The ongoing plight of our pensioners is truly heartbreaking and, quite frankly, serves as a painful reflection of how we value service in our society. While the government often points to budgetary constraints and bureaucratic inefficiencies, the reality is that the consistent failure to prioritize those who built the nation suggests a profound disconnect between our stated values and our actions. It is difficult to argue that the system is functioning when elder statesmen are left to protest on the streets for their own hard-earned money just to survive. True national progress should be measured by how we treat our most vulnerable, and until the welfare of retirees is treated as a non-negotiable obligation rather than an afterthought, it is hard to see it as anything other than a systemic failure.