TOTD: PAP's Plan From First World to Third World

Thought of the Day - PAP's Plan From First World to Third World

There is a massive outcry over PM Lee's National Day Rally over his "advice" of adjustment to the rising cost of living.

The best weapon against rising cost of living is to increase our salaries. However, despite of PAP's boast about higher GDP growth, the salaries of Singaporeans have hardly catch up with the inflationary pressure. That's the crux of the matter.

Instead of solving the problem of inadequate rise in income, or for many people, a regression of income due to underemployment and job mismatch, PM Lee and his ministers tried to downgrade our living standards from First World to Third World!

We would expect the citizens to progress in life quality as the nation progress from underdeveloped country to developed country status. But what PAP is trying to do is to persuade Singaporeans to live with Third World Standard of living while continuing to give them TOP WORLD Class Million dollar annual salaries!

The truth is, while our GDP growth might have reached "First World Per Capital Income level" but in reality, Singaporeans' purchasing powers had in fact deteriorated over the years due to constant increase in prices. The artificially boosted GDP growth did not benefit Singaporeans much but in reality, it is due to the influx of cheaper foreign labour and more MNCs parking and registering their profits here in Singapore without creating substantial well paid jobs for Singaporeans.

Thus, it is really laughable for a self serving ruling party which hold the country at ransom to demand the highest salaries paid in the world for political appointments to try and lecture Singaporeans to cut down on "expectation" and "spending" by lowering quality of life!

Giving irrelevant "5 cents 10 cents tips" of "saving money" by going to hawker centres, using public Wifi to save data usage and such, which didn't really contribute to much savings at all for a household! Lamenting on how people are owning airconditioners and handphones as the source of higher cost of living without addressing the REAL cause of high cost due to the horrendous increases in tax on water, electric tariffs and eventually GST!

Most importantly, it is really unconvincing at all to lecture Singaporeans on cutting cost of living via lowering quality of life when PAP government seems to go into a spending spree in all sorts of infrastructures from HSR, Terminal 5 (yeah, we don't even know how expensive it is going to be!) and $16 million thrown into an "international party" between two leaders which yield no substantial results! Well, $16 Million could buy us a few years supply of water from Malaysia!

It is really sickening to me and reminds me about Animal Farm. The Pigs will live a luxurious lifestyle while constantly lecture the other animals to live a frugal life, over-worked till death.

If this is the First World Government Singaporeans wanted, then they really deserve the Third World quality of Life PAP wanted them to live... yeah, no handphones, no aircon, lowest quality milk powder for your baby, eat at hawker centres not restaurants (while they could play golf and drive most expensive cars in the world), work, live and sleep in humid and hot weather... no progress in life but only work to give the Ministers Top World Pay and money to splash on expensive projects of Grandiosity to glorify themselves as "great leaders".

Yes, our forefathers had worked hard to bring Singapore from Third World to First World country, but only ended up to justify the TOP pay for PAP Ministers and now, they will bring us back from First World to Third World, while maintaining their TOP salaries in the world.

Singaporeans, are you happy now?

Goh Meng Seng

Unrealistic Expectations from PAP or Singaporeans?

The following is from a FB friend ...

What people think of LHL. Honestly speaking, this man had gone cuckoo.

