We are a group of senior citizens, retired and congregating in Chinatown almost daily to lament our pathetic state of existence consequent of flawed government policies.
Most of us bought such studio apartments on a 30 years lease filled to the brim with legal encumbrances and cash up-front for the purchase because neither HDB nor any commercial banks would grant us loans given our elderly age and with no income.
We are appalled to learn of the newer 99-years lease flat offered to people above 35-years on a monthly income of no more than $5,000 and at S$75,000 (going to S$16,000 with conditional discount of S$60,000). These flats do not have the tight legal encumbrances that our flats have. We feel cheated and betrayed.
After giving our all to this country only to be abandoned and sucked upon in our twilight years. Unquestionably, the government of the day is very myopic in the way it solves problems. They tweaked policies, band-aid to solve one problem only to create a bigger one. ESM Goh Chok Tong said yesterday at the Marine Parade GRC National Day Dinner that Singapore must change to avert crisis and government and people must reinforce trust, that “If our hearts beat as one, we can move mountains to make Singapore the best home for our families.”
Are we not already in a crisis with more than forty percent of our people amongst us not of local origin? These foreigners are out to milk our system pushing seniors like us into a corner of our country that we are so much a part of. How to reinforce trust between government and the people when that trust we placed upon the government for four decades earlier is already demolished the last decade.
We say our economy grew by 3.8% the second quarter, with forty percent foreign workforce that means benefits of the growth to the born and bred citizens is a paltry 2.3% obliquely distributed and with a 4% inflation rate our economic growth is more than wiped out. We the senior citizens with no income are the worst affected. We do not look out for social hand-outs as they hardly cover our daily needs for the longer term. If our children can succeed in life in this country of ours they will be in a better positioned to take care of us. Did we not say, the family unit is the building block of our society? Not so, our children themselves are struggling to make ends-meet, their social mobility stifled by the cheap foreign competition that they can hardly stand on their own, let alone support us.
We sent our children for the best education, tertiary educated to be marginalized by the mad influx of foreigners . Our hearts can no longer beat as one, we have a heart of the commoners, a heart of the governing elites and a heart of the imported foreigners beating each to their own beats, a society increasingly fragmented and divided. God save Singapore.
Senior Citizens Dumped
*Comment first appeared in: Why do studio units cost more than BTO flats for singles?