SolidariNOT

Minister of State for Health Dr Amy Khor has been quoted as saying in a blog post that accepting eldercare facilities would be an "expression of solidarity with those advanced in years". Since when has solidarity have anything to do with eldercare?

No one disputes the necessity of facilities for caring of the elderly in our midst. It is WHEREthose facilities are to be sited. Dr Amy Khor herself has choked out on national television that one such facility (to be sited in Bishan Street 31) was constrained by the "scarcity of land". As it turned out, that facility will be built at that location despite local residents reservations after some "tweaking".

Urban planners when they design the layout of a community will plan for an appropriate mix of buildings and open spaces. Each of which serves a NEEDED function. Now, due to an apparently unanticipated need for eldercare facilities, an integral part of the original design is being sacrificed.

This isn't about solidarity. This is about living space, living environment and quality of life. When the occupants of the surrounding flats bought their units, they didn't buy them with the knowledge that one day their units would be blocked by an eldercare centre built right in front of their units. Is the government going to compensate them for the drop in their property's value? Property for which they are probably paying a 30 year mortgage for?

Dear Dr Amy Khor, if you expect these residents (and soon residents of another 100 other locations at least) to stand in "solidarity" with your plans, they would expect that you and your colleagues stand with them. We do not understand how on the one hand we need to make such sacrifices due to the "constraint of scarcity of land" and yet on the other, your Prime Minister could blithely state that we can "afford" a population of over 6 million.

For a start, perhaps you and your cabinet colleagues could make a veeery SMALL gesture of SOLIDARITY with your constituents: Voluntarily take public transport (buses and/or MRT trains) to and from work everyday. Surely this would not be too much to ask as this is a routine for over 90% of your fellow Singaporeans. You and your colleagues will then get to experience how the policies you've taken so much pains to convince your fellow Singaporeans to accept, first hand. And then in a further show of TRUE solidarity, to have eldercare facilities built right next to and in front of your own homes.

Are you and your colleagues with us (or not)? When we sing "Majulah Singapura", we want you to be marching with us, not hanging apart or worse, moving in the opposite direction. If you and your colleagues are truly with us, show it in deeds. Words are cheap, insincere words even cheaper. What say you Dr Amy Khor?