Roy Ngerng Yi Ling Singaporeans want a fairer and more equal society. We need to envision a government which believe in this vision and work together with Singaporeans to achieve this. My research has found that Singaporeans seem generally sympathetic towards the poor, with the views of low-income respondents not substantially different from others who were more fortunate. In March and April last year, I polled 440 Singaporeans via online and paper distribution, including distribution through voluntary welfare organisations to reach low-income respondents. I was able to apply weights to make the sample representative of working and middle-class Singaporeans, but not the very rich. I found that 5 per cent attributed poverty to individual reasons, while 27 per cent chose structural reasons. After adjusting for respondents narrow definition of poverty, and the under-representation of the very rich, the results suggested Singaporeans were more likely to attribute poverty to societal factors than survey respondents in Britain and other countries. Thus, I believe that currently in Singapore, there is congruence in attitudes towards the causes of poverty that are generally sympathetic towards the poor. The recent emergence of poverty as a social issue in Singapore, and an increasing public policy rhetoric of inclusivity, have contributed to favourable attitudes towards the poor and poverty alleviation measures.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 15:08:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015