*An excellent piece written by Gerard Ong*_
~~~~~~
Elgin Toh, The Straits Times Deputy Political Editor said in his commentary on Aug 20, our PM has turned into one of those savvy financial advisers who dispense valuable tips on how to save money on daily expenses at his Rally speech on 19 Aug.

These tips included, being more mindful of water and electricity usage, watching data usage, tapping wireless@SG when available, not using expensive brands in your household and looking for economical options at new hawker centres.

Really Elgin? Our PM a savvy financial advisor? Then my late grandma who brought me up must have been an A grade financial advisor as well. She constantly lectured me why I should not waste electricity & water, switch on appliances unnecessarily, buy branded stuff and expensive food. I think she only had a primary school education before the war.

I remember as a young officer in the army some of my cohort used to nick name some of our senior commanders as “five & ten cents” officers because they emphasised on the small stuff instead of focusing on the big picture which everyone knew was more important and relevant.

I hope our PM reads the yearly stats on the world’s most expensive cities and realises that Singapore has been named the most expensive city in the world for the past few years.

Perhaps a man of his status may not realise it as like Tun Mahathir who said recently that when he was PM he did not need much money. This was because where ever he went things were paid by organisations or people around him. So he does not understand why people (he was jibing UMNO ministers) need so much money.

I wonder if our PM has stepped into an NTUC FairPrice supermarket to compare prices of nonbranded household goods or a wet market to know prices of meat, poultry and fish.

The prices are high not because the sellers are profiteering but because everything in Singapore is highly priced or taxed which tinkles down and wallops the consumer. If the price of vehicles, fuel and rent are high, the prices of deliverable goods go up in price. You don’t need to be an economics graduate to know that.

In 1978, I bought a good second-hand car for S$1,500. My five room Normanton Park apartment cost S$37,000 and came with a swimming pool and tennis courts. Today a five-room flat in far flung Punggol cost S$400,000 and you will have to wait two to four years for it.

These prices do not reflect the interest payments which bring up the overall price of the flat considerably. I am not even talking of resale flats as prices of such apartments are insane when you compare them with property prices in fully developed countries.

There will be people who will compare us with Hong Kong and say we are better off. Well they could compare us with a village in the far north of Thailand and say we are better off as we have electricity and piped-in gas. Such comparisons are futile as we are talking about our cost of living and how it affects the middle-income earners and those living on their wits end in Singapore.

It is the big-ticket prices in Singapore that have raised the cost of living for all of us. Why are houses and flats so expensive. It is primarily because land sales have been priced high and developers upping their prices and profits.

Let us not forget with every property sales transaction, a tax is levied which brings up the cost of the purchase. Primarily the major portion of our income goes into paying of mortgages.

Why are goods so expensive? You don’t need a finance degree to figure it out. High cost of property + high rentals + high cost of vehicles and taxes + high costs of services + salaries (with CPF) + worker levies = high overall cost

At the end of the day, the rich and high performing ministers and bureaucrats with their humongous salaries will not feel the pinch when we talk about the high cost of living in Singapore.

Unless you are Edwin Tong who told Goh Chok Tong that if he took up a post as a Minister of State, he may not be able to take care of his family, mother and father-in-law with his $500k yearly salary!

TOTD: Credits Due

Thought of the Day - Credits Due

Well, I have to give due credits to the Minister of National Development for the willingness to consider my comprehensive solutions to the HDB-CPF mess and adapted some of the important policy options stated in my proposal.

Although he didn't give me due credits for my inputs for the obvious reasons, but still, I think he is sincere in solving the big mess of HDB instead of living in self denial like his predecessors, especially MBT.

For the good of our Nation's future, we need people like him who is willing to look at problems and situations objectively and apply or adapt good policy options, regardless of whether it comes from the opposition camp or not.

But one word of caution to him, my solutions provided must be looked at in totality and not in selective adoption else he will risk having incoherence in his policies.

I was quite reluctant to write that article to provide my policy options at first because these policy views are the accumulation of more than 20 years of in-depth study and understanding the HDB issues in and out, through and through.

But a friend of mine, who is helping the government in crafting housing development policies, had urged me to contribute, write, publish and share my views, for the benefits of our nation. He said the committee will take serious consideration of any good proposals and views.

After much considerations, I decided to write. The reason is simple, since Lawrance Wong has the moral courage to openly declare and correct misperception of public on HDB by declaring your HDB flat will have zero value when the 99 year lease expired, I believe that he is sincere in his approach, unlike MBT who would continue to misled Singaporeans on "assets enhancement".

I know my article was passed around the members involved in the policy committee

I would rebut PAP or anyone who claims we don't provide sensible and credible policy views or options in future. We may not earn $1 million, but we are no less talented than anyone.

Goh Meng Seng

National Day Thought

Thought of the Day

Today is National Day but I hardly find any other reason to celebrate or be happy about except for our country surviving 51 years of independence with materialistic progress.

There wasn't any great cultural achievement (well definitely can't brag about spending $800K on a Rubbish Bin!)) nor political progress in Human Rights or Democratic development to celebrate, or any social development which we could be greatly proud of. The only thing we could make consolation is the relative economic progress we had, which is tainted by the embarrassing fact that our elderly has to work either as cardboard collectors or just work to death.

The political scene in Singapore has regressed after PAP got the "strong mandate" of 70% last year and it has started to persecute dissidents by administrative harassment. It has also introduced new laws to further seal the lips of dissidents by setting out WORLD's WORST draconian Speech crime law against "contempt of court" which also include those who speaks ill of its police force's "investigation" or "harassment".

This is a BIG regression in Democratic development for Singaporeans but it seems that as a Nation and People, most of the citizenry don't really care or give a damn about it. They are more interested in how much GST rebates and handouts PAP government is going to give out each year and that's about it.

Persecution of dissidents via Speech crime is increasing but we as a Nation of 51 years did not even squeak about it.

A Nation's growth should be balanced with progress in the Four Pillars of National Development: Social, Political, Cultural and Economics. After 51 years of existence, we had only achieved a relative progress in economics but lagging behind in all other three aspects... or rather regressing in some, what is there to be really HAPPY about?

On the other hand, after decades of practicing elitism rather than true meritocracy, we are witnessing a whole lot of incompetence setting in not only in our elitist civil service but also in our crony capitalism of GLCs. But accountability, which is a vital part of meritocracy, has been thrown out of the window. Incompetency was instead rewarded generously with millions of bonuses or just another million dollar job without a brink.

Even when numerous lives were killed or affected by such incompetency, it is only worth a few warning letters! But yet, promotions were still given later just because these are some scholar elites....

The decay and rot of elitism is eminent when the disguise of Meritocracy has been blown over. However, nobody really cares. That's the main problem and illness with our Nation.

I could not wish Happiness to a sick patient with great illness but only wish it speedy recovery.

Wishing Our Nation Speedy Recovery from the Spell of Rotting Elitism with the decay of Incompetency in this 51 National Day.

Speedy Recovery Singapore.

Goh Meng Seng

National Day Message: The Tears of a Patriot

People’s Power Party’s National Day Message
The Tears of a Patriot

Singapore’s National Day is always remembered by the teary Proclamation of Independence and Declaration of Separation from Malaysia by the late Mr. Lee Kuan Yew.

Fifty years from that teary declaration of Independence, I have seen another Teary expression of patriotism on the morning of our 50th National Day. I saw my comrade and Chairman of our party, in tears uncontrollably when he walked out of Chua Chu Kang MRT station. I asked him whether something terrible has happened? He said this is not about him. After recomposing himself, he said that when he took the MRT, it was packed with people whom he doesn’t understand. There were people speaking loudly in foreign language. There was hardly any Singaporean around him. He felt terrible that this is not a country which he used to know. Thus, he was shedding tears for Singapore on this very National Day.

We started off 50 years ago to build a nation for a multi-ethnic population which aimed to create a strong National Pride and Identity. But 50 years later, we are crying for a country which we no longer recognize nor understand as One People.

We have served National Service with great pride and commitment to protect a country which we pledged to defend and die for. But in the end, we were subtly discriminated by employers who preferred to employ cheaper foreign labour substitutes because our yearly National Service call ups have become our liability instead of strength for the Nation.

On this 50th National Day, we ponder on what makes us a Nation, A United People.

This is also the first National Day we are celebrating without Lee Kuan Yew around. We also ponder on whether the current system of governance is sustainable without Mr Lee Kuan Yew around. Can this system of high concentration of powers in the hands of the few ruling elites survive well beyond Lee Kuan Yew’s death? Can Singapore prosper for another 50 or 100 years with minimum corruptions in post-LKY era?

We in PPP believe that there must be a drastic change in the system of governance whereby the separation of powers should be institutionalized in order for Singapore to ensure that we could avoid the massive abuse of power and corruptions which have destroyed many states and empires in history.

While every patriotic Singaporean is celebrating our National Day today, we also hope that we as a Nation and people could reflect on what we really want our future to look like. Do we really want 6.9 million or even 10 million population whereby some or most of us will live in underground towns? Do we really want to continue with a system of governance that allows high concentration of power? Do we want to continue with the strategy of GDP growth at all cost?

These are just some solemn points which we hope Singaporeans will ponder and reflect while we celebrate our 50th National Day.

Majulah Singapura!

Goh Meng Seng
Pro-tem Secretary General
for PPP

PM Lee is a TOTAL Failure

A month or two prior to this National Day Rally (NDR) speech of PM Lee, there was much hype about it with rumours that "Major announcement" and Major changes will be made during his speech. But in the end, it is a total let down. Apparently, PM Lee has totally lost touch of the ground and didn't really know nor understand what is expected from him and his government by the people.

The THEME of this year's NDR is supposedly to be "Honouring Pioneer Generation" and retirement financing is inevitably the hottest topic in town after the numerous CPF protests held in Hong Lim Park earlier this year, along with PM Lee suing a blogger Roy Ngern over his CPF articles. A lot of CPF issues have been brought to light and public discourse has been ongoing but PM Lee has just done a cosmetic surgery on the whole lot of issues without addressing the REAL PROBLEMS of the inadequacy of CPF for retirement financing.

Is Singapore our HOME for our Retirement?

