Is Lim saying future elderly must vote PAP to get PGP?

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Is Lim saying future elderly must vote PAP to get PGP?

March 6th, 2014 | Author: Editorial

Minister Lim Swee Say

Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday (4 Mar), Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Lim Swee Say said that Singaporeans who are younger than the pioneer generation might also enjoy similar packages in future if the government remains clean, responsible and caring, and its finances are healthy.
The Pioneer Generation Package (PGP) announced by the government is for those who are 65 and older this year, and who were citizens before 1987.
He was recounting a union leader’s disappointment on hearing that he would not qualify for the package as he only turns 60 this July.
“He said: ‘Oh no, no hope then.’ I said: ‘Yes, of course there is hope.’”
“Today, we honour the generation before us. Years from now, if we continue to do well, if the Government is still clean, responsible and caring, if (the) Budget is still healthy, maybe the generation after us may decide to honour our generation as well. Therefore, yes, there’s always hope.”
When Mr Lim said “the Government”, it is not known if he meant the PAP government. Is Mr Lim hinting that PAP needs to be voted in as government in order for future generations of Singaporeans to get packages similar to PGP?
WP MP Png Eng Huat argued that to set the bar for the package at 16 years old in 1965, the year Singapore became independent, was “a little too precise and will exclude Singaporeans who had to quit school to work during those times”.
He added that people under the age of 16 in 1965 could also have been working then. But he acknowledged the difficulty in proving that.
West Coast GRC MP Arthur Fong then challenged Mr Png to state his preferred cut-off age.
WP MP Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap (Aljunied GRC) said the package should be seen as one of many ways to tackle the larger problem of high cost of living.
With regard to PGP, Mr Faisal said, “Any government should in fact recognise that it is merely fulfilling a core function of its duties to the very people who had elected (it) in the first place.”


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