Two-state solution for Palestine and Israel is crap. If you look at the maps, you will find that West Bank and Gaza Strip are separated by a huge chunk of land know as Israel. Moreover, Gaza’s economy is that of a city while West Bank’s an agarian economy.

It would be advantageous for Palestine if the economy of West Bank can directly engage the economy of the Gaza Strip but the Hamas’ militancy and continued rule of the Gaza Strip remains a threat to the unity government of the Palestinian Authority under Fatah.

It is also important to note that Palestinians are the next unwelcomed group in the Middle East after the Israelis. When Arab neighbours took in Palestinian refugees, the Palestinians actually launched revolutions in Jordan, Syria and Egypt to claim a small part of these Arab countries as their home.

The rise of Hamas may ignite militancy in the Muslim Brotherhood (the biggest political opposition organisation in Egypt and the Middle East) since Hamas was formerly the Palestine Chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood. On the other hand, Hamas also represents renewed nationalism in Palestine. A nationalist Palestine proved itself to be a troublesome entity to be handled, as proven by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s early days.

Regarding the flat demolitions, the Senior Minister of State explained that HDB regularly reviews its land use, and that her Ministry “can’t tell seven years in advance” of redevelopment plans – “not even seven months”.

Another piece of crap from Parliament.

The worst crap from Parliament came on Thursday when Tharman brushed aside as irrelevance the process the president unlocked our reserves: “This is a system that relies on trust in the individuals who are in charge,” he said. He added that other systems “based on transparency of figures and procedures”, as distinct from trust in individuals, have been shown to shift towards “wanting to spend more reserves for less and less meritorious purposes over time”.

This must be a major policy “rethink”. I HAD always thought that our society is governed by institutionalised processes and a system of checks and balances. :>

2) Sgcynic – It is indeed appalling to hear the Finance Minister say that this is a system that relies on trust in the individuals who are in charge. When it comes to financial matters, that is a very dangerous line to take, o matter how trustworthy we might think someone is.

3) Gerald Giam

The goverment had trusted TT Durai who earned only peanuts.
Cortina Watch employee Jerry Ee was trusted by his bosses and clients for he had a great personality and track record.
Reverend Shi Ming Yi was trusted for his good track record and furthermore he was a man of faith.
We trust our lawyers not to abscond with our money for they are after all members of the esteemed bar.

We trusted Tharman when he said that Temasek and GIC remain ‘well diversified’ enough in their portfolios to offer the long-term returns the Government seeks. ‘We would be worried if global banks comprise a large proportion of the portfolios of GIC and Temasek, or for that matter, any other highly vulnerable industry globally,’ he said. ‘But these are diversified portfolios, with not a large degree of concentration risk.’ We learn one week later from Reuters and Bloomberg that Temasek has 40% exposure in banks. We will certainly trust the individual Tharman when he said that ‘We haven’t seen the worst yet.’

$90,000 for a 2 room flat is affordable to someone earning $1,200?

That’s $417 a month in monthly repayments on a 30 year loan at 3.75% PA. Add that to $300 for food, $300 for transportation, $100 for utilities each month and god bless that poor soul for he would have nothing left at the end of the month.

I woudn’t want to lend money to whoever is earning $1,200 a month to buy a $90,000 flat if i were the bank. The risk of default is just too great.

“Based on trust”????

That was how Madoff worked – people invested billions of dollars with him becos they trusted him.

Is this really the way Singaporeans want our government to work too?????

“This is a system that relies on trust in the individuals who are in charge,” …..

Yea, right, just ask those investors who really trusted Madoff. The important issue at hand is whether we should have a system based on TRUST or TRANSPARENCY.

I wonder with all these “wrong estimates” and “cannot estimates”, does our SM still think this is the dream team? I think it is the team that is still dreaming.

My GOD! The incompetence is repulsive.

random (7)… remember whom we used to trust? TT Durai is one of them with the unequivocal support of our health minister and lau Goh’s wife.

Ho Ching is stepping down, leaving pools of shit to Goodyear to clear. Hope this Jinx of Lee disappear forever from any political or commercial scenes, so our Singaporean Reserves can be invested more prudently and professionally.

Is there any country in the whole world that is not based on trust of the individuals who are in charge?

I have not heard of any country or system of government that is based on distrust of the individuals who are in charge.

Any of you has some examples of countries that are based on distrust?

Ho Jinx– you are right. She is the anti -Midas.
Everything she touches turns to dust.
Now we have to get Mr. Goodyear to Chip away the dust.
Also if the A-Team that they think they have includes WKS, I shudders to think what their B-team look like.
BTW is it true that the French cook perm sec cost us $1.4 million vs Obama $0.5 million.