I have the opportunities to talk to two "Foreign Talents" with regards to their choice of place for retirement. They are regarded as the "upper middle class" people with very high earnings. One of them is Director M, who is a Regional Director of a MNC, Malaysian citizen. The other is Professor D, a lecturer and head of department from a university, Hong Konger.

Both of them are in their late forties or early fifties. Both of them were having a dilemma of whether they should get Singapore citizenship and retire in Singapore. They were discussing this with me a couple of years ago but this year, it seems that BOTH have concluded that they would rather retire in their respective country or city of birth. i.e. Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Both of them do not know each other but somehow, they have come to the same conclusion that it is best for them to retire in their respective home base. Director M has been a Singapore PR for decades but after learning about the horrendous HIGH COST of healthcare services in Singapore as compared to Malaysia, he has finally decided that it is totally not worth retiring in Singapore after all.

He has a relative who was on treatment for cancer in Malaysia and he only paid Malaysian Ringgit $50 for each jab of chemotherapy! Imagine how much it will cost in Singapore? Furthermore, cost of living in Malaysia is relatively much lower than Singapore! Thus, he has decided that, despite the fact that he is pretty wealthy, he still prefers to go back to Malaysia to retire and live like a King!

Similarly for Professor D. He felt that Hong Kong has excellent healthcare system which is TRULY affordable, unlike Singapore. He said that cost of living in Singapore is really on par if not higher than Hong Kong. There is no reason for him to migrate to Singapore to suffer HIGHER medical cost since it is expected that for an aging person like him, he would have needed more healthcare for the rest of his life.

It is truly enlightening to see that BOTH people from the "Third World" and "First World" places like Malaysia and Hong Kong are shunning Singapore for "retirement". But as Singaporeans, do we have a choice at all? We are born in Singapore and we have little choice but live, retire and die in Singapore. However, under PAP rule, we are going to suffer, after decades of contributing to Singapore's development, we will die poor, having to be forced to sell off our HDB flat for our retirement.

I guess the ultimate aim of PAP has been leaked before, they wanted us to retire in JB (Johor Bahru)!

Who is responsible for CPF's inadequacy?

No matter how much PAP is going to raise the Minimum Sum for CPF, the fact still remains, despite of a high CPF contribution rate over the decades, at least 70% of Singaporeans are not going to have enough money in CPF to meet their retirement needs. Why so?

There are three key reasons why CPF has failed for its primary purpose of retirement financing.

First of all, PAP has deliberately reduced the interest returns for CPF since 1990s to a marginal amount of 2.5% to 4%.

The Second reason is that PAP has increased HDB flat prices since 1980s and it went into full steam of escalating the prices in 1990s in the name of "Asset Enhancement Scheme". This is a plot to siphon off Singaporeans' money from CPF to Main Reserves through "Land Sales" or higher "Land Pricing" for HDB flats. Of course the "Market Subsidy Pricing" logic has helped PAP to escalate the HDB prices for this purpose.

Whatever is left in your CPF is "partitioned off" for Medisave. For this money, you will never see it unless you use it to cover the ever increasing medical cost or until the day you die. Else, it will stay in the Main Reserves and kept in GIC or Temasek Holdings for their investment. Make no mistake about it, no matter how PAP tries to side track or hide the fact, the truth is, part of the funds Temasek Holdings is investing comes from our CPF monies. The high healthcare cost, hospitalization cost accompanied by long waiting time for hospital beds will negate whatever money you have in your Medisave.

It is a kind of irony that PAP tries to make you feel good with "Asset Enhancement Scheme" in order to make you pay extraordinary high prices for a PUBLIC HOUSING flat which you do not really own in essence but in the end, turn around and corner you, forcing you when you are old to sell off your flat for your own retirement needs!

PAP is the MAIN Culprit in creating the situation of inadequate CPF for your retirement financing via their flawed policies in public housing, healthcare and investment returns from our sovereign funds. But in the end, instead of addressing these issues effectively, they turn around and say the best they can do is to help you to sell your HDB flat.

Well, imagine this, first they make you pay high price for your HDB flat and then they will force you to sell your flat cheap back to them for retirement. Or force you to downgrade to some overpriced studio apartment with a limited lease when you do not have enough money for retirement.

When you are old and don't have enough cash for retirement or to pay your medical fees and you think you can approach them for help, the first thing they will tell you and aim for, is to ask you to sell off your HDB flat! Never mind if you have some fond memories attached to your home but you have to sell off your HDB flat and no, they won't provide another cheap rental flat for you to live after you sell your HDB flat.

They will ask you to pay hefty and horrendous prices again, for a small studio apartment which will have only a 30 years lease. This will technically make the value of this studio apartment unattractive because no bank will make any mortgage loan to anyone to buy a property with only 20 or 30 years lease! There is absolutely no value for inheritance by your children even though you have paid a gross $70K or $80K for such studio apartment.

Yes, they will continue to squeeze every bits from you even when you are old, retired and without a job and this is done with such a beautiful name of wanting to help you with your retirement!

They have made up a beautiful empty dream of "Asset Enhancement" to make believe that you will be rich by paying horrendous prices for your HDB flats which technically, you don't really own it. You can't even re-mortgage it if you need to when you are short of cash for anything, least, retirement. So what this talk about "Asset Enhancement" when eventually, you will be forced to sell off every assets you have? Worse still, they pray on your greed but eventually your children and grandchildren will eventually be the ones who will suffer under high HDB prices!

Inadequate Hospital Care with Squeeze You further

My mother has suffered during one of the hospitalization saga. Due to over-population and shortage of infrastructures, there will be but a total lack of C class beds which "promised" a "market subsidy" price to Singaporeans. Imagine when you are so uncomfortably in pain but you are asked to wait more than 36 hours or even 48 hours for a proper bed in the ward, UNLESS you upgrade yourself to those "less subsidize" B1 or A class wards!

Avoiding to Solve the REAL Problems

If you look at the WHOLE picture closely, it is not difficult for you to realize that the main problem lies with the Sovereign Funds, aka GIC and Temasek Holdings. They are just like a HUGE MONEY VACUUM CLEANERS, sucking lots of money into it but not giving the appropriate returns to our CPF.

When PAP raise the HDB prices, it basically justify it by the "market pricing" of the land which your flats are built on. But bear in mind that most of these land are acquired at dirt cheap prices from our forefathers. All Land Sales proceeds via SLA will go into the Main reserves and thus our sovereign funds, GIC and Temasek. At the same time, our CPF monies are transferred to these two entities via the special Singapore government bonds as well, which give a pitiful returns to our people.

The only difference is that funds that acquired from selling HDB flats to Singaporeans will bear no "burden" on these Sovereign Funds to provide returns while the CPF monies via SSGB will require them to produce return. Thus, right from 1990s, they have capped the returns to our CPF monies while increased new HDB prices. It basically means that they are reducing their obligations of providing adequate returns to our CPF as a whole. They have systematically tweak the system and fooling us into believing they are doing good to us via "Asset Enhancement Scheme" and quietly reducing returns on our CPF.

For some strange reasons, it seems that this is just not enough for them. They have also systematically dragged on the period for these Sovereign Funds to give us back our CPF monies. First, Medisave has been created and whatever money you have in this account, you won't be able to see them in broad daylight till the day you die but only be "transferred" as digits into the big black hole of high medical cost you will face in life.

I believe they will try to make it a law that whatever inheritance your children will get from your CPF, including your Medisave, will be transferred to your children CPF accounts in the near future! They have already tried to tweak the system by introducing such similar mechanism into the CPF nomination scheme as "option" but I believe they will make it "opt-out" instead for those who didn't make clear of their intentions. It just reminds me of the HOTA legislation whereby an initial "volunteer option" of organ donation has become the default choice unless you opt out.

It seems to me that they are doing everything they can to feed these monsters (GIC and Temasek) with money and trying their very best to delay any payment and thus, cash outflow from these monsters.

I do not know why they are trying everything to keep the cash in these two Sovereign Funds but apparently if this is what they are striving for, there is no reason for them to solve the three problems of Inadequate CPF for retirement financing.

1) Low CPF returns
2) High HDB price
3) High Medical Cost

What needs to be done is simply:

1) Raise the CPF returns or liberalize the system to allow Singaporeans to invest their own funds in appropriate trust funds or even directly into Temasek and GIC! To get this work effectively, basic financial management skills should be taught in our schools. If most Singaporeans are to be proficient in managing their own funds, I do not see why we should just settle for that miserable 2.5% from CPF. They could even withdraw their CPF at age 55 and manage their own funds for their own retirement if they can prove their proficiency in financial management!

2) Change the HDB pricing mechanism to Cost-plus pricing system for New Flats. This will reduce BTO prices with minimum impact on resale market.

3) Public Hospitals should remain as Public, instead of thinking making money via Medical Tourism. There should only be one class of beds with REAL subsidies to citizens. A fair Universal Healthcare Insurance should be put in place.

There are many other things that need to be looked into. eg. The CPF Life Annuity system is really a joke. I do not know whether it is just another scheme for PAP to make money or what but the payout is definitely "profit-bias". This has been explained by many other bloggers in Singapore.

Nevertheless, to solve the inadequacy problem of CPF, PAP will have to look hard at these three fundamentals first. 

Conclusion

This is where PM Lee has failed badly. He thought he could hoodwink us with such small cosmetic surgery by allowing us to request (approval is not guaranteed!!!) to withdraw part of our CPF money at 65 years old and putting up some measures for us to reverse-mortgage or sell off our flats to solve the problems created by them, in terms of inadequate CPF for retirement financing. What PM Lee should do is to address these fundamental problems that are creating a huge gap in the adequacy of our CPF which is meant for our retirement financing. It is totally a joke for a country which has a mandatory contribution rate of 36% of our gross salary but in the end, we ended up with insufficient funds to finance our retirement and most of us will be forced to sell our flats for retirement!

But I guess Singaporeans are not that stupid at all. The fundamental question we want to ask is that, will PAP take up the responsibility of providing for those who can't have enough money for their retirement? This is especially a REAL problem for many Singaporeans because apart from the above 3 main problems created by PAP, its ultra-liberal FT policy has basically depressed Singaporeans' wages over these two decades and worse of all, displaced quite a number of Singaporeans from their proper jobs. Many professionals or PMETs were forced out by cheaper Foreign labour and have no choice, to become Taxi Drivers! This will add to the difficulties for these Singaporeans to have enough savings in their CPF to cater to their retirement needs.

