By Ng E-Jay
I wish I could come up with a more optimistic pronouncement. But this is the most honest assessment I can make: Future generations of Singaporeans will have to pay for the sins of the PAP if something is not done about the present situation.
Let me state quite frankly that I do not deny that Singapore has made huge economic progress over the decades under the PAP’s watch. As some of my friends would point out, however, much of the growth could have come about not because of, but in spite of, PAP’s policies.
Singapore is situated in a very favourable geographical location, and even though advancements in transportation technology over the decades have eroded our geographical advantage slightly, it cannot be denied that our prime location at the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula has afforded us enormous leverage as far as trade is concerned.
When the PAP came into power in 1959, Singapore was already a bustling metropolis, not a sleepy fishing village like National Education textbooks like to put it.
When we achieved complete independence and sovereignty in 1965, the foundations for our future economic success had already been laid. Investments were already pouring in and our industries were already being rapidly developed, despite the racial turmoil and the communist threat that existed at that time. All this was happening at a time when the then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was occupied in a power struggle with the Tunku.
I do not know whether the PAP made things significantly better after 1965, but I do know the PAP managed to make things significantly worse at some point in its reign.
The PAP’s first major policy blunder was its “Stop At 2″ policy which it introduced in 1969 in an attempt to curb Singapore’s rapidly expanding population, which was then seen as a serious threat to Singapore’s long term growth potential. Sterilization policies were progressively liberalized from 1969 to 1974. By 1977, 21 per cent of women of child-bearing age in Singapore had been sterilized. [1]
The PAP’s error in this policy was in going overboard with it. The repercussions would later come back to haunt future generations of Singaporeans.
The pro-eugenics policies of the PAP culminated in the Graduate Mother Scheme which was implemented in 1984. Graduate couples were provided with considerable financial incentives to have more children, the rationale being that children from graduate couples were more likely to be intelligent and would grow up to be more economically productive. However the scheme was scrapped after a few years when the horribly discriminatory implications of the policy gradually dawned on the electorate.
By then, of course, the damage had been done.
All developed economies eventually enter a phase when their birth rates start to decline due to evolving social attitudes and a higher standard of living.
In Singapore’s case however, the policies of the PAP greatly accelerated the process and made the inevitable come much sooner than would have been the case had the PAP not gone overboard.
A decade after the demise of the Graduate Mother Scheme, Singapore’s Total Fertility Rate had plunged to a mere 1.3, far below the replacement level of 2.1 that demographers insist is needed for a population to sustain itself.
This prompted the PAP Government to open the floodgates to foreigners to shore up our population base. Of course, a sustainable population base was not the only reason given by the PAP for doing so. The PAP told the electorate that foreigners were needed because they brought skills and expertise that Singaporeans lack, and their numbers were needed for continued economic growth. For every job which went to them, we were told, more jobs would be created for us citizens.
In more recent times, the electorate was told that Singapore would go the way of the dodo if foreigners were not imported in large numbers, and that Singaporeans should accept this because we are less hard-driving and hard-striving than foreigners. [2]
However, because PAP’s policies have led to an indiscriminate and uncontrolled import of foreigners, some of whom do not seem to bring in new expertise or skill sets over and above what we already have, wages at the lower end of the spectrum have been suppressed, bringing hardship to the lower income. This indirectly leads to suppression of aggregate demand from one segment of the population, which in turn depresses overall economic activity.
It should be noted that unlike countries like Hong Kong and Taiwan, Singapore did not quite have a roaring comeback after the previous two recessions. Perhaps part of the reason lies therein.
The rapid import of foreigners has also created strain on the fabric of our society, with more than a few openly voicing their concern whether the newcomers will make a serious effort at integrating into our society and embracing local social norms.
The larger malaise confronting us, however, is not just the rapid influx of foreigners, which the government has realized only this year must be more tightly controlled.
The economy is being systematically hollowed out, milked for what it is worth. The economic path we have embarked on is unsustainable. Our future growth potential is rapidly being drawn down in a misguided attempt at boosting our GDP figures and justifying ever increasing public sector and Ministerial salaries.
How is the economy being hollowed out?
- By the entrenchment of unproductive Government-Linked Corporations (GLCs) and the crowding out of smaller players that could have made the economic landscape more competitive and vibrant had they been given a fair chance at the economic pie.
- By the overly liberal import of foreigners which is causing an artificial population expansion and which is putting an enormous strain on our nation’s resources and infrastructure.
- By the government “picking favorites” amongst industry players and in so doing, creating mis-allocation and wastage of resources.
- By the government micro-managing and interfering excessively with the free market economy.
- By the government trying to attract foreign capital at all costs, which leads to very volatile liquidity flows and periodic asset bubbles.
Singapore will probably see several years more of good growth and perhaps even rising incomes in the middle and upper classes.
