Singapore Democrats
Some have wondered if the SDP’s citingof Mr Fandi Ahmad’s and Mr Terry Pathmanathan’s cases was becausethey were well-known Singaporeans.$CUT$
This is not so. The SingaporeDemocrats have, in the past, also highlighted cases of Singaporeans who were not prominent at all.
Take the case of 88-year-old Mr AbdulDawart. The elderly man suffered an infection to his prostratecausing him to urinate controllably. This caused his house andsurroundings to reek of urine. The New Paper reported thematter on 4 June 2012 (Woodlandsflat ‘smells worse than a public toilet’).
Thenewspaper also reported that a friend of Mr Dawart’s said thatthe octogenarian did not seek a doctor because “medical treatmentis also expensive and Mr Dawart is poor.”
We wrote about Mr Dawart’s case on this website here where wehighlighted how the PAP’s healthcare policies had fallen short oftaking care of poor Singaporeans like Mr Dawart.
In the article, we also described how theSDP’s alternative healthcare plan could help not just Mr Dawart, butall Singaporeans who face high healthcare costs.
We have alsohighlighted the cases of other ordinary Singaporeans. For example, we hadwritten about an elderlycouple who had to walk all the way home because they could notafford taking public transport after they used all their money to pay forthe bill at a polyclinic.
We also cited the case of Mr Ivan Lim who could not afford the prescribed medication for hisdiabetes and resorted to cutting back on his medication by stretchinghis one-month prescription into three months. He ended up having hisleg amputated.
The SDP’s interest in all these cases,including Mr Fandi’s and Mr Pathmanathan’s, is only to highlight theinadequacies of the current PAP policies and how Singaporeans areunduly penalised by them.
At the same time, we want Singaporeans tobe aware that there are alternative policies that can help remedy these problems and make lifea little easier for our people.
(In fact, the SDP website was not the first one to highlight Mr Fandi’s case. The Temasek Review Emeritus had posted an article on the matter in 2012. See here.)