I spent almost half a day for the Suara Singapura recording and on stage for more than 2 hours. I was invited to speak my mind. Therefore I genuinely spoke up from my heart representing voices and concerns of common Singaporeans I work with EVERYDAY. My fellow panel speakers witnessed that I almost teared when I shared one of my real life encounters.
I spoke so much but it was all wasted as it was heavily and biasedly edited. I literally appeared like a mute who kept adjusting my seat, nodding while holding the mic but couldn’t speak a word.
One of the issues that I actually brought up was on healthcare in Singapore, based on my experience assisting someone in appealing for Medifund. Singaporeans have to sustain their premiums which gets exceptionally high as they grow older. The government has yet to address this issue. When their Medisave account dries up, its impossible for them to pay the premium, therefore causing the insurance to lapse.
I also brought up issues on the growing numbers of young Singaporean living on bad credits. I did my research prior to the recording of the show so that I was well informed on current figures and statistics. But I was again being singled out to appear on screen just holding the mic and kept adjusting my seat.
I had to watch it via catchup TV as I was busy serving the community when it’s was shown ‘live’ on Suria. Guess what I encoutered again today? Another case of a cancer patient who have to sell her house to bear her medical expenses. So blame these people for not buying insurance and to not atleast maintain their MediShield premiums? What was not shown on TV was, I suggested that the government should work much closer with insurance companies and pay more attention on this persistent issue.
What you see on TV does NOT represent even an inch of what I do on a daily basis. I’m utterly disappointed of how I was positioned in the show. But it’s alright. I have a bigger cause which is to continue serving my clients and the community and you’ll definitely will get more than 10 seconds of my attention.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/hishamzain1111
