What if I was a minister? Part 2

In today's RealBlurPolitics® column I shall present Part 2 of what if I was a minister?

If I was the minister of health

I would legalise euthanasia in Singapore, only under certain conditions. Firstly, the patient and his/her immediate family members must agree that it is the best solution for all parties and not done against their morals and beliefs. Secondly, the patient should be given a one year "grace" to see if there are any miracles before allowing the doctor to send him/her off

Even without considering the physical pain, it is often hard for patients to overcome the emotional pain of losing their independence.Also, the usage of medical staff and hospital beds could be utilized for people whose lives could be rescued instead of continuing the life of others who want to die which increases the general quality of care and shortens hospital waiting lists. Keeping an incurable person, who can no longer contribute to society, alive is a mental weight and stress, particularly if resources used could be spent on a curable ailment

If I was the minister of information, communication and the arts

Some or rather most chinese of the older generation are aware that their children or grandchildren are unable to understand and communicate in dialects. As foreign TV programmes invade our local channels these days, youths are starting to lose their roots. When asked, most will say that it is cool learning Japanese or Korean and old-fashioned and rough picking up Hokkien. This is because of the ban on broadcasting dialect shows like Hong Kong dramas or Taiwan serials some decades ago. The government wants people to speak proper "language", but this plan has backfired

So as ICA minister, I would uplift this ban. I will not immediately allow programmes that contain 100% dialect to be shown on channels, instead I would suggest we have dual sound for such shows like Hong Kong dramas which are in Cantonese. We can have Mandarin and Cantonese for viewers to choose(although most will choose the latter), just like Korean and Japanese dramas which are shown here

Our government has been one of the most stable in the world all these years and their plans and ideas are all well recognized by other countries, but this is the one exceptional plan that sort of backfired. I admit that I am one of those "victims" of this exceptional plan who cannot even speak my own dialect until today

If I was the minister of community development, youth and sports

I would build more sports facilities around neighbourhood areas, especially street soccer courts. Maybe I can discuss with the ministry of national development to get rid of those useless BBQ pits which are hardly used by anyone for so many years and replace them with my football cages and basketball courts.

Also, I think that we should not rely so much on foreign talent to bring glory to the nation. There are definitely many unearthed gems out there in schools dreaming about their future but never really put it into action. They need to be discovered and recognized and they will prove that we are better than foreigners!

If I was the minister of transport

There has been this never-ending issue on polytechnic students' transport fares. They(or rather we, since I'm one of them too)pay more than their peers in JC and ITE. In short, they pay adult fare. So much so of adult fare when we are still not even adults and are only poor students without an income. If you still remember about the saga five years ago during Sars, when poly students have to attend school while JC students can have some bonus school holidays. This is somehow similar to the transport fare issue too, poly students are always at a disadvantage all these years. Numerous petitions have been started, even on Facebook, but there is still no change.

No change can still be sort of acceptable since our government is famous(within the country only)for being stagnant at times(but present an excellent impression to foreigners), but the most hilarious part is that no vaild reason has been given until now. Dumb excuses like because they don't wear uniforms, or their academic calendar is different to they are considered adults are all used and I wonder what will be up their sleeves next

Supposing I am transport minister, I will just scrap this silly thing once and for all