As the year comes to a close, we look back on some of the more memorable things that were said in 2008.
The situation looks a lot gloomier now than when they went in but these are long-term investments. It looks under water now, but the situation can change.
Let us not pick and choose what endorsements you get, because over all, if you’re trying to show me your standing in the world is that high, you wouldn’t be clutching at straws and producing something from Tunku (Abdul) Aziz.
They (residents) should thank the Town Council for working hard to come up with a diversified portfolio to generate income so that residents do not have to fork out more money.
In Hougang, let us keep Mr Low Thia Khiang on his toes… So, in Hougang, you have to be creative to be an effective opposition. Amongst the things you can do, I suggest you study the annual accounts of the town council to ensure that the funds are properly used. Check whether the arrears for S & C charges are piling up, and eating into their reserves. Make sure that enough money is put aside for cyclical maintenance. In your walkabouts, check on the estate maintenance… In short, play the role of an effective opposition in Hougang.
I wish to thank the residents of Hougang and also many Singaporeans who support the Workers’ Party for giving feedback constantly on the work of Hougang Town Council, without the need for the reminder from SM Goh.
For the information of the Senior Minister, the Hougang Town Council’s accounts are on the website. He may want to take a look himself.
He used to engage in heated debates in the House. Perhaps it was because he and the PAP never saw eye to eye on any major political issue and he sought by all means to demolish the PAP and our system of government.
As Prime Minister, I did not allow the PAP’s fight with Mr Jeyaretnam to affect his sons’ place in society. In reply to a letter from Kenneth, I assured him that we valued talent, regardless of his father’s stand in politics and determination to oppose us. I had invited Philip for lunch, to tell him the same thing.
It’s not within our power to force operators to give concessions – that’s up to the operators…. We can only encourage operators to continue to be generous with transport cuts.
Unfortunately the worst-case scenario has materialised and the majority of High Notes 5 investors will not be receiving anything back.
If we’ve more foreigners than Singaporeans, then the Singaporeans will become like the foreigners, and we lose our basic attributes. We’ll be down the spiral.
If we just send away the foreign workers now, it will do us harm. For example – companies which are already in difficulty and they hire half foreign workers and half Singaporeans and you tell them that foreign workers must go out. And when you take Singaporeans, his cost will go up and the company may close. And if the company closes, even the half who have jobs may lose their jobs.
Change has to take place in Singapore but change must take place not (between parties) but within the PAP….As long as the PAP changes itself, and continues to provide clean and good government, and the lives of Singaporeans improve, the country is much better off with one dominant, strong, clean, good party.
Yes, there was corruption. Yes, he gave favors to his family and his friends. But there was real growth and real progress… Just compare Indonesia to Burma. Look, same time, 1962 Ne Win, 1965 Suharto, both well-endowed and rich countries. Well, you compare. Who is better off? Who deserves to be honoured? What is a few billion dollars lost in bad excesses? He built hundred of billions of dollars worth of assets. I want to pay this tribute to him, and I came here. It is sad to see a very old friend, with whom I worked closely over the last 30 years, not really getting the honours that he deserves.
We must keep the pressure on Mas Selamat.
The answer is that public transport fares are not directly linked to oil prices… We don’t want the companies to be making excessive profits, but that’s different from saying that they cannot make profits at all.
Getting the PhD is one thing, coming out alive is another.
This was a lapse, what to do, it’s happened.
As long as we leave our views in the pages of our manifestos, nothing will change…. Our manifestos will then forever remain as beautifully written, but ultimately academic, pieces of literature prettifying the archives of the National Library.
Ms Sylvia Lim asks for the basis for Police to grant a permit that enabled the Prime Minister to participate in a cycling activity in West Coast Park on 31 Aug 2008.
Let me first clarify that it was not a cycling event but a Family Day Carnival. The only cycling was when the Prime Minister and the other special guests made their entrance by cycling a short distance from where the Prime Minister had alighted from his car to the stage. Secondly, it was not organized by a political party but by a registered charity.
