[h=1]23 Jan 2013 Punggol East By-Election Rally Speech by Daniel Goh[/h]
Good evening residents and friends of Punggol East.
This is my first rally speech, so let me tell you a bit about myself. My name is Daniel Goh. I graduated from NUS in 1998 and completed my PhD in sociology in the United States in 2005. I have been teaching in NUS since and I am currently associate professor there. My students call me Dr Goh or simply Prof. My friends call me Daniel, so please call me Daniel.
I started volunteering with the Workers’ Party during GE2011. Since then, I have been helping Mr Chen Show Mao at his Meet-the-People Sessions. I joined the Workers’ Party as a member this year.
Many of my friends and family members asked why I joined the Workers’ Party. Some were afraid for me. They asked me, “Is it really safe for you to do this?”. But I told them life is too short and too precious, don’t waste time being kiasu, kiasi and kiagui.
Some wondered about my motives. They say, “You are a professor, you got a comfortable life, if you idealistic, go join the PAP, change the system from inside.” I told them change does not come from inside or from outside, but from the correct side. This is the co-driver side where we tell the driver he is heading down the wrong side of the road!
Some laughed at me because they know I am not the slapping type. They say, “Hah, you can slap meh, you are a bookworm.” I told them, even bookworms think of their children and would stand up for them.
This, my fellow citizens, is why I joined the Workers’ Party: I became a father in June last year.
When I volunteered with the Workers’ Party in 2011, I volunteered because I felt it was an extension of my national service. Volunteering with the Workers’ Party was the way I could serve Singapore and help my fellow Singaporeans.
When I became a father, something changed. It was no longer enough to volunteer. I needed to join the Workers’ Party to fight for a Singapore that I want my son and all children and young people to inherit. It is now a long-term commitment to a cause. The cause is not to oppose for opposing sake, or to bring down the government. The cause is to change mindset.
The PAP likes to tell Singaporeans that we need to change our mindset.
When it comes to PSLE, the government resisted calls for reform and is only just starting to do a review. Instead, they tell us we are the problem, that we need to change our so-called kiasu mindset.
Wrong!
Kiasu parents don’t make the PSLE exist. It is the PSLE that makes parents kiasu!
When it comes to BTO for HDB flats, the government tells Singaporeans not to be choosy and to stay in non-mature towns like Sengkang and Punggol. But it doesn’t realize that young families need the amenities of a mature town and many of us wish to stay close to our parents.
So, on one hand, the government tells us to have more babies and to take care of our parents. On the other hand we are not supposed to be choosy and to stay in a place that is difficult to raise a family and be filial? It has become very frustrating because people are being blamed for problems caused by policy.
Sengkang is a beautiful town. I live just across from you in Punggol town, just over there in the blue estate by the TPE, and I often walk across the overhead bridge to come to Rivervale Mall or take a bus to Compass Point. The problem is that towns like ours are kept from maturing faster. Lack of childcare centres, eldercare facilities, feeder bus services, coffee shops, properly run hawker centres, these are just some of the issues. These are not just local issues, they are policy issues affecting everyone in Singapore, whether you are in Sengkang, Punggol, Chua Chu Kang, or Bedok. Amenities are built only when the government believes enough people are in the town to service them.
Again, wrong!
Amenities should be serving the people, not the people serving amenities!
When it comes to marriage and having more babies, again we are told that we need to change our mindset, that we should marry earlier and have more children. But surveys after surveys conducted show that most Singaporeans want to marry and have more than 2 children. Our mindset concerning marriage and parenthood is fine. So please, the PAP should stop following us into our bedroom. Stop preaching to the converted!
Why do Singaporeans end up marrying later and have only 1.5 children on average?
What is stopping Singaporeans from marrying earlier and having more babies is the lack of financial security. Wages have not kept up with inflation and rising cost of living. HDB resale prices increased by 109% in the last 10 years. Let me ask you this, have your salaries increased by 100% in the last 10 years? Because prices of new BTO flats are affected by resale prices, many young couples have to wait longer before they feel secure enough to settle down.
Work-life balance is bad because the government’s approach is to sayang businesses to adopt work-life harmony practices. At the same time, the government is telling us to change our mindset about the right conditions to start a family. Can’t the PAP understand that it is because we Singaporeans are very responsible people, that’s why we work hard to achieve financial security for our family, and so we end up working too hard? So stop blaming us.
The Baby Bonus given by the PAP government is okay. It very recently got better, just a bit, but it can never keep up with runaway inflation and the rising cost of living. We can’t keep throwing money at problems. There is a need for structural reforms in housing, childcare and work-life harmony to tackle the problem. Decreasing costs and increasing time for Singaporeans to start their families are the keys to solving the problem.
What I am trying to say is this. It is not us Singaporeans who need to change our mindset, it is the PAP government that needs to change its mindset!
The government should start solving the structural causes of the problems we face.
I don’t want my son to grow up in a Singapore where he has to work 12 hours a day just to have enough to retire and have no time and no money to fall in love, marry and start a family. Do you want that for your children?
Let me finish by telling you how I see Li Lian this by-election.
Some of my friends challenged me, “Li Lian has not been seen in Punggol East since GE2011, can the residents trust her to serve them?”
This is what I said, Li Lian went to train under Kung Fu Pritam.
She is now much more powerful and has returned to fight for the people of the Valley of Punggol East.
Li Lian is a young woman who understands the problems of starting and raising a family.
She is one of us.
She has an amazing sense of dedication because she is willing to stand up to fight for us.
She is one of the young leaders in the Workers’ Party who inspired me to join the Party to work for the Singapore we want.
We are here to fight for the Singapore we all deserve!
Residents and friends of Punggol East, I am proud to be your neighbour.
And I am envious, because you had the chance to vote for the Workers’ Party in GE2011, and you have another chance now!
Please cast your vote wisely.
Don’t vote for status quo because it is not good enough for us.
Vote for our future, vote for your children’s future, vote for the Workers’ Party, vote for Lee Li Lian!
http://www.facebook.com/danpsgoh
