that amount can hardly buy much. It's hard to imagine some poor elderly living on $290 per month. They can't even fall sick and visit a doctor.

4) Capable, experienced and independent individuals should be appointed to run the various ministries, so that when the leading political party changes, the running of the ministries do not get impeded. And hey, these people know what is going on the ground. I used to be baffled when people from the army were appointed to run the education ministry and to come up with all kinds of programmes which I sometimes perceived irrelevant.

5) Minimum wage will be good. Kiwis get a minimum of $12.75 per hour. Good eh? Brings so much more pride (and perhaps motivation) in every job. No job will seem low anymore. In fact, builders in Australia and NZ are considered rich people, because of the skills they have. A plumber here earns at least $4000 per month. Truck drivers? $12000 monthly.

Well, I'm a greedy one ya? And I won't even get to vote this year!!!

[Serene]

Well written! And you are right about walking the "wayward" path. We have chosen to not be part of the herd and hence will be penalised for doing so. To expect anything less is to live in a dream world. This is what we have chosen and we will have to pay a price for it. Our reward is not of or from this world.

[Tsui ling]

well wriiten, Suwei, and i enjoyed it. it is really important for us to remember why we first chose this narrow path. We made the choice to keep our children out of the system and naturally, we should not expect that our kids enjoy what the school going children have. i am just thankful that we are given a choice here, unlike in some countries where homeschooling is just illegal, no way of even applying for exemption.

[Suwei]

Dear chlorine, in becoming a SAHM, you have made a choice that is not financially rewarding but in the intangibles, exceedingly rewarding.

As for the NZ child aid policies, sounds spool wonderful! What I could do for my children with $500 more a week! Is there a cap on how many children and do they restrict how u spend the money?
But the other side of me says, this money has to come from somewhere, probably very high taxes?

Minimum wage for plumbers usually means you will need to learn how to do the plumbing yourself because it is too expensive to pay one. ;)

[Suwei]

Serene, thanks for dropping by! Yes, we will do what needs to be done, regardless. :) But we look for His "well done!"

Tsui ling, thanks for your input too! But may I just say that we have just bought into the the lie that we ought not be extended aid because we made a choice to bring up our children ourselves! That is the artificial line that the PAP government has drawn to segregate those who contribute to the GDP and those who are a dent to it. The 'soft' national building option of growing our children at home by their parents and not via the nationalized institutions of schools is not seen as good policy. Scary to think we are actually not encouraged to parent our own children in this nation of ours. The government CAN redraw the lines differently and we ought not apologize for growing our children right. We ARE doing our part for a strong future for Singapore, though the results are slow in coming and it takes a lot of trust on the part of our government to believe individual families will actually train our children to love our country.

And yes, I am thankful we are allowed to homeschool our children and have relative freedom and autonomy to carry out our homeschooling with minimal intervention from the ministry. I hope it stays that way. But for it to stay that way, us homeschooling families must produce the results we promised we would.