A string of question marks regarding Singapore’s national issues
September 9th, 2010 | 
Author: Author: 黑马非马 (Read Original Article HERE)
Translated by: SgVolcano
1. PM’s speech doesn’t scratch the itchy part
A lengthy speech, a lot of hooha but without substance, the content of the NDP speech by our PM was all about reminiscing the past glories and not a word on how to solve the livelihood difficulties and how to sooth the increasingly loud grouses coming from the public. Hence it is not difficult to understand why the Chairman of the Reform Party, Mr Kenneth Jeyaratnam has expressed his disappointment. He criticized that the PM only knew how to praise the effectiveness of his government’s policies during the important event of the NDP rally speech, but did not make use of this opportunity to discuss about the real problems facing Singapore. In actual fact, many people also shared Kenneth’s thoughts. During the meet-the-people session organized by the grassroots leaders, the PAP “Reach” has found that out of 100 participants, there were as many as 60 participants who raised their hands to express their unhappiness at the PM’s NDP speech. The PM’s NDP speech has not only failed to “scratch the itchy part”, it has also failed to win over the hearts of the people.
Kenneth said that, the open immigration policy of the government, has affected the local workers, resulting in as many as 400,000 locals receiving job credit. Singapore is an eerie country, it has a unique culture of “unemployment being never a problem nor a national issue”. The government’s policies have always adhered to the strict principle of “there is no free lunch in this world”. Hence the unemployed in Singapore, always have to pray for their own life, and not expect that the government will offer them any assistance. But what is eerie is that out of 3.23m people, as many as 400,000 people cannot earn enough to make a living, and have to rely on the government’s workfare credit. This is really alarming.
NSP secretary-general Goh Meng Seng said, the influx of foreign labour has depressed wages of low and middle class workers. A lot of citizens’ jobs have been replaced by foreign labour and the loose immigration policy of the government has also resulted in a serious income gap between the rich and the poor. GMS said, the widening of income gap and the reduction in the middle class population will affect the stability of the society. But the PM did not mention about this problem. The total population of Singapore is 5.08 million, of which 3.23 m are citizens, 0.54 m are PRs, and non-citizens are as high as 1.31m. Actually immigration and foreign labour should never be an issue. First of all, immigration solves the danger of a shortfall in Singapore population. Secondly, foreign labour solves the bottleneck in Singapore’s economic development. If this is planned well, it should be a win-win policy. But, under the leadership of those mercenary leaders who came into parliament only by virtue of the GRC bandwagon, Singapore adopts profit margin as top priority, exploits cheap foreign labour to develop the country, and at the same time, make use of foreign labour to depress the wages of workers at the lower rungs of society. This is why employed workers still have to rely on the government’s workfare credit.
2. GCT is trying to deflect the focus and create a smokescreen
When most of the Singaporeans are up in arms, and do not agree with the PM’s explanation regarding the policies about immigration and foreign labour, GCT tried to deflect the focus and create a smokescreen at the same time. He urged those unhappy Singaporeans to show more care and concern for the poor. This kind of tactic, which is an inversion of cause and effect, attempts to shift the government’s responsibilities to the powerless people. Think about it, he who was our ex-PM, and is now our current SM, and who earns SGD 4 million per year, why must he make such pointless sarcastic comments when the people are in need of help?
During the 25th anniversary dinner of NUH, SM Goh pointed out that prevention and comprehensive medical treatment are 2 important things which must be achieved for our healthcare system. But at a time when the medical costs have skyrocketed, it is hard to imagine that our SM Goh is actually glad that our Singapore government has successfully pushed the responsibility of our healthcare system to the people, by stressing that healthcare is an individual responsibility. Hence, Singapore has avoided the limitations of its healthcare system and services. To put it more correctly, Singapore’s responsibility towards the healthcare of its citizens is much lower than most developed nations. A government which is the most well-paid in the world, but prides itself in reducing the healthcare responsibilities of its citizens to the bare minimum, that is indeed a rarity!
3. Zaobao article which showcased a model example of foreign talent.
To complement PM Lee’s NDP speech, Zaobao has published today, a few articles about foreign talent. Being regarded as the model example of foreign talent, husband and wife Khoo Peng Beng and Belinda Huang are the architects responsible for designing Singapore’s highest HDB block (Pinnacle@Duxton). Just as what was rumoured on the web, the wife has become a SG citizen while the husband is a PR who still retains his original nationality. It is without a doubt that they are stepping on 2 boats with 1 leg (having the best of both worlds).