I would not dignify this tokenism by organising anything there. It will have to be at a proper place like here at Raffles Place or down a major street, or nothing.
Principals need to do their job to convey this message to the students and teachers to do their part to challenge them, set high goals and to help them achieve these goals. We will be hit by storms, there will be waves, we will be lashed by the winds… but we can be responsible for how we respond to it.
I am satisfied that the Ministry has taken the correct remedial and disciplinary action, and that the Minister and top management were not to blamed (sic) for what has happened.
We must admit our mistakes openly and honestly, put them right, and act against those who have been culpable. But the last thing we need is a witch-hunt which would damage and demoralise our intelligence and security agencies.
We’ll find a way to have more voices inside the assembly, but not at the risk of voting in a Division 2 or 3 Government.
Indeed a completely security-sealed country is one which will suffocate enterprise and liberty. It is a cure worse than the disease it is try (sic) to prevent.
I have thus been misled into attending the ceremony on Monday.
In Singapore, opposition politicians have the right to criticise the government and government leaders, but that does not entitle them to tell lies or defame.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is $210 billion, that’s the profit earned in a year. The price earnings ratio on the Singapore Exchange is now 20. If Singapore Inc went for IPO (Initial Public Offering), then this is a $4-trillion company.
To me, the response of the grassroots leaders and the residents whom I had met is a great assurance. They gave us a strong mandate at the last GE (general election) and they knew that we would honour and respect that mandate even after the demise of one MP. They are confident that their interest and welfare will be taken care of. None have raised the issue of a by-election.
There has been a security lapse at the Whitley Road Detention Centre, which allowed Mas Selamat to escape. He was taken out of his cell to go to the family visitation room to wait for his family. He requested to go to the toilet and escaped. This should never have happened. I am sorry that it has.
If the operators’ returns are satisfactory, then it is a win-win situation. If they are unduly penalised, they do not get returns commensurate with their risks … then you would have a new set of problems – too few trains, too old buses.
Singapore Inc’s Temasek meanwhile ploughed A$400m into ABC Learning at $7.30 a share 12 months ago and has watched almost 90 per cent of that evaporate.
The assumption which some people have is – we are now rich, we can afford to spend more. This is a very dangerous way of thinking and worries me a lot. Singapore is where it is today because we have saved, we have been frugal, because we haven’t just thrown money away.
If now we change our mindset, and say we used to save, now that we have money we don’t need to save anymore, then the growth will stop.
Singapore will go down, and we will all be in serious trouble.
You asked how much reserves we have. I’m sorry – I am not able to give you that answer. There are many, many people who are interested in how much we have. It has nothing to do with not wanting Singaporeans to know. It’s only if we go public with you, a lot of other people will know.
No need to buy branded bread. Bread is bread, rice is rice.
And if you already have a great orchestra, you can put a dummy there and you still got great music.
But what you can do is to adjust, go for house brands, maybe go for frozen food instead of fresh food.
The reserves are like a golden goose which lays golden eggs. And if you try and dig into the reserves, you’re actually in a sense not feeding the reserves and the goose gets smaller. So we should, whenever we can, put some funds aside to grow the reserves and then use the earnings in the reserves, which is what we’re doing.
Produce the wealth first and the surpluses before we talk about sharing and never, never dig into the reserves. That’s like killing the golden goose to get the meat. I think better try and fatten the goose, have more golden geese and then have more eggs to share.
When ERP was increased, we also reduced road tax and improved public transport. As a result, many more Singaporeans can now own cars. With more cars on the road, we need to increase ERP to keep traffic flowing.
The worse thing that any country does at a time of high inflation would be for the unions and workers to push for wage inflation. Wage inflation is different from wage increment. Wage inflation means you are pushing up wages to fully offset the inflation.
I had made comments which had been misunderstood and had upset some Singaporeans. I sincerely apologise for causing any grievances and any stress.
Growing with our blue chip companies and our direct investment activities, Temasek now owns a net portfolio of about S$185 billion at market value as at March 31, 2008.
