To what extent has recent higher levels of inflation affected the poor in Singapore? It is interesting that the government did not agree to be interviewed for the Al Jazeera English report, for they have actually taken numerous steps to help the poor according to their own terms.
Whether the government would do more for the poor is more than a simple “challenge-and-response” paradigm that critics of the government would want us to believe. Rather it is a deeper philosophical stance underpinned by a historical paradigm. It is different from the contemporary conservatives in Western societies (pardon the generalization here) where they believe that individuals are ultimately responsible for their own welfare. Rather, the PAP conservatism stems from the notion that individuals, within a collective entity, are responsible for their own welfare. Hence the propagation of Wor[...]