All in all, I have basically lost confidence in PAP's manipulation of the whole system and this is why, I do not trust them at all. Not with my CPF money. Their past and present tweaking of the CPF, HDB and Healthcare systems, on top of it, the ultra-liberal FT policy, have basically made me skeptical about their real intentions.

My gut feeling is that there is a bigger problem in this whole system which is totally opaque to us. The only way to find out is to kick PAP out of power first.

Goh Meng Seng

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

NDR 2013 : What's wrong with PAP?

I have read some comments on Facebook and there were quite a number of applause for the POLICY TWEAKS from PM Lee. Yes, it is just POLICY TWEAKS, nothing revolutionary. It is worrying that all these tweaks seem to have hoodwinked some middle ground voters to only see the impact on their compartmentalized interests instead of the overall larger picture.

There are many things I think need to be addressed but since I am no longer Secretary General of an opposition party which will need to address broadly on the various issues, I will choose to focus on two most important issues.

HDB Higher Grant is Good? 

The debate on how to reduce HDB prices have started since I have raised this issue way back in 2010. There are two main methodologies:

1) Reduce the listing prices of New HDB flats directly according to Cost-plus formula.
2) Increase HDB grants

These two methods may or may no result in the same pricing in New HDB flats. But even if they did, they will have very different implications on the whole Government budgetary situation even though the impact on those Singaporeans buying their First HDB flats is the same.

The reason is that whatever HDB pays for land used to build these new flats, will be paid to SLA and all these money will go straight into the Reserves. This is one of the reasons why PAP can keep boasting about having exceptional ability to accumulate reserves. But wait, once these money goes into Reserves, it means that it will no longer be accountable to public scrutiny as the management of reserves is totally opaque and unaccountable to anyone! (President, you say? Look at what President Ong TC got from PAP when he asked for details!) It would practically mean that if more HDB grants are given to first time buyer without direct price control on the HDB prices, all these government grants will go straight to the reserves which will be managed in a very opaque way and not accountable to parliament nor public scrutiny.

Such transfers of government funds from its current account would have severe implications on the overall budgeting. It would mean that there will be relatively smaller funds for Education, Healthcare, Transport etc as compared to no grants given at all.

This is not to say these are real "subsidies" because the PAP government still make money from the land sales which is very much higher than their purchase price through the Land Acquisition Act. 

To make comparison, let's say there is no grants given but the HDB price is already set at the Cost-plus pricing. Singaporeans will enjoy very low HDB pricing and at the same time, the government do not transfer funds into the reserves directly but could use it for Healthcare subsidies.

This is the reason why I have been advocating Cost-Plus pricing mechanism, a totally revolutionary change in the system rather than the populist (because it makes Singaporeans think that Government is giving them money or subsidies) High Grant methodology advocated by Workers Party (Gerald Giam has made the point in TOC Face Off Forum) and now adopted by PAP.

Some people raise two concerns. One is on the impact on resale market and second, how to price the land that the Government own.

For the first issue of resale market, it is absolutely untrue that a change in the pricing mechanism of NEW HDB prices via Cost-Plus pricing would crash the resale market. Put it simply, the higher grant method would have crashed the resale market if what they say is true! But this is totally untrue.

HDB resale market is totally a segregated market because the needs of the people who are buying in resale market is totally different from first time buyers in New HDB flats. A substantial percentage of buyers in resale market are PRs who cannot buy New HDB flats. Most Singaporeans who buy resale flats are mainly upgraders or downgraders who will already have a flat or property as a leverage. If the BTO pricing for upgraders or downgraders is maintained at market prices, there will be no incentive for them to shift. Some are first time buyers but they are willing to pay a premium for choosing on where they stay. Thus, it seems that the HDB resale prices are more likely to be affected by Private Property Prices, as these are direct competitive substitutes, rather than NEW HDB prices!

As for how to price the land SLA acquired, we could learn from the Germans who are good at curbing unnecessary excessive speculations in property prices. Property prices are allowed to have a 1.5% increase in value per annum , anything above that, they will be subjected to very heavy taxes. Government land can be priced according to such formula, fixed at 1% or 2% increment per year.

Heathcare: PAP's Universal Healthcare Insurance?

The next important issue is of course Healthcare. Many people start to claim that PAP has finally embraced "Universal Healthcare Insurance System" simply because it has announced to cover elderly over 90 years old. That is really a misunderstanding of what Universal Healthcare Insurance entails.

Universal Healthcare insurance will need to cater to both Bigger SCOPE and DEPTH. What PAP is trying to do is just to increase slightly on SCOPE and a little bit on DEPTH. Furthermore, as some people have already mentioned in many blogs and articles, the payout from Medishield is pathetic as compared to the amount of premiums it received. The coverage of Medishield is pathetic. Medishield is in effect, "making money" and this coincide with the fact that healthcare spending by PAP government as compared to other developed countries in terms of percentage to GDP is also inadequate.

I have actually put up the idea of Universal Healthcare Insurance in NSP GE2011 Master Manifesto but unfortunately, it was not raised as the key policy view. The concept is simple.

1) Healthcare of Citizens should be the responsibility of Citizens, Employers and Government. (GEC). Insurance premiums should be shared by these three entities in different percentages. Non-working family members should also be covered with different percentages set for GEC in premium payment.

2) Universal Healthcare Insurance should have wider coverage, allowing citizens to cover every outpatient treatment in private clinic with a list of fixed payout for various drugs, consultancy and operations. Any excess will have to be born by patients. This means that for most Singaporeans or Foreign workers covered under this scheme, they will pay minimum amount for most treatments if they go to government hospitals or clinics. But if they chose to visit private hospitals, there will be a limit of insurance coverage and they will have to pay extra for their choice of expensive medical care.

3) Foreigners working in Singapore should also pay a higher premium into ths Universal Healtcare Insurance. The rational of this is to pool risk of working foreign population in Singapore to cross subsidize an aging Singapore citizens. For Foreign workers, the government will not pay for their premiums. The Premiums should be shared by the employers and foreign employees.

4) Most of the time, there should be surplus in the pooled fund. If there is any shortfall, the government should top it up.

These are the basic structure of my Universal Healthcare Insurance scheme. It has wider Scope and Coverage.

Conclusion

If PAP didn't transfer more funds into Reserves via HDB grants, most probably it would have more funds in current account to provide more spending on healthcare.

The fundamental question we should ask ourselves, how much reserves is enough? Should we have indefinite increases in our reserves and compromised on the well being of our citizens in Healthcare?

If the policy directions are done properly, there should not be additional increase in Medishield premiums or Medisave at all. That is what is wrong with PAP. They are totally obsessed with increase in reserves, stingy on spending for the well being of citizens and thus, never ending pay and pay.

Goh Meng Seng

NSP: Response to PM Lee's Nation Day Rally Speech

We are glad to hear the Prime Minister addressing the various key problems that we have been raising for the past one year in his National Day Rally speech.

However, at closer examination, we have the following key points to make:

$60 billion for MRT infrastructure over 10 years

1. Where would the government get the funding of $60B from?

2. Will the PAP government increase the GST to 10% or raise other taxes to get additional funding? Will the public transport fares increase to finance this expenditure?

3. Will the PAP government keep to the promised time frame of 10 years? The PAP government has delayed various important infrastructure projects, like the building of hospitals as well as the Downtown line, which have resulted in the increased cost of construction. Will the PAP government promise to keep to the budget of $60B instead of allowing it to balloon out of control, just like what happened to the YOG budget?

Measures to keep Housing Affordable

1. We are very confused by the various contradictory signals that the PAP ministers have sent within these few months:

a. Late last year, Minister Mah Bow Tan claimed that housing was still affordable, and that the influx of immigrants was not a main factor causing the rise in resale prices. But now the Prime Minister has acknowledged that the influx of new immigrants has contributed to the rise in resale prices.

b. When Minister Mah put up the first few measures in March 2010 to curb rising resale prices, some Singaporeans questioned the inadequacy of such measures. Minister Mah defended his ministry’s decision and said no other measures would be necessary. But just 5 months down the road, Minister Mah has introduced more drastic measures to curb property prices.

c. In March 2010, Minister Mah claimed that the supply of flats was more than sufficient to meet any surge in demand. However it seems that his ministry must now go into overdrive to ramp up the supply of BTO flats.

d. In March 2010, Minister Mah raised the minimum occupation period for resale flat owners who take bank loans from 1 year to 3 years. Barely a few months later, the ministry is now further pushing it up to 5 years. It seems that HDB is unable to provide any policy stability at all.

e. On 26 June 2010, MM Lee said there probably isn’t any property bubble. But now, Minister Mah admits that a property bubble is in the making.


2. In December 2009, after admitting to being “caught off guard”, Minister Mah reassured us of the ministry’s ability to keep this problem of “unexpected” rise in property prices in check. Yet the contradictions as noted above clearly signal that his ministry continues to lose sight of the severity of the problem.

3. The latest drastic measures have caused unwarranted shocks to the whole system. Those who have based their purchases of HDB flats or private properties on the past policies will face great financial losses. The frequent policy changes will erode investor’s confidence in the government’s competency in dealing with such problems.

4. As long as there isn’t any fundamental change in the pricing mechanism of new HDB flats and the increasing demand of new migrants (Permanent Residents) is not effectively met by other means, we do not see how prices for both new and resale HDB flats can become affordable. NSP reiterates our stand that new HDB flats should be sold at cost price to citizens. HDB should also consider selling new flats to PR at market price so to ease the demand due to unusual increase in PR population.

Immigration Policy

1. We do not think that the Prime Minister understands the real problems caused by the huge influx of foreign labour on the ground.

2. PM Lee has raised the example of coffeeshop owners unable to find Singaporeans who are willing to work until 12a.m. and thus they need to employ foreign workers. But the truth is, to ask workers to work 14 hours or more in a day is an act of exploitation. The labour law should be applied equally on both local and foreign workers. We cannot allow employers to exploit foreign workers just because Singapore workers are unwilling to be exploited.

3. We also notice that there are firms putting up recruitment advertisement which discriminate against either Singapore citizens or races. The liberal FT policy that the PAP government has adopted is partly to be blamed for this discrimination of local Singapore citizens by businesses. This practice has to be stopped and NSP urges the government to set up Commission of Equal Opportunity and setting laws to outlaw discriminatory employment practices.