But the distortions in the economy created by PAP’s policies will also lead to periodic asset bubbles, especially in housing. Asset bubbles are very bad for a country, and even worse for a small country like Singapore.
Not only do asset bubbles lead to mis-allocation of capital, when they inevitably come crashing down, many people get hurt badly in the process.
We see this each and every time the property market here takes off and goes to the stratosphere, only to come down to reality several years later, leaving in its wake hordes of homeless citizens who have been chased out of their flats because they are unable to service their mortgages.
After the PAP has milked the Singapore system for what it is worth, I fear that future generations of Singaporeans will be faced with a hollowed out economy and slow growth rates that will not match their expectations. I fear that many people, especially those just embarking on their careers, will not be able to afford to retire peacefully when they grow old. They will be faced with an overcrowded city, lack of job opportunities, rising inflation, and poor economic prospects.
I am very tempted to try to alter my prognosis so that it does not sound so pessimistic. But to do so would not be honest. In my sincere assessment, if Singapore citizens do not stand up and take charge of the situation now, future generations will have to pay a heavy price for the sins of the PAP.
__________________________________
References:
[1] SG Democrats, “Creating a ‘superior’ race in Singapore“, 12 June 2005 (first posted on Sg Review).
[2] The Online Citizen’s transcript of MM Lee Kuan Yew’s interview with Mark Jacobson from National Geographic Magazine on 6 July 2009.
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wish the 2012 end of the world will be real. i really really hope singapore will be hit and totally sink beneath the sea and wipe out all of us.
end of our miserable lifes.
Mice…
I am not saying that their salaries are justified. But at least if the economy does well, they have an excuse for paying themselves well.
Also, it is not true that the economy is dissociated from the welfare of the people. A strong economy confers many benefits on the people. More jobs, and salaries tend to be higher. More public spending on infrastructure, which again benefits people in many ways.
Up until a few years ago, Ireland was doing extraordinarily well following almost the same policies as Singapore. Today, her economy is in the doldrums and the people are suffering.
I would say that so far, we have been very lucky. At the same time, the government must have been doing something right. But it’s hard to say what will happen even five years down the road.
We had better hope that Singapore will continue to prosper, no matter who runs this place. We really ought to be careful what we wish, for when we do get it, some of us may find ourselves to be much more miserable than we already are.
I would say that so far, we have been very lucky. At the same time, the government must have been doing something right. But it’s hard to say what will happen even five years down the road.
another 5year down the road we will be begging in the street and foreigners will throw 10cets coin on us. thanks to the gov and pap
“The objective truth is that up to now, the economy has not done too badly”
cyrus, Today the S’pore economy is artificially boosted by property development and the massive influx of foreigners into S’pore.
The PAP government are in a habit to tweak the GDP as they use the GDP to measure their performance. PAP ministers use the GDP as a Key Performance Index for their bonus.
Governments are not in the business to make profits. This should be left to the private sector.
The PAP government PRETEND they are pretty savvy business people. Case in point is that Temasek Holdings did very badly in the economic meltdown, Ho Ching was removed for a short while and then brought back.
In the real business world she, and the whole board would have been replaced. The same goes for the GIC.
We still have the same incompetent people running GIC and TH.
Singaporeans worked damn hard, the PAP collects taxes only to lose it through bad investments by a bunch of goons. This is the true situation.
Dear Need more opposition:
Yes there needs to be much more political competition, not just in the form of opposition in parliament but also free debate and active involvement of civil society. This must also be accompanied by a change in the political system. Because if not, we would be just chasing our own tails.
I don’t believe we will go the way of Japan because we have vastly different immigration policies. problem is we take them to the other extreme end, and create a whole new set of distortions to deal with. Our problem will be one of inflation rather than deflation (which is the case of Japan). In simple terms for us consumers: that means ever rising prices and more and more expensive homes.
E-Jay
the days willcome when singaporeans,impoverished by then,would have to slog to rebuild this country when the mercenary ones pack and flee.
we,are in fact,reversing to where our grandfathers were when they tried to build their homes and this nation.
why? too many true blue singaporeans cannot even afford to buy a decent home and too many are either jobless or poorly employed.
we came from ‘coolies’ to executives and now alot of us are fast turning into taxi-drivers and cleaners.
what has the govt done to deserve their indecent salaries?
First class analysis, E-Jay.
You failed to mention another point which Krugman pointed out more than 10 years ago and which Kenneth Jeyaratnam has been harping upon in the recent past. Krugman said that simply adding large doses of capital (mainly imported) and (cheap) manpower without corresponding increases in productivity creates an unsustainable economic machine. He was criticized for saying in 1998 that the East Asian economic miracle was a myth. He likened the situation in some East Asian economies such as Singapore to that in the old Soviet Union which also tried to grow by adding more and more capital (factories) and (mainly skilled) manpower without being able to boost productivity. This, as we all know, eventually doomed the country, both economically and politically.
