See Song's Dreamland

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 6:09 AM

Should taxpayers be supporting elite sportsmen/sportswomen or should it be left to the private sector?

Some countries took on supporting their sportsmen/sportswomen in financial support, healthcare support, and moral support from the citizens.

Other’s felt that this should be left to the private sectors, which have been pumping in millions of dollars to develop players, potential giving them the state of the art facilities to conduct their training, investing in Research & development without aid from the government.

How I see this situation in Singapore is I feel the sporting industry in Singapore has been developing over the years. We saw up’s and down’s, history making in its process and I for one believe that we had made a huge impression to the world on how our red dot punch a pack. Our athletes did extremely well during regional competitions such as the ASEAN games, the Commonwealth games as well, we managed to train our athletes to their fullest potential and further extend our glory by winning a medal in the Olympics. As for our Para Olympians they did well by winning a gold medal for our country and I’m extremely proud of them.

Mentioning all of the above achievements and glory, this was the help of our fellow Singaporean citizens. The government has put a side of the budget into developing sports industry and that money comes from taxpayers. There are certain resolvable issues that arise from the minorities but I believe the majority of the Singaporeans don’t mind, in fact they are very supportive in how the government take the appropriate measures. As of that they are aware that the next generations will be the one that are being affected as well.

However I see it in a different angle as well instead of private sector controlling it without the help of government support why not have it best of both worlds. Taxpayer’s should support in participation in terms of providing the numbers and private sector should support in financially by bringing in the big bucks. A good example would be the annual standard chartered marathon I believe it’s considered a healthy example of both the public and private sectors working hand in hand to achieve a single goal.

So Yes, Tax payers should help developed Elite sports people due to

Our country is still developing it's Sporting Industry
It shows our form of Encouragement to the Sports people
If private sectors gain full control of it, you never know what would it end up to.
A form of government intervention should be present to enforce code of governance