In an hour-long interview National Solidarity Party secretary-general Goh Meng Seng shares with TOC the illegal hawking episode, taking on the housing issue, and why he’s a socialist at heart. By Joshua Chiang
Recently you were summoned by the National Environmental Agency (NEA) for selling your party newspapers. Can you tell us more about what happened?
A week before the event we were at Bendemeer Market selling our papers. A couple of officers from NEA came down. They told us it’s illegal to hawk but they didn’t issue summons. Thereafter, I wrote in to NEA. I wanted to clarify the issue. Is it illegal to sell political party newspapers? What are the hygiene concerns? I politely told them that we will continue to sell the papers if there’s no satisfactory answer. I informed them we would go to Tampines to sell in the following week.
Then a few days later an officer called me and said it’s illegal, you need a licence. So I said, “What type of licence?” He said, “Those licences are mostly for poor people without jobs, and 45 years and above.” I said, “We are a political party. You just tell me whether a political party licensing is needed.” He said, “No.” So I replied, “Since there’s no political party licence for us to apply, we’ll continue to sell.”
And on that Sunday, three officers turned up. They warned us, and said they would come back twenty minutes later, and we better not sell. But we continued to sell. I asked the officers if there were licences for us, they said (there was) practically no licence for us to apply, so I said, “If there’s no license how can you summon us for not applying for a licence which doesn’t exist at all?”
Later on, they came back and they wanted to summon us. Before I know it, (NSP Vice President) Chris Neo was being summoned, but everybody was selling papers. They saw us, but they only summoned Chris Neo. Then Steve (Chia) walked over and said, “Why don’t you summon me?” (laughs) They just ignored us.
Before this incident did other political parties also get into trouble with NEA this way?
SDP (Singapore Democratic Party) had been summoned once in 1999. That time they set up a stall with tables, put their books there, and they were fined for illegal hawking. But we did not set up any tables. In my experience with the Workers’ Party, on and off we’ll meet NEA officers. Normally they’ll come, check and they’ll just leave us alone.
After the incident at Tampines, we actually wanted to meet up with the CEO (of NEA) but ‘no sight no sound’. So we had to issue a press statement saying we want to clarify this. I’ve seen RC people going around selling tickets for whatever occasions, also selling flags for National Day. So I wanted to ask them on what criteria do you classify as illegal hawking? And we are not hawkers. Our livelihood is not dependent on us selling the papers. It’s a political activity. By selling the papers we are helping the party get funding for the party to function. So it’s just like any grassroots organization. But there’s no reply.
The summon is valid for thirty days. If you do not pay up, the compounded fine, you are expected to go to court. Our CEC (Central Executive Committee) decided not to pay the fine. We’ll go to court to sort it out. We stopped selling the papers for a week; Reform Party did the same. But the subsequent week we started to sell, and without incident.
Just a few days before the expiry date of the summon, Chris Neo was called up by NEA. What transpired was talking and all that, so they just gave a so-called warning. And the summon was written off. From then on, we figured out they would not bother us after this incident. The so-called warning is just a formality. From then on till now we have not seen any incidents.
So this is one of the issues you will raise if elected?
Yes. For us there is little we can do without getting into trouble at the moment. We can make noise, we can do civil disobedience. They give warning we still go and sell, but the only place for people to question them,the minister in charge, is a Parliament platform. Or else they will not really bother with your emails or registered mail or whatever. You have to be in Parliament to question and extract whatever answers from them which I feel the present MPs are not doing. It’s not only opposition grassroots that are affected. The PAP grassroots are also affected. PAP are affected – why nobody want to raise it? So I believe they are keeping mum because they do not want to get into a situation where the minister still insists that it’s illegal – then how? (laughs) Then everybody is doing illegal things! They don’t want to mention it, just close one eye.
I think this is a very bad thing about Asian countries. We do not respect the rule of law. If you really want to talk about the rule of law, if the law is inadequate or seems to have created a certain paradox, you should solve it instead of keeping quiet and hope nobody remembers it, and life goes on. I think it’s not the way to deal with issues.
