Death of a Pensioner
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: April 20 2015 -
The knee-jerk reaction or the damage control exercise by the Social Welfare Department on hand-delivering the old-age pension amount to the beneficiaries on April 17 can be read from many possible angles.
The deeper reading of such an event has been made even more potent due to the death of one woman pensioner while waiting for her turn to receive the share.
While the possible occurrence of such an unfortunate incident had been anticipated by this news daily, there are two primary questions that need to be addressed if anyone wishes to unlock certain misplaced conceptions about the idea of pension for the aged and the often misconstrued understanding of public service.
The old-age pension scheme, even if conceptualised within the objectives of a Welfare State, have had its share of expected and unexpected results when it comes to the mechanism of disbursement like any other social security schemes.
The pension, as a regular payment made by the State to people of retirement age, has been envisaged with the idea of empowering the weak and the aged and also in recognition of all the hard work the senior citizens have put in over the years irrespective of whether or not they were employed by the State.
Beyond the schemes initiated by the modern State, civilizational traditions across the world have made attempts to cater to the special needs and requirements of the aged.
However, the fluid distortion of developing democracy has often caused numerous hurdles at the implementation of ideas and initiatives.
Here, one is talking about how the elites in developing democracies have often put a premium on bureaucracy as the goal rather than treating it as the means to achieve the set objectives of a balanced Welfare State.
This distortion has been partly responsible for dislocating the idea of Public Service and making people believe that those who are responsible for legislating and implementing State Objectives are the benevolent rulers rather than servants of the people.
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