ESM Goh calls for committee to review Singapore’s social policies

SINGAPORE — Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has called for a committee to be set up to review Singapore’s social policies.

In an interview with the People’s Action Party publication, Petir, Mr Goh said a Social Review Committee could help identify and provide solutions to the social challenges facing the country.

These challenges, he said, will weigh more significantly on future governments.

In the interview, Mr Goh said that “what’s needed is a coherent framework to pull all the different components together - to make it a holistic, effective, and sustainable social compact to ensure Singapore remains a fair and equitable society.”

Mr Goh said the social review committee could complement the government’s current efforts to study social trends and challenges. It could also recommend ways to restructure the way social services are delivered.

He said that more resources should also be devoted to social research which, he noted, has generally been under-funded in Singapore.

Mr Goh added that the committee should not just be a government-led movement, but one that involves key stakeholders and experts from outside the government.

That is a crucial point, said Nominated Member of Parliament Laurence Lien, who floated this same idea of a social review committee in Parliament two years ago.

Mr Lien added: “It should be led not just by a public sector leader but also a people sector leader. My thinking is that the future social challenges are going to be so complex and uncertain -- you don’t want to just have government and civil service leaders meeting behind closed doors.

“You need to engage the community not just in terms of getting a buy-in, but in contributing ideas. In Singapore we have (a) ‘many-helping-hands’ approach. I think it’s time we have (a) ‘many-helping-heads’ approach as well to plan future policies.

“Next year will be a great year to have this exercise because it’s SG50, it’s the 50th anniversary. It’s the perfect time to engage people to get people to step forward to not just contribute ideas, but to contribute to their implementation and execution.”

Marine Parade GRC, Mr Goh’s own constituency, has played its part. Ideas from the constituency to retrofit facilities for the elderly there have been used in other estates.

The GRC is also in the process of exploring ideas to set up physical and social infrastructure so the elderly can receive home care supported by the community, eliminating an over-reliance on hospitals. CHANNEL NEWSASIA