We only have to look at Japan over the past 10 years to see the limits of the East Asian miracle.
Unlike some of your optimistic readers above, LKY would be the first to accept (indeed, this has been a constant theme in his speeches over the years) that success can evaporate overnight. It would be ironic indeed if he and the party he created were to be the cause of it.
LKY’s definition of”First World” is narrow,being only about the material conditions of living.
Yet,one can possess all the planet’s material wealth and still not have experience real,lasting happiness.(like fleeting sexual pleasures,perhaps)
How so?
The enormous mental and emotional stress that accompanies the accumulation and holding on to the wealth in our kind of society,not to mention always trying ways and means to increase it.(Temasek Holdings,for instance.Just imagine the stress of the CEO.)Like he himself had said,running in a marathon without a finishing line,you and I,and our descendants,whether we like it or not.It is also called the rat race.
I have chosen to drop out of this silly and meaningless race a very long time ago because first,I’m not a rat,and second,I’m not a slave to materialism.I don’t crave material things and sensual pleasures,being perfectly contented with a simple,quiet life.The PAP would shoot people like me with a GPMG,since I and my ilk don’t help very much in the economic growth of Singapore.What they want is growth-generating human machines,carefully nurtured from birth,to help increase the GNP,the economic “deity” that most governments worship and kowtow to today.
What sort of society are we today,aside from the good public dwellings(getting more expensive,though),good transport(might not even be true,given the crowds in MRT trains),abundant food?Some statistics:the divorce rate rises almost every year;more and more elderly get neglected or dumped in homes;a populace that is obsessed with government-sanctioned gambling in all its forms;rising addictions to tobacco and alcohol( the latter advertised more and more on TV.So much for your “healthy lifestyles message.)Addiction to IT….and other “First World”-society characteristics.
All these are the result,directly or indirectly,of the hectic and stressful existence we are subjected to from young in our sort of society that the Garment had consciously and systematically fashioned.We find ourselves locked into a social and political system from young from which the common man finds it very difficult to opt out.
We(and our descendants,and theirs) become rats,forced to take part in this marathon that does not have a finishing line.Somewhere along the way,we managed to attain the so-called”First World” status,which we flaunt to to world.But we are told we cannot stop running…….
Taiwan not doing too well economically?
Against what measures.
One thing I know is the people can afford to study overseas like nobody’s business.
Just visit any universities in the UK, you will see many of them.
Singaporeans who are there are all on scholarships .i.e bonded.
their property market is doing well as well.
More importantly, they have a better future than us now that they have an FTa with China and even Chinese think their taiwanese friends have better command of the chinese language.
Already one singapore company chose to list there instead of s’pore when our stock market is supposedly more developed.
Go on, be complacent.
I wonder why a govt that turned a floodless place into a flooded one, a systems of faultless atm machinese to a country wide cock up, should inspire confidence.
Thanks Peter Sellers.
And yes, I hear ya. Am watching Paul Krugman on Bloomberg now in fact :-)
This guy makes a lot of sense even though I disagree with some of his ideas.
What is the point anyway of airing PAP grievances? The electorate would continue to vote in a PAP majority to rule Spore becos Sporeans are by far & large:
1) SELF-CENTERED
2) SELF-SERVING
3) GREEDY FOR MONEY eg bonus handouts prior to election
4) DEVOID OF CRITICAL ANALYSIS eg, gahment says so, so must be it mentality, no further questions needed.
5) KIASU & KIASEE
So next GE, PAP overall majority will still be at 65 to 70%. Would not be surprised if the idiotic majority will give PAP 75% overall even. Totally immune to it already.
And after we’re a horrifying technoghetto-hivecity owned by the Lee MegaCorporation, we can rejoice in the fact that the Cyberpunk future has arrived.
Talk of Forty-five good years, more good years and Swiss standard of living is rapacious rape of the truth. No sane mind buy into this excrement of falsehoods package in the same bundle of lies of Shakespearean deception of “rose-by-nay-name” mantra. Every lawyer tells high court judges that a rose-by-any-name generalisation covers a multitude of lies. Singaporeans are now paying very expensively for all the simplistic solutions cooked up by the Government when faced with truly complex problems. The population influx to “compensate” in utter failures of population eugenics turned our lives upside down. Our GDP is 56% foreign-owned business, nearly half of wage component is foreigned-earned. Singaporean’s share is about 1/4 only yet the corrupt elites paid themselves 8.8% pay increase while our economy recorded negative growth. This was despite taking out $20.4 billion to give our economy an 8.2% at least upward lift impact. It is false economy and corrupt self-enrichment. Without foreign influx, foreign speculation, and insidious and illegal law-violating of encouraged vested interest to buy HDB resale for investment, property prices would have collapsed. Our property and banking sector is a solid as a teaspoon of water. Air bubbles in property inflated our air-bag economy, and GDP statistics to justify more pay increase for the corrupt political class. And the solutions for the future? More simplistic solution via immigration influx to 6.5 million and more, supported by suicidal strategies of underground living regardless of flood, impossible of fire rescue, omnipresent geological cave-ins like Nicoll Highway and worse if giant Sumatran earthquake shakes us up and nuclear energy plants which MM says an accident will finish this island. PAP is gambling our lives in exchange for phenomenal pay and ever-escalating policy failures. To get their way, more Stalin-like law oppression and sbuse of due process of law. Do you want them to be around any more?