Actually, everybody has his own ambitions. Since the original motive was for making money, then it is only natural that one is always prepared to do anything for money, we cannot blame people on that. But the problem is, this couple advised Singaporeans to view Singapore from the perspective of “foreigners”, to get re-acquainted with Singapore’s characteristics and advantages, and not to fall into a situation where one cannot see the advantages and disadvantages of Singapore just because of over familiarity. You are right. You are not able to see the true view of the mountain, just because you are on the mountain itself. As the saying goes, just like a fish drinking water, only the fish knows whether it is cold or warm. If you are not Singaporean, how do you know the sadness of our lives in Singapore?
How can a Singaporean look at Singapore from the point of view of a foreigner? Foreigners flock here for money and leave here when they have earned enough. They are just people in transit, how can they be compared with Singaporeans who are born, bred and would eventually die here, and whose success or failure are tightly tied to the success or failure of Singapore?
4. The Zaobao article makes people blur
An article in the Zaobao today, makes people feel very blur. “The crowdedness of the MRT – is it a good thing or a bad thing?” This topic is just a like an assembly line factory, the process is stuck and the productivity drops and becomes slower. Now, is it a good thing or a bad thing? Transport is a system, and the MRT is one of the means of transport, and it occupies an important position in the whole transport system. But the MRT as a transport system, if the MRT is overcrowded, that means there is a flaw in the system itself, it is a very obvious defect. Now why would anybody shamelessly declare that crowdedness is an achievement?
This article is obviously echoing the same view that we are the victims of our own success. OK, there is no right and wrong in this world, where there are benefits, there must be shortcomings, there is nothing wrong with this kind of saying. If it is just an average government, then let’s not talk about it. But for a government who prides itself on good governance and who draws an astronomical high salary, it makes one feel that we are not getting value for what we paid for. What is more eerie is that, what has been previously invested in public transport by the Singapore government, has become a money tree for a listed company. That is really what I call ridiculous!
PM Lee has revealed during the NDP rally that the government will spend 6 billion in the next 10 years to improve and expand our MRT system. Besides creating 3 additional MRT lines, the expansion of the Jurong East platform will be completed in May next year. Yes, only when the national reserves are plentiful, then can the government make such a big promise. But as a Singaporean, what I don’t understand is, why is it that the investment project of a country will result in huge profits for a private company such as SMRT, and the public still have to pay expensive fares for them to maintain commercial profitability?
What is most entertaining, is actually the last 2 sentences of the article. “We should only be worried if there are not enough passengers in the MRT, hence the complaints filed by Singaporeans about the crowdedness of the MRT, that is not exactly a bad thing.” The crowdedness of the MRT is not a result of ineffective planning, but a result of success. The “tai-ji” tactic is cleverly used to its advantage here. But if there is a real shortage of passengers in the MRT, then it is obvious that this is a white elephant project. Then why is it that, as usual, it is always the Singaporeans who are at fault, and who have to worry about everything? This is not the first time that this kind of things has happened, there have been predecessors. The Singapore government, when can you finally stand out and shoulder the responsibilities that you should shoulder?
Posted in Opinion
Mainstream media is too lopsided. How about praising Singaporeans work attitude for a change. Are Singaporeans really so inferior? Singaporeans are known to work the longest hours and has the most efficient standards. 5 years ago, when the economy was doing well, PM Goh (at that time) praised that we were hardworking and are assets. Now apparently Singaporeans are being disregarded and focus upon foreigners and highly praised them for their efficiency. I am really and truly disappointed with this approach. Its like the feeling that the father no longer wants the son. why now are we reduced to such a state? Where else can Singaporeans go? We built and love this island, why are we now being reduce to a state of having nowhere to go?
Singaporeans need to really swallow this bitter pill and think if you would truly want a future for your own children and your family. Please think five years ahead, what will you be doing, where will you be. what is the kind of life that you anticipated. Do you want your hard work to be appreciated?
Do not rely on mainstream media to feed you news. You don’t have to. Just look at your life, your surroundings, I am sure you get a better picture. Is government trying anything to address the escalating unemployment rate? Oh sure the government will mentioned that let the market decide for itself. How funny can this comment be when you are bringing hordes of foreign labor to snatch away our rice bowls. So is the government not affecting the scale of the market? Wages have certainly being suppressed. This is a fact.
How long can the mainstream media cover it up? There is a chinese saying, ‘You can’t use paper to cover fire.’ Its only a matter of time before Singaporeans realize the truth.
