Saturday, August 09, 2014

Majulah Singapura

Good Morning Singapore. Happy National Day... even though I do not think there is anything worth being Happy about when our Prime Minister still wants us to sell our HDB flats to finance our retirement and this would mean that they will have to maintain HDB's prices as high as possible and in the end, our future generations will suffer even more under such high HDB pricing.

One would have thought that PAP has learned the painful lesson of losing Aljunied GRC due to the hot HDB issue from GE 2011 but no, apparently, they are still stuck with "Sell our flat for retirement" model.

CPF is of course linked to HDB pricing and I am sure by now, everyone is talking about the inadequacy of CPF for retirement financing, mostly due to past high HDB pricing initiated by "Asset Enhancement Scheme" way back in 1990s. But yet, PM Lee wants us to feel "at ease" and reassure us that we can possibly retire by selling off our HDB flats!

I am totally disgusted by such suggestion, especially from the ruling elites of PAP who have been paid obscene amount of salaries for the past decades and do not understand how it feels to be "forced" to sell off their "HOME" for retirement. Our HDB flat is our HOME, not an investment. PAP ruling elites don't even understand this.

I foresee that HDB prices will be pushed up so high in order for such "sell your flat for retirement" that younger generations can no longer afford. When they are forced to stay with their aging parents because they can't afford to buy their own HDB flats, how could their parents sell their HDB flats for retirement without affecting their children?

PAP is just kicking the can of big problem down the road without much consideration. They are going to destroy Singapore's future if they got their ways in making this a reality. We and our future generations will be forever enslaved by such a system created by them.

It is our National Day today but PM Lee's message has made my heart sank with great anger. After last GE in 2011, I thought I have succeeded in bringing forth the evils of high HDB prices and the underlying bad deal PAP has made for us, selling our HOME for retirement but I was wrong. All those PAP's cosmetic changes they tried to make is just an attempt to make belief that they have "changed" but deep down, they have not.

It is with a deep sadden heart I am forced to reconsider the option of stepping back into active partisan politics. I am very reluctant to make such considerations because I am living a happy life ever since I went into political sabbatical in 2012. There have been quite a number of invites and persuasions by many people over the years, to ask me to return into active partisan political engagement but I resisted.

In the past years, I have seen quite a number of veteran politicians passed away with unfulfilled dreams and idealism. I always live my life without much regrets. I always believe I have fulfilled what I have set out to do but somehow, I was proven wrong by PM Lee. It makes me think whether I will die of regrets of unfulfilled dreams and ideals.

Recently, someone I regard as my political tutor and close friend for the past decade, has fallen very ill. Witnessing him struggling and fighting death made me feel guilty. He knows he has an unaccomplished political mission, unfulfilled dream and he has to fight on, to stay alive for at least another few years. He is not afraid of death but dying is just too easy for him to get away from his unfinished business.

A dilemma for this National Day. Should I just walk away and enjoy in what I am doing now or bear the burden of the unfinished business of getting things right for Singapore? To be or not to be... Majula Singapura

Goh Meng Seng

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read with interest of what you have wrote Mr. Goh. Just a quick question on HBD land.

Who own it and what happen after it was brought back under HDB? Can it be sold to anyone? I saw many HDB being enboc and it was redeveloped to condo.

Admin said...

HDB can practically do anything to the flats that they have acquired. Most likely, they can rent it out to PRs, Singaporeans or even foreign workers as they have done so in TPY. Two blocks of flats were acquired via "enblock" but later refurbished and rented out to foreign workers who worked for the two casinos.

They could also acquire the whole blocks of old flats and demolish them, let it there for years before they sold it off for condo development.

Goh Meng Seng