By Andrew Loh
The last two weeks were a patriotic period for Singapore. National Day, as usual, turned the dial a few notches with its glamour parade of song, dance and fireworks. This was preceded a few days earlier by the two bronze medals which the Singapore table-tennis team won at the London Olympics. Scenes of celebration greeted the team at Changi Airport on their return.
And on Tuesday, Law Minister K Shanmugam, in a parliamentary exchange with the Workers' Party's Sylvia Lim over the Woffles Wu case, implied that Ms Lim was playing politics when she raised questions about Wu's sentence for a traffic offence. "Because I think if we leave aside politics and we want to be honest and fair, that we must look at the facts," the minister said. He also added that "we have a duty to the public" to be factual.
In his National Day message, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that he has set up "a committee of younger ministers to take a fresh look" at the things the Government is doing. The committee is headed by Education Minister, Heng Swee Keat. "We will engage Singaporeans in this review, and build a broad consensus on the way forward," PM Lee said. "I ask for your support in this exercise."
Much have also been said about the Government's engagement process since the general election last year.
One wonders, however, whether such engagement includes the opposition political parties, and whether political parties are able to put aside politics and discuss issues which have serious consequences for Singaporeans - issues such as healthcare.
Dr Wong Wee Nam, a known supporter of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), has written to the Health Minister, Gan Kim Yong, to inform him of the SDP's National Healthcare Plan and to ask for a "meet up to share our ideas together." Dr Wong and a group of doctors had helped draft the SDP plan.
"After you have read it, and if you feel that we should have a 'conversation', we could meet up to share our ideas together," Dr Wong said in his letter. "We certainly would like to know more about your ministry's Health Vision 2020 so that together, we could come out with a better plan for our people."
The last time the SDP formally crossed swords with the Government over Healthcare was in 1996, when then-SDP Member of Parliament, Ling How Doong, charged "that healthcare costs at public hospitals were not significantly lower than those at private institutions." The Government convened a Select Committee to address the charges and eventually concluded that the charges had no truth to them.
16 years hence, the SDP has put out a comprehensive healthcare proposal to offer Singaporeans an alternative on an issue which is of deep concern to the public.
Already, Government critics are dismissing any chance of the Health Minister acceding to Dr Wong's request for a meet-up to discuss the SDP's plan. One suspects that the critics will not be proven wrong eventually. Yet, one hopes that in all this talk about having a "national conversation" with the public, the Government would be opened to even hearing suggestions and ideas from its political opponents.
As so often Government ministers themselves have accused opposition parties and politicians of "playing politics", it could show that it doesn't also "play politics" when it comes to matters of deep public concern.
And if one were willing and able to look beyond the political fence, one might realise that the reason behind a group of practising doctors coming together and drafting an alternative healthcare plan could be that there are serious issues which we should take a look at.
And as the Health Minister, isn't it only right for him to devote time to listen to what doctors have to say anyway?
Mr Gan could, therefore, show that ministers are indeed taking the Prime Minister's message to heart - and practise it and put politics aside for the greater good.
After all, as all the euphoria over the last two weeks or so have shown, aren't we all Singaporeans, first and foremost? And don't we all want the best for Singapore and Singaporeans?