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[h=2]PM Lee personally hands out first 100 PG cards[/h]
August 2nd, 2014 |
Author: Editorial
(ST Photo)
At an event organised by MOH, PM Lee personally handed out the first 100 of some 450,000 pioneer generation cards yesterday (1 Aug). He also said that there will be a “very big effort” to distribute the rest by the end of this month.
He spoke in Malay, Mandarin and English yesterday to thank the pioneer generation for their contributions to Singapore.
“Your contributions have shaped today’s Singapore in so many ways. All of you have worked hard, and some have left a lasting legacy in the professions where you worked. We also have among us today, some Pioneers who contributed to Singapore’s progress behind the scenes. They have been pillars of support in their own homes, to their spouses – husbands or wives, and their contributions are no less important and no less valued,” he said.
=> Only for the country to be surrendered FOC to FTrash?
He even concluded his speech by saying “thank you” in Tamil.
Seniors who are aged 65 and older this year and became citizens before 1987 are eligible for the pioneer generation package. Among the package, it will have a “personalised” red-and-white cards identifying them as pioneers. From next month, the cards can be used to get more medical subsidies for the pioneer generation.
At the event yesterday, the pioneer generation participants said many good things about the pioneer generation package.
Former grassroots leader V Thirupathy said, “This Pioneer Generation package also lessens the financial burden on a family.”
Retired civil servant Foo Meng Wan added, “Everybody raised the issue of medical bills being very expensive. But with this Government support, they are giving us additional funds yearly for us to buy our insurance.”
Afraid that the elderly may not hear about the pioneer generation package, PM Lee even appointed Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower as well as REACH Chairman, to form the PGP task force so as to help spread the news about the pioneer generation package.
In an interview with SPH in June, Amy Khor said, “We’re keenly aware that we need to be able to effectively communicate this package to the pioneer group. This is a group that is less connected with what is going on, on the ground, due to barriers like language, a lack of media awareness, or poor physical health.”
“We are doing door-to-door visits and looking at providing an information kit. There will also be a helpline. We are looking at in-depth training for volunteers. They can be resource persons to help pioneers navigate the package at various points in time. This is really a lot more intense and proactive than what we have previously done,” she added.
There are three components to the pioneer generation package:
Outpatient care
Medisave Top-Ups
MediShield Life
Criticism of pioneer generation package
The pioneer generation package is not without criticism. Blogger Molly Meek wrote that the pioneer generation package does not address the present generations of Singaporeans who will become old eventually (‘Midnight’s Seniors: The Generation of Perpetual Indebtedness and Gratitude‘):
At an event organised by MOH, PM Lee personally handed out the first 100 of some 450,000 pioneer generation cards yesterday (1 Aug). He also said that there will be a “very big effort” to distribute the rest by the end of this month.
He spoke in Malay, Mandarin and English yesterday to thank the pioneer generation for their contributions to Singapore.
“Your contributions have shaped today’s Singapore in so many ways. All of you have worked hard, and some have left a lasting legacy in the professions where you worked. We also have among us today, some Pioneers who contributed to Singapore’s progress behind the scenes. They have been pillars of support in their own homes, to their spouses – husbands or wives, and their contributions are no less important and no less valued,” he said.
=> Only for the country to be surrendered FOC to FTrash?
He even concluded his speech by saying “thank you” in Tamil.
Seniors who are aged 65 and older this year and became citizens before 1987 are eligible for the pioneer generation package. Among the package, it will have a “personalised” red-and-white cards identifying them as pioneers. From next month, the cards can be used to get more medical subsidies for the pioneer generation.
At the event yesterday, the pioneer generation participants said many good things about the pioneer generation package.
Former grassroots leader V Thirupathy said, “This Pioneer Generation package also lessens the financial burden on a family.”
Retired civil servant Foo Meng Wan added, “Everybody raised the issue of medical bills being very expensive. But with this Government support, they are giving us additional funds yearly for us to buy our insurance.”
Afraid that the elderly may not hear about the pioneer generation package, PM Lee even appointed Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower as well as REACH Chairman, to form the PGP task force so as to help spread the news about the pioneer generation package.