The self claimed A-team and french cook perm sec will falls under Obama category of “shameful” individuals of rewarding themselves millions at the expenses of taxpayers money.

Not sure how our pathetic A-team ministers will react to Obama new global direction – which promote fair and justice across all the sectors and fields.

#10

Without transparency, accountability, check and balance can there be more prudence and professionalism?

we seem to put a lot of trust in “superman”. can we rely on the genius of one man to deliver? even the man of steal needs to be in the right place at the right time to rip.
apart from the usual abilities, it may just boil down to …pure luck!

Oh come on, they can trust does not mean we cannot distrust and disbelieve.

If they don’t trust each other, how do they pack together?

patriot

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Trust leads to disappointments. Absolute trust leads to absolute disappointments.

When someone tells me to give absolute trust to him, I would run as far away from him as possible because I do not wish to get myself into a situation where I will be caught with my pants down.

Only stupid people would give absolute trust to anyone or any group of people.
Simple as that.

Regarding the flat demolitions, the Senior Minister of State explained that HDB regularly reviews its land use, and that her Ministry “can’t tell seven years in advance” of redevelopment plans – “not even seven months”.

This is one of the most shitting highlights of the parliamentary debates.

HDB plans flats in a cycle of less than 7 months? Can you believe that? for things that were meant to be used for 99 years?

This minister of state ought to be sacked.

She thinks it is alright to waste people’s monies and did she tell us what hdb is pulling the flats for? To construct another casinos?

This govt has no morals.

” Regarding the flat demolitions, the Senior Minister of State explained that HDB regularly reviews its land use, and that her Ministry “can’t tell seven years in advance” of redevelopment plans – “not even seven months”.Mr Masagos Zulkifli (PAP-Tampines) and Mdm Ho Geok Choo (PAP-West Coast) asked the Minister about the shortage of subsidised HDB rental flats for needy residents.”

Does this means for HDB reviews its land use in a cycle less than 7 months?

Is this credible?

This senior minister of state is full of shit.

She is also one of the jokers who commented that HDB will nolonger be inexpensive.

Keeping her longer would be adding fuel to cost raising engine of the PAP.

Let’s focus to get her out like the way hong chin is made to leave.

On another note, the number of class c– ministers we have in this govt is incredible. They rival George W bush’s non talent.

with all so many complains( in 2007, 30 000 complains lodged with CASE) against property agents,i think we need a radical move to resolves this ill regulated billions of dollars industry. ill regulated because, for so many years despite the authorities being aware of the myriads complains( including fraud and corruption) against housing agency and the agents, they have not come up with anything to effectively stop all the nonsense. maybe there are simply too many homes transacted each year( hundreds of thousands) to rely on a fix number of full time agents. so when the housing market booms, we see an influx of “ghost agents” appearing to soak in the greed and when the market go bust, the number of agents dwindled significantly. with so much money at stake, the necessity to increase “ghost services”( do we want to see only regular agents ripping big money when the market booms? furthermore, the market is too huge for regular agents to manage during a boom cycle) is understandable and i believe, makes it difficult for the authorities to regulate the industry.

a radical suggestion to resolve this “greed and potentially corrupt issue” is to change the nature of an agent’s service to merely one of…. administration/consultative with REGULAR INCOME at most, a small and fix token for each transaction irrespective of the size and types of homes( no more percentage base income)

the job of the new property consultant( no more acting as an in between agent for buyer and seller) is to provide professional guidance and to facilitate the buying and selling of properties AFTER buyers and sellers have met(through a common and open portal) and agreed on a price REGULATED BY THE AUTHORITIES.

by “authorities” i mean the banks, valuers and state must determine a fair and stable price that is NOT AFFECTED BY SUPPLY AND DEMAND OF THE MARKET.

this is to rid corruption in the industry, unnecessarily benefiting mostly the savvy rich who can potentially reap millions from the market at the expense of innocent home owners and “vultures agents ” who feed on a frenzy market to become overnight millionaires etc.

we can discourage the above scenerio if the property market is severely regulated so no one can be rich from the buying and selling of homes. this can only be achieve if there is a political will by to authorities to assign a constant and fair value to each home and its value has to be reevaluated as a WHOLE ( if it moves that is) depending on the economic situation.

property portals for buyers and sellers to meet can be managed by enterprising people. the agent’s role is thus reduced to one of administrative, consultative ( NOT a procurer of property) between buyers and sellers. negotiation will be minimized as prices are regulated by the banks so there is no need for agent’s mediation or price manipulation etc.