A number of feng shui masters had approached us to tell us that the Flyer is on the perfect site to pick up the good qi (energy) flowing into Singapore, but it was going in the wrong direction. The Flyer was going against the sun and taking fortune away from Singapore.
Florian Bollen (Chairman, Singapore Flyer)
There is a conspiracy to do us in. Why?… They see us as a threat. My question is to them, have you ever run Singapore? Do you know how we got here? What were we? What we are now? And how we can become better?… We are not stupid people. They give us all these advice… Who are they? Have they ever run a country, created jobs for community and given them a life? We have and we know what it requires.
We’ve got to allow political videos but with some safeguards… We have to move away from this total ban and find ways to allow people to let off steam a little bit more, but safely…
Make sure that our young people are hungry. If our young people are not hungry enough, bring in hungrier ones from overseas. Make them feel hungry, increase the hungriness index.
Workers are very practical. If they have to choose between losing their jobs and taking a pay cut, they would choose less pay.
Please don’t destroy the plants, don’t disturb other people…do it within certain hours, don’t make too much noise… Please exercise the freedom to demonstrate. Please do it within the rules. Please respect and recognise that we are a multiracial, multi-religious society.
We remain committed to finding and capturing Mas Selamat no matter how long it takes. We have done it before.
Whether the human rights body we establish will have teeth, I don’t know. But it would certainly have a tongue, and I hope it would have a sharp tongue.
Singapore must be a “cool” place, a “funky” place…
The present A Team is good for another two elections. We do not have the numbers to ensure an A Team and an alternative A Team.
If the salary gap between ministers and the private sector gets wider, will Singapore have a better or poorer choice of leaders? (2007)
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Read 2007′s How many ministers does it take to change a lightbulb?
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Hi #50) Lee HK,
Nice quotes. Let’s put them to the test, shall we?
…the People’s Action Party (PAP) will not always have the answers
LSS: “You ask me, I ask who?
Now we know why LSS said what he said. Someone has to do the job of making MM’s words come to life.
—————————————————————————-
I’m not saying the PAP government will always be supreme, will always be honest, will always be A-plus.
So, what is he saying? How come cannot tell?
This was what Hussin Mutalib from ST wrote: “ “What about other redeeming intangibles such as honor and sense of duty, dedication, passion and commitment, loyalty and service?”
This was MM’s reply: “Those are admirable sentiments,” he said. “But we live in a real world.”
Calculated honesty? Calculated Integrity? hmmm…….?
—————————————————————————-
The day it is no longer honest, it should be out. And another party should come in, …..’
This is Vivian Balakrishnan’s take on the muturity of Singapore’s society:
“ “My own sense of it is Singapore is now a much more mature society and, generally, the vast majority of Singaporeans can be trusted to make up their own minds, exercise their choices and act responsibly.
“The fundamental question is, are we ready as a society to let people make choices of their own, take responsibility for their actions and face the consequences?”
As honest as he is, he needs to translate words into action. Silenced into inaction perhaps? So what happens when you are honest but the rest of the gang are not?
Ho Peng Kee: ‘No one in Singapore should be bereft of someone to turn to if they should need legal advice or help, including those who cannot afford to pay for it.
Tell me honestly, free lawyers in Singapore?
Ho Peng Kee, again: “ ‘You may be well-behaving, but there may be other people whom you come across when you cycle who may stop you, may want to debate with you and that may attract a crowd, and therefore will result in problems the police want to avoid.’”
The highest level of honesty. Only PAP members can ride bicycles and have a very good reason for it while others cannot ride their bicycles because someone else might stop them and ask for a fight.
Ng Eng Hen: ‘I need you to spout poetic lines to convince your constituents that these measures are meant to help them. Spew forth with passion your Hokkien lyrics and poetic metaphors.’
The art of bluffing by NEH. Open (dis)Honesty?.
OK, lah, enough already. You judge for yourself if we should take up MM’s call that: “The day it is no longer honest, it should be out. And another party should come in …..“?
Actually, I am more concerned about how to IMPROVE the system as is.
