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This is Part 2 of publichouse.sg’s interview with Minister Chan Chun Sing. You can view Part 1 here: Chan Chun Sing – The price of politics.

By Ko Siew Huey & Andrew Loh

Chan Chun Sing is an earnest man. When talking about policies, the minister speaks with an almost evangelistic zeal, launching into lengthy explanations about the complex considerations behind government decisions.

The Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), and Minister of State, Ministry for Information, Communications and the Arts (Mica), has been thrown into the hot seat overseeing Singapore’s welfare programmes for the needy after the General Election last year.

At a time when income inequality looms as a growing social concern in Singapore, and with calls for the political leadership to do more for the economically disenfranchised, Chan stoically defends the track record of the government from critics who charge that the Government still views “welfare” as a dirty word. The minister, however, is more interested in the substance of the programmes to help the needy than whether Singapore is recognized as a “welfare state.”

This is the second in a special series of stories which publichouse.sg will feature as a lead-up to Christmas on 25 December. It is our hope that as you read these accounts, you too will be inspired to do your part for those in need, however small that effort that may be.

He sat down directly in front of me at the café where we had arranged to meet and when I enquired if he wanted a drink, he simply asked for a glass of water.

Simplicity. That word pretty much sums up the philosophy that Richard Lim has about charity and the work he does at The Breadline Group, a non-profit organization that is now in its 36th year of operations. Its mission? To give financial assistance to the destitute, providing food provisions and cash to supplement whatever public assistance they may be receiving.

By Ko Siew Huey

Last night I saw a symphony of people come together in celebration, wholly unorchestrated. It is proof that with the right reasons and the right conditions, the soul sings.

And perhaps when we put aside the metaphor of Singapore as a corporation and choose instead to see it as a friendly neighbourhood coffeeshop, an agora of colourful exchanges where lives intersect, only then may we be able to get a glimpse of this elusive thing called the human spirit.