walamak,
so being the future generation of this red dot, feels scary too – too pressure…
omg how to survive? think the survival skills learn during the 2.5years service cant put to use anymore…
walamak
Singapore will be perfect without Singaporeans. Because foreigners just shut up and pay. They dont complain and not a thread to the regime.
So can we expect more foreigners and less Singaporeans in future?
I agree that PAP will win the next election. But remember the winning majority the last time. It was around 60%. Even our deer Leeder got around 60+% in AMC. So, Singaporeans are voting but please remember to spread the word. Please remember to use the Internet. Talk to taxi drivers, people on the street, let them know the truth. Let the truth be told so PAP cannot hoodwink them…
I love the productivity sermon by our Deer Leeder. He said that we need to be productive. I was thinking of how. He said in an example that a chef should be more productive in a way that he can do multiple things at one time. Example should be a Malay food chef should learn French food so when a French chef is down, he can go and substitute him and vice versa. Hey, why don’t our Deer Leeder be more productive? Why don’t he take over the Apek on the street when he is sick. That would be a good example. Afterall, if we need to be productive at our meager salary, he should be super productive at his salary…
http://www.propertyguru.com.sg/property-management-news/2010/7/28162/New%20BTO%20project%20in%20Punggol%2012%20times%20oversubscribed
Don’t need to wait for future generation. 11 times oversubscribed people will have to look for a home elsewhere in Singapore.
old saying politics is played by the old folks and the young ones are dying
Ng E-Jay proclaimed “When the PAP came into power in 1959, Singapore was already a bustling metropolis, not a sleepy fishing village like National Education textbooks like to put it.”
Most people learn that Singapore was a fishing village in 1819 of about 150, and grew to a city of 1.6m in 1959. I don’t know where you get your national education material from.
Ng E-Jay further proclaimed “I do not know whether the PAP made things significantly better after 1965″.
If you cannot even acknowledge that there was massive improvement in the standard of development and living in Singapore, in various indicators of health and wealth such as infant mortality, life expectancy, housing, employment, literacy, infrastructure and more, then you can continue to delude yourself. The general public who lived through the development years, and even most critics of the PAP government, will know the difference.
Cyrus, 7 July 2010
yes, when the economy does well they Do have an excuse to pay themselves well. but have the improved economy (in the past years) brought about a tide that lifts all boats? or the bigger the boat the higher?
in theory, a strong economy should benefit people as you say. but judging from the salaries over the years for the bottem 30% of the society, how benefit did the “Boom” years bring? shouldn’t statistically, it narrow the gap of the rich-vs-poor to a certain extent? noting that other factors do part its part, the situation should have improve somehow?
if you have been kept abreast of current affairs, you couldn’t have missed the damage the recent floods have caused, how security of a vital public transport has been breached & the strain our public transport is currently under due to the influx of foreigners to S’pore.
… not withstanding the move to promote lower value service industries (eg. retail, hospitality, F&B, security) to the masses as a “good” career option.
quote:
“i would say so far, we have been very lucky. At the same time, the government must have been doing something right.”
like i said before, if luck played such a large part of S’pore’s success, den why does MIW claim credit & demand a higher salary? at different stages in S’pore’s history different people are at helm within the various ministries, its simplistic to assume that the success thus far is attributed to current team in place. its more realistic to measure where 1 started (date of appointment) & how much progress the indivdual has made. to average MIW’s performance since independence to today’s date would be illogical, because the pay is made to the current individual.
Ng E-Jay, 7 July 2010
err, maybe Alternative Parties is a more positive phase? with it goes “you have Alternatives”.
rebranding may bring some positive change in perception. the word opposition somehow seem “alittle” hostile, reactive, de-meaning (archaic?), as some do not oppose for opposing sake. if some still do they should take it to the next level.
its rather nuanced, not very significant a change, but every bit counts, doesn’t it?
in an ol’ man’s words: “its time (for opposition parties) to move on to (re-brand themselves as alternative parties)!”
m.i.n.
Thanks E-Jay for well written article. My additional point would be that besides the economic and social interference that has had phenomenal consequences, the 50 years of PAP rule has created a mess of the educational system. Just count the number of Education Millisters who have introduced numerous programs and then left the children who were guinea pigs wondering how to survive in the system. Again the impact is only seen many years after the “expert millisters” had left the scene.