I ask myself, what or how to improve it given:
1. TC investments.
2. UNemployment statistics w.r.t citizen.
3. Construction Costing of HDB
4. Transport fare hikes by highly profitable near-monopoly GLC w.r.t currently cheap oil price. What gone up would it ever come down if oil price was excuse for hike? Also related : Poly student are students i.e no income. Why they pay and pay more than JC students?
5. etc. etc. etc. ……… too tiring to name all of them.
And after looking at the responses to the questions from the respective authorities, the answer is clear.
There is only 1 way in my mind that i can think of.
There is no more doubt in my mind.
F1 and the Flyer depended a lot on expertise from 1st world talents: caucasians and japanese to succeed.
Is F1 and Flyer a neccessity or a luxury?
This reports the pay rise of NZ PM and MPs.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/vote08/4767247a28435.html
Some interesting excerpts:
##############################################
Mr Key’s salary will increase to $393,000 – the Prime Minister’s salary was previously $375,000, while his deputy Bill English will receive $276,700, up from $264,500 previously.
Ministers in cabinet will receive $243,700, an increase from $233,000. While Ministers outside cabinet will receive $204,300 – up from $195,700.
##############################################
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The Remuneration Authority said it had considered salary movements in the state sector when it made the determinations.
“It has long been accepted that it is not appropriate for remuneration of those in elected office to be closely tied to the private sector, or to state-owned entities operating in a commercial environment, notwithstanding the responsibilities of senior politicians in particular,” it said.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
I LOL’ed
Selamat,
shall we move on to
mee siam stall
run by our Abang
who suspect competitor enticipate his moves
and then try to do him in?
KPIs :
1. HONESTY
2. ACCOUNTABILITY
3. PEOPLE REPRESENTATION
4. RESPONSIBILITY
5 INTEGRITY
6. TRANSPARENCY
7. FAIRNESS
8. JUSTICE
9. EQUALITY
and that is the way in the digital age.
Nar Si Gua Wu Jit Bah Ban………jit bah ban……
talk to my face got nominated or not?
regards
wee wee the belly swee
Hey, you missed the biggest one “we have not enriched ourselves”, or was it in 2007
I still can’t get over the fact that they want private sector salary but are excused from private sector performance standards. If this bokes were in private sector, they would be jobless now. I guess in family owned businesses you can’t sack your family no matter how they screw up.
For someone living in an ivory tower, it is always easy for him to give out some senseless speech that he himself thought is well said.
I noticed a perculiar trait with this LSS guy.
He starts to make a statement in his ‘down-to-earth-gung-ho-man-in-the-street-kind-of-way’, and after uttering the first few words, he realises that he does not make sense and tries to correct himself mid-sentence.
Then he becomes knotted up in his own words.
Somehow he manages to finish his sentence, and somehow still , can smile and thinks he has the kind of wisdom that others do not have.
My advise to him is to stand in front of a mirror and say the same words all over again complete with the same gestures and articulations. He will then see how stupid he is. Just as stupid as his floppy hair.
#63
cant agree anymore … worst part is his broomy-styled hair … wtf noob minister we have here
The clown in the circle looks better than this guy duh!
Hussin Mutalib should go into public service..
no use wan lah. nothing will work wan.
the only hope is when
the koo koo bird no longer does the koo koo.
the one thingie to do and what can be do is
WAIT …. tick tock tick tock…..4 minutes to live…..
Dear leaders,
Christmas is around the corner “a gloomy Christmas indeed for most citizenry this year and perhaps another 2 years down the line ~ I hope not”. If you guys also practice gift exchange, here’s a suggestion to you guys. Buy a full body length mirror and exchange with one another. You will find good use of this gift each morning when you wake up. Look..apart from seeing yourelf in the mirror, did you notice a faint shadow of those desparate facial expression of your weary citizenry?
