Failure of policy, not personal responsibility

This is becoming a familiar and increasingly common theme, as more Singaporeans begin to identify various PAP policies as inadequate and outdated. While personal responsibility is important, we should not overlook the influence of policy over the psyche of a country and its citizens.

Singaporean Skeptic rightly slams PAP's housing and retirement policies:

Our housing and retirement policies are inadequate in providing shelter, food and health care for some of our elderly citizens. They should be the responsibility of the state since part of their plight is caused by the Singapore government's policy.

According to the PAP, your sons and daughters are being selfish if they refuse to help! Never mind the fact that they themselves will be struggling to raise their own kids. Never mind the fact that their wages are likely to remain stagnant while the cost of living (especially housing) skyrockets over the same period of time. Never mind the fact that they too will be forced to accept low returns from their CPF and that they too would have inadequate protection for their own old age (thus repeating the Singaporean cycle of misery).

And this cycle will perpetuate until we drag ourselves out of it. This is our personal responsibility, as citizens. For the PAP, their responsibility is to adjust, tweak, tune their policies to be applicable to changing times and be accountable to the electorate for them. Choosing to attribute policy failure to the electorate is the definition of irresponsibility.