Budget should spur S’poreans to build ‘gotong royong’ spirit

In the final analysis, the motives, means and ends of any Budget are to improve quality of life. Those should be the focus and basis for evaluating the success of Budget 2017.

Budget 2017 should therefore catalyse people to take stronger ownership of our country. Together, we will create more initiatives to build on the “one united people” spirit and strengthen families and communities.

Let us develop a home where we will have a deeper sense of rootedness and belonging, and help to care for one another, including the last, the least and the lonely among us.

We should cling to the belief that we can find purpose in life and fulfilment at the individual, family and community levels in our Little Red Dot.

While Budget 2017 is comprehensive, balanced and catalytic in strengthening enterprises, we should also aim to build a “gotong royong” spirit by incentivising more bottom-up and peer-to-peer initiatives when rolling out the resources and initiatives it provides.

It should encourage more partnerships among the public, private and people sectors and encourage stakeholders to connect, collaborate and co-create solutions for our society.

We must foster more helping hands, including non-governmental organisations and volunteers, to help strengthen the bond between families and communities.

These helping hands can also be deployed to help address the challenges of an ageing population and potential fault lines that can polarise our people, including xenophobia, the not-in-my-backyard syndrome and even racial or religious misunderstandings.

As a country, we must have the self-efficacy to believe we can battle all odds. Every one of us carries a responsibility to strengthen our social ecosystem and make Singapore a liveable, lovable home.