Government must improve how it communicates policies: Education Minister Heng Swee Keat

By Joy Fang, TODAY, 7 Jul 2014

Policies are by design complicated, making it impossible to understand every facet, but it is important for the Government to step up on how it communicates them, said Education Minister Heng Swee Keat yesterday.

Speaking after a dialogue with residents during a ministerial community visit to the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Division, Mr Heng, referring to policies such as the Pioneer Generation Package and MediShield Life, said the details can be complicated, but the Government must do its best to make them easy to understand and provide helplines.

He said: “I don’t think it is possible for everyone to know the full details of every policy, because the design of policies is by its nature complicated, but we have to simplify the communication so that the residents, whom we want these policies to benefit, can avail themselves of these changes.”

During the dialogue, a resident had raised concerns about rising medical costs and medical insurance premiums faced by middle-income and young families with the introduction of MediShield Life, due to take effect at the end of next year.

In response, Mr Heng said the scheme was introduced precisely to address the concerns about medical costs and is about saving up to meet long-term needs. It is also a way of sharing risks through “risk-pooling”, he added, urging residents to adopt an active lifestyle to continue to contain healthcare costs.

Mr Heng also spoke of the importance of caring at the community level, saying that the kampung spirit has been eroded over the years and ground-up initiatives must be implemented to bring it back.

“That sense of togetherness is somewhat lost and sometimes neighbours don’t even know one another,” he said, adding that as local communities have different needs, they can be met more efficiently and meaningfully at the community level.

One such initiative is the C.A.R.E Ambassadors programme by Tanjong Pagar GRC Member of Parliament Lily Neo, which was launched yesterday for the division. Almost half the residents there are aged 50 and above and half of the units are rental flats.

The ambassadors will assume the role of “modern village heads”, or block representatives, and will greet neighbours with a smile, organise bonding activities and encourage them to help one another.

There are now seven ambassadors, each representing one Residents’ Committee, but the aim is to have at least one ambassador per block.

One ambassador, Mr Ang Ghee Seng, 51, hopes to take care of the residents, such as by looking after estate cleanliness and residents’ safety. For example, he has begun greeting neighbours and reported issues such as a beehive and faulty drain cover to the town council, he said.

At the dialogue, another resident voiced concerns that lower primary school sessions are too long. Mr Heng agreed that school hours here are “by international standards slightly longer, partly because we try to do so much for our children”.

When he was in Europe recently, his guide told him she had to pay for after-school activities such as chess and tennis lessons for her two children. “In Singapore, we provide many of these things in our schools ... so I do hope that parents appreciate this range of activities that we offer to our children,” he said.

He added that children in Singapore are among the world’s top problem-solvers, “not because they are just studying with books”, but because these activities are important ways of teaching values, problem-solving skills and life skills.

Caring society 'must begin with caring neighbourhoods'
Heng calls for more ground-up community initiatives
By Nur Asyiqin Mohamad Salleh, The Straits Times, 7 Jul 2014

EDUCATION Minister Heng Swee Keat has called on Singaporeans to launch more ground-up initiatives to complement what the Government is doing at the national level.

This is as such local efforts can better meet the specific needs of different neighbourhoods, he told reporters after a ministerial visit to the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng division in Tanjong Pagar GRC yesterday.

"While government policies are very important at the national level, the local communities have different needs. And these needs can also be met more efficiently or meaningfully at the community level," he said.

"And that's where an energetic and caring community makes a difference."

After touring MP Lily Neo's ward, he praised its community spirit, holding it up as an "excellent example" of how residents can support their own community.

With low-income families in rental flats forming about a third of her ward, and almost half the residents aged 50 and above, these initiatives focus on taking care of the elderly and building a community spirit.

Mr Heng said: "We hope many more of these ground-up efforts to bring out this community spirit, and to build a more caring community, will take root across the whole island.

"A caring Singapore society must begin with caring neighbourhoods."

Mr Heng is the latest minister to call for greater community action as the Government ramps up social programmes from social safety nets to health care.

President Tony Tan Keng Yam - in his address delivering the Government's plans for the rest of its term - had said that the increase in government spending over the next decade needed to be matched by "individual and community effort and initiative".

Two such community initiatives were launched by Mr Heng at the Tanjong Pagar ward yesterday.

One is the Ageing Gracefully @ Home programme for able-bodied seniors to befriend elderly folk in need of help.

Another aims to revive the "kampung spirit" in the estate by appointing residents as ambassadors to help neighbours bond.

Mr Heng also opened a new activity centre for the community's Catch Plus programme, in which volunteers help children from low-income families with schoolwork and to learn new skills, such as making handicraft and playing table tennis.

This programme, said Dr Neo, aims to help these children "move up the social ladder".

During a dialogue with residents at the end of Mr Heng's visit, ways to improve community support for the elderly were discussed.

A grassroots member also asked Mr Heng why there would be higher premiums under the new MediShield Life scheme.

Mr Heng explained that this is because it is a risk-pooling scheme which will cover more people than the current MediShield scheme.

The full details of MediShield Life, which will cover all Singaporeans for life, will be debated in Parliament this week. The Government has pledged to keep premiums affordable for all.

Asked about this concern over MediShield Life premiums, Mr Heng later told reporters that the Government has to continue to step up its communication of policies.

"The details can be quite complicated, but we have to do our very best to make it simple, easy to understand, and to provide helplines and volunteers who can explain these details," he said.