27/02/2018
Budget 2018: Building A "Gotong Royong" Spirit
In the final analysis, the motives, means and ends of any budget is to improve our quality of life.
That should be the focus and basis for evaluating success of Budget 2018.
Budget 2018 should therefore catalyze our people to take a stronger ownership of our communities and country.
Together, we should create more initiatives to build on the "one united people" spirit and strengthen families and communities.
Develop a home where we will have a deeper sense of rootedness and belonging.
Help to take care of each other and look after the last, the least, the lonely, and the lost among us.
And hold on to a deeper belief that it's in our Little Bright Red Dot that we can find purpose for living, happiness and fulfillment on individual, family and community levels.
In rolling out Budget 2018, the government should aim to build on such a "gotong royong" spirit by incentivizing more bottom-up and peer-to-peer initiatives.
It should encourage more partnerships between the public, private and people sectors and encourage key stakeholders to connect, collaborate and co-create solutions for our communities and society.
As a people, we should not just rely on the government to lead the way.
We should do our part to make Singapore the best home for ourselves.
Let’s foster more helping hands, including non-governmental organizations and volunteers to strengthen the bonds between families and communities.
These helping hands can also be deployed to help address challenges of an aging population and potential fault lines that can divide and polarize our people.
These potential fault lines include xenophobia, not-in-my-backyard syndromes, threats of terrorism, epidemics, natural crises, and even racial or religious misunderstandings.
As a people, we must have the self-efficacy to believe we can battle all odds.
Every one of us carry equal responsibility to strengthen our social ecosystem and make Singapore a livable and lovable home.
- Dr Patrick Liew
