''Hidden'' from public view

Visitors to S'pore may be under the impression that there are no homeless or beggers in our city. After all, they are openly seen in other countries, including developed ones like US and Japan. But in S'pore they remain 'invisible'.

I suppose this only makes it worst for those who are living below the provery line as they are deemed 'unacceptable' by the government. Begging is an offence and can get one into trouble. The homeless camping at the beach, even though they have a permit, are chased away by local authority when their plight became known and some foreign news media wanted to interview them.

The thing is, what we don't see still exist. The fact that they are 'hidden' from public view only implies that they are being ostrazied. This does not reflect well on the governing party as it only shows a lack of compassion. They need to walk the talk instead of just spewing empty words that in S'pore no one will go hungry as help is at hand. If it is so, it is due to the good work NGOs. Why claim credit for it ? How dishonest politician(s) can be.

Keep an open mind and don't accept those positive statistics they dish out. We know for a fact statistical numbers can be manipulated and skew easily, especially when there is lack of transparency in how they operate. For example, our local investment arm, GIC, is run like a secret service agency with everything shrouded in secrecy, with lack of accountability to the billions they lost even though it is public CPF fund they are using.

Corruption is suppose to be almost non-existent in S'pore. But corruption takes on many forms - abuse of power is one of them. The only thing unique in S'pore is that is it done 'legally'. Yeah...we do have many of smart politicians. No wonder they can get away with paying themselves millions in annual salary to run this tiny island. Our PM pay is substantially higher than US President who runs a country many times larger than ours, besides shouldering much heavier responsibility.

Their productivity call for cheaper, faster and better should start at their own cabinet which is over staff and overpay.