In 2010, Lee Kuan Yew suggested that there be no retirement age.
I quote “You work as long as you can work and you will be healthier and happier for it. If you ask me to stop working all of a sudden, I think I'll just shrivel up, face the wall and just that."
And he continues, "(When) you have reached the maximum you can do at your age in that position, you move sideways and you take less pay and you move gradually, (getting) less and less pay because you are moving slower and slower, especially when you're doing physical work,"
So he exhorts us to take less pay when we are in our golden years but his pay as Minister Mentor (MM) kept on rising. Who would want to retire when they get paid millions just to do some periodic "forecasting"?
In news from State Media today, a story was published claiming that most Singaporeans want to work past retirement age. This possibly to prove a point that the pressure cooker society is no fault of the government.
They made this conclusion after Ranstad Group surveyed 405 out of over 3,000,000 Singaporeans.
Statistically, this is sufficient for a confidence interval of +-5%.
However, what the survey (and State Media) didn't reveal is the background of these 405 people.
Generally speaking, there are two groups of people who don't want to retire.
1) Those who can't afford to retire financially
2) Those who can afford to retire but want to continue working
I suspect a large number of Singaporeans fall into the former. Why?
A HSBC survey published 20 June found that 42% of Singaporeans DON"T have retirement financial plans.
That's a very significant proportion of the population. And by the way, HSBC's sample size was 1,046.
So if such big numbers of Singaporeans don't have retirement plans, you can conclude that they cannot afford to retire. Hence the need to continue working past the official retirement age. (quod erat demonstrandum)
A Japanese friend of mine visited the country recently. Through the media, he thinks that Singapore is a modern society full of rich and happy people. But his view changed when he saw: (There's a problem with posting videos/pics on blogger. Will get the video up asap. In the meanwhile, please see this).
He couldn't believe that elderly folks were carting used cardboard boxes in the 34 degree heat. He couldn't believe that old women were wiping tables at food courts.
You wouldn't see these things in Japan.
You wouldn't see these things in most developed countries.
Yet State Media publishes a meaningless story stating the obvious. The hard truth is that many Singaporeans fear retirement because they don't have enough savings in their later years.
Instead of probing the government for answers and accountability, our media continues to sweep the harsh reality of life in Singapore under white coloured carpets.
Singaporeans work past retirement age because of failed social and government policies:
1) CPF
2) Depressed wages
3) Cost of living
4) Immigration
Retired Ministers like Mah Bow Tan, Wong Kan Seng, George Yeo etc continue to receive multi million dollar pensions.
Yet the Minimum Sum (which stands at $131,000) has prevented thousands of retirees from accessing their hard-earned money. Just across the Causeway, the difference could not be more apparent. Malaysia's EPF allows full withdrawal without any outrageous conditions.
If citizens can't spend their twilight years playing with grand kids, touring the world, pursuing hobbies, hanging out with friends or just relaxing, then the system has gone horribly wrong.
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