Singapore - Singapore`s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Monday urged more Singaporeans especially successful Singaporeans to donate and help build a giving nation.
While Singaporeans from all walks of life have been donating to charities generously, and contributing their time and effort to do good works, there is still a need for more Singaporeans to donate, according to their means and from their heart, he said at the opening of the new premises of the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Center.
The prime minister noted that the national volunteerism rate has risen from 9 percent in 2000 to nearly 16 percent in 2006, and nine out of 10 Singaporeans gave to charity.
Last year, donations to Institutions of a Public Character(IPCs)went up by more than 50 percent to 820 million Singapore dollars (about 603 million U.S. dollars).
He encouraged the more successful Singaporeans to pitch in to help the weaker ones, saying "collectively, these individual actions will make our society much more compassionate, and much more cohesive."
"Like the American magnates and our own forefathers, we should also encourage successful Singaporeans to deploy a significant portion of their wealth to some larger purpose which they feel committed to," he added.
"Those who have succeeded must feel the impulse to give back to society. The more they have gained from society, the greater their obligation to give back something to their fellow citizens. They must not allow society to be split between the haves and have-nots, and undermine the whole basis for able people to succeed and create wealth in Singapore," said the prime minister.
He noted that the older generation of immigrants who came to Singapore in search of opportunities and who went from rags to riches took it upon themselves to give back to society and help those who came after them.
They set up charitable foundations like the Lee Foundation and Shaw Foundation. Where there were no temples or mosques, they donated and raised resources to build them. Where schools were needed, they established them to enable the next generation to benefit from the education that they themselves had missed.
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com (July 08, 2008)