NO NO NO! NOT the sins of PAP. Yes they who follow “the leader” are also culpable. But it is the Great Sins of “lee kuan you” who leader. As teachers, leaders and even he is “leader mentor” are first and most accountable and responsible! I quote from TR:
A Repressive and Totalitarian who served the Japs in WW2 to his very own advantage and Singaporean gave him overwhelming mandate in 1959 after what he had said 1956! He is “somewhat” right that Singaporeans are “daft”.But applied across the board and saying it to the outside world that National Geographic, IS IT “Patriotism Betrayal”? Here goes:
“Repression, Sir is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love – it is always easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course with constant repetition you get more and more brazen in the attack. All you have to do is to dissolve organizations and societies and banish and detain the key political workers in these societies. Then miraculously everything is tranquil on the surface. Then an intimidated press and the government-controlled radio together can regularly sing your praises, and slowly and steadily the people are made to forget the evil things that have already been done, or if these things are referred to again they’re conveniently distorted and distorted with impunity, because there will be no opposition to contradict.” – Lee Kuan Yew as an opposition PAP member speaking to David Marshall, Singapore Legislative Assembly, Debates, 4 October 1956
And just as recent as 1997 he affirmed 1956:
“Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle-dusters. If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no way you can govern a Chinese society.” ? 1997- LKY
And then confirmed it in 2005 before his ah loong’s GE in 2006:
“There is nothing to prevent you from pushing your propaganda, to push your programme out either to the students or with the public at large… and if you can carry the ground, if you are right, you win. That’s democracy. We’re not preventing anybody” ~ Lee Kuan Yew, 31 January 2005
OH REALLY! Singaporeans got freedom after all these said and DONE? Even “Woody Goh” as some call him, was said to be “more caring than old leelee? But why?
Didn’t he lower the HDB income ceilings for you to upgrade to bigger flats? So that those who sold you their biggest flats in the open market can afford private condos built by Pedemco Land and DBS Land? And these 2 were banded together with another much smaller “Land” to become CAPitalLand! So that all WILL forget that Ho Ching had used Pedemco Land’s BILLION DOLLAR profits before the merger, in ST Technologies and Chartered Semiconductor where she had lost BILLIONS!
What the hack has a Real Estate Organization got to do with Technologies to be ABSORBED into ST Technologies FOR? Except for some some peculiar purposes? And yet HC had said of Singaporeans’ outcry of her later even BIGGER LOSSES in TH as “laughable” in her pappy-in-law’s MSM? Who IS laughable indeed. Why she’s been silent pretty long after that
People already started paying for the sins of the papaya, no need to wait for future generations!!!!
contrarian: “The general public who lived through the development years, and even most critics of the PAP government, will know the difference.”
I am one of those who left school in the 1950s and so presumably I will know the difference.
But of course I know the difference, or should I say “differences”?
And one very significant difference is that inflation has soared tremendously in some areas of our lives, to the point that those who are not in the high-income bracket are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Do you agree with this? The “high income bracket” does not confine strictly to the obscene levels of our ministerial pay scheme or to the fat, and sometimes even more obscene, levels of remuneration and bonus dished out to the top rung of an organization [GLC or private], for example, directors and CEOs, deputy CEOs etc, but includes salary levels that are say several times above what a fresh graduate can expect to earn on entry to the workforce.
Non-graduate workers [in the fifties to sixties era] could afford to buy a house/flat, after some years of thrift and hard work; this of course was before our money-greed money-grabbing government started the inflationary process, somewhere along the way, resulting in the costs of living rising to levels most people are unable to cope with. Have you any idea as to what is, say, the average starting salary today for a non-graduate white-collar worker? From around S$1,400 pm – S$2,000 pm, perhasps? That would seem right. But do you realize that the purchasing power of any salary at this level appears well below that of a salary of say S$180 pm – S$200 pm in the fifties or sixties? Presumably you have experienced living conditions in Singapore from the fifties until now?
Have you heard or read about people complaining about the rising costs of living in Singapore? Do you agree that these people are not stating an untruth? Or are you deluded yourself?
I cannot disagree that Singapore has made great strides since the fifties or sixties, but this is the result of a combination of factors, and cannot be attributed to our government alone.
Until recently, with the exception of one of two rare occasions, where the government ended with a deficit, it has been surplus year after year. Having a surplus rather than a deficit is no doubt a good, it makes economic sense. On the other hand it can also mean that the people have been overtaxed, right?
The ERP and COE systems were introduced to curb traffic and car-ownership. When it was shown that having so many gantry points on the CTE did not alleviate the traffic on that stretch, what was the government’s reaction? Do you know? Or do you prefer to remain deluded?
