Today-Sept 18
Ethnic self-help groups such as the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) continue to be relevant for Singapore as they help lift members of their own communities who may get left behind as society progresses, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Speaking at an event to commemorate CDAC’s 30th anniversary on Sunday (Sept 18), Mr Lee said that as Singapore’s economy becomes more developed and the external environment more challenging, “economic growth will be harder to come by and social mobility will be tougher to sustain”. He added that while Singapore has raised socio-economic levels across the board, “there will always be some who are not doing as well as others, and we will always want to give them extra help”. And this is where ethnic self-help groups come in, said Mr Lee, adding that Singapore will “lose something precious” if it does not have such groups. Aside from CDAC, the other ethnic self-help groups in Singapore are Mendaki, the Singapore Indian Development Association and the Eurasian Association. In his speech, Mr Lee also observed that there are people who not only questioned the relevance of such groups in multi-racial Singapore, but also raised suggestions to merge them to create one large outfit to serve all ethnic groups. To that, he said that a large majority of Government resources already go towards helping all Singaporeans, regardless of race. Read more at: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/self-help-groups-relevant-singapore-pm-lee-1996126