If the status-quo works for me, why change it?
Precisely. But we are in opposition, we want it to change, so everybody will have a level playing field. We are into an era of democratic development away from strongman politics. I think we need to set the rules for the playing ground as fair as possible.
Moving on – you are going to contest in Tampines, and you have sold your flat to raise the funds. Do you think you might actually stand a chance in Tampines?
It’s not so much whether I stand a chance – I have to fight it out. (laughs) Why Mah Bow Tan (MP for Tampines GRC and Minister for National Development)? First of all NSP has little choice. The way we worked in the past is, whichever political party that has been contesting in certain areas, has a so-called natural claim over the territory if they are willing to continuously work for it. For NSP, although we were in the SDA, our grounds were limited to Jalan Besar and Tampines for the last election. At that time within the party, nobody was really interested in starting a team in Tampines, so I said, “Ok, I take it.”
Is housing one of the key issues you are tackling?
Of course. The strategy starts from minister-specific strategy, then comes to the housing, so I have to take housing or the Ministry of National Development as a whole. Coincidentally housing is a big problem right now. But nobody seems to view it that way before I started the fire.
In my 2008 National Day speech, I included the homeless as part of the campaign message. Then subsequently in 2009 I started to mention housing pricing. We started to do analysis on the impact of foreigner influx on housing and subsequently on transport and all that. We just ‘bang’ on it, that Mah Bow Tan is not building enough flats. So that is a direct challenge to the competency of the minister in charge of HDB. Nobody has ever started this, on this direction.
People might be upset at the costs of the flat but no flat owner will want the prices to drop – then you have yourself a paradox.
It’s a Catch-22. Now, we must ascertain some common platform. HDB flat is public housing. That’s number one. It must cater to the lowest denomination of the population. That means the poorest. HDB flats as public housing is not an investment tool. That’s number two. Against what Mah Bow Tan has been trying to say that ‘Oh it’s an investment for you”, it’s not. Because you can only have one HDB flat. If you have a second one then that is an investment tool. It is whether you believe it’s supposed to be an investment tool or not. Then you’ll decide whether the high price of an HDB flat is beneficial. Because high prices of HDB flats will mean your children will suffer. You may gain but your children will suffer. So what do you want?
So Singaporeans have to look at it very clearly. It is not an investment tool. Whether it goes up or down, you cannot sell it and live at Changi beach. But who will benefit from it? It’s not the poor. And if you raise the price to a certain level, then all the poor cannot afford. And it defeats the first and foremost duty of a public housing policy, which is to take care of the lowest sector’s housing needs.
But say I’m the owner of a flat for almost 15 years, and my flat has appreciated in value so far to maybe even $700k now.
You feel good.
Yes, I feel good. Why would I even think flats being public goods – why do I even need to think about the poor and all that?
You feel good, but can you sell it? Where are you going to stay? You sell it high you have to buy it high. You feel good but at the end of the day, can you remortgage it to get money? You can’t. So what’s the purpose? Just feeling good! But you have to take care of your children.
But if you’re measuring that against a spectacular drop in prices – that is the biggest fear that people have, that I have put in $500,000 in my flat already, perhaps I’d rather carry on at this price as opposed to it dropping to $100,000.
That is the trap of asset inflation. Many people will get caught. Property prices, when it goes up, everybody happy. But when it stagnates everybody scared. Because when you buy it, you always think it will go higher, because you are treating it as a so-called investment. The mindset is totally wrong.
There will be some sector of people which will not be very happy if the prices drop, no doubt about that. But whose fault? The policy-maker. This should not happen if it’s managed properly.
But you want to continue like that? It’s just a ponzi scheme you know. When you get started you cannot stop. Once you stop everything collapses. But I would rather say that take the pain at a short term, and look for the long term for your children. You suffered because of bad policy, but do you want the policy to continue so that your future generation all suffer together? I think that’s insane.