By increasing/extending ERP charges or operations, a point will sure to be reached where people can no longer afford to pay for them, or they have to sacrifice in another area to maintain the car and continue driving; it might mean a case of having to suffer one or more inconveniences for the sake of another, because of someone else’s greed, disguised in sheep’s clothing.
rwkc, he was probably in his nappies in the 50s and 60s, if that. How is he to know??
The pappy dogs who continue to abide by their master’s orders and follow blindly on instructions will eventually have their grave buried next to their master’s enemy. There appears to be many bad leadership in this generation of leaders, we hope everyone stand on alternative parties side or at least voice strongly against what has already gone wrong before it went deeper and take many generations to get out of the problems. We have heard the word “aspiration” after 50 years, do we still want to heart it after the next 50 years and still getting nowhere near to what Singapore has been singing everyday, every morning and evening?
Dear contrarian
There similarly has been a massive improvement in the standard of living (hygiene, sanitation, roads, etc) in other neighbouring countries but I don’t see politicians from there justifying their pay based on this.
Of course, you will probably say next that other countries have corrupt politicians, which i don’t dispute certainly.
The key point is that the concept of duty and service has been replaced by the mantra of greed, and THAT is what we should oppose.
The author is of the opinion that the PAP government made some policy errors. It is not a sin to make policy errors. The article speculates on the effects of these alleged errors and calls them “sins” in the title without any concrete figures or proof. This is no different from the kind of brainwashing that the PAP/MSM is often accused of.
It is clearly quoted that famiLEE is a legal robber.They has rob us of eveythings- the future generation has no more opportunity so have to imgrate.
The young people today are already paying the price. 2 JC students just jumped to their deaths yesterday. They have no childhood. They compete with foreigners for every scrap of opportunity in school and future jobs. Their future is doomed.
I see in these blogs, complaints after complaints but not solutions. What do you think the goverment need to do? Please look at this from the other side of the coin.
Solutions are more important. We are people on the ground. Look at how we can make the difference. I don’t trust the government because they got “scholars” sitting in high places looking down on us “peasants”. Remind you of the Chinese empire?
Now, the British has a system where they have a shadow cabinet. This shadow cabinet makes decisions but it will not affect the “ruling party”. This way, the people can see what the oppositions are capable of. We should have the same.
So, if we say HDB is too expensive. What can we do about it? Subsidise more? No. Then look at alternative ways of providing cheap affordable housing but yet ward off speculations. Look at enforcement system, look at approval systems…. Things like that. It will give anybody headache but better than us complaint and complaint and complaint.
It is not a sin to make policy errors. but it is a sin not to admit the errors. People make mistakes, even the “Gods in PAP” and the “Scholars on the high Pagoda”. Please say you make a mistake and say how you are going to remedy it. Don’t let a cripple guy escape from a secure jail and blame that on the jailkeeper. It is like a kid spilling milk on the floor and blaming the cup that hold the milk. Overall, you are responsible. Take it like a man. You got paid lots of money to do your job. Yes, you didn’t do it well. Singaporeans are grown ups. We know that immediately. Hiding it will not help.
So, you see? No brainwashing. Just logical people talking. Singaporeans need to be like that. No complaining, no saying who is right, who is wrong.
Government have to be aware that Singaporeans are now grown ups. We travelled the world. We see things that our fathers don’t see. We do things our fathers don’t even do. Please give us credit. Don’t think you are so high and mighty we cannot reach you. Don’t think that you are so smart as nobody in the world are so smart. Look at BP. They got geniuses there but they cannot stop a leak…..
Born in the 80s when all my peers are looking at owning our 1st HDB now. But most of us are unable to afford it.
In our career, fighting with “ah lao” and “indian chief” from all industries. They are all our bosses and higher pays.
If we cant afford car, then got to suffer and squeeze in our “profitable” LTA’s public transport. Where lower class of FTs who love to squeeze and talk loudly in MRT or Bus. Not mentioning their smell.
My points are, who cares about the growth of Singapore for the past 50years when most singaporean cant afford our own housing. What is the income to expense ratio of the average singaporean had differ from last 20years till now? Btw when i mean afford our own housing doesnt include those who got a 30year loan or support from parent due to single child.
I am really feeling for all singaporeans.
You have the 20+ working now but good HDBs now cost 200K – 350K. So, you will need 30 years loan and work you entire life and still not pay back.
You have the 30+ who have been working for a while but still cannot get much salary bcos we have foreign talents coming in and doing the job at a cheaper rate. You 30+ is stuck between the rock and hard place.
Then you have the 40+ who is supposed to be successful but hey, we got more foreign talent – this time from the top that suck the jobs from us.
Then we have the 50+. These are the category that is really poor thing. If you lose your job now, you can only be a taxi drivers and other stuff that not so classy.
Then you have the poor 60+ who are supposed to retire but they have no money to retire. CPF can only be installment plan so they are screwed too.
Then we have the 70+. These are looking for old folks facilities but none affordable, so need to go to Malaysia.
