Building Empathy into Nationhood - Speech for the Debate on the President’s Address.

Reposted from Source: MDDI Singapore (25 September 2025 - 5:29 PM)

Source: MDDI Singapore

Full Transcript

[Deputy Speaker (Mr Xie Yao Quan) in the Chair]

 PRESIDENT'S SPEECH

(Debate on Address of Thanks – fourth allotted day - 5:29PM)

Mr Speaker: Mr Cai Yinzhou.

Mr Cai Yinzhou (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Sir, I rise in support of the Motion of Thanks to the President. In a turbulent world, the President's address offers a renewal of faith. It calls us towards a "we first" society built on the enduring pillars of unity and trust. It is a powerful and essential vision for our nation's next bound, but let us be clear, the fulfilment of that promise does not begin here in this Chamber. It begins with us in our local communities in the enduring efforts of one Singaporean reaching out to another.

Prior to being a Member of Parliament, I was known as the "Ah Boy" of Geylang. I grew up there all my life and had a different perspective of the world, one not easily found in textbooks or policy papers. I saw the complexity of life and met neighbours known to society only by their labels – the nightlife workers, the troubled youths and ex-convicts trying to hold on. The temptation is to see their lives in black and white, a simple failure of law and order.

But as a neighbour, I saw something else. I saw single parents struggling. I saw human beings resulting to vice, often because they lack options or were escaping a reality much worse. I learned that we cannot fix what is broken until we recognise the shared humanity in every single individual. It was with that same understanding that I spent my weekends in 2014, in the back alleys of Geylang, with migrant workers playing badminton, sharing a meal and seeing their sacrifice and commitment to family thousands of miles away. When my friend, Nurul Bashar from Bangladesh, was counting his every last dollar for his father's urgent surgery, I did what any friend would. I picked up a pair of scissors, learned from YouTube and offered him a free haircut.

That small act of care grew into a volunteer movement. Today, volunteers at back-alley barbers have given over 8,000 haircuts at nursing homes, migrant worker dormitories and rental flat communities. I learned the most profound change does not need a massive budget, but sometimes a pepper of courage and a generous serving of human connection. In the lorongs in Geylang, empathy was an emotion I understood long before I ever learnt its name, and it is this fundamental truth that shared human connection that must guide our work today.

I would like to thank the residents of Bishan-Toa Payoh for the support and the opportunity to stand here today. In the recent National Day rally, our Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced that Toa Payoh will be one of the first models of the Age Well neighbourhood. Having managed active ageing centres, I have seen the importance of Healthier SG across Singapore and I am grateful for the inter-agency collaboration between MND on the hardware refresh and MOH on the software integration of programming.

It is not just our population that is ageing, but our flats too. Toa Payoh is the first satellite town comprehensively planned and developed in 1965 by HDB. Many of the flats are seniors in age too. Residents are anxious of their homes and worry about the uncertainty of timing, the future value of their flat and its remaining lease. Many also face the daily realities of defects and look forward to repairs and upgrades through the Home Improvement Programme.

Each resident has unique circumstances and may require different levels of support. I will echo the concerns of my residents and speak up for clarity on upgrading options as well as what an equitable Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (VERS) offers. At the National Day Rally, the Prime Minister also shared, "Many seniors do not want to move out. They prefer to age where they are, and we will need to provide for them as they get older."

The Government's ambition to age-in-place and enhance health spend is a powerful paradigm shift. This sentiment is echoed by many seniors I have met, including two pioneers of community building in Toa Payoh Central, Mr Chia Ah Sah, aged 79; and Mr Raman, aged 75. The combined years of service to this community is a total of 96 years. Mr Chia shared, "We are poor, but some people are in even worse situations and so we help."

This simple belief of a heart-to-heart service has remained consistent over the past 40 years. The love and attachment to the community has only grown. But how do we create more Mr Ramans and Mr Chias?

Like many in the Chamber, I have joined many seniors for workouts, outings and health screenings to discover this answer. Instead, I have learned extraordinary secrets, what I describe as "non-Google-ables". Secrets about the precise herbal ingredients in a 药材汤, or herbal soup, to cure a cold for my pregnant wife; hacks to stretch their dollar, like knowing which store at the wet market, or cai png, economy rice stall offers the best value for money.

They know the latest hack of getting NTUC discounts and the ways to get CDC vouchers from task. They can also tell you the history behind a street name or the location of a building long gone much faster than ChatGPT can. And not to mention, advice on a good long-lasting marriage and how I should spend more time with my wife and two children. This is the collective wisdom of a lived experience.

In our communities, seniors rally around one another to celebrate milestones and turn to one another for support in times of grief and sadness, just as friends and family do. They exist not just as individuals in a neighbourhood, but as a living library of knowledge, and together form a powerful resilient community.

How can the narrative of growing old then be reframed, not as a liability, but as an opportunity to live again. After giving their all for decades to work and raising a family, how can we encourage the cultivation and nurturing of new passions, creative talents and entrepreneurship projects through their existing strengths and knowledge?

For our youths, we have agencies, like Youth Corps and the National Youth Council, which play a vital role in development through leadership and volunteering programmes. I propose for the formation of Elder Corps, a value for a parallel equivalent agency to leverage on skills and wisdom of our seniors to match them with our schools and youths for mentorship and guidance, to be a force for volunteering and meaningfully contribute to our society.

New friendships, shared memories and purposes. These are experiences that hold our communities together. Let us ensure our seniors live their final years with dignity, purpose and a good quality of life.