So you’re placing your faith or your hope in the ability of your voters to think long term in that sense.
Yes. If I fail then I deserve to lose. I have to convince them to look at another perspective of what housing means to normal people, to their own children. If they continue on the path of greed, there’s no return.
Sounds like an uphill task.
It is easy to convince people about how materialism can benefit you. It is not easy to convince them that dematerializing goods like housing is good for them. But it doesn’t mean that it is wrong. We have to set the right policy direction, a sustainable growth model for the nation. Not on the spikes. Bust and boom is actually a spike, of demand and supply. We must have stability in terms of pricing for assets like these.
Some people are saying that you are barking up the wrong tree when it comes to housing, that the genuine concern of the people is actually employment and foreign workers.
Housing is linked with migrant workers issue. It’s not an independent issue by itself. I talked to someone who worked with PAP MPs at the Meet-The-People Sessions. He said 90 per cent of the time people go to the MPs over housing problems. Some people may think that I’m barking up the wrong tree but from the statistics that we get, of people seeking help, most of them are housing problems.
So we have to look at the proper perspective. Most people are not affected by these housing prices because most already own houses. But we are asking, first of all, housing inflation must always be lower than wage increase by virtue of the fact that there’s interest involved. For every dollar that increase in housing prices there’s interest involved in the long term. But we have a situation where the so-called affordability of housing has been pumped up by dragging the mortgage terms. From 20 years, to 25 years to 30 years. And it’s based on two-income earners, not based on one income earner. It might not affect everyone now, but it’ll sure affect everybody in the future.
A lot of people are affected by jobs. But that is also linked to housing. If your job is affected by foreigners, can you afford your housing needs? It is all linked.
End of Part 1. Part Two will be published on Wednesday.
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Thanks Mr Goh for having the guts to contest in Tampines. I am so glad there at least there will be no walkover.
I wish you all the best. You can be sure you will have my family votes for you.
Spot on.
HDB flats are glorified rental houses even with all the bells and whistles. Remember it is 99 years leash and after that what happens government takes it back and gives only god knows what.
You can’t mortgage it to make money only sell it but spend more to buy a new flat so what is this asset for? Paper asset?
I am surprised by GMS.
I think he will thrash MBT hands down.
Why would an employer pay million dollars to an employer to do nothing or cock things up?
That’s why there is no hope for MBT.
HE is going off soon.
Sack Maah Bow Tan. Also NEA is a disgrace for patisanship and incompetence
TOC asked Mr Goh this question in the context of rising HDB flats prices. (I do understand that it is a “devil’s advocate” type of question):
“…why do I even need to think about the poor and all that?”
I feel that Mr Goh could have answered this question better. This is how I would have answered the question:
There is no need for you to think of the poor if you don’t want to. But enlightened self-interest demands that you at least think of your own long-term interests.
It is not in any Singaporeans’ long-term interests to have rising property prices because that inevitably leads to rising prices all round. This then leads to higher business costs and Singapore eventually pricing itself out of the market; Singapore will no longer be cost competitive.
When that happens, the same scenario that the PAP always paints to scare Singaporeans – the flight of FDIs and jobs for Singaporeans – to accept its policies will occur, ironically as a result of the PAP’s own policies.
So, back to the question of the poor, by taking care of your own self-interests, you have inadvertantly also taken care of the poor. Housing will still be affordable to the poor.
(I hope this was helpful, but I am open to discussing this with Mr Goh or other readers.)
Mr Goh also said this:
“Property prices, when it goes up, everybody happy. But when it stagnates everybody scared. Because when you buy it, you always think it will go higher, because you are treating it as a so-called investment.”
I think that it is not so much that Singaporeans happy with rising HDB prices, but get scared when prices stagnates see their property as “investment” but more that they see them as gambling chips to speculate with.
But Mr Goh is correct to say:
“The mindset is totally wrong.”
