The Straits Times; www.straitstimes.com; Published on Jan 27, 2011
Aspiring to be middle class not the problem
MR HO Kwon Ping's commentary ('The silent revolution in my backyard'; Jan 19) traces the emergence of the middle class, and Singapore's move 'to ideologically co-opt the working class into adopting middle-class lifestyles and mentalities' so as to broaden the base.
Aspiring to a middle-class lifestyle is not the problem for Singapore.
The problem is the danger of the lower classes being stuck in poverty.
Our public policy must not aim only at fostering a middle-class lifestyle and ignore redressing the problems of the poor. For it is the lower classes that will eventually populate the middle class.
I am not appealing for a classless society, but a more equitable one, as well as for a successful attempt at narrowing the significant disparity between the rich and the poor.
It is not justifiable to have the middle and upper classes moving upwards in the face of a burgeoning lower class whose incomes are heading in the other direction.
We must commiserate with the challenges faced by the lower classes.
Yap Kim Hao
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