SINGAPORE: A local Reddit user wrote that they were surprised to have recently been visited by a person conducting a survey on behalf of the government on young adults in their twenties.
The questions involved respondents’ satisfaction with the government’s actions on certain social issues.
The Redditor wrote in a July 9 post on r/askSingapore that they were surprised with the survey-taker, as they thought surveys from the government usually came from companies such as market research and public opinion firm IPSOS.
The woman who showed up at their door was from a company called Ascentiq, an independent full-service research firm based in Singapore instead.
Since the woman had a pleasant manner and was not looking to sell financial products, the post author decided to help her hit her KPI, adding that there was no financial incentive to participate in the survey.
They added that they were asked to indicate, on a scale of one to 10, their level of satisfaction with the following:
Cost of Living, Inflation, Cost of Public Transportation, Transportation Connectivity, Healthcare Services, Healthcare Subsidies, Confidence in the Govt, Foreign policies, Immigration, Faith in SPF, Faith in our judicial system, Independence of Media in Singapore, Neighbourhood Amenities, and other issues.
However, what was more surprising were questions regarding Singapore’s relations with China and the United States, such as how much the post author likes China and America and how well they believe the government has managed relations with the two economic superpowers.
“Was anyone surveyed too? I’m actually a bit WOWed because I never thought I probably would be part of the statistic on the upcoming result when the Straits Times reports, ‘Most of young adults satisfied/not satisfied with the Govt: Survey’,” they added.
One commenter on the post wrote that they have a neighbour who works as a surveyor for IPSOS, but in the post author’s case, surmised that maybe the government had outsourced the survey to another agency or that the survey taker could also be representing another organization to research on the overall satisfaction of Singaporeans towards the government.
Another Reddit user who said their mother conducts surveys as a part-time job wrote, “they do ask straight-shooter questions once in a while.”
A commenter who had recently been surveyed said the survey-taker had been from the research organization RySense, and they received a S$10 voucher from NTUC afterwards. However, the survey was not about China.
Another had been surveyed two days in a row regarding the government’s role in family counselling and their perception of the police force.
The Independent Singapore has reached out to Ascentiq for further comment. /TISG
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