2009 is not far off either. Come ushering the new year, may I suggest you take a walk on memory lane and search your conscience and think it over. Have you think you had done the right thing “I MEAN THE RIGHT THING”. Besides the chirpy sound of the canary did you also hear the background humming cries of siblings of dire straits parents who had lost all hopes?
my wish for 2009
is for TOC to have parallel commenting by foreigners on
singapore issues
so that citizens can see things from a GLobal Perspective using the inputs from foreigners : 1st worlds and 3rd worlds.
why?
we know that singaporeans a UNIQUE .
why?
why are we so like dat?
have not experienced some things other worlds have experienced?
humans are humans.
why singaporeans scared of this scared of that?
kia si ! kia su ! kia sai!
when slapped on the left, some would offer the right?
why many complain complain like shiiit and in the end switched camp?
why what is their view, they become so shy or appear like seen a ghost?
why 10, 0000 investors lost their precious hardearned life savings and yet only only 10% of them signed the petition? just sign a petition only hor. not asking for the moon hor. tell me this is not unique. foreigner comments needed on this to serve as MIRROR to REFLECT to these citizens.
many complain about no chance to vote. and what happen? what they do?
many wanted to know where their S&CC monies went to which products , how much exposed. what happened? how many tiny size of the population signed the petition? just sign a petition to show they interested to know the answer only. and what happened?
If this mentality is not unique in this world, I no no what is.
Foreigners can help to give singaporeans a 3rd party opinion of why are are so like this.
Dun forget, even if you are bochap, your children will go through the same. and that is when you are old and weak.
When ERP was increased, we also reduced road tax and improved public transport. As a result, many more Singaporeans can now own cars. With more cars on the road, we need to increase ERP to keep traffic flowing.
The economic rational is this:
The road tax does not consider road usage, so frequent and infrequent car owners pay same. With a fixed cost (road tax), infrequent or short-distance drivers either over-pay or end up giving up the car. Such an inefficient allocation of resources (in economic terms) creates less number of car owners.
The ERP scheme tries to overcome this by reducing the fixed cost (road tax) and charging car owners based on usage. By usage, it means the more “valuable” the road (convenient, faster, near to CBD etc), the higher price. Ultimately, people who do not need to use expensive roads frequently stand to gain, by being able to own a car.
It’s like if there are only one handphone plan, say an expensive unlimited talk-time plan and there is no pre-paid card, then less people will want to own a handphone. The goal of charging by usage gives the chance to more people to own a handphone within their needs. It’s like if one’s budget is $5 per month, then having pre-paid cards in the market at least allows him or her to own a handphone.
The worse thing that any country does at a time of high inflation would be for the unions and workers to push for wage inflation. Wage inflation is different from wage increment. Wage inflation means you are pushing up wages to fully offset the inflation.
The economic difference between wage increment and inflation is this:
Wage increment is a distribution of increased net profit. By increased profit, it means that it’s something that is actually worth more now, i.e. you can buy more things, or more expensive things. It’s a REAL increased in buying power.
Wage inflation is an artificial change of price tag. Try imagining a day where everyone’s savings is magically increased by the same percentage. Since everyone has the same increase, the increased in money is not real, it doesn’t let you buy more things.
Wages actually increase each year to keep in peg with inflation so that the real worth stays the same. But the tricky part is when prices (like oil) fluctuates irrationally. While increasing wage according to inflation seems logical, the economic lessons of past tell us that it is problematic in practice because it makes correct pricing and valuation of assets hard in practice. Bad pricing and valuation is not just a hairy-fairy story. It actually makes people on the ground suffer.
Take one example, if your pay and also savings in the bank fluctuates daily according to the oil price to “help” you cope with inflation, do you think it is adequate? Can you accept that your pay has to decrease when oil prices drop? You might have bought rice two days ago, so how much is it worth now? How about goods or services the company you are working for is charging? This makes temporary wage increases to combat inflation less predictable than one might have wanted.
70) cjc
Fully understand the economic rationale of fixed charge (road tax) vs usage charge (ERP).
However, there is no transparency regarding govt rebates in lowering road tax versus govt gain in ERP. In the end, does the road users pay more? That is the unhappiness amongst motorists. Charging $2 to enter Orchard Road on Saturday (12pm-8pm) also seem to defy economic logic.
How much did TC loss in totality?
Transparent this.
