social cohesion

Why are current policies that promote social cohesion in Singapore ineffective? What else can the government, community and individual do to help promote socially cohesive measures in Singapore so that it might curb the speed of racial/religious intolerance?


Social cohesion, and racial and religious harmony can only flourish when everyone feels a strong belonging to Singapore, when everyone feels that Singapore is truly their home, and that what binds us together as a nation is far more important than our individual or communal differences.



As technology advances, many people have access to the internet and the internet is very vulnerable. It just take one person to make racist posts or comments to spur racial tensions and conflicts. Recently,Shimun Lai, a 19-year-old student allegedly pursuing the Diploma in Diagnostic Radiography at Nanyang Polytechnic, tweeted a racially insensitive comment about a minority race in Singapore, which has gone viral in the social media. So it shows that it just takes one person to spark racial conflicts and spur racial tensions.


As there are more immigrants coming into Singapore, competition has rose. In many classes, there are at least 1/4 of the class who are foreigners and most of the time these foreigners top the class and get scholarships, so Singaporeans would feel unhappy and would feel injustice as these foreigners are not Singaporeans and they would think that they should not be competing with them and should go back to their country.


To curb the speed of racial/religious intolerance, the government can set stricter rules and heavier punishment for those who are racist. The community can make posters that encourages people not to be racist. Parents should guide their child and constantly remind them the consequences of racism and the child should think before they do something that may spur racial or religious tensions. Thus, the speed of racial/religious intolerance might be curbed.


sources:http://theonlinecitizen.com/2012/03/racially-insensitive-comment-by-poly-student/

retrenched workers

RETRENCHED workers can expect more help from the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), which hopes to boost its war chest to $20 million this year.


Particularly in need are retrenched workers who received little, if any, retrenchment benefit, said its secretary-general, Mr Lim Swee Say, yesterday (21/2).


To help this group tide over difficult times, NTUC may add a new 'hardship grant' component to its Care and Share fund, which currently provides aid to needy union members in the form of transport and utility vouchers.


The fund will increase its annual budget to at least $20 million this year, compared to $13.1 million last year and $7 million in 2007.


Mr Lim, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, spoke to reporters at the Healthcare Services Employees' Union (HSEU) bursary awards event yesterday.


'With the global recession, we expect to see some retrenched workers whose companies have folded,' he said. These workers may not get any retrenchment benefit or the sum could be too low to tide them over in the short term, he added. 

A blogger in Singapore said  NTUC should help the retrenched workers. In Singapore, retrenched workers are particularly vulnerable. That's because Singapore is literally the easiest place in the world to pay a worker peanuts; make him work overtime; and then sack him without compensation.A member of the public commented

 "I'm not so sure about Singapore being the "easiest place in the world to pay a worker peanuts; make him work overtime; and then sack him without compensation." but Singapore is definitely a place where a retrenched cannot 

move to another part of the country where cost of living is lower to tide him over the difficult time."

Another blogger commented

"IMHO, he is just crying wolf in a sheep's skin.If he is really sincere in helping the retrenched people in Singapore, he should be bold enough to take the first step in revamping our Employment Act instead of making use of the NTUC to make some political statements about offering help to those in need. As it stands, our Singapore Employment Act is very bias towards employers while offering very little protection (even it there is any) to employees. If one were to study our Employment Act in detail as to which category of employees are protected, one will find that it is almost like an insurance policy with so many conditions and exclusions that at the end of it, almost everyone are excluded. Even for those who are supposedly protected under the Act, they are subject to further conditions before they can really qualify to recover any retrenchment benefits or compensation as provided under the Employment Act. And for those who do not qualify, they will just provide you with a shameless response something to the tune of "We are unable to assist you as you are not covered under the purview of the Employement Act, therefore kindly refer to your contract terms and conditions or to your organised union for further assistance".To me, all these offer of assistance is really a hypocrisy at its very best."


There are Singaporeans who think that the government is not doing enough to help the 


retrenched workers because there are conditions given by the government for them to help the 


retrenched workers, and not many retrenched workers fulfil those conditions so they are unable 


to receive help from the government.




I find their argument convincing as they stated a few strong points like reviewing our 


Employment Act,and the fact that some people did not qualify for their conditions and were 


unable to be helped.

sources:http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-retrenched-people-in-singapore.html