By Lim Yan Liang, The Straits Times, 4 Mar 2013
BEYOND meeting the basic needs of its citizens, any honest government should also strive to fulfil their aspirations - but within practical constraints, said Law and Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam yesterday.
Responding to a question on the Budget on the sidelines of a community event in Yishun yesterday, the MP for Nee Soon GRC said the Government's way has been to look at the interests of all groups here before putting in place "policies that work for the entire country".
This is unlike in many Western democracies where parties - whether liberal or conservative - are clearly identified with specific segments of the populace, and gear their policies towards their own support base even while claiming to represent the whole country at the polls, said Mr Shanmugam.
But the Government's approach means that compromises are made. "Every government in the world works within constraints: fiscal, and in our case, physical as well.
"We have to maximise the possibility of the aspirations and where the aspirations come up against fiscal constraints, or physical constraints... we have to then explain clearly what these constraints are." He said: "There have to be trade-offs but there must also be benefits."
In the area of housing, the Government has ramped up the supply of new flats even as it has introduced several rounds of measures to cool the red-hot property market.
Yesterday's event saw the launch of a one-stop elderly care centre in Yishun Street 11 where users can exercise, catch up over a game of mahjong or join a hobby group such as balloon-sculpting.
The Thye Hua Kwan Chong Pang Social Service Hub, at the void deck of Block 131, also has a call centre staffed by trained professionals that the elderly can call to seek help, get clarity on different aid schemes or simply have someone to talk to.
The hub, a collaboration between Chong Pang grassroots groups and Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities, is also the first social service centre to offer free daily packed lunches for needy old folk as well as step-down care and subsidised referrals to a hospital, in this case, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
Mr Shanmugam noted that the centre represents a holistic solution to the question of how the elderly can age gracefully in their neighbourhood. This is especially important in the "fast-ageing" Chong Pang constituency. About one in every four residents in the 53,300-strong constituency is elderly, compared with an average of one in 10 in Singapore.
The question also becomes more pertinent in the coming decades as the elderly support ratio falls. There are now six working adults for every elderly person and the ratio is projected to dip to 3:1 by 2020, and 2:1 by 2030.
Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities expects the centre to benefit at least 2,000 elderly residents by the end of the year.
Retirees like Mr Yong Pin Pin, 73, gave the thumbs up to the facility. "I prefer to do my exercise at the outdoor fitness centres, but it's good we now have a nice place to meet and chit-chat," he said.
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