72) Anonymous on December 21st, 2008 11.49 am 70) cjc
Fully understand the economic rationale of fixed charge (road tax) vs usage charge (ERP).
However, there is no transparency regarding govt rebates in lowering road tax versus govt gain in ERP. In the end, does the road users pay more? That is the unhappiness amongst motorists. Charging $2 to enter Orchard Road on Saturday (12pm-8pm) also seem to defy economic logic.
Before I pay the standard road tax of estimated $700/yr for a 1200cc car, now with the ERP, I still have to pay something like $500/yr but my average monthly ERP charges I am paying is abt another $250/month, see how much is the difference? what rebate are we talking about her????? this is cut throat and is extortion business for the motorists monopolised by the garments.
“When ERP was increased, we also reduced road tax and improved public transport. As a result, many more Singaporeans can now own cars. With more cars on the road, we need to increase ERP to keep traffic flowing.”
I don’t get it. I simply don’t. Increasing ERP simply equates to more $ into his pocket. His primary aim, i believed, is to control traffic congestion. By increasing ERP, one could be put off from driving by increased costs. However, wouldn’t reducing road tax & price of cars bring the cost of driving back to square one? That’d be LPPL. (balls hittin’ dick, correct me if I’m wrong.)
He said in an interview, it goes something like this,”I set up more gantries. Car goes by. Beep beep. they angry, nevermind, at least they get their car.”
Eh, isn’t this about curbing traffic congestion in the 1st place? He wants to sucker more Singapore residents to buy cars at their lower initial price & then pay more for ERPs which he’d ultimately earn more from?
The root of the problem is overpopulation. Yet, he still maintains the open door policy. Brilliant.
“The worse thing that any country does at a time of high inflation would be for the unions and workers to push for wage inflation. Wage inflation is different from wage increment. Wage inflation means you are pushing up wages to fully offset the inflation.”
Our forefathers worked hard & long to lead Singapore to where it is today. We guys go through national (dis)service & risk our lives & bodies. We work to improve the economy & accepted suppressed wages. We gave so much & yet, expecting a wage inflation to offset the inflation is wrong?
We build you up, we do you good, you reprocicate. Inflations make us poorer by the dollar & you’re saying that requesting for inflated wages is wrong? It doesn’t matter if we are constantly kept poorer by inflations while you keep growing?
As a citizen for 58 years, I have yet to witness any reciprocal and altruistic iniative from the Leadership while we have to increasingly slog harder and longer only to face lower wages and increasing costs of livings.
How can we claimed to be lucky to be Singaporean?
I do not understand at all.
patriot
They don’t need us to understand, infact they are happy enough that we do not understand so they can come out with all kinds of imaginary figures to confuse us so they can and will continue screwing the people further. The scaring part is that we people sooner came to understand what all these are about now, its nothing but just money and more money to them to stay in power over you people.
I would like to see what things were said, by ministers, that contradicted each other.
#74 tiredsingaporeans
Before I pay the standard road tax of estimated $700/yr for a 1200cc car, now with the ERP, I still have to pay something like $500/yr but my average monthly ERP charges I am paying is abt another $250/month, see how much is the difference? what rebate are we talking about her?????.
Assuming the total net profit now is roughly the same as before ERP is implemented, then it is fair to car owners as a whole. Individually, car owners who drive more than average need to pay more now, so that people who drive less than the average can own a car. It might be unfortunate that you belong to the former category.
Nevertheless, we need to make sure that there is transparency in policies and their results. It’s too much to ask that all drivers pay less. But what we can ask is whether the policy is benefit car owners as a whole. In this case, whether the total profit is roughly the same as before, and also whether the average traveling time (adjusted for cost) is the same.
#75 pugdragon
I don’t get it. I simply don’t. Increasing ERP simply equates to more $ into his pocket. His primary aim, i believed, is to control traffic congestion. By increasing ERP, one could be put off from driving by increased costs. However, wouldn’t reducing road tax & price of cars bring the cost of driving back to square one? That’d be LPPL.
As mentioned above, the economic goal is to let more people own cars. So it should bring cost back to square one for the average driver. For people who drive more, they pay more now. And so people who drive little can now afford a car.