4. PM Lee has ignored the severity of the depression of wages of both middle and lower income earners due to the influx of foreign labour. There is no mention of any concrete plans to deal with this problem.

5. PM Lee may think that foreign labour will help to create jobs for Singaporeans but the reverse is also true. Many Singaporeans’ jobs have been displaced by foreign labour. The problem is so severe that engineers and managers are now becoming taxi drivers. We have invested lots of money in the education of our citizens but such displacement of jobs of foreign labour has effectively made our investment wasted. Here again, there is no mention of any concrete plans to deal with this problem by PM Lee.

6. Raising workers’ levy alone will not help much in preventing engineers and professionals being displaced by foreign labour. Raising workers’ levy will not prevent exploitation of foreign workers nor save jobs for citizens.

7. Last but not least, this liberal immigration policy has caused a serious problem of income disparity within our society. Wages of both middle and lower income earners have been depressed while some have basically lost their jobs and face underemployment or even unemployment. The widening of income gap and the diminishing of middle class are great concerns to social stability but the Prime Minister has not addressed it either.

Conclusion

Although we feel that the Prime Minister has put up a very good pre-election National Day Rally speech but we still find that the solutions that his government has provided are generally inadequate.

We must bear in mind that all the problems and issues addressed by the Prime Minister are mostly the result of oversight by the various ministries under the charge of the respective ministers. All these problems are not new and have been raised by many people including NSP over the year. These problems could be long anticipated as it is the direct result of PAP government’s deliberate policy of opening the floodgates for foreign workers and migrants to come to Singapore. These “caught off guard” ministers should be responsible and made accountable for their deficiencies.

We also note that the Prime Minister did not resorted to giving out goodies or red packets to citizens as a populist tactic to win support. We would be impressed if PAP decides to abandon its past undesirable election tactic and choose to contest the elections based on its policy views, ideas and plans instead. We would be even more impressed if PAP could put up the boundary report way before the impending general elections. It will open up a new era of healthy political competition and engagement for Singapore.

Goh Meng Seng
Secretary General
National Solidarity Party

Avoidance of Income Disparity...

Some reporter ask me what I would like to hear from PM Lee's speech and whether those key problems of Housing, Public Transport, Healthcare, floods...etc. Of course, whether PM will give out goodies.

My take is this, the problems of Housing, Public Transport, Healthcare and floods are not simple issues that could be resolved within a short period of time. The fact is, mistakes and oversights have been made by various ministries with regard to the explosive growth in population due to PAP's own FT policy. Whatever he says will not take effect immediately and solve the problems in a short period of time. Thus, most probably he will avoid them.

PAP is just too used to giving out goodies prior to GE since GCT time. Such "populist vote buying exercise" has been entrenched. I would be pleasantly surprised if LHL decided to go into GE without giving out goodies. That would mean Singapore politics will take a turn for a better change in which political contests are based on contest on ideas and strength, instead of pork barrel and vote buying politics. But I guess even if the LHL wanted that way, his party colleagues would not agree. They are just too used to such pork barrel and vote buying politics that they will pressure their leadership to continue doing it. Else, they will feel insecurity and not confident of holding their grounds.

I would want the PM to address the vanishing middle class which result in the worsening of income disparity. When PAP MPs took the signs of engineers turning into taxi driver as a consolation, this is where the problem will explode. Retail stores targeting the middle class have suffered and withdrawn in size. This is a BAD SIGN. We will end up with two extreme polar income earners which will create social tension in the mid and long term. This situation is worsen by the influx of foreign labor which displace the middle class workers or depressing their wages.

These are important issues that could not ignore. But it seems that PAP's economic discourse has always avoid this important issue altogether.

Any students of economics who study Capitalist by Karl Marx would know that such income disparity will eventually result in class struggle and instability. I just hope that our Nation would face this severe problem of income disparity with an open mind and try to resolve it before it is too late.

Goh Meng Seng

NSP National Day Message 2010

I used to write special posting for each National Day on my blog every year (well almost). Most of the time, the theme is about National Identity.

For personal "ranting" during National Day is quite straight forward. But writing a National Day message for my political party is totally another cup of tea altogether.

I have been helping my party to do the recording of our National Day Message in three languages since last year. This year, I have to do it for myself as well as my friend, Syafarin who is delivering the Malay version.

Although this message is written for my party, National Solidarity Party, but it fully reflects my sentimental at this moment on what this Nation needs to change. The truth is, I have decided to join opposition politics 9 years ago basically because of my belief that I have to change the whole political system of Singapore, for the sake of my future generations.

So here it is:

English



It has been a frustrating year for many Singaporeans.

Although our GDP has grown significantly for the past quarters but the decline in the retail sector speaks volume of the kind of growth we are getting.

Our purchasing power is either stagnant or unable to catch up with the inflation caused by various factors. Any GDP growth that doesn’t benefit Singaporeans
in terms of higher purchasing power and quality of life is meaningless. It is at best
just another justification for the ministers to increase their own pay.

On the other hand, we have to ask ourselves while our Nation achieves almost 20% growth in GDP for the last quarter but have our income achieve even half of that growth?

Besides, the cost of having such high GDP growth is tremendous. We are just increasing more and more foreign labour to achieve growth. This may result in suppressed wages for Singaporeans and at the same time, a more crowded place for everyone else.

According to our study and research, the PAP government has consciously embarked
on a very aggressive foreign workers policy to help boost the economy since 2006. However, many ministers, including the Ministers for Transport, Health and National Development are basically “Caught off Guard” by such explosive population growth.

Our public transport system could no longer cope with the excessive increase of population over such short period of time. The growth in train and bus services is lagging far behind the growth of population over the years. This results in over crowded MRT trains and buses during peak hours.

On top of that, the fares have increased for many of us since July, for as much as 7% or more!

Our HDB flat prices are shooting off the roof. HDB failed to build enough flats to cope with the population growth. The need of paying a 30 years mortgage for a simple HDB flat is definitely not a sign of affordability.

Hospital care is the most important matter of life and death. However hospital beds are in great shortage as the building of the new hospital is delayed for nearly a decade. It seems that the Ministry of Health does not plan ahead. The problem could be so acute that sometimes patients have to be left lying along the corridors of the wards!

But yet, our Prime Minister has just declared that we need another 100 thousand more foreign workers! Are we supposed to endure a further deterioration of these problems?

The recent floods that we have are creating doubts on the competency of the highly paid PAP government. We do not want to hear excuses from “once in 50 years”, “it is impossible to be flood free” to “it is an act of God”. When we are paying the world’s highest pay to the ministers, we expect such fundamental problems to be solved.

To suffer 3 or 4 floods within a couple of months is totally unacceptable to a small island that prides itself as a modern world-class city state.

All these happenings come under the charge of the world’s most expensive ministers in Singapore. We need accountability but there is none. We need proper checks and balances but there is little.

Singapore needs to progress both economically as well as politically in a balanced way. We should not just aim for some huge GDP growth at all cost. We should also build a political system whereby accountability is effectively in place.

It is time for us, my fellow Singaporeans, to reflect upon all these happenings during this National Day. We have to ask ourselves what kinds of living environment and quality of life we want for our children. High GDP growth no longer guarantees better quality of life but in contrary, lower our overall standard of living.

We also have to ask ourselves whether we want our children to inherit a political system that is based on total dominance of power by a single ruling party, which will use every means to fix its opponents and those who hold alternative views. Do we want our children to inherit a government which only demands the highest pay in the world but shy away from accountability and responsibility?

We need a change to this system and we need courage to change it.

Wishing you a Happy National Day.


Chinese



今年是一个令很多新加坡人感到沮丧的年头。

虽然我们的国内生产总值在过去几季都有显著的增长，但从零售业的衰退看来，却又完全是另一回事了。

这显示我们的购买力并没有随着经济好转而增强，根本追不上
通货膨胀的步伐。如果ＧＤＰ的增长没能使新加坡人受惠，没能提升我们的购买力和生活素质，那也是完全毫无意义的。

这也许只能为再次提高部长们的薪金制造一个漂亮的借口。
另一方面，我们要扪心自问，虽然国家的ＧＤＰ在上一季
取得了约２０％增长，但我们的薪金是否有相应的提高呢？

此外，要取得如此高的ＧＤＰ增长，我们所需要付出的代价是膨大的。为了促进成长，我们输入越来越多的外劳。但这会造成新加坡人的工资被压低。于此同时，我们的生活空间
也因此就越来越拥挤了。

根据我们的调查和研究，行动党政府从２００６年起，就刻意进行一个野心勃勃的引进外劳的计划。然而，有多位部长，包括交通、卫生和国家发展部长等，基本上却都对如此急速的爆炸性人口增长显得“措手不及”。

我们的交通系统，已没能应付在短时间内过度激增的人口。这些年以来，地铁和巴士服务已远远落后于人口的增长。这也造成地铁和巴士在繁忙时间内变得非常拥挤。然而，车资的提高却对很多人造成不满。增加的幅度可高达７％，或甚至更高。

我们的组屋售价有如冲天炮。建屋发展局在过去几年里，所提供的新组屋根本无法满足急速人口增长的需求。如果一间普通组屋，都须用３０年的时间才能还清房贷，那么，很明显的，这根本就不再是个“负担得起”的房屋政策。

医疗设施对国人的生和死是至关重要的。但是建新医院的计划
已被拖延长达１０年之久。这导致我们的医院的床位严重的不足。从这也可以看出卫生部并没有依据人口增长而实施相应的措施来应付医院床位需求的激增。情况有时可以严重到，病人必须被滞留在病房外的走廊!

然而，我们的总理却宣布我们还需要多１０万个外劳！我们还能容忍这些问题继续恶化吗？

最近发生的水灾，使我们质疑这超高薪的行动党政府
的治国能力。我们不想再听到以“５０年一遇”、“想要完全没有水灾是不可能的”或“这是天意”等借口来推卸责任的。

当我们付出全世界最高的薪金给我们的部长们时，我们便有权要求他们解决这些基本的问题。我们引以为荣的现代化、世界级小岛，竟然在短短两个月内蒙受了３至４次水患。这是我们完全无法接受的。

所有的这一些事都发生在由世界最昂贵的行动党政府管理之下的新加坡。我们需要问责，但我们却没能做到；我们需要适当的制衡，但我们拥有的却很少。

新加坡必要在经济和政治双领域下，取得平衡的发展。我们不应只盲目追求高经济增长，而不惜付出高昂的代价。

同胞们，国庆之际，正是我们反思时候。

我们应自问，我们要为新加坡创造怎样的生活环境和生活素质？高经济增长，再也不能保证我们能拥有更好的生活素质；相反的，它却会降低我们的生活水准。

我们也要自问，我们是否要我们的孩子们继承由一党独大
一党垄断的专制政治体系吗？继承一个只要求高薪但没有担当和问责的政府吗？

我们需要改变这体系。
我们更需要勇气来改变它。

祝 国庆快乐！

Malay




Tahun ini merupakan tahun yang menghampakan ramai rakyat Singapura. Meskipun GDP kita telah meningkat dengan banyaknya dalam beberapa bulan kebelakangan ini, sektor runcit yang menjunamlah yang memberi kita gambaran yang sebenar tentang pertumbuhan ekonomi kita.

Kuasa membeli kita sama ada telah mendatar atau tidak dapat menampung kadar inflasi . Sebarang pertumbuhan GDP yang tidak memberi faedah kepada rakyat Singapura dari segi kuasa membeli dan mutu kehidupan yang lebih tinggi tidak bermakna sama sekali.

Keadaan begini hanya memberi peluang kepada para menteri kita menaikkan lagi gaji mereka sendiri. Sebaliknya pula, kita mesti tanya pada diri kita – negeri kita telah mencapai hampir 20% pertumbuhan GDP bagi tiga bulan terakhir ini tetapi adakah pendapatan kita akan mencapai separuh daripada kadar pertumbuhan tersebut?

Kita harus berbelanja lebih untuk menampung pertumbuhan GDP yang begitu tinggi. Kita terpaksa menambah lebih banyak lagi tenaga asing untuk mencapai pertumbuhan tersebut. Ini bermakna pendapatan bagi rakyat Singapura akan dicantas
dan pada masa yang sama, negeri kita akan menjadi lebih sesak dengan orang asing.


Menurut kajian kami, pemerintah PAP memang dengan sengajanya memulakan pengambilan tenaga kerja warga asing ini secara melampau sejak 2006 semata-matanya untuk merancakkan ekonomi. Bagaimanapun, kebanyakan menteri kita, termasuk Menteri-menteri Pengangkutan, Kesihatan dan Pembangunan Negara, telah disentakkan dengan pertumbuhan penduduk yang mendadak.

