Comments on: Budget debate statistics: Uniquely Singapore?

By: market2garden

market2garden — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:14:36 +0000

*lefleche Mar 9,2010 22:19*
Very well observation.
Just to add a little bit ….
Productivity, Quality and Accountability are equally important.
Not only they are not contradict to each other.
Cases of Jap Car problems tell us a lot ….
The combination of FACTORS give us the true picture.
And not just productivity alone or soley focus on reducing cost.

market2garden

By: REALLY?

REALLY? — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:28:59 +0000

Dont trust anybody.

LKY ate his pride and worked for the Japanese during WWII, can he be trusted?

By: Siew Bai Leong

Siew Bai Leong — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:28:36 +0000

How does singapore rank in the world , past present and future, in terms of :

1. Level of TRUST in the Gonmin?
2. Cooperativeness with the Gonmin?
3. Believingness in the Gonmin?
4. Non-demandingness of how numbers are derived?

anyone knows the answers?
would world politicians love to lead this world class citizens?

By: lefleche

lefleche — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:19:01 +0000

I follow a general rule of thumb: when tharman speaks, i listen for what he did not say, not what he said. what he said is usually the things that he has been tasked to make you believe but what he did not say is usually the truth. Here are the following reasons why i adopt this stand:

1. He claimed in parliament that as second finance minister he was satisfied that Ho Ching did not break any law in thailand but thai national newspapers could detail the day-by-day progression of Temasek’s collusion with Thaksin’s wife to set up shell companies to facilitate the sale; up to the day Ho and mrs Thaksin shook hands. the BKK Post article named the high ranking pple in Temasek and Shin Corp involved, the dates, the location, and the deal in chronological order. So if Thaksin and wife is guilty of breaking Thai law, why isnt Ho guilty? If Ho is not guilty, she should have sued the BKK Post.

2. Tharman said in parliament Govt not involved in GIC decisions. But half of GIC’s Board of directors are ministers including himself. This is something i really cannot understand: The board of directors under the law are ultimately responsible for the company. I am a director and and have to always be very careful because i have to answer. so if half the board of GIC is not involved in GIC, then how can the board be accountable? Unless half the board of GIC is there for show, how can the board of directors not be involved? Big question mark here.

3. Tharman’s classic statement on the use of reserve based on ‘Trust’. Every company who goes through ISO will tell u that ‘trust’ is only for family business and provision store. Any entity bigger than that needs processes and accountability. so is singapore a family business?

By: tiredsingaporean

tiredsingaporean — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:47:39 +0000

the more they (MIW) trying to cover up, the more we open up all their dirty deeds to the public awareness, already to my surprise there are still many folks out there who do not even know what has been happening around them, they only get information from their so-called MIW grassroot leaders everyday telling them how good the papies are all these years, never realise that all their cpf savings are actually disappeared into thin air.

By: tiredsingaporean

tiredsingaporean — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:43:04 +0000

blue
Mar 8, 2010 11:03

so much so we should now spread the news of all these political liars to as many people as possible starting from your own immediate family members, friends, colleagues and even to those older folks who has been conned by those MIW all these years.

By: vincent tan

vincent tan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:18:51 +0000

Hi, J. thank you for updating pledge There is a version of the Singaporean pledge here: http://mindbloggingstuff.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-singapore-national-pledge.html We, the residents of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people; regardless of race, language, religion and nationality, to build a democratic society, based on depressed wages and income inequality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our ministers, whose salaries are pegged only to GDP growth. Should remind everyone comes National Day 2010 regards vincent

By: All the crap

All the crap — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:04:46 +0000

I know all of you as citizens, want to know how the figuare,$460K is derived.
I know all of you as citizens,are interested in the welfare of the country.
BUT these are NOT valid reasons for me to reveal how the figure of $460K is configuarated!!
Just TRUST me the figuare is correct!!
Sounds familiar??

By: The SS

The SS — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:29:12 +0000

Why don’t they PV the $460k at 5% and I am happy to collect it now ! hahahhaha
Leong is right.. and what’s the probability of a typical family takng advantage of these monies? Hogwash..

By: smallfly

smallfly — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:55:29 +0000

Excuse me, Sylvia Lim’s father is the former press secretary of the DOM (the little emperor of Singapore) so, what do you expect from a “bitch” whom grow up drinking those milk provided by lky to stand up against her master to speak up for Singaporeans? She may be just a “mole” planted by lky to guide the ltk of worker party on the path and role of opposition party that lky aspires to have in Singapore! She may be also a “secret spy” works for lky to perform political espionage on the opposition parties!

Just to illustrate my suspicion, after lengthy vehement and vociferous on line discussions by the netizens regarding profuse influx of foreigners and prs to this little-black-mark, this little timid “slut” then question in the most recent parliament debate the wisdom of having so many foreigners residing in this tiny island, is she an opportunist or just an despicable actress of the “wayany” troupe to mesmerize and hypnotize the gullible and credulous main-street-men to seek political revenue? She is not any better than her political opponent grace fu who has gained more preferences from the DOM, “A” mountain can not has “TWO” tigers, with grace fu as the pet of the DOM Sylvia Lim can only recourse to the feeble and timid opposition party.

