And so it was, too, in the recent season of Singapore’s budget. This year’s “election budget” features more generous social transfers and support for the less fortunate. Yet, at the parliamentary debates that followed, there were still Oliver Twists and populists aplenty calling for additional spending on all manner of things.
Oliver Twist’s plea for a second serving of gruel, “Please sir, I want some more,” is the iconic line from Charles Dickens’ 1838 novel, which depicts the harsh realities of poverty and the inhumane treatment of orphans in Victorian England.
In his 1998 hit movie Money No Enough, local director Jack Neo conveyed the same message in a colloquial way. The plot laments and complains about injustices or insufficiencies in the system, but the story is also a symbol of resilience in the face of adversity, where self-reliance, personal responsibility and keeping the fighting spirit overcome in the end.