Sistem pengangkutan awam kita tidak dapat lagi menampung ledakan penduduk yang keterlaluan dalam masa yang begitu singkat. Perkhidmatan MRT dan bas-bas begitu lembab dibandingkan dengan pertumbuhan penduduk yang semakin banyak kebelakangan ini. Ini membuat keadaan begitu sesak dalam MRT dan bas-bas pada waktu puncak. Untuk memburukkan keadaan lagi, Kebanyakkan di antara kita terpaksa membayar tambang yang lebih sejak bulan Julai ini, adanya sehingga mencecah lebih 7%.

Harga flat-flat HDB kita sudah membumbung tinggi. HDB gagal membina flat-flat yang cukup bagi menampung pertumbuhan penduduk yang begitu pesat. Sekarang kita perlu membayar duit rumah selama 30 tahun untuk sebuah flat HDB yang biasa – ini menandakan rumah bukan lagi sesuatu yang kita mampu.


Penjagaan kesihatan di hospital merupakan perkara terpenting
antara hidup dan mati. Bagaimanapun, katil-katil di hospital
sudah banyak berkurangan disebakan pembinaan sebuah hospital baharu tergendala selama hampir sedekad. Ini membuktikan betapa Kementerian Kesihatan tidak memandang jauh semasa membuat rancangan untuk memastikan pertambahan katil-katil hospital seiring dengan pertumbuhan penduduk yang melampau. Masalah ini menjadi begitu runcing
apabila ada pesakit-pesakit yang terpaksa berbaring di tempat lalu lalang di wad-wad hospital.


Nanum begitu, baru-baru ini Perdana Menteri kita mengumumkan bahawa kita memerlukan lagi 100 ribu pekerja asing! Adakah kita harus bertahan lagi dengan keadaan yang sememangnya telah begitu buruk?


Banjir yang menimpa kita baru-baru ini membuat kita tertanya-tanya tentang kebolehan pemerintah PAP yang bergaji lumayan. Kita tidak mahu lagi dengar alasan-alasan seperti “hanya sekali dalam 50 tahun”, “mustahil kita tidak dilanda banjir”, dan “ini kuasa Tuhan”. Kita harapkan perkara-perkara asas sebegini
dapat ditangani memandangkan kita membayar menteri-menteri kita gaji yang paling lumayan di muka bumi ni. Tetapi kita terpaksa mengharungi 3 atau 4 banjir dalam masa dua bulan
dan ini amat tidak munasabah bagi sebuah pulau kecil
yang mendabik dada sebagai sebuah bandar moden bertaraf dunia.


Semua ini berlaku di bawah jagaan menteri-menteri termahal dunia di Singapura. Kita perlu ada pertanggungjawaban
tetapi tiada langsung, Kita perlu ada mekanisme keseimbangan
tetapi terlalu sedikit.

Singapura perlu maju dalam kedua-dua bidang ekonomi dan politik dengan cara yang seimbang. Kita tidak harus mensasarkan pertumbuhan GDP yang besar sehinggakan mutu kehidupan kita sengsara. Kita harus ada sistem politik di mana terdapat pertanggungjawaban.

Saudara-saudara dan saudari-saudari setanah air, masanya telah tiba untuk kita memikirkan tentang perkara-perkara ini sempena Hari Kebangsaan kita. Kita perlu tanya pada diri kita – suasana kehidupan yang bagaimanakah yang kita mahukan untuk Singapura. Pertumbuhan GDP yang tinggi tidak lagi menjamin mutu hidup yang lebih baik tetapi sebaliknya, merendahkan taraf kehidupan secara keseluruhan.


Kita juga perlu tanya pada diri kita sama ada kita mahu anak-anak kita mewarisi sistem politik berteraskan kekuasaan mutlak
di bawah pemerintahan satu parti, yang akan menggunakan apa cara sekalipun untuk ‘kerjakan” lawan mereka dan sesiapa sahaja yang mempunyai pandangan yang berbeza.

Kita perlu menukar sistem sebegini dan kita perlu berani menukarnya.

Selamat menyambut Hari Kebangsaan.
Dirgahayu Singapura.

MM Lee, what are we fighting for?

A truthful view of a forumer in response to my earlier article, "Defending Our Nation's Core Values".

As an Army Officer myself, I do feel the difficulty in convincing my men next time I meet (coming very soon!) why are we spending weeks or even early a month this year to go for reservist training when what we are supposed to defend as a Nation has been trivialized as "Highfalutin ideals" by MM Lee.

The following article is written by a fellow Singaporean:

It has been a long time since I came into the coffeeshop. I must say, very little has changed since the delphi days.

I must agree with Goh Meng Seng. I am 36 this year and similar to many average Singaporeans, I am frustrated with the influx of FTs who turns out to be more FLs (Foreign Liabilities) then FTs (Foreign Talents). I am also frustrated with how the newer generation of PAP leaders seem so detached from the grassroots. How our leaders seems to have no direction and how often they focus on excuses.

However, I am really disappointed when I read in "Todays" MM Lee's response to what I view is a rallying call for the average Singaporeans and politicians alike to relook at the pledge. There seems to be an over-reaction by MM Lee in trying to put down this rallying call by viewing it as a potential challenge to how the PAP is currently ruling this country.

On one hand, I can fully understand why MM Lee's reaction as he will need to nip any challenges in the bud before it becomes a larger issue. However, on the other hand, I am sorely disappointed that at the end of the day, all the country's pledge meant nothing.

My 4 year old daughter is now in nursery. She is being taught to recite the pledge in both mandarin and english and so far she has memorised it very well. However, I question the rationale behind memorising the pledge now especially after MM Lee's speech in parliament.

I am against many of our ruling party's policies and have acted in accordance to my conscience by my vote for the opposition. My wife on the contrary voted for the ruling party because her rationale is "can we afford to let some opposition party to try when they do not have the track record?" Naturally we argued quite intensely over this issue but then finally decided it is not worth arguing. We agree to disagree.

When we are in the army, we are constantly brainwashed into believing "Duty, Honour, Country" is everything. (Yes, I am one of those ocifer whom many of the forumers here hates). We were brainwashed to the extent that we really meant what we said when we recite the "...with our lives" portion. How sad when all those brainwashing meant for nothing by a simple speech by our MM Lee.

After many years in the work force, I became very disillusioned. ICT is merely something I have to pay for having that rifle and 2 grenades in between my groin. So my mentality is just take it and pay your dues. Then around 5 years back, MINDEF conducted a 1-1 interview where they got these young NSF clerks to call us up and meet us in civilian for interviews. One of the question in that thick stack of questionnaire was "will you defend singapore if war comes."

I remembered my response. I said "If I can get my family out in time, I will not fight" Then the counter question by the clerk was why? My response was "Why should I fight for a country that treats its citizen as mere pawns and runs the country like a company where a selected few are allowed to call out the shots? Why should I fight for ideals that are not by the people, but rather for a selected and privileged few?"

I must qualify my answers then. At that time, I was very into sammyboy coffeeshop and hence my response were very influenced.

Then after a few years, came the period of time where Malaysian politicians were threatening to cut off our water supply. Surprisingly, when my peers and me chatted about these issue, the general concensus was if it is time to fight, we will fight for the nation's survival and that is a legitimate ground for fighting to retain our way of life. A lot of you may not believe this, but the patroitism at that time amongst my peers (most of us are fat and unfit reservist and likely to be used as cannon fodders to waste the enemies' ammo) was intense. Perhaps all those years of brainwashing did work subconsciously after all.

However, after MM Lee's speech in parliament, perhaps all these patriotism will be eliminated. After all, if the main driver behind modern Singapore do not even believe fully in the country's pledge, then do we have a country in the first place?

I have always believed home is where we want to make it to be. Citizenship is merely a piece of paper. Your family is what makes a home. I do agree with Sam that Singapore do not have a culture. However, we are comfortable with it and that is where we make home to be.

In the past, I have always wanted to migrate because I fell in love with the Australian outbacks. However, now after seeing my kids play with their grandmoms and the joy in the grandparents eyes when playing with them, I shifted my point of view and decided that perhaps it is not so bad staying in Singapore as the family is here.

However, I will hate to disappoint my kids if they ask me this question. "Dad, do we really mean what we say when we recite the pledge?"

It is a sad situation. Very few countries in the world have seen their leaders openly come out and say that the pledge is merely a guideline and not a belief that we should work towards. And that we should ignore any rallying calls.

It is especially disappointing when it came from a man who wept in front of public TV because what he truly believed in did not materialise.

Can we now blame the "Quitters" for a lack of identify?

Can we now ask the finger that points at others to look at the other 4 fingers that pointed back to themselves?

It is a sad speech to hear, especially from the man who believed so much in his ideals and wept when it didn't materialise.

Have a good week ahead.

The Bar Chor Mee in Eden Paradize - 伊甸园肉挫面

Translated from a Chinese Forum:

主题:伊甸园肉挫面
作者:李卖蚬 12:08pm 24/08/2009
Author: Li Mai Hum

顾客：老板，你的招牌上写着“伊甸园肉挫面，mee pok够Q、料多、新鲜又正宗“。。
Customer: Boss, your Sign Board claims "Eden Bar Chor Mee, Mee Pok very Q, plenty of ingredients, fresh and authentic"

老板：对呀，这招牌打了四十几年了。。连大明星李连杰、巩俐也来吃我们近年推出的豪华大碗肉挫 面。

Boss: That's right! We have this sign board up there for over 40years already! Even famous stars like Jet Li and Gong Li came to enjoy our latest introduction of Luxurious BIG BOWL of Bar Chor Mee!


顾客：但是hor, 我发现自从你推出豪华大碗套餐肉挫面后， 那些普通碗的用料好像少了很多，香菇不新鲜、没香味，但你用很多酱油来掩饰，肉碎又掺了肥肉太多。。很失败 。 我希望你往后做的肉挫面，不管是豪华套餐或是普通碗，都能秉持着你招牌上所写的。。

Cus: But hor, I find that ever since you have introduced that Luxurious Bar Chor Mee, you have cut back substantially on the ingredients used for those normal small bowl of Bar Chor Mee and your mushrooms are no long fresh, no more fragrance, but you use more soy sauce to make up for the taste. Your Bar Chor are mixed with excessive fat meat... very disappointing. I hope that for whichever category of Bar Chor Mee you made in future, regardless whether it is Luxurious Bar Chor Mee or just normal ones, you could keep the promise that you have stated on your signboard...


老板：小弟，你好狂妄的口气！

Boss: Hey lad, you are so arrogant!


老板：怎么能做到完全正宗呢？上回有顾客叫一碗肉挫面不要猪肝，但他没讲不要猪肝却说有讲，结果让我教训了 他一顿。。你看，有这么挑剔的顾客叫我怎么能完全做到正宗呢？

Boss: How could we possibly create real authentic Bar Chor Mee? Last time, there is one customer who want a Bar Chor Mee without Ter Kua (Pig liver) but he didn't say so, in the end, I give him a good lecture over it... you see, there are so many choosy customers around, how could I ever create Authentic Bar Chor Mee?


顾客：我指的不是这些。。

Cus: I don't mean this...

老板：招牌写的只是个抱负，又或者，让你看了感觉爽而已。。那是我们的目标，我们会Try啦。。几时做到？ 我不知道了leh！

Boss: Those words written on the signboard are just aspiration, rr just something to let you feel good after reading it! That is our aspiration, we will try lah! When we will achieve that? I dunno leh!

老板：..当初写这招牌的我那拍档已经归西去了，他是个理想主义的人，当初幸亏我把招牌修改了一点，要不然 。。

Boss: That partner of mine who wrote this signboard has passed away, he was just an idealist! Luckily back then, I did some amendments, or else...

顾客：要不然会怎样？

Cus: or else what?

老板：不然，招牌上还有”吃了不满意， 原银奉还“的字样。。

Boss: Or else, the signboard will have "Money back guarantee if you don't like it" on it...

顾客：这都不是我讲的重点，我只希望你像以往那样，用心为顾客去煮好你的肉挫面，不要忘记你招牌上的理想， 不要辜负了四十多年来支持你的普通顾客。

Cus: All these are not my main concerns. I only hope that you could just be like the past, put in more effort to cook your Bar Chor Mee, just don't forget the ideology you have written on your signboard. Just don't let down those normal customers who have supported you for all these 40 years.

老板：你这是没有根据的，我要把你带回现实。 事实上，我要你承认四十年来，我们都秉着招牌上的理想，朝着那理想改进。。不然顾客怎么还会支 持我们？

Boss: You are baseless, I have to bring you back down to earth. In fact, I want you to admit that for all these forty years, we have been improving accordingly to the ideals stated on our signboards... else, why would get continuous support from our customers?


老板：你看，我助手也承认，我的儿子也承认，我的姨妈姑姐们。。他们都这么认为。你没话说了吧 ！呵呵。。

Boss: You see! My helpers have agreed on that, so do my son, my aunts... All of them also agree on this. Do you have anything else to complain? Haha..


顾客：唉！好心叫你改进，你却听不进去。。我还是别等到以后吃到面里有屎才来"Peg Chek"，下回我只好去支持别的摊。这可真是把我带回现实 - 有竞争对顾客才会有好处滴。

Cus: Aiyah! I try to ask you to improve out of good will but it falls on deaf ears... I think I better not wait until I have shit in my Bar Chor Mee then I Peg Chek! Next time, I will just support another Bar Chor Mee stall. This really brings me back to reality -- the customers will only benefit when there is competition.


老板儿子： 你不要走、 你不要走！ 这里是伊甸园。。杀！很！大！。。