In an interview with SPH in June, Amy Khor said, “We’re keenly aware that we need to be able to effectively communicate this package to the pioneer group. This is a group that is less connected with what is going on, on the ground, due to barriers like language, a lack of media awareness, or poor physical health.”
“We are doing door-to-door visits and looking at providing an information kit. There will also be a helpline. We are looking at in-depth training for volunteers. They can be resource persons to help pioneers navigate the package at various points in time. This is really a lot more intense and proactive than what we have previously done,” she added.
There are three components to the pioneer generation package:
Outpatient care
- Additional 50% off subsidised treatments at polyclinics and Specialist Outpatient Clinics => Sure, after marking up by 50%?
- All will receive a Pioneer Generation card to enjoy subsidies at participating GP and dental clinics under the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS).
- Cash of $1,200 a year for those with moderate to severe functional disabilities under the Pioneer Generation Disability Assistance Scheme. => Enough? Still need to pay, right?
Medisave Top-Ups
- $200 to $800 annually for life, with older cohorts getting more. => More like 200 peanuts!
MediShield Life
- Subsidies for MediShield Life Premiums with Medisave top-ups.
- For all Pioneers: premiums fully covered for those aged 80 and above in 2014, and for those aged 65 to 79 and fully insured under MediShield today, they pay half of current premiums. => There you go, until you are about to die then wayang with full coverage.
Criticism of pioneer generation package
The pioneer generation package is not without criticism. Blogger Molly Meek wrote that the pioneer generation package does not address the present generations of Singaporeans who will become old eventually (‘Midnight’s Seniors: The Generation of Perpetual Indebtedness and Gratitude‘):
If it were supposed be a package for the elderly, why would someone born on 1 January 1950 at 0000 never get the package? It is not as though he, and those born after him, has been bestowed the fountain of youth by Singapore’s magical, if somewhat illusory, third-world-to-first development over the years. It would seem that, as far as the brains behind the package are concerned, these people either never grow old or they will grow old without needed the same kind of assurance as pioneers.
While the Pioneer Generation Package may be said to be a long-term policy insofar as it may take another few decades for every single eligible person to have passed on, the package shows the government’s lack of commitment to policies that truly strengthen the social safety net.
Despite the way it has been marketed, the Pioneer Generation package is never meant to be a benefits-for-seniors initiative to begin with. It cannot exactly be faulted for being dishonest—the name says it all. It is a single package, not a policy sans expiration. However generous the age range may be, the package applies only to a particular generation of people (and somewhat belatedly too, given that some of them could already have been languishing in old age and impoverishment for decades), not to a category of citizens that will have more and more new members over time.
The Pioneer Generation Package is, of course, not meant to help the elderly—screw such policies for they can’t ever make the current government appear benevolent one election cycle after another! But the lack of commitment could, ironically, make for good marketing. Not only is the package targeted at one group of people, but it is also helps to cultivate a sense of exclusivity, giving the sense that the government sees the people for their unique contributions.
Molly Meek is of the view that the pioneer generation package is an attempt by the PAP government to win votes from a targeted group:While the Pioneer Generation Package may be said to be a long-term policy insofar as it may take another few decades for every single eligible person to have passed on, the package shows the government’s lack of commitment to policies that truly strengthen the social safety net.
Despite the way it has been marketed, the Pioneer Generation package is never meant to be a benefits-for-seniors initiative to begin with. It cannot exactly be faulted for being dishonest—the name says it all. It is a single package, not a policy sans expiration. However generous the age range may be, the package applies only to a particular generation of people (and somewhat belatedly too, given that some of them could already have been languishing in old age and impoverishment for decades), not to a category of citizens that will have more and more new members over time.
The Pioneer Generation Package is, of course, not meant to help the elderly—screw such policies for they can’t ever make the current government appear benevolent one election cycle after another! But the lack of commitment could, ironically, make for good marketing. Not only is the package targeted at one group of people, but it is also helps to cultivate a sense of exclusivity, giving the sense that the government sees the people for their unique contributions.
