Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 2) | Page 153

Special Editions
addresses the long standing criticism that in propagating the many helping
hands approach, the lack of understanding of the role of each of hand has
resulted in grave imbalance, resulting in more falling through the cracks. In
supporting the community to do more, the unseen hand of the government
or state has become less obvious and faded by comparison in profile.
There is the perennial challenge of balancing the credit given to community
efforts and other helping hands with the credit given to the visible hand of
the state. The debate in Parliament on the many helping hands approach
has always been lively, probing and provocative. There has often been the
pointed criticism that the government or state should take on a larger and
bolder role instead of looking for other hands to work the system.
One could argue that the tipping point for the Government to re-calibrate
the many helping hands would be fuelled by demographics. With the
looming ageing population and longevity from better medical advances,
the caring load for any society and Singapore included, now confronts most
governments. Who should care for the old? How should the caring load be
shared and how will the economic and social cost be shared? The debate
in most countries has just started. Likewise, Singapore is experiencing the
urgency of this debate. Research is critical in enabling good deliberations
and the search for long term sustainable solutions to this matter of care for
the old.
Challenges and clarity of roles
Given the complex and dynamic externalities in the world that we live in,
the role of civil society will enlarge. There are however roles that will be
prominent. One of these is that of convenor and organiser. In the area of
volunteerism, there is room to organise ourselves better, to better structure
partner ships between receiving and sending agencies so that volunteers
can make fulfilling contributions. Secondly, there is value in appreciating
volunteers as a human resource asset with time, expertise, skills and
knowledge that are a form of social capital. And thirdly, there is a need to
review the partnership regularly to sustain it.
There is also a need for ongoing and regular stocktaking and re-calibration
of roles of the many helping hands. This approach can be more sustainable if
we organise ourselves better to do better. To begin, the roles of the various
hands need to be articulated more clearly. One way of articulating these
roles is as follows:

152