Boss' Son: Hey, come back, come back! This is Eden the Paradize...Damn!... Very big!...

Defendimg Our Nation's Core Values - Democracy, Peace, Progress, Justice and Equality

I have stared at this screen for hours before I could put my thoughts on it. The emotions and feelings within is so complex that I couldn't even find an appropriate title for this posting.

But I know I have to write this because this is a vital crossroad that our country has reached. I feel emotional because I feel that I have been cheated for over 30 years of my life for believing in the basic founding principles of our Nation.

I will never Pledge anything that is "UNREALISTIC" nor "Highfalutin". How could one Pledge to do something that he doesn't even believe in? Furthermore, I do not think that the late Mr. Rajaratnam has written our National Pledge with such "disbelief" to start with.

The PAP refuses to acknowledge that these founding principles and spirit are the key guiding stars of our Nation's development. The reason is simple, they could not answer for their deeds for the past 44 years that have deviated away from these CORE VALUES.

PAP may want to argue its way out of its shameless pervasive acts of extending its monopoly of power which has slowly eroded the fundamental values which this Nation has been founded upon. But there is not a single doubt that the Pledge, as well as our National Flag, have enshrined and embedded all these values permanently to remind us, the present and future generations that what this Nation should be striving for.

Our National Flag, unlike the Pledge which sound like empty words to PAP's ears, is the most important representation of our Nation.

The National Flag symbolizes the following:

Red symbolises universal brotherhood and the equality of man, while white signifies pervading and everlasting purity and virtue. The crescent moon represents a rising young nation. The five stars stand for the nation's ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.

EQUALITY appears TWICE in this elaboration of what our National Flag symbolizes. But yet, our PAP ministers have just brush it aside as "UNREALISTIC"?

Words of the Pledge could be so twisted or even ignored by the PAP but I think the Five Stars on our National Flag are not something that the PAP could deny altogether. Yes, the National Flag has specifically enshrined "DEMOCRACY, PEACE, PROGRESS, JUSTICE AND EQUALITY" as "the nation's ideals". It is not just mere "aspirations", so to speak.

Our attention should not be diverted by the racial cards flashed by PAP. Equality comes in many forms and helping minority races who might have been disadvantaged in certain ways are not discrimination but affirmative actions to provide level playing field to achieve equal opportunities for all. Some bloggers have dealt with this issue and I shall not repeat it here. The key issue here is whether we should discard all these Core Values as the guardians of this Nation.

Both the Pledge and National Flags are the creation of PAP itself as it was the dominating ruling party since Singapore was forced into independence. These ideals are the very Promises that PAP has made to Singaporeans; to uphold the ideals of Democracy, Peace, Progress, Justice and Equality. We, as a nation and a people have accepted these values as the CORE VALUES and IDEOLOGIES for our Nation building. We should hold any ruling parties, especially PAP, past, present or future, accountable to these fundamental principles. It is not just about Racial equality but the whole set of CORE VALUES.

To illustrate this important point, let's say if a political party took over as Singapore's ruling party but suddenly it decides to turn Singapore into a monarchy. Or turn Singapore into a Religious based country. Or that it decides to change the Constitution to follow the China's style of political system and declare that this political party will forever be the Ruling Party while the parliament will be filled with appointed or even "elected" people's representative because we are Asian country and we should follow "Asian political system". Or this ruling party promotes apartheid policies under the excuse of "stability"...

Should Singaporeans just accept the excuse of such ruling parties that the founding values embedded in our Pledge as well as our National Flag as "UNREALISTIC" and it is only "REALISTIC" for us to become a country ruled by a religious doctrine or a monarch or full dictatorship etc.?

Of course not! Thus, these values are not just "aspirations", so to speak, but CORE VALUES and guiding principles of this Nation! Singaporeans should revolt against such ruling parties who try to distort our Constitution and rule against the founding principles of this Nation!

Thus, we should not belittle such Ideals and Principles embedded in our Pledge and National Flag by branding them as "aspirations" or "unrealistic highfalutin ideals". These are the guiding lights of our Nation, without which, we will be endangering our Nation to be destroyed by dictatorship or religious fanatics.

I have specifically put up the idea of reciting the National Pledge during the last election rally at Serangoon Stadium during last General Elections basically because I find it necessary to remind all Singapore voters what we are fighting for. What direction our Nation should develop into and we should not be blinded by those "pragmatic talks" of PAP politicians about the "unnecessary hassle" of having "opposition MPs" in parliament.

A political system without the balance of opposition force within will definitely slip into total dictatorship. Anyone who tries to sell you the idea that Democracy could well be alive even without opposition parties are dictators under the cloak of fake Democracy. Anyone who tries to sell you the idea that "Nominated MPs" could do all the magic of what real opposition MPs can do, is trying to hoodwink you into believing that Democracy could well work with "appointed MPs". There are two political systems that work this way in Asia: China and North Korea. Both are communist countries. Is Singapore working towards that direction?

It seems that PAP is trying out that formula and they are openly and deliberately saying it out loud of such intention recently in their Party newsletter, Petir. That article actually claims that we could well have Democracy without opposition parties! Singaporeans should raise their awareness and be guarded of such subtle but bold intention of PAP in selling such twisted idea to us.

All along PAP leaders have been saying that "Western Democracy" is not suitable to Singapore. What is the intent of such political discourse? PAP leaders have been saying that the American two party system is not suitable for us, least the multi-party parliamentary system. In numerous occasions, PAP leaders have stressed that Singapore should have only one DOMINATING RULING PARTY by default, PAP,to survive. PAP's intention to maintain its TOTAL Monopolistic grip on power is very obvious. Is this why they are not wary of bringing up the Pledge as the guiding ideology of Singapore now?

Are they planning to further enhance the idea that Nominated MPs should replace elected MPs and thus opposition parties should be made redundant? Or would they do away with elections altogether and promise to nominate at least certain number of opposition members into parliament? This would suit their "ideal" of having PAP as permanently the dominating ruling party! All under the pretext that the idea of "Democracy" is "UNREALISTIC" or "IMPRACTICAL" for Singapore's economic progress?

These changes may not be made so soon but history has shown that PAP would go all the way to change the rules of the game if the situation is not in their favor. They have implemented the GRC system after losing two parliamentary seats in 1984. They would further increase the size of GRC when they nearly lost Eunos GRC in 1988. Needless to say, they would alter the electoral boundaries of constituencies just to lower the chance of them losing more seats. GRC is their fortress of Power monopoly.

I do not know what they will change next if they finally lose one or more GRCs! To get rid of general elections altogether and promise more NOMINATED MPs in return? If that happens one day and Singaporeans just let it happens without a fight, it would be the end of Democratic Singapore founded upon the fundamental principles and ideology of Democracy, Peace, Progress, Justice and Equality. A new era of total dictatorship will dawn upon us.

To end this article, which may make me the target board of PAP machineries hereafter, I would like to share the following song with all true blue Singaporeans who are determined to defend and develop democracy in Singapore.



Goh Meng Seng

信约是个什么东西？ What is a Pledge?

This is a comment of a Singaporean (冀居·谢) in a Chinese Forum. Excellent dissection. I shall write on what my views on this issue of Pledge.

Goh Meng Seng

主题:信约是个什么东西？
作者:冀居·谢 10:06am 20/08/2009

三分染房 之

信约是个什么东西？

2009.8.20


去了一个萧锦鸿来了一个维斯瓦（Viswa Sadasivan），使我想起孙文的名言：“世界潮流浩浩荡荡，顺之则昌，逆之则亡。”他所指的潮流就是民主政治。看来官委议员制度接下来应该还有很多微调和改革的空间。

维斯瓦的动议设计得十分狡黠，就刚巧在国庆之后，高调宣读信约之余温尚未散去，人们发现原来执政党并不能够根据信约的原则来治国，很好笑，是不是？

黄永宏说：词藻优美的歌词或信约不足以确保国家生存繁荣。李资政说破给大家听：拉惹勒南和他共同撰写并修改的信约，原来是一个平等主义的画饼。他认为平等原则并非现实也不实际。既然如此，政府早该丢弃这个骗人的信约，为什么还要大家在国庆日庄严宣誓呢？害得李慧玲的老爸老妈都受骗。

李光耀说：“信约是什么？是种意识形态（ideology）吗？不是，那是个抱负（aspiration）。我们可能实现吗？我不知道，但我们必须一直努力尝试。我们是个国家吗？是转变中的。”

根据马克思主义者对意识形态的定义，我们的信约绝对是意识形态，因为它符合这个：由社会中的统治阶级对所有社会成员提出的一组观念（a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society）。李资政说的“抱负”，是一项长期并最终要实现的东西，但是国民信约如同早报报人所理解的那样，那是我们在“起跑点”时唬人的东西，是出于政治考虑的建国理念，是件旧包袱。加上部长所说的为了继续繁荣富强而不能够去实践，那么这个抱负根本没有动机和理由要国人去信守，是个虚无缥缈，浮在云端的东西，李光耀要把“国会带回现实”（bring the House back to earth），是不是再一次骗人了呢？维斯瓦这招“以子之矛攻子之盾”简直太绝了！咱们的两位资深反对党议员，等着领退休金，什么事都不干了，嘘！

那我们退而求其次，不当信约是意识形态，就当它是个盟誓好了。当年刘邦打败秦朝，因为秦朝太多严刑峻法，为了与民休养生息，刘邦只和灞上的父老约法三章：杀人者要处死，伤人者要抵罪，盗窃者也要被判有罪，如此而已。但是接着下来，汉朝统治天下的时候，约法三章应该有个时效，过期了就失效。还是继续告诉人民，国家只和他们约法三章，实际上什么法都进来，那就是欺骗人民了。

盟誓也未必是抱负，因为盟誓有时为了一己之私，是个临时的苟合：为了实现XX之幸福，共同努力。它也可以是非道德的，如《投名状》最著名的信约：“抢钱、抢粮、抢娘们！”只要目的达到，大家以后发财立品，过去的荒唐事也就别提了。

陈振泉在参与辩论时指出，维斯瓦忽视了政府政策所附带的责任与义务。因为一个负责任的政府在制定政策时，必然是以顾及人民的利益为出发点。这么说来，如果我们根据信约的内容来制定政策，反而会伤害人民的利益！？拉惹勒南误国误民，罪该万死。周殊钦说：“陈振泉把国会带回现实中的一席演讲，立时把我的思绪从天花板上拉回到现实世界。就在我‘脚踏实地’地离开记者席之前，就听到议事大厅里传来赞赏陈振泉令人信服演讲的零星掌声。我在想，其实议员们给他的掌声可以更热烈、更响亮些。”——这马屁准准拍在屁股上，因为看法和李资政不相伯仲。

他们可以相信李显龙在国庆群众大会充满隐喻地说我们种族和谐伊甸园已经成立——“不要走、不要走，杀很大！”，却认为维斯瓦的“公正平等”提议不切实际？更甚的是，强烈要求实践“信约精神”倒成了里通外国的洋奴，因为要把西方的那一套搬进国情特殊的新加坡。请问部长先生，信约是谁写的？

“65后”hiphop议员柏默说：“事实上，维斯瓦先生今天能够不畏后果，站在这里畅所欲言，就否定了所谓‘恐惧氛围’或‘担心报复心理’的存在。而我的反驳，也是民主进程的体现。”—— 他忘了那是议员的特权，一般人是享受不到的。当年惹耶勒南就是太享受这个特权，使到执政党在86年8月通过“国会（特权、豁免和权力）法修正案”，亦可谑称为“惹耶勒南修正案”，专门用来对付敢严词批评的反对党议员。还有执政党国会领袖马宝山近年进行的国会发言程序和时间的改革，官位越大发言时间越长和更自由，都在在使到国会有他讲没你讲（早报也不让维斯瓦的完整言论和读者见面）。维斯瓦先生不知要轮到什么时候，才可以进行反驳？极有可能这个处女秀也成了他的天鹅之歌了。

What PM Lee did not address in his NDR speech...

The following message has been posted on the internet forum today. This is a common outcry from many people, not only those in their 40s but now, even those in their 20s and 30s.

While Mr. Lee Kuan Yew tried his very best to address this touchy issue of Foreign Talent Policy which drew many sarcastic and even talk back remarks in the internet forums (of course SPH would not report on such responses), his son, Prime Minister Lee, chose to skip this issue altogether.

Religious harmony issue isn't the main key concern of True Blue Singaporeans now as it was 40 years ago. It may still be a sticky issue to those NEW citizens who have yet to get used to the compact multi-racial living environment, but I do not think those who are born in Singapore and live through most of their lives here have any problems with their other race residents at all.

The main key tension in our society now is about losing jobs to CHEAP FOREIGN LABOUR SUBSTITUTES. We will welcome REAL FOREIGN TALENTS who could do jobs that Singaporeans may not have the expertise in, so that we could learn from them. We would not have any problem to even pay them more in terms of salary because they have the skills that we don't have. But there so many thousands, even tens of thousands of Singapore workers who are displaced by CHEAPER FOREIGN LABOUR that it is becoming a very common talking point of the town!

This is the main key point of grievances of Singaporeans nowadays. It is impossible for us to accept that kind of pay that they are paying these foreign workers basically because we have a house mortgage and a family to support in this high cost city!

Ironically, the influx of foreign talents have affected the property prices in Singapore as well. They have even affected the prices of new HDB flats! The HDB's pricing mechanism of "market subsidy" is totally flawed. Foreign workers who have become Permanent Residents increased demand on the HDB resale market. But the supply in HDB resale market is pretty stagnant basically because Singaporeans bought their HDB flats to live, not to invest, speculate or for resale. Thus we have witness the HDB resale price being sticky upwards even during this recession basically because the supply is stagnant while the demand keeps pressure up by NEW Permanent Residents.