And then lastly 80+ and 90+. These I got nothing to say.
So, in reality, Singaporeans are screwed no matter what age you are….
The only “holistic” about PAP without Dr. Goh Keng Swee’s camaraderie & company is in that “holy” blain of a MENTor or menTORe who experiment with our lives. Experiment he did, with our feelings, our personal, our ambitions, learning, working life, advancement to be Paid And Paid more by doing two or more jobs he calls bigger salary but never lower hourly rates for more stress and no life, all for Paying And Paying him and his cronies more and more, his government Paid And Paid more and more too for LESS And Less job opportunities, more and more no good years to idle more and more without work as your has been taken up more and more by FW and even FT too of your PMET but not his “PMET” job of BetterEST Paid and PAid more and more “Political ManagerRERs ExtraordinaireRER TalenterEST” who can give you a figures of $104M YOG expenditure and the next moment BALLoonerRERing it to $387M represntinGLING an increase of $283 MILLION BUCKS!!!
Sorry got so carried away no paragraphs inserted like their PAP paychecks for DIS and for DAT like no bodies business but their own! “Oh mama” is asleep in coma cannot give advice and guidance. But then for the last 25 odd years it wasn’t really that good too was it! As WE, the Citizens of Singapore were sliding down financially while all pappies were “sliding” up smack against gravity! What a mentor mental feat indeed! Only they deserve it tho not us so daft as gave them so power and might to pare us low low down.
i must agree with most of what the writer say. there are definitely many policy errors that went unnoticed because the mainstream newspaper has sugar-coated to the extend of justifying and glamorising it. The graduate mothers scheme is one of the worst. LKY’s hiding under the ruse of nature logic is not much different from Hilter’s attempt to purify genes and exterminate jews. Now we know that IQ is not everything, there is EQ and loads of other artistic talents. unfortunately, the damage is done. instead of admitting mistakes, they throw money at the problem. (baby bonus has been around for more than 10 years and the birth rate is still declining.) now, they again use the economic thinking of running a corporate, use money to buy from oversea (flood Singapore with FT). any idiot can come up with such solution, no need to be pay ministers millions to think of such no-brainer answers.
there is not much future for singaporeans. better plan for plan B – first i am thinking of how to avoid NS for my son so that he can go straight to uni. no point slaving 2 yrs for an uncaring government and just fighting to save their millions.
better prepare for plan B,
I agree with you, but partially.
With this funky, money-greed, self-serving lot at the helm, one appears to be in need of not only plan B but also plan C or even D.
@ Ng E-Jay
You are damned right that regional neighbour have achieved a much improved standard of living and infrastructure. The missing link, when we compare ourselves to them, is, after 45 years of independence, the lack of a strong domestic economic pillar and the most basic resource of soil, earth, seas and the riches these natural assets contain. Our next generation will pay heavily to find this means of survival.
After Woody Go coined the “EQ” thing everyone never fail to echo him. Why? First, the EQ is the result OF IQ. And IQ alone isn’t enough for EQ when it is centred around only the logical. So, without Common Sense and Consciousness of The Natural Phenomenon, WISDOM is not attained. And without wisdom, of which intellect is only one of its components, good EQ is not truly realized too!
And that guy GCT as PM referred, LHL as PM quoting the late S. Rajaratnam at his wake quoted Pultarch wrongly! So,
Didn’t Goh Chok Tong GOOF in his quote of Greek historian, biographer and essayist Plutarch?
From: http://www.google.com.sg/search?q=plutarch+quotes&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
To: http://chatna.com/author/plutarch.htm:
Plutarch said: An army of stags led by a lion is more formidable than an army of lions led by a stag.
From stags to sheep by both GCT and LHL as PM? Laughable Indeed!
And since they all love Pultarch,lets see more of Pultarch for seeing the flaws of top team leaders LKY, GCT, LHLL and their team!
Plutarch: Know how to listen and you will profit even from those who talk badly.
=================================
To: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/plutarch_2.html
Plutarch: The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
Plutarch: Moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men’s private lives, than the failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at large.
Plutarch: Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity.
Plutarch: To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.
Plutarch: To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.
Who in PAP do these Pultarch references remind you of most and why?
Post GFC, five of the world’s strongest economies at this moment are Germany, South Korea, Brazil, Australia and Canada – four of them had NO recession in 2009. There is a common thread in them – strong domestic economic pillars catering for global markets either through manufacturing or resources-based exports.German industries picked up strongly and have dented unemployment level.
http://internetfileserver.phillip.com.sg/Poems/UnitTrust/Research/AB180610GloEco.pdf
South Korean economies picked up speed and they have raised interest rate to forestall risk of overheating
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/markets/south-koreas-economy-to-pick-up-speed/story-e6frg926-1225890624388
We had no resource base and after 45 years, no domestic economic pillar catering to global markets, Singapore’s future awaiting the next generation is like a wind over the tumultuous ocean uncertain of which way to blow post the GFC.
