When we first became independent, our first priority was water. Water is so precious that even waste water is not discarded. The PAP Government has built a superhighway deep underground to collect every drop of waste water. It is made new again to be used again.
We have now got all the technology to produce the water we need. As Minister Chan Chun Sing pointed out in March last year, the technology to purify water, to recycle water and so forth has just converted the dependence on external water supply to one of external energy supply.
We face many challenges but water and energy are the key challenges we face because many activities need water and run on energy.
Some people speak derisively of the 30-by-30 goal in food resilience. Some call it half-hearted. They want 100% resilience. In land scarce Singapore, where do we find all the land we need to grow vegetables and meat to eat? Each time a secondary forest is earmarked to be cleared for development, there is resistance and cries of ‘vote them out’.
They want Singapore to preserve every forest (otherwise, vote them out, we’ve got to save whatever forest that is left), preserve old buildings for memories (why keep tearing down old buildings, we grew up here), be 100% sufficient in food, build more homes for the married and the singles (but where do we find all the land we need to do this), keep HDB prices low when you want to buy one, keep the prices up when you own one, etc.
What happens if global supply stops shipping food here?
The simple answer is that we will have to eat what we can produce and skip meals. Do you imagine for a moment that an opposition party will have an answer to this dire situation?
In this high inflation situation, at least in Singapore, we are receiving financial support from the Government, made possible through prudence.
What can we do to ensure that the possibility that global food supply stop coming to our shore is minimised?
The small sum of money the government spends in offering scholarships to some foreign students, for example, is an investment in diplomacy and foreign relations.
While the PAP Government strives to strike a good balance to ensure that good opportunities are created for Singaporeans, the Opposition in Singapore adopts a ‘us vs them’ mentality. Do you think that such antics foreign countries watch happening here will endear Singapore to the world and keep the food supply coming here during a war?
Election is coming in Malaysia and some days ago, we saw a video of a Malaysian politician talking about how it should be that Singaporeans are flocking to Malaysia to become foreign workers and not Malaysians coming to Singapore to work.
Singaporeans sharing the video watched and laughed – in arrogance.
Why did they laugh? Because they think this will NEVER happen. Such confidence. Where did their confidence come from? From Singapore being a successful country. Did they stop to ask themselves why Singapore is a successful country so that they will not throw away this success foolishly? Because folks, these are probably also the people who think that they can vote for the Opposition and still have a PAP Government.
The PAP Government’s singular purpose in wanting to build a Singapore that meets every one of Singaporeans’ aspirations, and the PAP’s success in shielding the population from the full impact of many crises, has produced a people that is very hard to please and at times, disconnected with the challenges that we face as a small country.
A trillion dollars is not a big sum, my friend. You look at a trillion dollars in peace time and think: wow, so much money.
A trillion dollars is also a big sum if you are not the one who works hard to accumulate it.