To change such a mindest, we need to identify exactly who are those who will benefit from rising HDB prices. So far, I can identify only two groups of people:
1. those who downgrade and can make a larger absolute amount of profit from the sale of their flat, assuming that the flat is already fully paid up for; and,
2. those who sell their flats and are migrating.
In other words, only a minority of HDB flat owners.
Thank you Nas.
Actually, you miss out one important thing in who will benefit from high HDB prices:
The main monopoly seller, HDB. HDB doesn’t need to buy another flat to stay when it sell flats. ;)
Goh Meng Seng
Finally, I would like to say to Mr Goh that I have previously read about his party’s minister-centred strategy for the next elections. I personally think that it is a good tactical move since the PAP’s contests in GRCs tend to rely heavily on their ministerial heavyweights to help their other non-performing candidates into Parliament by the back door.
However, the minister-centred strategy must not be the NSP’s only strategy.
However, I can see two possible pitfalls to this:
1) The PAP can always move Mah Bow Tan out of Tampines GRC – it has done so with other ministers previously.
In this situation, I don’t see it as disadvantaging the NSP too greatly because the HDB issue will still be relevant. But the minister whom you targetted and will act as the heavyweight for the PAP’s GRC team will no longer be there.
2) Tamopines GRC can be split and the half contested by Mr Goh and his team is no longer being contested by Mah Bow Tan and his team, who will be contesting in the other half of the former Tampines GRC.
The considerations for this are the same as the one above.
To circumvent this, it is actually best that ALL opposition parties adopt the minister-centred strategy – the GRC scheme is actually tailored for just such a strategy. The opposition parties could prepare the cases against all cabinet ministers and agree to share the notes at elections. (Each party should be free to add its own spin to it later on.) Then, when you are caught in situation in which you are prepared to contest one minister but will be running against another, then there are the joint opposition notes that you can always fall back on.
This could be NSP’s contribution to opposition unity.
Mr. Goh,
Thank you for having the courage to stand up to the bullies.
State departments, agencies and instrumentalities is supposed, under the law, to remain politically neutral.
Perhaps you can take the NEA to court on the issue of its apparent lack of neutrality.
In any event, to defeat MBT, all you need to do is to focus on his incompetencies: COE, ERP, the HDB mess, the Foreign Workers dorm in Serangoon Gardens, etc.
It is clear that MBT is a massive liability to PAP.
If you can defeat MBT — I think you have a very good chance, given MBT’s total lack of popularity — it will show PAP that it can no longer impose bad policies on the people without consequences and accountability.
It is time to bring responsible government to Singapore.
HDB flats are a basic necessity and should be kept at prices close to their actual costs.
Nobody or only the migrating citizens gains when HDB prices shoots through the skies. Sorry… apologies…. the Govt and the Banks gain too….. haha.
Excellent interview Mr Goh, I hope what you are championing resonates with the residents of Tampines.
I now kind of feel that the reason you were being harrassed by NEA is not so much because you were selling party newsletters. It’s the fear of the content of your newsletter reaching the common folk. I really hope you continue to convince more and more people of this dire situation and force the MBT team out of Tampines.
Mr Goh Meng Seng:
I am the 62-year old native-born S’pore Citizen writer of “Sky-high HDB flat prices” recently posted on TOC on 23 Oct.
It has plenty of “ammunition/artillery” to help you (as Opposition David) to “take on” and “bring down” MBT (as Mighty Arrogant PAP Goliath).
MBT = Minister of Bullshit in Tampines ward
(arising from $2m Minister Mah Bow Tan’s boastful proclamations in Parliament that HDB new flats are “HEAVILY subsidized” with a “MARKET subsidy” !!!)
WKS = Won’t Kena Sacked
(arising from the $3m DPM Wong Kang Seng, who is ANSWERABLE and ACCOUNTABLE for The Mas Selamat Great Escape Monumental Fiasco)
What interest me is the issuing of summon for illegal hawking and later call the offender just to give a warning.Those law abiding and gonggong people like me who LL pay up within 30 days,will be poorer .Those who dun pay up ,you call them up just to warn them instead of bringing them to Court.Is this fair to those who pay the fine?The Authority should stop making a fool of themselves to threathen by using summons or it will paint themselves highhanded or not well verse with the law.