The fair question is whether the average driver pays roughly the same now.
the economic goal is to let more people own cars.
Correct me if I am wrong. Wasn’t COE introduced to limit and control car population? If this policy has shifted to allow for more car ownership, then COE ought to be abolished because it has lost its rationale.
#80 gemami
Correct me if I am wrong. Wasn’t COE introduced to limit and control car population? If this policy has shifted to allow for more car ownership, then COE ought to be abolished because it has lost its rationale.
I think they are just trying their best to make things “fresh and cheap” for car owners: let as many people own cars as possible (since it is highly regarded as one of the “C”s) and also make travelling as smooth as possible.
They are prudent. They still want a “gate” (i.e. COE) they can use to control the number of cars should things go out of control. Even with the COE, lowering some fixed cost (i.e. road tax) and introducing some variable cost (i.e. ERP) does make cars more affordable to less frequent drivers.
I don’t know whether abolishing COE and transferring this fixed cost to some other variable costs will be even better. May be it does.
80) gemami on December 22nd, 2008 3.24 pm the economic goal is to let more people own cars.
Correct me if I am wrong. Wasn’t COE introduced to limit and control car population? If this policy has shifted to allow for more car ownership, then COE ought to be abolished because it has lost its rationale.
Hi Gem,
This is just an excuse about controlling cars on the road as claimed by them. See how chaotic those jams just outside the ERP eversince the system was effected. They only reported on MSM to show those roads inside which of course will reduced but did they dare show you those massive jams they caused on those roads just outside the ERP gantries? NO of course.
Before introducing the ERP, I paid only about $600/year for my road tax for a 1200cc car. Now, not only I am paying a reduced road tax of 50% lesser per year, but on an average I have to foot out another additional between $200 to $250/month on the ERP. So you see the difference in total I am now paying about $3000 to $3500 per year both the road tax and ERP gantries , see the huge difference? they have already worked out the formula and saw the hugh profit that they are going to make out of the people’s pocket so they come out to say that alot of motorists will benefit from the reduce road tax, which are a BIG LIE. Now we all are caught by their scheming trap and this is hitting the people below their belt.
Rational thought or logic is not welcome in Singapore. I wonder what George Orwell would say if he could take note of this little red dot today…
hi, you need to put this comment in.
”
The money still must come from somewhere, right? It is about a 1.5 percentage point increase of your GST. So, now it is 7%. You want it to be free, do you want the GST to go up to 8.5% to run a completely free bus and train system?”
79) cjc :
“Nevertheless, we need to make sure that there is transparency in policies and their results. It’s too much to ask that all drivers pay less. But what we can ask is whether the policy is benefit car owners as a whole. In this case, whether the total profit is roughly the same as before, and also whether the average traveling time (adjusted for cost) is the same.”
“The fair question is whether the average driver pays roughly the same now.”
The above a fair questions. But you know mandarins, like Singaporeans, are mostly kiasu and kiasi. They would therefore likely err on the side of caution i.e. getting revenue from ERP more than offseting the outflow of revenue from lower road tax. In the end, it is win to the authority and lose to the motorists.
how about words of wise from
dulai, walter , belinda and editors?
cjc #81)
I think this is a case of the left eye talking to the right eye and never seeing eye to eye.
Let me explain. Firstly, COE was introduced under the climate of resentment from the general population but was deemed necessary because the car population was out of control and causing adverse traffic conditions.
Then ERP was introduced to control the adverse traffic conditions because COE was not effective in controlling the car population.
Now, more ERPs are introduced to allow for more car ownerships, resulting in the repeat of the initial condition for which COE was introduced.
Can anyone see what is right with this equation?
aiyoyo
many many words, not really understand…
commoners need good lifestyle, no pressure etc.
(because commoners paid a lot already…)
is it because ELITEs vs commoners elites viewpoint differ?
aiyoyo
LKY: And if you already have a great orchestra, you can put a dummy there and you still got great music.