In the end, the prices of NEW HDB flats which are basically meant for Singaporeans are kept in high price levels when it is pegged against the resale market prices. With such pricing mechanism, the Foreign Talent Policy has contributed to higher HDB prices, Lower wages and it makes young people to think twice before getting marriage. And when Singaporeans are not getting married earlier and have less babies, PAP insists that we need even more Foreign workers! This will become a big vicious cycle in the end!

Apparently the Prime Minister and his Cabinet do not have a solution to reverse this vicious cycle and thus refrain from mentioning about the SOCIAL and HOUSING problems created by their Foreign Talent policy. But such ostrich attitude will not keep the problems away. It will become more serious in the years to come but no one knows when will be the boiling point.

Goh Meng Seng



----- Original Message -----
From:
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 1:03 AM
Subject: RE: Bitter guy blogs about it


I am an engineer. Over the past year, I have been squeezed out of my job by cheaper Chinese, Malaysian and Indian engineers.

To them, $2000 is much when they remit back home.
To me, I can’t even afford a HDB, as frugal as I try to be, because the foreigners keeps driving home prices up on a daily basis.

To add insult to injury, more of the foreign graduates replacing me had their university fees paid by our very own Ministry of Education. These graduates were not only given free college education, they were even given a month allowance of few hundred dollars each. While I had to work part time to support my education in NUS, and I still remain in debt to my student loan. (BITTER LAUGH!!!!).

I spent 2.5 years of my precious youth serving the SAF, during which I lost my first girlfriend during training. These foreigners were given PRs and citizenship in less than 2.5 years and they don’t even need to serve.

If war breaks out, I have to protect 1/3 of the population filled with these people?? (Assuming they dun run away at the 1st sign of trouble??!!) SAF even sent me a letter threatening to fine me for going overseas without telling them…to attend a funeral of my uncle…(BITTER LAUGH!!!!).

Hey, here’s an idea, why don’t I migrate to another country before migrating back. That will save me more time!

I am working in odds jobs now 7 days a week. I am now almost 30 already. Inflation exceed my savings rate, and I find a home, marriage, kids and happy future beyond me. A simple illness or a year of unemployment could wipe me out. Yet the government is wondering why there are less marriages and births….(BITTER LAUGH!!!!)

I bear no love to my country now. My country does not need to be attacked, it has already be invaded and taken over.

NSP National Day Message 2009 English, Chinese & Malay

NSP National Day Message 2009



As Singapore continues moulding its nationhood, it must evolve into a unique entity worthy of recognition at the world stage. However, after 44 years of endeavour, there is little culture of significance that we can truely claim our own. Although we do possess notable physical and materialistic achievements, the essential social glue that binds and bonds our still fragile, multi-racial society together, has been considerably diluted in recent years.

The overblown hype on the alleged cohesiveness and perseverance of the nation is only a half-truth at best. One only has to sit in any heartland coffee shop to listen to the Peoples' general frustration with life. There appears to be little passion for patriotism, because the People seem to be saddled with fear, insecurity and confusion. There is apparently little precious love for this little red dot of an island.

The Authorities have continued to confuse the People with its antics. As if to preserve the existence of an underclass, the Authorities are seen to promote price increases indirectly amidst falling wages, and also to welcome foreign workers amidst growing unemployment. Coupled with a host of other faults inherent of a non-homogeneous society, the mounting stress pushes one to question the actual value of citizenship.

Housing and healthcare costs have been inflated substantially over the decades, thereby reducing CPF savings. This has resulted in serious deficiency of funds for retirement financing which is supposed to be CPF’s primary function. On the other hand, insufficient attention was allocated to job preservation which is a constant worry for the young and middle-aged. The anxiety is further enhanced with the flood of foreigners invited in as cheap labour substitutes, coupled by the lack of a comprehensive social welfare for the unemployed. These have caused considerable distress. In the earlier years, there were hardly any citizens living off the streets without a roof over their heads. But nowadays, it has become quite common.

Consequently, more and more citizens have migrated to less stressful pastures abroad with each passing year. And in a simplistic attempt to make up for the lost numbers, more foreigners are invited in to this already crowded country. How does one march into the future, full of fear and insecurity? Especially when the Authorities themselves appear to be hapless in the face of the current economic downturn, despite their self-anointment of being the best. Apart from breaching the social contract by delaying CPF withdrawals, the Authorities can only promise “more hard years” instead, as they do not have adequate provisions for the Peoples’ welfare.

After 50 years under a solo, authoritarian leadership, Singapore can only project a somewhat vague national identity. There is hardly any local song, language, food, fashion or cultural trait with which Singaporeans can truly identify with its nationality. The failure to develop a strong and proper sense of belonging amongst the People can be traced to a number of official policy lapses.


A new British survey recently placed Singapore at 49th position in its Happy Planet Index. 14 Asian countries including 6 ASEAN ones were ahead of Singapore despite its having “achieved” a First World ranking years ago. This high level of unhappiness amongst the People is very tangible. It is therefore imperative for the Authorities to attend to and address it on a national level, instead of subverting it with some pompous and costly celebrations.

The Americans elected their 44th President, based on the philosophy of change. Likewise, Singaporeans should welcome their 44th National Day with a strong aspiration for change in our local political structure. Singapore must have genuine policies to serve its national interests, and not vested ones. Let this National Day remind all Singaporeans of their duties to protect and preserve the nation of their birth. Majulah Singapura!


Ken Sun

Secretary General




国民团结党的国庆日献词2009



在新加坡继续塑造她的国民意识之际，她也必须演变成一个在世界舞台上值得被认同的独特体制。然而，经过了44年的努力后，我们仍然缺乏真正能自成一格、举足轻重的新加坡文化。虽然我们在物质和硬体上都取得了显著的成就，但我们的多元种族社会仍然脆弱。能使我们的社会更具凝聚力和向心力的必要元素，在过去几年来已逐渐被削弱了。

官方管道声称我们的国家具有团结一致和持之以恒的精神。这只是在高喊口号，事实并非如此。我们只需走入任何邻里咖啡店就能听到人们诉说他们对人生感到很无奈。国民的爱国热忱似乎少之又少。因为他们都活在恐惧、不安和困惑的阴影下。人们显然无法珍惜和爱戴这称之为“小红点”的岛国。

不幸的是，有关当局还是继续以它的伎俩让人民感到困惑无助。它似乎要保留着贫困阶层，在薪金不断下降、失业人士日趋上升的今时今日还间接提倡物价的上涨并且继续毫无节制的欢迎外来劳工。再加上我们这多元社会已蕴含了很多瑕疵，这股日积月累的压力不禁催促我们质疑新加坡公民权的真正价值。

过去几十年来，屋价和医疗费的显著上涨，致使公积金储蓄不断的减少。这歪曲了公积金原本的宗旨，导致退休金陷入严重短缺的局面，使大多数国人无法舒适的安享晚年。

另一方面，政府并不重视保留工作给国人的重要性，这给年轻人和中年人带来持续不断的隐忧。再加上政府邀请外国人蜂拥而来充当廉价替代劳工以及失业人士欠缺全面性的社会福利，人们的焦虑感因而直线上升，国民情绪逐现忐忑不安。在建国初期，很少国民会流浪街头、无瓦遮头，可是这种局面如今是越来越普遍了。

这种种因素导致越来越多国人每年移民到生活压力较低的国家。政府为弥补国人流失的数量，不假思索地邀请更多外国人进入这已经很拥挤的国家。

在恐惧和不安的笼罩下，我们该如何迈向未来呢？虽然有关当局把自己冠为最优秀的领导者，但目前的经济萧条却让他们显得束手无策。除了延后国民提取公积金的年龄而违反了他们跟人民早已制定的社会契约之外，“未来的路更艰难”是他们唯一能许下的承诺。这全都因为他们再也无法提供充分支援以保障人民的福利。

新加坡在独裁和专制的政府统治了50年后，也只能呈现模糊的国民意识。新加坡人没有任何能真正能勾起国家认同感的本土歌曲、语言、食物、时尚或文化素质。社群里之所以无法塑造坚韧不拔的真正归属感，其缘由可追溯到好几项官方政策的失误。

根据英国最近进行的一项调查，新加坡在快乐地球指数上排名第49。其中有14个亚洲国家，包括6个亚细安国家，已经超越了在几年前达到发达国家等级的新加坡。人民的极度不快乐情况是非常真实的。因此，有关当局必须刻不容缓地处理这种全国隐忧，而不是通过铺张和昂贵的庆典加以掩饰。

美国人根据改革的理念选出了他们的第44任总统。同样的，新加坡人应该怀抱着本地政治架构能脱胎换骨的强烈意愿来迎接新加坡44岁国庆的到来。新加坡应该有真实良好的政策来推动国家的利益，而不是既得利益。希望今年的国庆节能让全体新加坡人铭记他们保护和捍卫祖国的义务。前进吧，新加坡！

孙祥凯
秘书长



AMANAT HARI KEBANGSAAN 2009 PARTI PERPADUAN NASIONAL (NSP)



Ketika Singapura terus dipupuk untuk menjadi sebuah bangsa majmuk, ia harus merencanakan agar menjadi sebuah entiti unik yang patut diiktirafkan di persada pentas dunia. Selepas 44 tahun mencapai kemerdekaan, Singapura berkembang dan bilangan asset kita bertambah sehingga apa yang kita perolehi membolehkan kita berasa bangga atas pencapaian selama ini. Namun begitu, pencapaian kita belum pasti menjadi kenyataan selagi ikatan akrab antara berbagai bangsa masih belum sempurna dan ianya seringkali dibelengu berbagai masalah kebelakangan ini.


Berat mata memandang, berat lagi bahu yang dipikul. Jikalau kita dapat bersembang dan mendengar rintihan masyarakat di kedai –kedai kopi, kita akan sedar bahawa terdapat perasaan kurang yakin pada setiap anak watan Singapura. Jiwa mereka bergelodak dan penuh tanda tanya mengenai kurangnya sikap keperihatinan terhadap negara, masyarakat dan jiran tetangga. Air yang tenang jangan sangka tiada buaya; begitulah perasaan gementar, kurang senang dan kurangnya kepercayaan terhadap bangsa majoriti di Singapura.



Apa yang diperjelaskan oleh pemerintah mengenai keaadaan ekonomi Singapura sekarang hanya mengelirukan masyarakat. Runtuhnya ekonomi sejagat bukan dek perbuatan pekerja, tetapi ekonomi yang diperkotak-katikkan oleh kuasa kuasa sejagat. Kenaikan harga barangan disebalik potongan kadar gaji hanya akan menjejas masyarakat kita. Tambahan lagi, dengan kehadiran pekerja pekerja asing, ianya hanya memburukkan lagi keupayaan masyarakat untuk mendapatkan pekerjaan. Sudahkah tibanya masa untuk pekerja pekerja asing membanjiri Singapura dan dimana letaknya hak kita sebagai warga negara Singapura?



Kos-kos bagi perumahan dan kesihatan telah menghadapi kadar inflasi yang tinggi semenjak beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini. Ia telah menyebabkan kadar simpanan CPF berkurangan. Ia juga telah menyebabkan kekurangan dana yang serius untuk membiayai masa persaraan yang sepatutnya menjadi tumpuan utama CPF.



Pada masa yang sama, tidak cukup perhatian yang diperuntukkan bagi mengekalkan pekerjaan yang menjadi kebimbangan tetap golongan muda dan juga pertengahan usia. Kebimbangan ini bertambah terutama sekali pabila ramai pekerja asing telah diundang untuk menjadi pekerja murahan. Kurangnya perhatian kepada kebajikan sosial bagi mereka yang mengganggur telah menyebabkan kesengsaraan yang berlebihan. Dalam masa 20 tahun pertama pembangunan negara, kita tidak pernah sesekalipun mendengar mengenai rakyat Singapura yang terpaksa hidup merempat, tetapi ia telah menjadi masalah yang biasa pada hari ini.


Selama empat dekad ini, kita telah menyaksikan kenaikan perangkaan anak Singapura berhijrah ke negara asing, mencari kehidupan yang penuh bermakna, samaada mencari pekerjaan mahupun keinginan untuk mencapai kehidupan yang lebih berkualiti dengan kadar perbelanjaan yang minimal. Namun begitu, pemerintah asyik mengalu-alukan kehadiran rakyat asing untuk mengisi kerakyatan Singapura, walaupun menyedari masalah keakraban masyarakat yang wujud di negara ini.



Bagaimanakah kita hendak maju sedangkan kita sering dibelengu perasaan ketidak-pastian dan kurang keyakinan. Langkah langkah yang diambil pemerintah belum pasti dapat mengeluarkan kita daripada krisis ekonomi sekarang ini, sedangkan kita sering berbangga yang Singapura sering menduduki tangga pertama dan terunggul di berbagai bidang. Setelah 50 tahun berada di bawah pemerintahan kuku besi, Singapura hanya setakat mampu untuk mempersembahkan identiti nasional yang samar-samar sahaja. Sebenarnya kita tidak boleh megakui bahawa kita mempunyai lagu, bahasa, makanan, fesyen mahupun budaya yang boleh dikait rapat dengan negara kita.

Satu kajian terbaru pihak British telah meletakkan Singapura ditangga yang ke 49 di dalam indeks Happy Planetnya. 14 negara ASIA, termasuk 6 daripada rantau ASEAN berada di hadapan Singapura, walaupun kita telah mencapai kedudukan negara dunia pertama beberapa tahun yang lalu. Kadar yang tinggi ketidak-bahagiaan di kalangan masyarakat dapat dirasai. Jadi, sudah perlu bagi pihak berkuasa untuk melakar dan menghuraikan isu ini di peringkat nasional, daripada mengelakkannya dengan mengadakan sambutan-sambutan yang membazir dan tidak berfaedah.

Rakyat Amerika telah memilih Presiden yang ke 44 mereka dengan dasar falsafah bersifat PERUBAHAN. Seperti mereka juga, masyarakat Singapura harus menyambut Hari Kebangsaan yang ke 44 ini dengan aspirasi dan azam yang kuat untuk melakukan perubahan ke atas struktur politik kita. Singapura harus mempunyai polisi-polisi yang tulen untuk berkhidmat atas kepentingan nasionalnya, dan bukan sekadar tanggung jawab yang diadakan secara mutlak (vested ones).

Marilah kita sama-sama mengambil kesempatan di Hari Kebangsaan ini untuk mengingatkan masyarakat akan kewajipan kita untuk mempertahankan dan melindungi tanah air kelahiran kita ini.

MAJULAH SINGAPURA!!!