Ushering in the Lunar New Year, the Young PAP (YP) team from Tampines North branch distributed 20 Goody Bags to needy families across Tampines GRC on 14 of January. The initiative was done to bring a festive cheer to the lives of the less fortunate during Chinese New Year. The event was attended by Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, Mr Baey Yam Keng and showed the initiative of our young activists in action.

An article by a YP Activist

The question is not; “will I?” rather it is “when will I own the roof over my head”?  One of the matters closest to the hearts of Singaporeans in this year is the cost of housing. Certainly, HDB prices are nowhere near what they used to be.

Party Chairman and Minister for National Development stated that the government was now looking to focus its efforts on securing homes for second time buyers for the next year or two. Currently, schemes and grants do exist for the lower income groups to ease the burden of purchasing houses.

One example of which is the HOPE scheme where a grant of $50,000 is provided to a lower income family to purchase a flat.

While there is certainly a need for the government to address this issue, we must never forget that a house is the only asset many common Singaporeans have. We must do our part in ensuring that it remains in our hands and not squandered in a misadventure.

An article by a YP Activist

According to Mercer, Singapore is the 8th most expensive place to live in the world. Every year the cost of living increases – that is a dynamic of society and economics, one that can never be changed no matter what a government does. This is because of a concept known as inflation, in layman’s terms it’s how the purchasing power of money decreases over time because of increased circulation of a currency.

This is a problem that Singapore and many nations in the developed world face. Perhaps we feel the squeeze of this problem more than the Americans and Europeans do, simply because all our goods are imported. A vast majority of our food supply is imported from neighboring countries in the region, because of this, it is harder for the government to regulate the prices of this goods.

The pro-welfare groups of Singaporeans will call for increased spending ; a subsidy for the lower income groups! Put a price ceiling on rice! Let us not forget for one moment – the government cannot give what it does not first take. Certainly, the government can take from two places, the reserves or increased taxes on the people.

Let’s face it, our savings are finite, the problem may span infinitely, should we deplete our wealth on this problem or find another way to deal with it? Should the government tax the people to solve this issue then, bearing in mind the amount of unhappiness increased transport and GST costs have created, a tax to fund subsidises out of the question and superfluous by nature.

What the government can do is what it has always done, provide jobs for the people and leave the rest up to society. The higher income groups will have to contribute more to aid the rest of society along, for that translate to a more caring and giving society that we hope our Singapore will be.

With the help of Youth United by Passion activists (YUP!) Members, YP organized a visit to the Children’s Aid Society on February 5, 2011 to spread some festive cheer to the children in the home. A total of 21 volunteers attended to play games and create artwork with the children for the afternoon. Besides ice-breaker games and expressing their creativity, each child also enjoyed a pizza snack, a goody bag and lots of happy memories of ‘big brothers and sisters’ who played with them for the afternoon.

By Lydia Quah, YP Community, YUP! Programme Participant

Marking the annual Rice Dumpling Festival in June 2011, the Buddhist charity, Man Fatt Tong Welfare Society planned a Charity Dumpling Making drive to share the festive joy with the less privileged across Singapore. YP Community came on board to support this meaningful event with a near total of 100 YP comrades, friends and families taking part in this endeavour.