Propaganda exist everywhere, its not uncommon to see this but the extent of ignoring Singaporeans concerns and pleas clearly shows what kind of mentality the party portrays.
Government is on one hand is criticizing us for not being able to increase birthrate, on the other hand is saying Singaporeans are not competent enough, but isn’t it time the government reflect upon themselves, what have they done for Singaporeans instead? I no longer see the proud to be a Singaporean look on the faces of my fellow Singaporeans. I am dishearten to know that the interest for locals have been shifted away to the interest of only a propaganda for one party’s own campaign.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that Singaporeans will awaken before the election and make a vote that will count towards building a nation that truly belongs to Singapore. Remember the clock is ticking away, so is your identity and future.
A Few For Thoughts -
(1) Job employment and stability
(2) Housing affordability
(3) Rising cost of living
(4) Meaning of Education
(5) Medical and Health affordability
(6) Retirement funds
(7) Your lifestyle that you wanted
Please include your family into the above consideration.
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Do not get smoked on Singapore’s indigenous population size or procreation rate. Other countries have welfare systems that require a sizeable young population to support the retired workers on pension, free healthcare etc.
In Singapore, we pay for everything ourselves, individually. The PAPies are trying to hoodwink people into thinking that we need FTs. We only need as many as other developed countries need and that isn’t much and each and everyone is scrutinised.
Let’s not even get into the construction workers and such because yes we do need them. Let’s concentrate on the larger number of white collar foreign workers who can walk into most jobs at a lower salary than a qualified Singaporean.
We should also look at wives of white collar FTs who due to their network get well-paid jobs at MNCs at the expense of qualified Singaporeans.
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We should ask the FAP these questions:-
1) Does human faeces taste good?
2) If a tiger charges at u, do u run or stand there and smile?
3) Is cold hard cash better or “money” in CPF better?
4) Which dish is more Singaporean??Bak Chor Mee (no ter kwa)or lar mien?
5) Running cost at S$157 mil is better of S$387 mil for the YOG?
Any more?
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When the PM can speak for two hours without any credible substance, could he even hope to be seen to have scratched the surface of the issues that have generated so much angst with the majoriy of Singaporeans ?
It is not a surprise that it required the PM minders to fill up the wide gaps left between his lines.
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LHL’s speech was a disappointment. He talked a lot but said nothing substantial. LHL and his Cabinet are bankrupt of ideas. He is relying on past glories. LHL is not able to bring SG forward to face future challenges. His modus operandi is to squeeze SG workers and provide cheap labour to sustain SG businesses. He has no idea how to solve and overcome the many social problems in SG. In fact his unwise policies will aggravate the problems.
LHL is a failure. Time for a new and more dynamic Captain to lead Singapore
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A well known fact that the Singapore MRT system is the only system in the world that is profit orientated.
Every nation provides a rail and public transport system to serve the public,for convenience and comfort there is always the taxis and private limousines to cater.
Has GCT forgotten the SWiss Standard of living??? or is it just a figment of his deluded imagination to con Singaporeans that he cares.
Ride in any rail or bus public transport in Geneva or all of Switzerland and you will see the comfort and care given to the public unlike MRT or SBS where squeezing and time constrain is the norm.
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bravo! now the ministers are kept busy hearing from the actual ground instead of their lackeys’ sugared rose-tinted feedback. TR has done some very insightful and logical articles. The heavens has shown up how unworthy of their salt and pay our ministers are – floods, HDB, YOG, welfare and healthcare – like kids plugging more and more leaky holes in the wall. the people suffer.they do not share the same lifestyle as us so talk is cheap, taiji perverse logic – failure of success but still argue as fortunate problems of ’success’. useless bums!!
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ASK THEM TO NAME A COUNTRY THT IS EQUALLY OPEN, OTHER THAN DUBAI, EVEN THAN THEY WILL NEVER OFFER CITIZENSHIP
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WRONG FACT. IT IS NOT $6 BILLION in the statement below.
“PM Lee has revealed during the NDP rally that the government will spend 6 billion in the next 10 years to improve and expand our MRT system.”
IT IS $60 BILLION INSTEAD
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_572665.html
WHY ARE WE SPENDING $60 BILLION to accomodate 1.5 more million foreigners coming in. Tax revenue from these foreign is estimated at $1.8 billion a year. That is 35 years CONTINUOUS EMPLOYMENT INCOME TAX REVENUE FOR EVERY FOREIGNER FOR 35 YEARS CONTINUOUSLY.