Be firm and bring the offender to Court if it is an offence punishable.
Otherwise,don’t issue summmon.Summons and handcuffs should not be use as and when one like.It represent the Authority.The Authority should not make our law funny.It doesn’t paint a good picture of my Singapore.I feel paiseh when my foreign friend talk about these subjects.
On Mr Goh’s chances of winning in Tampines ..thanks MBT for thinking on housing problem only and neglected his constituent’s welfare and plea for genuine help on other matters.
I can only see PRs benefitting from higher and higher HDB prices. They can sell off at high prices to Singaporeans when they leave and use the money to retire comfortably in their homeland.
We are left carrying the bubble and waiting for it to burst in our faces.
When I emailed a complaint about a dirty environment in a certain restaurant with dirty crockery and glasses, and food left
overnight in the outdoor seating area, NEA completely ignored me, yet they have the time to meddle into a political opposition selling political leaflets that has nothing to do with the environment.
Amazing, when they have a job to do, NEA officers would not lift a finger, and instead engage in an activity that totally is not in their work sphere.
Very amazing.
“HDB flat is public housing. That’s number one. It must cater to the lowest denomination of the population. That means the poorest”.
Agree whole-heartedly with this statement.
One answer to the conundrum posed by TOC (“nobody wants prices to drop”) is to bifurcate (split) HDB into two. Privatise all 4, 5 room and executive flats and HDB should get out of the business of providing such flats. Concentrate only on 1, 2 and 3 room flats in the future.
Why should the government be in this business (high-end flats) in the first place?
Hopefully Opposition Parties can together work on these kind of issues if you are not ready to come on a common platform.
Eg. What about Singaporeans abroad–how to facilitate voting at Embassies. The other is–so many Singaporeans travel and live occasionally for months abroad and may have been struck off from voting register. How to get them back on the roll without repercussons from the state (not sure what). Issues related to electoral processes– are issues which are the least controversial and there can be a common platform for opposition. Please work these out. t is also an awareness raising/educational process for voters. Many dont want to touch the govt departments dealing with these because they may serve PAP and not people. TOC can work a checklist on issues people want the opposition to work from a common platform? Not so scary err political (??) for voters?
Goh,
I applaud you for your courage against the PAP and dedication to change.
You have my support. We want to see more oppositions get elected whichever the location. However, please be prepared for contingency against PAP’s election strategy – in case there’s a change to electorial demarcation or MBT gets walled-up etc.
How abt coming to contest in Holland/Bt Timah GRC….I’m sick and tired of another walkover…
Walkover is illegal. If there is as many as ONE walkover, the election admin (if we have one) should re-think criteria to prevent this.
Will oppos pls have a common oppo ideology for this election and that is,
“To have a modern, advanced society where everyone, rich or poor, small or big, can progress mentally, socially & economically.”
This will cover issues from jobs to housing, education to election policies/ administration. Everything needs an overhaul, not just election ballgame, to modernise SG society.
In the same breathe, HDB is built for the people, not the people for HDB!
Walkover is illegal. If there is as many as ONE walkover, the election admin (if we have one) should re-think criteria to prevent this.
Will oppos pls have a common oppo ideology for this election and that is,
“To have a modern, advanced society where everyone, rich or poor, small or big, can progress mentally, socially & economically.”
This will cover issues from jobs to housing, education to election policies/ administration. Everything needs an overhaul, not just election ballgame, to modernise SG society.
In the same breathe, HDB is built for the people, not the people for HDB!
GMS has a good mind to go with his good heart.
