The following could be a longer read than usual.
Everyday, we are greeted with many different
type of news when we scroll our feed on social media or read the newspapers.
The world is ever changing at breakneck speed and more ridiculous news appears
by the day. There are news which I have chosen to ignore since the day I have
accepted that journalism isn’t as polished as it used to be and in fact,
journalists these days lack the cutting edge to be one anyway. A lot of things these days are no longer what
it used to be too. It’s not about me grumbling and forever living in the ‘policeman
wear shorts’ era, but it’s important that people are aware and compare old and new
with the correct attitude to maintain standards or even improve. If not, why do
we study History since if we are only concerned with ‘whatever’ happens in
modern day and leave it to seek its own truth.
People like to lament things like the often
breaking down of the trains, buildings and many more stuff in Singapore. Very
often, ‘reasonable’ reasons given would be it’s unfair to compare Singapore
back then and now you know.. we had 2 million people and now we have 5.6
million…What to expect right?
However, I beg to differ.
While time is always moving and as technology
starts to shape up people’s lives, I believe its’ still down to people if they
want to make a difference or not. It’s
always about priorities, isn’t it? If
LKY can be concerned about a fault he had seen while strolling along Singapore
River to get some respite from mourning of his beloved wife, and duly corrected
it, there is no basis why it couldn’t be done by the new generation. Yet,
standards are dropping to compromise certain situations because priorities have
shifted.
As such, I loathe reading topics which have no
reading value. It is even more disappointing to finish an article reluctantly and
realised valuable time is lost reading it. Many people can write beautiful
essays filled with wonder Shakespearean vocabulary, but to me, it is as good as
dead if there is no life in your writing piece.
However, one day, I chanced upon a piece of
news that Singapore will be allowing online betting at Singapore Pools for
horse racing and of course, the very much valued 4D or TOTO.
It was of course met with strong opposition
from the little opposition in parliament and of course again, any opposition in
voting is useless anyway since it only requires 50+1 to pass any bill unless
for constitution changes or budget issues. However, it raised an alarm as well
when I read that several mps have voiced their concerns last year when it was
first mooted.
Singapore prides itself as a No.1 country in a
lot of things. However, I have started to realise that we, being a small state,
cannot always try to be No.1 if every thing. Not only would we be stretching
our countrymen, but there could be several repercussions which I say, in one
serious word: irreversible. We have had
many new things in the last 20 years which may say to have made our country
better. But have they really made Singaporeans better?
Opening the casinos were necessary, many
argued, for tourism and to put Singapore on a world map. It creates revenue for
us and also creates jobs for Singaporeans. Right now, Im sure enough that that ‘create
jobs for Singaporeans’ is just perhaps one last bullet point factored in the
power slides during the presentation by the casinos to ensure that it looks more
presentable in an other wise bland projection screen. However, it would be
factually correct to say that they have indeed improved Singapore on the world
stage, albeit brining in events like the night F1 race.
While it sure makes us look
good on the outside, there have had to be several extra safety nets casted to
rescue victims and broken families due to the casinos. As I said in front,
mechanisms don’t change, it’s always the priorities. While the people in charge
understand the advantages clearly, it makes for equal to know that there is a
similar weight of drawbacks as well on the other scale. LKY was strongly
against the opening of the casinos, but I believed he had no other choice as he
could not always babysit the next leadership. Singapore was successful early
because we had close knit families and members who would toil day and night to
ensure each and every family member succeed. This is something which has always
been mistaken. Everyone thought Singaporeans could succeed because we are hard working
and have a strong attitude to be the best that we do and ensure Singapore
survived. Wrong, I would say. It’s the love of our families that made our early
forefathers strived so hard for the loved ones that propelled Singapore into
what we are today. Yes, our leader’s
foresight was equally important, but if you have broken families for people to
return to daily, how would a reasonable leadership say that we can succeed
because my plans say so?
Gambling destroys lives.
However, gambling is legalized as it’s termed as a necessary evil, some say. Or
rather, many say. The addiction starts young and gambling is already prevalent
in education quarters as young as in primary schools. I would admit that when I
was young, I had played some games with friends over some World Cup stickers in
the hope of winning more stickers from them. It was played with some betting on
the highest serial no. of the stickers from each stack. That is gambling and we
are talking about a scenario which took place in 1988. Who would say that
activities as such or rather about stationery or pokemon cards do no longer
exist amongst our youth today?
By allowing online gambling
in Singapore, counselors of social service centres say’ Lets build more safety
nets.’ They say we need to have even more plans drawn up to protect the people
who may be drawn into addiction of online gambling. How many families have they
planned or quota to be allowed destroyed before it’s considered a successful work
year? Yes, safety nets may help to curb or do some limitation exercise. Consider
this scenario: A good father turns into a gambling addict, gets into trouble
with loan sharks. His wife who has never worked much is forced to enter the
working world and children have to starve and survive the weird stares of
peers. The family goes through a harrowing period such as harassment from loan sharks
and power supply lines cut and by the time safety nets were out and the father be
on the mend, it has already destroyed the family. Mother files for divorce and
the poor children had to crawl through important milestones such as PSLE and
birthdays all by themselves as they witnessed how their father turned as event
after events unfold in front of their eyes like a never ending horror story.
They have had to bear the awkwardness of surviving on handout vouchers from the
social service centres and not knowing when the sun could rise happily in their
house once again. Tell me, what do safety nets do other than fulfilling the
promise that ‘they will be there when it happens’. It seems as they are things
which people would be happy using them? Think! Who would be happy clutching a
voucher on one hand and quickly slurping the hot bowl of noodles on the other,
while worrying if the next meal could satisfy the next hunger pang. A safety
net is albeit but a net where it catches you at the end of your journey. Can
the damage done be reversed? Sadly, no.
By legalizing online gambling,
doesn’t it send a mixed signal to our own people? Singapore is after all a
small country, no matter what achievements you talk about. We are vulnerable
not only because we lack in natural resources but because we are like a mini
kampong. Any slight policy change could see its effect in a very short time and
any adverse change may take a long time to ride out its poison.
A major reason they say is: By
giving a complete ban, there will be an increase of underground and illegal
betting. It was the same for soccer betting, 4D and casinos. My question is: So
did the legalized gambling reduced gambling addiction and social problems due
to gambling? No. In fact, more safety nets, education, posters and advertisements
were raised to ‘try’ to curb the problem as much as they can. It didn’t reduce the
gambling. In fact, gamblers would even be more happy that the government
condones gambling after all and they would then more likely to bet even more,
one bet at Pools and one bet with the spiky hair Ah beng.
At the end of the day, its’
all about revenue which was why the idea was even mooted. To me, it doesn’t
matter the legalized online betting is opened to curb the illegal ones. To me
its just as simple as 1+ 1= 2. It’s just an additional platform for gamblers to
stake their money on and lose. Winnings from gambling is really, trust me, a
poor source of returns from the money you had invested in your lost bets. Its
even worse than putting the money into a bank for the measly interest.
Besides, online gambling can
even speed up addiction faster than you can say Shakespeare. Its all only
numbers and with the ease of how electronic transfers are made these days, it
could be no difficult problem for people to lose their entire savings or salary
in a day.
The world is changing and no doubt our little red dot is too.