 RAHS Sep 26, 2016 10:30  | Thank you for submitting your trend! Increased individualised data will enable better government communications with citizens and maximise our resources. Privacy will be a cause for concern because this would involve collecting large amounts of personal data. Do you foresee the policy makers being able to use this data to formulate policies that can cater to all groups in society, given the diversity of citizen feedback? What if this resulted in a new group being isolated? Would Singaporeans then become more of an entitled society? |
danliang Oct 6, 2016 04:43  | Trend contributor The policies formulated by the government would, ideally, not based solely on the preferences of the citizenry, but rather the greater benefit of the society. The high-resolution data, which are down to individual level, would enable the government to better understand the needs of different groups within the society, and thus adjust the policies in an timely and effective manner. Policies have long been a one-size-fits-all tool that could create unexpected issues for certain groups. For example, the adjustment of income ceiling from $10,000 to $12,000 for Build-to-Order (BTO) flats in Aug 2015 was announced as a result of increased in earning power of couples in Singapore. However, such policy adjustment unexpectedly disadvantaged those couples who might be forced to purchase non-BTO flat prior to Aug 2015. This might be a result of government's inability to collect data beyond broad demographic profiles in a timely manner, as well as the time lag between data collection, data analysis and policy formulation. With maturing technology in data analytics, the government would be able to analyze and predict the needs of all citizens in real-time and devised personalized policies in a rapid and effective manner. This is what I would call the new "anticipatory personalized governance". |
danliang Oct 6, 2016 05:47 | Trend contributor Granted, no policy would be able to satisfy all citizens or residents in the society. However, if the government works towards the goal of anticipatory personalized governance, it would be possible to minimize the disadvantaged group and to assess the potential impact on them beyond what is possible in today's context. In this case, it would indeed be a people-centric Smart Nation. In such a society, Singapore would not develop a stronger sense of entitlement if such approach is implemented effectively. Instead, it would be possible to minimize potential wastage as a result of the blunt nature of policy instrument. for example, wealth redistribution exercises (such as GST vouchers) were commonly based on broad socio-economic indicators, such as housing types and employment status. However, this inevitably benefits those who are comfortably living in smaller flats and sitting on a huge pile of savings in their bank, and disadvantaged those who are living in larger flat due to the need to take care of their elderly parents and being forced to do full-time work to sustain their family's livelihood. These are real challenges faced by the "sandwiched class" today. Instead, having high-resolution data would enable government to make better decision on who should benefit from accumulated wealth through avenues such as taxes and foreign investments. This would, on the contrary, prevent people from "gaming the system" and allow government to reach out to those in the community that could be suffering in silence. Hence, people would feel less sense of entitlement, as they would only get what they really need. |
danliang Oct 6, 2016 05:45 | Trend contributor Ultimately, this could only work if the residents are comfortable to share individual-level data with the government, and whether there are sufficient safeguard to prevent abuse and misuse of data. In view of the potential benefits, I would argue that the government should review current legal statutes and clauses concerning data privacy, and cultivate confidence in the residents and citizens to share their individual-level data. |
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