Dear TOC and Readers,

Is there any additional (eg. other than gst rebates which is given to all) relief, rebates or interest free loan or other monetary help I can apply for or get if I am unemployed and

1. more than 6 months
2. degree holder
3. 3 room flat with dependents
4. no income of any forms.

please advise.

21) Lee Yong Soon

Ask your MP?

Imustbestupid, why 3.75%? Why not the HDB 2.6%?

nhyone, 3.75 % is the typical loan rate from banks. Even if the HDB concessionary rate of 2.6% were to be used, monthly repayments would be at $360, which is 30% of $1200. Unless that person

1) does not suffer from any major illnesses during his/her life

2) is able to work till the very last day of his/her life,

3) does not suffer any downtime from being retrenched

I don’t see how a $90,000 flat is affordable to someone earning $1200 a month.

the word affordable in the singapore context is a 4 letter word. its meaning varies from A to Z. Some will swear that $300 is enough and all his living cost is affordable on a $300 pm allowance. Some will swear that $3m pa is not enough as it will not be affordable for his lifestyle.

My definition of affordable in the context of HDB ownership scheme is that a household should be able to fully pay up his mortgage in 10 years with a monthly instalment equivalent to 20% of his income. if we get misled by the rubber band formula of stretching the repayment of loans from 10 to 15 or 30 years, everything that is unaffordable will become affordable. better still, stretch the repayment to two generations, 60 years, then a 3 rm flat will be affordable even if sold at $500k to one earning $2000 pm.

i am still waiting for some parliamentarians to ask HDB on the additional $200k added to the price of flats at Pinnacles. Is it a good thing for the buyers or is the grotesque profit made from them a good thing.

Listening to Mah BT, you would be inclined to think that the HDB is doing a good job since the debt-servicing ratio is about 21%.

However, he also mentioned that there are many household with arrears of 2 years ++.

The 2 facts are not consistent.

I wonder how the HDB computes the average debt-servicing ratio since the debt servicing ratio of those household in arrears is more than 100%.

I think it is partly due to the short planning cycle of less than 7 months. (wink wink) (since even HP printers in their competitive market, plans over 3 years) or because HDB, like the MOF, accepts wrong estimate values?

This govt, builds flats for the last 30 years, yet doesn’t know how the land is going to be used over the next 8 months,

it cannot keep a terrorist in its prison cells,

it cannot keep its budget numbers accurate and reflective of the actual situation,

it cannot assure those people who work consistently and contribute to its pension fund a fair retirement,

it loses billions of dollars in foreign acquisitions when its investment philosophy is supposedly conservative, by taking large stakes in some banks, and

creating a budget and drawing down reserves for a job saving plan that has no KPI for job creation with the possibility of drawing down the reserves some more.

All this happen in 1 year ++.

This is what I would call an incapable government.

to red bean:

Great comment!

great comment Imustbestupid !

Assuming zero interest rate:

90,000/1200 = 75 times.

That is 6.25 years.

That guy needs to work continuously for 6 years.

And this guy is a poor guy with supposedly support from govt.

Just imagine for an ordinary family!

Also 5% of 90000 is 4500.

for a family who lives on 1200 a month, I let you guess how long it takes the guy to save up 4500.

his take home pay is 80% of 1200 which is 960.

Say, he has a family of 4 and he saves 10% a month, which is 96 dollars a month.

864 a month for a family of 4.

How is he going to live like this for 6 years plus?

Then, 4500 / 96 = 4 years approximately.

So, he has to work for 4 years to save the downpayment.

Then he has to work the same way to pay off the loan of the home which is about 6 years.

We are assuming he is receiving the same amount for all the 10 years.

What kind of job would that be? Can that kind of job lasts 10 years in modern Singapore. They would probably ship it out of Singapore to China soon, meaning, he would probably have to spend some time, looking for another job and possibly a pay cut. Who is paying rent/loan payment at that time?

If his pay increases, then he wouldn’t receive that benefit from HDB and HDB doesn’t have to pay the benefit.

So, you see, HDB manages to look good with its generous scheme and not having to pay much out of its pocket?

Sound familar… I thought Durai (NKF) managed to do the same thing.

Or he just copied HDB’s schemes.

Very sly right?

I forgot to add we have a shorter economic cycle then many years ago.

1998 recession

2001 recession

2003-2004 recession

2008 recession.

about 4 years just to be conservative.

Just my thoughts

Mao BT and his HDB recent plans to tighten the rental market etc.

Question is (for those of you who thinks it is in the right direction):

How come he didn’t do it earlier? He is just a political animal trying to score points. He doesn’t care about people.

If you take a look at the people in Toa Payoh park at midnight, you will see a number of old people sleeping there.

He doesn’t look around. Feedback has been given through so many medium and only now he acts.