Wish the best for NSP.
hahahah do u actually heard wht GMS said he actuaally wanted to meetupwith CEO of NEA, might as well say he wana chv tea with hu jintao better, u think hu will humour him. who the hell he think he is, he wana meet up the CEO of a major stat board, maybe he think he the future PM of spore hence he can order CEO NEA ard. nxt life bah.
You know a person is honest or not, realistic about the global economic and political situation or not, when he talks about the property market which affects the entire economy if mismanaged
But Mr Goh is adamant in giving a lop-sided perspective and attack the foundation of the wealth of most singaporeans and those with vested interests and contributed to this nation.
And you know why?
There are two large groups of people, therefore potential political supporters for him and his party, if he can leveled or demolish the property market.
First group are those who have yet to own a property and the other group are mostly rich investors waiting for home prices to fall.
Of course, we know if he and his party succeed in demolishing the property market, our economy will also sink with it and the fate of PAP will be sealed.
Vote wisely.I am not party bias but there are better ways to change for the better than to vote in a dishonest person or party.
Btw, very weak questioning by TOC.
the PAP rules by fear. as can be seen in the illegal hawking case – when you call their bluff, they will back down.
remember LKY was a lawyer and he uses the threat of the law to oppress the people.
good thing LHL is an economist…
.
.
I guess there is ‘panic in the air’.
Tampines is only 20-odd years old.
.
.
LUP for all eligible blocks in Tampines to be completed by 2011
http://news.xin.msn.com/en/singapore/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4373286
LUP DONE AT CLEMENTI AVE 5, BUT lifts dont stop at all floors.
WHY HAVE LUP WHERE LIFT DOESN’T STOPS AT ALL FLOORS?
http://forums.asiaone.com/showthread.php?s=dcdaebca6945e3540bb251652e233a95&t=30429
Today new paper has informed the tampines area is dirty and MBT WENT DOWN TO LOOK and ask residents to help also The town councilor are earning good pay and leave to the bangla and contractor to the dirty work GOOD LUCK TAMPINES NSP 1 pap 0
They have the guts which Lee Kuan Yew hates and Dragon Loong fears.
A good interview Mr Goh.
However there are certain things I would like to highlight.
HDB is currently building 1,2 & 3 room flats. They are encouraging older people to buy their studio apts and to monetise their current bigger flats.
HDB branch offices are already doing this, talking to flat owners who find it difficult to mantain their mortgage and who are reaching the critical age of 50 & above.
Studio apts have a tenure of 30yrs and cannot be re-sold, its for old folks who want to retire with some money after monetising.
(Prepare yourself for this argument)
I would encourage you to stress on affordibility, since prices are sky high and heading into outer-space.
The next generation is certainly going to suffer, especially in terms of jobs, wages & job security.
Since it is already happening, due to the hugh influx of foreigners.
Ultimately, it will be jobs and decent paying jobs which can allow anyone to maintain a hugh mortgage.
Now there is another intresting point to note. The number of foreigners(PR & foreigners included) owning properties in Singapore. We need to know this number as it might affect the property prices, if in the event most of them want to leave, all of a sudden.
E.g. SARS or whatnot.
How will the exodus affect our prices. Is the govt weighing in this factor, since Singapore is small.
Globalisation must be in-tune to a level where we, Singaporeans can sustain ourselves, in times of crisis.
It should be our paramount national intrest.This one factor alone can wipe out all our cpf funds, invested in HDB flats.
I am surprised, you couldn’t reach the NEA CEO…mmmm…wonder what he is busy with….hahaha.
good luck.
Dear Mr Goh, you might want to toy with this idea:
inflated prices do not just affect the poor, it affects everyone.
(a) people want to upgrade.
$400,000 flat owner wants to upgrade to $800,000 flat. So he needs to top up $400,000 more.
When prices are inflated 20%, his top up is now 20% more – he needs to top up $480,000 more, he suffers.
(b) some people bohchap, don’t want to upgrade.
they are affected too – they used to take a loan on $400,000 and pay interest and slowly pay it back.
you inflate the price 20%, they need to take a loan on $480,000 for the same flat, pay interest on the larger loan, trap more money inside which cannot be used to invest elsewhere. they suffer too.