THAT IS JUST PAYBACK TO CURRENT COSTS ESTIMATE WHICH COULD WAY WAY OVER RUN AND IF ECONOMY TURNS SOUR, NO TAX REVENUE BUT COSTS SUBSIDIES FOR EVERYTHING ELSE FOREIGN USE OR ACCESS TO FACILITIES.
WHERE DO WE NEED FOREIGNERS WHEN THE ECONOMIC RETURNS ARE SO STEEPLY NEGATIVE OF RISKS??? JUST TO PROP UP A FAILED REGIME OF ABSOLUTE INCOMPETENCE AT PHENOMENAL PAY FOR THE NEXT 35 YEARS OF POLITICAL OPPRESSION TO ADD ON?
WAKE UP SINGAPOREAN, PASS THE MESSAGE ON. WE WANT CHANGE AND WE DON’T WANT THE EXISTING POLITICAL CLASS AROUND ANYMORE – NOT ONE DAY LONGER. EVEN A DEAD WORM ON THE POLITICAL ELECTION RALLY AND BALLOT PAPER IS WORTH MY VOTE THAN THIS CONDEMNED FAILURE AND DECEPTION OF HUMANITY.
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@TR – good suggestion.
quote: Think about it, he who was our ex-PM, and is now our current SM, and who earns SGD 4 million per year, why must he make such pointless sarcastic comments when the people are in need of help?
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And I have NOT counted the costs of hospitals, other public transports like MRT signaling upgrade, new buses, sewage plants, land reclamation, household waste disposal incinerators, carbon tax costs of power, utilities, airport expansion, deep underground tunnelling, nuclear power plants, factories, reservoirs build etc etc.
WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR ALL THESE WHEN THE MIGRANT PRs include prostitutes, cleaners, even criminals instead of PHD – the lowest economically value-adding segment of any society.
IMMIGRATION INFLUX IN SINGAPORE IS THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCAM OF THIS CENTURY OF ZERO PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY.
This Government is very very very tired. They run out of ideas of keeping and sustaining this economy. A unsustainable influx of migration is detroying this country, SOCIALLY, ECONOMICALLY AND POLITICALLY and we see that everyday in our lives and the GOVERNMENT IN COMPLETE DENIAL AND DECEIVING OF PUBLIC INFORMATION.
HOW CAN WE SURVIVE IN THIS GLOBALISED WORLD WHEN WE DON’T HAVE A DOMESTIC PILLAR OF ECONOMY AFTER 45 YEARS OF ECONOMIC MISMANAGEMENT AND BRUTALLY BLIND AND RUTHLESS OPPRESSION OF ALL GENUINE VOICE OF GRIEVANCE AGAINST THEIR POLITICAL CHICANERY AND MISDIRECTION OF THIS BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY??????
SINCE YOU ALL CANNOT PERFORM AND CLAIMS MERITOCRACY, NOW WALK THE TALK – GET RID OF THE GRC HOAX AND FIGHT OR GET OFF THE POLITICAL STAGE IN FREE AND FAIR ELECTION.
SINGAPORE BELONGS TO ALL SINGAPOREANS, NOT A SELF-ANNOINTED FEW! WE REALLY DON’T WNT YOU ALL AROUND ANYMORE.
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[Quote: We should also look at wives of white collar FTs who due to their network get well-paid jobs at MNCs at the expense of qualified Singaporeans.]
Even the Government departments are filled with young new citizens and PRs. [Like police force, immigration dept, custom dept, prison dept, Government service depts, etcs. If you are not sure about it, go to see for yourself.
On the health care cost, it is still very expensive, even after the Government subsidized when it uses to compare with other coutries like Malaysia, Thailand, India, etcs,.
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My Puppies are getting “Fat and sloppy”..worst, they are so expensive to maintained….yet all they do is “shiit and bite” all over me and my family.
Anyone wants my “Puppies”??? Free ! Otherwise I will be “throwing them away”!
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while current time, singaporean are liability and foreigner are asset, thing have changed, this is what they are telling us. cause in 10 to 20 yrs time, there will be more senior singaporeans than you ever know, so they take us as a liability not assest anymore.
anyway, they like to find blame, especially blaming singaporean, they don’t like to find solution cause they refuse to use their brain on liability, singaporean.
ge is near that for sure, hope everyone vote wisely and hope that there will be no walk over in any constituency.
