In this richest nation in the world, our low income needy families
have to seek assistance from the government to employ a maid. At the same time, our maids, with higher starting
pay, will likely to have more savings than our low income families.
Is this a happy dilemma? Is this an unavoidable dilemma?
Some may argue that our poor and low income families are
luckier than their American counterparts.
These Americans have no subsidy at all, not to mention a maid grant. So, in Singapore, the government does help the
poor and low income families. However,
it also proves that it is very difficult to uplift the livelihood of lower 20%
of the families in Singapore. Otherwise, a pragmatic PAP government, whose principle
is against welfare state, will not adopt this last resort to help the needy
families.
The government is now caught between the rich and the poor,
successful and not successful persons, the Haves and the Have Nots. They
are balancing it and monitoring it with the hope that they can influence their
votes in the next election.
Here are the headlines:
Needy
families to get monthly $120 maid grants (http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120807-363939.html)
It is not sure whether the government knows the maids will
have higher salary in advance or not and the maid grants are just to cover the
increase. Earlier in the years, the Indonesian
government had indicated their intention and some maid agents had implemented
this already. So, the maid grants are only a cushion. Have the grants really
solved the problems of needy families?
The higher salary shows that the Indonesian government wants
to protect their maids by imposing a higher minimum salary and off day
compensation. They are doing this for
the welfare of their workers, however, in Singapore; we leave the market forces
to decide the wages of our local workers even though their income cannot meet their
end needs.
We may complain and comment the Indonesian government is
corrupt, inefficient, and slow in action.
However, in some ways, they are moving faster than us and possibly in
the right direction.
We are the richest in the world, but certainly not our low income
families. As we say we must respect our
maids with dignity, so do the poor and needy in Singapore.
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