Yet it is not devoid of persuasiveness, and that is where its danger lies. Rhetorically, it tells an existing and ever-shrinking group of people that they are visible and will be taken care of. As for the ever-growing group of elderly people who are not eligible for the package, their numbers will still be relatively small by the next General Election, and more one-off packages can be created when their size grows big enough to matter in a future election or when there is a perceived political need for the PAP government to repeat the same rhetoric. They can always have a package repackaged.
If a policy is implemented for the future-elderly now, there will be nothing—no publicity, no novelty—to remind them of their obligation to feel grateful in future. It is not that the government does not have the foresight or the money to help a group that will over time have more and more eligible members. Rather, it is merely mercenary enough to avoid long-term commitments so that it can milk the most political mileage out of short-term packages. The iterability of a move like the Pioneer Generation Package, with its endless potential variations, ensures that there is a constant potential lack and hence a constant need for similar acts of ostensible recognition. It is no more than an elaborate and manipulative ritual of political courtship masked as nothing less than true love.
The Pioneer Generation Package is by no means an exception, but is representative of how the PAP has been and will be courting Singaporeans in a bid to regain the vote share it has lost to the opposition over the last couple of General Elections. We have the NS45 vouchers, for instance, which were supposed to recognize (the vocabulary recurs, as one might observe) the contributions and sacrifices of NSmen—while continuing to cripple them with inflexible policies and inescapable commitments, of course. Then there is also the implementation of a mandatory entry-level pay for those in the cleaning and security industries, a policy which the government refuses to call a minimum wage, perhaps because the minimum starting salary of $1000 is too embarrassing to be called a minimum wage to begin with when the cost of living in Singapore is amongst the highest in the world.
As far as possible, the PAP regime will compartmentalize the demographic into segments that need to be targeted—segments that may feel disadvantaged by the PAP’s policies all these years—and try to hoodwink them one by one. If the government had truly wanted to recognize the efforts of NSmen, why limit the package to those who have finished serving or were still serving NS instead of making it an entitlement for all servicemen upon enlistment?
Clearly, it prefers one-off packages that can be reinvented in cycles to permanent policies that benefit the people without anyone needing to feel exceptional gratitude to those in power year after year. The logic is impeccable—why be generous when there are more benefits to reap from being stingy?
What do you think?If a policy is implemented for the future-elderly now, there will be nothing—no publicity, no novelty—to remind them of their obligation to feel grateful in future. It is not that the government does not have the foresight or the money to help a group that will over time have more and more eligible members. Rather, it is merely mercenary enough to avoid long-term commitments so that it can milk the most political mileage out of short-term packages. The iterability of a move like the Pioneer Generation Package, with its endless potential variations, ensures that there is a constant potential lack and hence a constant need for similar acts of ostensible recognition. It is no more than an elaborate and manipulative ritual of political courtship masked as nothing less than true love.
The Pioneer Generation Package is by no means an exception, but is representative of how the PAP has been and will be courting Singaporeans in a bid to regain the vote share it has lost to the opposition over the last couple of General Elections. We have the NS45 vouchers, for instance, which were supposed to recognize (the vocabulary recurs, as one might observe) the contributions and sacrifices of NSmen—while continuing to cripple them with inflexible policies and inescapable commitments, of course. Then there is also the implementation of a mandatory entry-level pay for those in the cleaning and security industries, a policy which the government refuses to call a minimum wage, perhaps because the minimum starting salary of $1000 is too embarrassing to be called a minimum wage to begin with when the cost of living in Singapore is amongst the highest in the world.
As far as possible, the PAP regime will compartmentalize the demographic into segments that need to be targeted—segments that may feel disadvantaged by the PAP’s policies all these years—and try to hoodwink them one by one. If the government had truly wanted to recognize the efforts of NSmen, why limit the package to those who have finished serving or were still serving NS instead of making it an entitlement for all servicemen upon enlistment?
Clearly, it prefers one-off packages that can be reinvented in cycles to permanent policies that benefit the people without anyone needing to feel exceptional gratitude to those in power year after year. The logic is impeccable—why be generous when there are more benefits to reap from being stingy?