It is so sad yet so real! May “gods” forgive all this opportunists whom only know how to squeeze every single drop of support from the electorates under the guise of serving the people! So despicable yet always contemptible!

By: vote a dog

vote a dog — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:37:30 +0000

so called generosity of the govt = suck more of your money:
example: Baby CDA account = put in money in, govt contributes BUT cannot take out
example: CPF top up for old people? Top up CPF amount first, put money in and never see it again
example: Differentiate between PR and citizen? Increase all hospital and school fees, only highlight the point that PR increase much more, much much more

By: blue

blue — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:03:06 +0000

Hi folks, i made up my mind already, that is not to trust papies. They can always twist and turn with their reply, churn up statistics, even add past years figures to be included to make it look good should the present datas sucks. Always remember the old chinese sayings “Those who serve as govt officers/mandarins has two mouth”.

By: ludwig

ludwig — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:46:24 +0000

From obiousLEE

“By the way, serioulsy think Singapore should change its name to “Chindia”, since very soon majority of the citizens will comprise of new migrants from China & India.”

If u make that statement in the year 1940, the statment will be more correct.

By: The hum of Albino Lizard (Liz Xian Tang)

The hum of Albino Lizard (Liz Xian Tang) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:25:01 +0000

I am shocked and disturbed by the perceived situation that singaporeans generally bochap about the debate and i suspect they may not know WHY they need to be concerned especially when we learn about the insights from Mr Leong, a fully qualified expert on the matter.

Is People understand how politics and policies and budgets affect them directly or indirectly, they should have woken up their ideas!

Despite whatever and ever, the People, perceivably seems to remain unchanged. To be fair, a small pocket of citizens have woken up and discussing actively on the net.

Thanks to USA DOD for the invention of the Internet for without which we can only wonder what the world will be like.

By: WTF

WTF — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:15:05 +0000

There are two things that the PAP government always like to hoodwink Singaporeans when it comes to money:
1) The liquidity of money.
2) The time value of money.
It may seem at first glance that the government is immensely generous, but upon closer inspection those handouts are not only pittance in comparison to what it has been taking from Singaporeans.
Take for example, GST credits, medisave top-ups, learning/training bonus, education rebates etc. All are highly conditional and circumstantial for you to reap the benefits. A very obvious example will be single, unmarried people without children vs top-ups to post-secondary school Education Account. Utterly useless and irrelevant.
Medisave top-up is only for those aged 50 to 70+. If you’re younger, too bad for you. In any case, that pittance the govt dishes out will not be enough to cover the fee for wisdom teeth extraction.
Also, the time value of money. A dollar today is not the same as a dollar tomorrow. Projecting perceived benefits for the next 60 years is foolishness. In addition, a dollar locked up today means a dollar less to your disposable income. However, that same dollar, when locked up in the CPF, allows the government to invest in winning ventures such as UBS, Merill Lynch, Stuyvesant Town, Bank of America, Barclays, Shin Corp etc.
Once Singaporeans fully understand the concepts of 1) the liquidity of money, and 2) the time value of money, they will realize that they have been ruled by a bunch of kleptocratic scrooges.

By: bedouin

bedouin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:48:51 +0000

@Stateless Singaporean
as long as the funds go back into their coffers, you cannot use them elsewhere. As long as they are able to tie up your funds, they will find a way to make more money out of your money for themselves. Go figure…
//b.

By: notalone

notalone — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:25:18 +0000

“…can expect help in the next 60 years … totaling $460,000.”
**************

Tharman forgot to add in ….
“past results do not guarantee future performance…audiences to exercise own discretion…”

By: bedouin

bedouin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:51:59 +0000

@7,666.00 per year = $460,000.00 over 60 years – If they live to eighty five. And what will a minister earn over the next 60 years ..? averaged @ $1.5 M X 60 .. a total grand sum total of $90 million over 60 years is what an average minister will be paid. Multiply that by lets just say 10 ministers… that will make it $900 million vs 10 families who will get aid totaling $4.6 million..
let me simplify it…
$900 million for 10 ministers over 60 years
vs
$4.6 million for 10 families over 60 years

I believe the writing is on the wall…..

//b

By: nappys

nappys — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:48:32 +0000

garment $ where got so easy to take one, they take our $ very easy and fast , try to get subsidy on edu/ medical claim/ etc…see for yourself how many agency and steps u need to go through before they decide to give u a little…
in the west , they dare to take ( high tax) , but they dare to give
but , here garment take , but never give, and want to take even more evertime…

By: Stateless Singaporean

Stateless Singaporean — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:41:51 +0000

Recently, I received a statement of account from the Ministry of Education on the Edusave Accounts of my children, who are no longer in the local education system. Out of curiosity, I called up the Ministry to enquire whether the funds can be transferred out in cash into their savings accounts or otherwise to me, as it is unlikely that they will continue their tertiary education in Singapore. In reply, I am told that the funds if unused will be transferred to their CPF accounts once they come back to work in Singapore. This tells me a lot about their so-called generosity and how they will lead you through a paper trail to make you feel rich and appreciative but yet end up still in need.