Thoughts on panel dialogue

For our seminar class on the 21st September, we had the privilege of meeting a pair of people who engaged with us in a panel dialogue. They were Uncle Willie and Auntie June, both of whom were co-founders of No Singaporeans Left Behind. They shared with us their background and their motivation behind starting this project.

Uncle Willie is a licensed packet tissue seller while Auntie June used to work until her medical condition forced her employer to ask her to leave. Both of them are shared first-hand on their experiences on seeking social welfare. Uncle Willie barely makes enough to support himself selling packet tissue and most of his money are kept away in his CPF, which he is unable to withdraw as he has not met the required age. Because he has a tidy sum of money in his CPF, he is unable to apply for ComCare or any form of social welfare.

Auntie June was working multiple jobs to support her children through their education. When her medical condition worsened, this threatened her job stability and eventually she became unemployed as her employees told her to leave. She was unable to receive ComCare as well as she had a son who was earning a steady income. However, it was simply impossible for her to live off her son as he also had his own life to take care of.

Personally it was very heartbreaking for me to hear such stories first-hand. They were living examples of the consequences that loopholes and flaws within the system have on people; they are Singaporeans that are left behind. I felt very helpless hearing their stories as they had so many problems and we could not do anything to help them.

In spite of the plight that they were in, they were not selfish at all; they knew of other people who were in similar plights as them and they did whatever they could to help them too. I feel that this is something very noble for both Auntie June and Uncle Willie to do.

Professor Mohan was there to tell us that the project was directed at getting the conversation going about such unspoken and unheard issues. Auntie June and Uncle Willie were quite resentful towards people who were privileged as they felt that the people whom they sought help from did not give in to their please precisely because of their privilege; they were too blinded and guarded to see the real problems that they faced.

As someone who has relatively more privilege than Auntie June and Uncle Willie, I feel that this privilege can both be a bane and a boon. It is a bane based on the context mentioned above. It can be a boon because this privilege can opens us to explore more opportunities to help the under-privileged.

At the end of the panel dialogue I felt a bit gloomy at the prospect of actually inciting change. I will be mindful of this feeling and will keep what Auntie June and Uncle Willie said in the upcoming interviews that I will partake in.