You guys remember the German pop group Milli Vanilli? They were Morvan & Pilaties (I hope I spelled correctly). A fine example of dummies receiving the Grammy which was later returned; disgraced for miming their hit songs. Very much similar to the little Chinese girl who stood in for the original singer who was deemed not pretty enough to grace the Olympics.
Now we know why we are having to adapt to so many dumb decisions being made lately. With so many dummies fronting all the unresolved issues before us, I wonder where the ‘ochestra’ is. Playing golf? Enjoying mee siam my hum? Looking at their cpf statements and jumping with joy?
i think they are all muppets manipulated by a senile old man!
“i think they are all muppets manipulated by a senile old man!”
this kind of muppets i also want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The ERP scheme tries to overcome this by reducing the fixed cost (road tax) and charging car owners based on usage. By usage, it means the more “valuable” the road (convenient, faster, near to CBD etc), the higher price. Ultimately, people who do not need to use expensive roads frequently stand to gain, by being able to own a car. - cjc (#70)
That rationale would be valid if and only if roads are non-rival goods. The transport infrastructure simply does not have the capacity to take in more people and more vehicles. ERP was imposed on us because the COE policy failed to contain the growing vehicle population in Singapore. Being pro-Business, LTA wasn’t comfortable to let COE prices soar.
Wages actually increase each year to keep in peg with inflation so that the real worth stays the same. But the tricky part is when prices (like oil) fluctuates irrationally. While increasing wage according to inflation seems logical, the economic lessons of past tell us that it is problematic in practice because it makes correct pricing and valuation of assets hard in practice. - cjc (#71)
While there is an increase in buying power in wage increment, buying power is conserved in wage inflation. The problem with high inflation figures is that one’s buying power is reduced drastically.
“But what you can do is to adjust, go for house brands, maybe go for frozen food instead of fresh food.”
Why only “you”, “you”, “you” and not US, WE or SINGAPORE?
So the you is us and we must go for frozen food and house brand whereas the RICH and FAMOUS ministars will continue to live like kings and queens?
Bread is Bread and Rice is Rice, tell it to yourself and your family!!!
Pay me a million a year, I can make even more morale uprising pep talk than this fellow.
The rise and fall of an empire… It will happen if too many dummy are in place — it will go out of tune sooner or later,,World History have proven this..
“No need to buy branded bread. Bread is bread, rice is rice.”
The same can be said for politicians. Politician is politician, no need to pay millions for your so-called super talents.
“But what we can ask is whether the policy is benefit car owners as a whole.”
No and definitely no. If you increase your population by making it so easy for anyone with two legs to come in here, hence commuting needs, hence more vehicles, hence congestion, hence the need to control traffic, hence ERP, etc and hence we are back to square one again.
Ask yourself this question if you are car owner, does it benefit you. How.
LKY: And if you already have a great orchestra, you can put a dummy there and you still got great music.
Is he implying that all his PAP ministers are all DUMMIES being placed there for show only? I didn’t know dummies are so expensive these days!
LHL: When ERP was increased, we also reduced road tax and improved public transport. As a result, many more Singaporeans can now own cars. With more cars on the road, we need to increase ERP to keep traffic flowing.
When ERP was increased (they not only increased tremendously, they put up more gantries to suck the blood out of all you motorists)
We also reduced road tax (How much is the reduced rate compared to the monthly ERP charges we motorists have to foot out every month now? The Answer: more than 20 times)
Improved traffic flow (where are those roads being improved? inside the zone, correct! but did he mention all those roads just outside those ERP gantries are now causing massive jams?, its worst now than before.)
Its nothing more than just a cunning scheme to rob the people’s money outright!
LHL: If now we change our mindset, and say we used to save, now that we have money we don’t need to save anymore, then the growth will stop.
The GROWTH WILL STOP? yes those $millions in their personal bank accounts will stop growing.
If singapore becomes that 4billion company,
who is the CEO and chairman?
let a country be a country and not a company.
companies can be cold blooded when it comes to bottomline.
lets have a country.
lets call a spade a spade.
I think the first LHL quote was from 2007. Source: