SINGAPORE: A few days after Prime Minister Lawrence Wong delivered his first National Day Rally speech last Sunday (Aug 18), food guru KF Seetoh weighed in with his opinion in a Facebook post.
The Makansutra founder called the speech “very giving” and “caring” and said that he “had to applaud” the ang pows and skills future monies.
One of the announcements PM Wong made concerns the new SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support scheme, which is aimed at providing lower- and middle-income workers who’ve lost their jobs with temporary financial support up to S$6,000 for as long as six months.
Another ang pow Mr Seetoh may have been referring to in his Aug 22 post is the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant increase, which offers as much as $80,000 to lower-income couples purchasing their first homes.
Perhaps he wrote in this context that he did not quite understand.
“Why can’t you just give a discount or lower HDB prices for those deserving first-time buyers or voters? Why subsidize them with other’s tax money and public coffers? I believe HDB revenues are breathtaking, so why pad it with our national coffers?” he asked.
Mr Seetoh, a longtime champion of Singapore’s hawkers and hawker culture, added that nothing had been given by additional support to hawkers, whom he said were struggling to keep prices low.
In this context, he mentioned again the hawker stall bid of over S$10,000, which recently made the news.
Earlier this month, he noted with incredulity the record-breaking $10,158 hawker stall bid at Marine Parade Food Centre, pointing out that “hawkers also have the same cost of living as the rest of us.”
He added that while the high bid had been accepted in the latest hawker stall bidding exercise last month, hawkers are still required to offer budget meals for about S$3.00, which is meant for the less needy.
However, those who can afford pricier meals can take advantage of this. The provision for inexpensive meals causes diners to become “entitled hyenas who demand the sun, moon, earth, wind and fire for $3 or $3.50,” he added.
Interestingly, the woman behind the high bid at Marine Parade Food Centre told CNA earlier this week that it was worth it. There had even been a higher bid for S$10,680, but this was withdrawn. /TISG
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