What a WONDER or BLUNDER of economic achievement since independence when politics drives economy instead of economy drives politics of blind vision in this country?
Now younger generations are feeling the pinch of the effects of the monstrous policies of PAP.Housing costs are hurting them when they need to settle down and raise their own family.Raising family is becoming more demanding due to the ever escalating cost of living be it transport,health,education and whatnots.All their disasterous policies of the past are creeping into our lives daily.If nothing is done to stop them of their atrocious acts,we’ll soon be doomed.So,let’s get together to convey the urgent message to everyone around us to get rid of this sickening scum PAP!!!!
I see too many complaints. What can we do better?
I respects Dr. Sun Yat Sen and his unselfish way to unite China. He don’t take millions to do that. He just do it (like Nike)
So, let see how we can change Singapore.
Lets start with cost of living :
Cost of living going up in Singapore
How can we overcome that?
If we subsidise, we will get an issue with unfairness. If we do selective subsidies, we will get too much work.
If we don’t give subsidy, then cost of living will go up.
Now, let see how we can come up with some simple suggestions to overcome this.
Lets be the government.
1. Reduce cost of transportation for selective Singaporeans (unemployed, retiree, Army reservists, etc) Give them the Singapore Pass. Give prefered rate to them. It is justifiable. Don’t give them some stupid transfer discount or simplistic flat rate.
2. Reduce cost of essential foods. Control that. Justify the control.
3. Reduce the cost of HDB. Go on a cost plus basis. Do not make profit. Be realistic in the pricing. Make sure that it is in line with inflation.
The above are some suggestions. If all of us put our head together, we will be able get a solution.
Don’t complaint only – Make an alternative government possible….
aol166, 12 July 2010
some are rants, complains, critics (constructive)… depending on how its received, its too easy for the receiving end to label anything that does not sound like music as complains.
if early on the ruling elites do not bulldoze their way through policies, are more receptive to constructive critism & are willing to act on them, TOC or other online forums would have a smaller following.
i have a feeling the current leadership is too entrenched in its way to really listen where it counts. if its receptive, they would have rebuffed MSM writers, “journalists” for writing articles that simply gloss over pertinent issues by belittling its countrymen without doing more research.
IMPO, an alternative govt is possible only with a new team (the whole) at helm. because the staleworts have evolved into an uncompromising-know-it-all snobs, out of touch with the common folk. not sure how many feel this way…
i rather: “let’s combine votes & vote them ALL out!”
:D
Quote: # By the government “picking favorites” amongst industry players and in so doing, creating mis-allocation and wastage of resources.
# By the government micro-managing and interfering excessively with the free market economy.
I spent 12 months in Spore trying to get funding for an innovation to no avail. From EDB to Spring, NUS, MDA, ect. Finally,it was Malaysia
that gave the Innovation about USD47,000. Shame on my homeland :(
AOL166:
“I see in these blogs, complaints after complaints but not solutions”
If you have been following the articles in TOC over the years, you will have seen that many, many constructive suggestions and policy proposals have been put forward. Some of these are as follows:
- De-link ministers salaries from growth in GDP. Link them, instead to rise in quality of life
- End pursuit of being ‘best in everything’; be selective about which areas of the economy to excel in
- Promote service industries that are not manpower intensive; in particular, promote knowledge based industries.
- Do not promote industries, such as the IRs, that require large numbers of low level foreign workers. These depress the wages of lower-paid Singaporeans
- Discourage manufacturing industries that require large numbers of cheap FWs. Retain a few high-end manufacturing activities such as rig-building, oil refining and primary chemicals
- Introduce social-welfare projects and safety-nets for low-income workers and weaker sections of society, such as the aged and infirm
- Restrict the inflow of FWs to help boost wages at the bottom
- Protect the environment
- (Government must) Exit all non-essential businesses; retain only essential activities such as national security and foreign-policy
- Encourage domestic consumption to boost local economy
- End practice of sinecuring ministers for life
- In government, promote culture of taking responsibility
- Repeal ISA
- Repeal the NPPA
- Go back to 100% single-ward constituencies
and so on.
This is only a partial list. I am sure other readers can add to it.
Hear Hear !!!
Peter Sellers for the next president !!
No thank you, the President is pretty powerless!
See the discussion at “Past Presidents powerless, never actually decided clemencies?” :)
Agree with “mice is nice” that Alternative Party is a definitely a better phrase that Opposition Party.
it’s too CROWDED here!!! Did you known bacteria growth slows to a stop if grown in overcrowded petri dish? And lab mice will mount male and female indiscriminately if kept in cages too small!! If they keep the population growth artificially high by “importing” we’ll just be going the way of the bacteria and the mice…We bacteria need a bigger petri dish already! More space, more jobs, more amenities