Deputy Speaker, Sir, empathy for the vulnerable must also be at the heart of what we do as Parliamentarians. I recently journeyed with Toa Payoh residents Ryan and Rae Mok, whose daughter, Rachael, was born with a rare chromosome disorder and had high-care needs. When Rachael turned five, Rae started Project GIVE, a yearly tea party where entire families of children with high-care needs would gather and participate in an inclusive carnival. At the 12th edition this year, I met 31 children with high-care needs and their families, and a village of many helping hands – from extended families to corporate volunteers and medical staff.

As a mother, Rae's journey was one of incredible resilience, and the generosity she received from others spurred her to create a community of support for what would otherwise be an isolating caregiving journey. Rachael passed away last month, shy of turning 21 in October.

As representatives, these are moments of clarity that strengthen our resolve to speak up and I will do so, for caregivers and persons with disabilities, in this House.

The resilience of a society is tested during a pandemic, a crisis, and we are only as strong as the weakest link. This was evident during the pandemic when the spotlight shone on essential workers and the vulnerable.

During the pandemic, I worked as a care staff in a nursing home, assigned to a ward of 16 males. The daily routine of care was visceral, was intimate and it was intense. This includes changing their diapers, showering, wound dressing, and managing cognitive conditions and difficult behaviour, on a 24/7 shift-work basis.

It gave me a deeper appreciation for the labour of care, and I admired my colleagues, a largely migrant workforce, but also realised the unaccounted cost of care and trade-offs that family members might make when they choose to undertake caregiving personally. With love and dedication and devotion which may undergird their decision, many may feel unprepared and helpless too.

As the saying goes, "You can't save others if you drown too."

While the Government has taken steps to support caregivers through respite services, training and grants, we must go further. We must ensure easy access to resources. We must make help visible and accessible and offer it proactively. We must better honour filial piety through stories, and those who choose to personally undertake this responsibility. We must rightfully account for the value these caregivers contribute to our society. This labour of care does not stop at caregivers to seniors or persons with disabilities.

We cannot forget our frontline workers who actively care for our people too. We need to better support our social workers, family coaches, teachers, counsellors, therapists, psychologists and nurses, so they can better serve Singapore. We must find ways to improve the coordination of our services and close help-seeking time gaps. This ensures our system can be effective in what is intended to do to deliver compassionate assistance to our people in their moments of need.

The spirit of empathy is the very fabric of our neighbourhoods. But for our communities to thrive, the systems that support them must be equally compassionate. Beyond economic calculations, we need to consider the accurate accounting of what truly makes a society strong. For too long, relational elements like the immense contributions of caregivers and the cultural values of our heritage have been hard to quantify and, thus, undervalued in our balance sheets.

Sociologist Ray Oldenburg describes the third space. The first being our home; the second being the workplace; and the third, the place which is the anchor of community life, which facilitates and fosters broader and more creative interactions.

They can be in the form of communal social nodes, places like void decks, hawker centres, coffee shops or parks. As we aspire to improve health-span and the quality of life, we must first ask ourselves what exactly is a life well lived and how do we want to age?

The World Health Organization quality of life measurement assesses a person from the physical, psychological, social relationship and environmental perspectives. It acknowledges that humans are multidimensional and, therefore, measures various domains of life, not just the absence of illness.

How do we measure the friendships between friends and neighbours? How do we quantify the psychological pain of a senior who might be leaving a familiar community due to a relocation and the cost to their health? How do we communicate with one another the sense of loss at the mergers of our schools, or the closure of our favourite youth hangout or even the place where we used to date. Third places tying closely with the sense of belonging and forms a key part of our identity.

Impact assessments provide some economic measurements towards this, and I am glad that the Government has adopted features of environmental impact assessments in redevelopment works. Heritage and social impact assessments have existed, and we must seek to incorporate more of these accounting languages in the decisions we make, and this will allow us to measure the true impact of our decisions on community and identity.

In conclusion, our total fertility rate is at a record low. Next year, Singapore attains the UN status as a superaged society with more than one in five of us over 65. In five years, that will be one in four. In 2050, it will be almost one in 2.5 Singaporeans. I am not sure how the age range of our Parliamentarians will be by then, but as the youngest male PAP Member in the 15th Parliament, by then, I will be 60.

French philosopher Auguste Comte may have coined the phrase "demography is destiny", but the President's address has provided a powerful continuum that birth does not dictate destiny, that no one is left behind and that every generation can look ahead with optimism and hope.

What will Singapore be in 2050 when we celebrate SG75? [Please refer to the clarification later on in the debate.] The country each generation inherits is determined by the actions of the previous one. I am deeply aware that the country my children inherit will be determined by the actions we take now.

The President's address has set a clear direction for our nation and it is up to us to embody that vision. Let us respond to the needs of our community with purpose and empathy. Let us build a future where every Singaporean feels seen, heard and valued, a society that truly makes efforts to care for the last, the lost and the least. And I say with conviction, let our generation respond, in optimism and hope. Mr Deputy Speaker, I end my speech in support of the Motion.

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Mr Speaker: Mr Cai Yinzhou, you have a clarification to make?

Mr Cai Yinzhou: Speaker, in my speech, I mentioned that Singapore will celebrate SG75 in 2050. I misspoke. It should be SG85.

Mr Speaker: Noted. 

Link to Hansard: Official Reports - Parliamentary Debates (HANSARD)