Building a Merdeka state (of mind)

To many Singaporeans, "Merdeka" is an unfamiliar word.

We may know the Merdeka Bridge (that nondescript part of Nicoll Highway) or the Merderka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur (from the Malaysia Cup glory days).

Some of us may actually know that the word means freedom in Malay.

But Merdeka is not a word we use in daily life.

Now, however, Merdeka has become the label that 500,000 Singaporeans are using to describe themselves.

In his National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced a new package to help cover the medical expenses of Singaporeans born in the 1950s, whom he dubbed the Merdeka Generation.

Although too young to participate in the events leading to Singapore's independence, this generation lived through the same upheaval as the Pioneer Generation, accepted hardship and made sacrifices for the country.

They were the first to enlist in National Service and many, especially the women, left school early to support their families.

Singaporeans, PM Lee said, owe them something.

Subsidised healthcare will be welcomed. But it alone will not be enough.

The Merdeka Generation is a generation that, after a life of struggle, is arriving at the critical juncture of retirement.

The lull will cause many to start deteriorating mentally and emotionally – suddenly, unknowingly – even if they are physically well cared for.

To do right by them, we need to look into this aspect of their lives too.

We should make sure their golden years in the country they built are Merdeka: Free from aimlessness, isolation, or worse, depression and dementia.

This is also what we owe them.

How to achieve this? Two things are clear.

One, whatever the solution, it needs to be scalable.

Two, it must not be exorbitant in cost.

Here's an idea to consider. Let's call it Primary 100.

In the Primary 100 concept, all 184 primary schools in Singapore will be made accessible to the elderly.

It will be the Ah Kongs and Ah Mas - not kiasu parents jostling for coveted Primary 1 spaces – who will serve as school volunteers, caring for and serving the next generation.

Grandpas and grandmas will serve as traffic wardens, canteen operators, crowd controllers, and teaching assistants (for mother tongue and National Education).

Every morning, the elderly will sing the national anthem and recite the national pledge alongside the students, giving deeper meaning to the lyrics and words on sleepy mornings.

They will partner students to raise the flag.

They will run “Merdeka CCAs”, which can be based on the culinary arts (eg making traditional dishes), physical education (eg taijiquan), and citizenship and character education (eg through telling stories of national service in the early days or the experience of moving from kampongs to Housing and Development Board flats, long before the question of HDB leases was on anyone’s minds).

To help delinquent and at-risk youths, the elderly can also serve as para-counsellors, assisting over-worked school counsellors, allied educators and student welfare officers to improve school attendance by chaperoning these youths from home to school in the mornings.

In certain schools, the elderly will even be deployed to the MOE kindergartens located on-site.

The learning spaces that make up a school - libraries, classrooms, gardens, sports facilities - will be shared with the elderly after school hours and during school holidays to maximise utilisation.

More importantly, “Primary 100” involves creating new spaces where the elderly are not disempowered recipients of care and charity, but custodians of our children - a role that will be familiar to, missed, and taken on seriously by them.

They will continue to have a meaningful, practical and appropriate job to do every day, and they will do so amid the chatter and laughter of children.

This is preventive care and active ageing, honouring the rightful and natural place our elders should have in our society.

They will not be paid, for volunteering does wonders to the human spirit.

Operationally, because primary schools are located within HDB estates across the island, there is no need for travel and logistics.

Recruitment and coordination can be decentralised at Community Centres and the Ministry of Education school clusters.

If it materialises, the impact can be significant. The average population of each of Singapore’s 184 primary schools is about 1,000.

Using a hypothetical elderly to student ratio of 1:25, each “Primary 100” school can take in 40 elderly.

This is comparable to the population of an average Senior Activity Centre (SAC), which means the “Primary 100” concept will effectively generate 184 new SACs for Singapore.

This means that almost 7,400 elderly, equivalent to the population of about 20 nursing homes, will benefit.

All this without requiring infrastructure costs or land. Next to the multi-billion Merdeka healthcare package, it will cost virtually nothing.

And it will make Merdeka a reality.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ng Tze Yong is a former journalist.