Honestly, the changes he proposed, don’t think a genius to figure out. It is fairly self evident but we don’t see such speed from him. Makes you wonder what he does in the office.

He is one of those fat cat minister.

Also, some of the “projects” that he mentioned in parliament, were underway for some time already. So, the new projects that he is proposing to improve the living environment in view of the current crisis are a lot fewer than what he suggested. Goes to show again he has no ideas.

Take a guess why nobody likes him.

Nice article on good financial governance of government:

http://prmia.org/pdf/Case_Studies/Orange_County.pdf

You mustn’t forget that HDB loans are only for certain policies.

Bank loans does not stick to 3.75%. It grows every year. That is when average incomers who need to take up bankloans instead of HDB loans due to its two time policy, goes bankrupt. Most has had their flat repossessed. Hence, many started to go back to basic by applying rental flats. The difficulties in getting rental flats due to it’s other policy add up to many with no roof.

You know when MM says that Singapore being an open economy with 3 times the GDP in trade, and use that to justify us not using demand side stimulus…

I assure you, even if Singapore is as closed an economy as Malaysia, he would have said the same thing, finding reasons from some sources.

he just abhor welfare.

The PM just remarked that the JCS benefits Singaporeans 2 ways:

1. reducing their wage cost and
2. making them attractive for companies to attract Singapore.

Let’s not talk about point 2, since I suspect there wouldn’t be many bosses who are on a hiring spree currently, on the whole proposition from him as a whole, I have one question to pose to him:

why didn’t you implement it earlier when you have the excess budget monies from the current electoral cycle?

Curious right?

30) mon on February 8th, 2009 8.08 pm
Mao BT and his HDB recent plans to tighten the rental market etc.
He is one of those fat cat minister.

To score polical points for his master, this guy is the one who super inflated the price of all hdb flats and making the citizens suffer. VOTE HIM OUT !!!! Do we singaporeans have to suffer becos of him???

aiyoyo

$ wasted after hougang upgraded lifts.

Regarding the flat demolitions, the Senior Minister of State explained that HDB regularly reviews its land use, and that her Ministry “can’t tell seven years in advance” of redevelopment plans – “not even seven months”.

ELITEs cant tell even 7months ahead???

think commoners also can become the so called “ELITEs”

aiyoyo

Mah BT said he is going to tightened the criteria for rental flat and the explanation he gave, it seems like more are supposed to be able to rent.

So, we are expecting more to be able to rent?

I think he mean less would be enable to rent.

His style was to get people to buy.

Besides, tightening of criteria would imply fewer would get to rent since the criteria become more difficult to satisy.

He has VERY “powderful” English.

He could make it sound good when in fact, he is actually doing the opposite.

3000 to 4500 new flats? Are these the same number of flats which he claimed is going to appear in the market last year?

Also, would this supply be sufficient?

Where are the newly build flats?

The latest project in Yishun would only show us the flats after 5 years. Where is he building these 3000-4500 new flats in one year?

The way he talks, he sounded as if he is a wizard.

Just one wave with his band, and the flats would just appear like that…

Let us learn to see through the schemes of this ASSH*le.

He ALWAYS sound as if he is giving you some goodie but I assure you, judging from his track record, he ALWAYS END UP TAKING more rights from you than what he gives apparently.

The next best part is, he only do the above when election is near.

The other times, he just snigger, or shoot you down.

He is a true ASSH*le.

The reason why he is making people downgrade is because

1. HDB gets back the arrears in HDB loan payment.

2. HDB improves its statistics

3. HDB charges those poor household again for a new loan

4. HDB charges those poor household for buying for a new (smaller) flat.

5.HDB charges the poor family the HDB levy since these families are taking up their second or 3rd new flat.

So many ways to make money, why wouldn’t HDB do that?

Then, one questions if HDB had seriously learnt why these families end up in a bigger flat than they can afford in the same way.

Afterall, HDB build the flats, sells the flat, lend you monies to buy the flat, why can’t it be blame for selling you a flat that is unaffordable by you.

From the way he described, he was basically saying that he is going to restrict people who can afford the flats, from renting the HDB flats.

One wonders why he has not done it before.

If he has, what has he proposed in this budget.

You’re right, nothing!

Powderful right?

Holy Cow!!

$90, 000 affordable for someone who earns $1200/mth??! I m so so shock to hear this coming from MP’s mouth! It so so demonstrate he has no empathy and have absolutely no idea the life of a commoner!

I m so so shock. BTW, where to find a $90k 2 bedroom? your new hdb studio for old folks is already $70k to $130k. Do you really know your products, Mr Mah??
Stop living in lah lah land.