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//anonymous:September 9, 2010 at 9:42 am
They run out of ideas of keeping and sustaining this economy.//
aiyah, my friend. not a lot of ppl can appreciate the depth of your understanding lah. most of us are schooled in conventional economics lah with selective variables going into beautiful economic theories for easy understanding lah. the recent financial crisis is a MAJOR CORRECTION which will start the cycle of tearing down a lot assumptions held “god-truth” in the recent decades.
human being human, the cycle will keep on repeating itself lah.
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In 50 years time, SG will be SG Incorporated where only the bottom line matters.
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Guys -go visit this Youtube – “Yes We Can” – a pre election inspirational song by Barrack Obama.
Opposition parties should consider using this emotional approach tactics!
Very “Firing”…an “Hard Driving, inspirational Election song”
A MUST SEE !!!!
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You can see that the Singapore MEDIACORP employ many PR and FT.
Some of them have been in jail,beating peoples in public,driving without a license,having extramarital love but they are still
employed by MediaCorp because they are FT and PR.
If they are Singaporeans they have been dismissed long ago.
We pay the license fees and they are highly paid and take it for granted.
There is unfairness everywhere in Singapore making me very unhappy.
If we do not wake up we will become slaves one day.
It is very sad that only a small portion of Singaporeans
browse TR.
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Sigh. Allow me to summarise everything in one sentence:
Singapore is a family business!
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hmm… Where The f*** are the more good years? stop this double talk PAP. Mismatch between Accountability and what they pay themselves. Uniquely Singapore…
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SM Goh is the one who opened a can of worms 10 years ago. Now singaporeans have to accept a lower paying job or being displaced.Life is a struggle for most sinaporeans and yet he said we complained. Who would not complain if you are jobless in your own country but you see all around you foreigners are taking away your livelihood, your most decent neccesity in life. Did you show any concern and create an agency that truly find jobs for the citizens instead of paying lip service and reprimand us and giving all sorts of excuses to bring in foregners to our land scarce singapore. Yes this is not the country that I love and admire anymore and also not proud to be a citizen because it is not special it is easily obtained.
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@anonymous (September 9, 2010 at 9:24 am)
Yes, ur right, its 60 billion not 6 billion(cos original article says 600亿元). Apologies for the translation error, my chinese not powerful enough
SgVolcano
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Singaporeans should be given “One Man One Vote”. And with today’s technology, it is definitely possible for us to cast our vote at any constituency, and not restricted to voting for our own constituency anymore.
This will truly allow “One man one vote” and in the event of any walkover or whatsoever, that one vote representing the person’s right is adhered. Be fair to us GOD.
I am a 40 y.o Singaporean who didnt even get my chance to vote for any GE due to walkover.
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@ SgVolcano:
September 9, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Thanks a lot for the clarification for all. YOU DONE VERY WELL INDEED IN YOUR TRANSLATION. I would be clueless otherwise.
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i am not voting for pap
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i think the success of a nation is calulated by the happiness of its people and i believe all Singaporeans that have studied Singapore history would appreciate the effort that our government had put in the past. so there isn’t a need to repeat the success.
i think what we should do now is to embrace the issue that our nation is facing and come up with a long run solution that will benefit all (meaning not just the Singaporeans, but also PRs and foreigners)
for example,the housing issue could be improve if the government were to build more housing. but due to the BTO policy, it sound as if the government would wait and build. if couples want to get married, they would need to get a permanent house too. and with the current policy, newly wed can’t get a house immediately unless they get from the resale market. so if any couples who wants to get married, should either plan around 3 years beforehand or stay with their parents for around 3 years.
the next issue would be on ‘asking PR to be Singapore Citizen, to me, this is just a solution for the short run. if the government wants solve the problem in the long run basis, they should look into the case study of other developed countries that are able to keep their fertility rate at around 2 and learn from them.
my point is that if you don’t come up with a solution that will help us in the long run, in future, when the current 30-40s grow old, we wil be facing another round of aging population (i presume that most PRs are at around 30-40 years old).
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“for example,the housing issue could be improve if the government were to build more housing. but due to the BTO policy, it sound as if the government would wait and build. if couples want to get married, they would need to get a permanent house too. and with the current policy, newly wed can’t get a house immediately unless they get from the resale market. so if any couples who wants to get married, should either plan around 3 years beforehand or stay with their parents for around 3 years.”
This in itself causes problems. The fear of not being able to get a flat or to have extended wait to get a flat will get couples to pair off earlier, whether or not the may be suitable or not.
In the case where something goes wrong between the time they paired up and applied, will leave both parties in a bit of a nightmare situation.
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We will all have a voice and a say in the next election.
USE IT.
If not we have to shut up our mouth.
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OR leave the country and go somewhere else
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