(c) the few people who sell-lease-back to release money for retirement do not get a whole lot back from this inflation.
if you release half the value of the flat ($200,000), by inflating the price 20%, you get to release 20% more – you get to release a total of $240,000. That is only $40,000 more.
in summary, in (a) the upgrader’s dream is dashed – he needs extra $80,000 to upgrade.
in (b) the non-upgrader pays more in opportunity cost to buy the flat, to hold the flat, to pay interest.
in (c) the beneficiary of inflated prices do not really benefit much – just $40,000. also, in order to enjoy this extra $40,000 his opportunity cost is again the interest lost on this inflated sum.
these 3 examples show you that the beneficiaries of deliberately engineering an inflated property market are few – the whole country loses but with clever political misdirection, you easily make the country thinks it is benefiting, because it is VERY easily to be tricked into believing that asset inflation benefited you.
the real benefit is for person (d) – he sells the flat, goes to JB and retires in a home, as advised by certain powerful people. he reaps the entire inflated sum.
When we buy something the value of that thing depreciate as it aged but not HDB flats. A 4-room HDB flat cost $24k in 1980 and after 30 years is now selling at $370k. You know why the government everytime want to upgrade our HDB flats? MUP, LUP and HIP. It is to made sure the price of their old HDB flats keep going upwards. Even if you sell your flat and don’t buy another, you are not going to keep the money for long because high medical cost will wipe out all the gains you have make. A retired man who have $20k in his bank saving suffered kidney failure. Every month he has to spend $1k for treatment. Within 20 months he has nothing left in his bank account. You ask PAPies to help, they ask you to sell your flat. If sell flat where to stay? Don’t sell flat where to get money to treat sickness. Children unable to help because salary less than $2k, must pay his off his housing loan until he reach the age of 60 years old. Don’t be too happy whenever the price of your flat increase. Pause for awhile and ask yourself this question, HDB price increase is it good or is it bad? Mr Goh you have hit the right note. Be prepare you may have 1000 reason, PAPies will always come up with one extra reason and that is their 1001 reasons trump card. They never admit their wrong policy or mistake.
liars will speak half truth and not tell you that for many, though they may own only one home all their lives, there are ways to monetize their asset. for instance: by downgrading;rent out your rooms for extra cash;reverse mortgage. etc. although there maybe few who will find it challenging to monetize their home, most wll not find it so. unless your financial problems are insurmountable, your humble HDB can still offer some financial relief.
better than nothing, right?
furthermore, children will one day inherit their parents asset. some even use the proceed from the sale of their parents home for upgrading or investment.
so depending on your unique situation, your asset, your home can be a source of extra cash.now why didn’t the opposition offer a balance by highlighting those areas?
by omitting to tell the entire truth, they hope to rile voters to their cause which is – personal power, wealth and the priveges of high office.
never for one who trust in party politics- be it the incumbent or the opposition.
that’s why you can never fully trust politicians because, as the case above has shown, they will never speak the whole truth.
and if we have a system of political contest that allowed these people to churn out half truths and half baked stories, the nation and its citizens may one day wake up to a new gov far worse than an over rated one.
your right to protest then will be equally resisted by the new gov, if not far worse than the incumbent because they lack the clout of a strongman and hence,may have to resort to the use of civil laws and powers to contain you.
the final analysis maybe one bloody social and economic affairs certainly not worth the trade for our not so perfect but still in progress current situation.
@NextSnake Party
Half-truth, for you.
A friend of mine just got married to a Singaporean in Australia.He works there and owns a place.
He wanted to apply for a HDB flat and he was rejected because he owns a private property in Australia. The HDB officer wanted him to sell it off. He asked her what rational is that, and where would he sleep after work. She had no answers.
My friend called home and told the father, bashed him about the listless policy.
Now, the dad being an ardent fan of the PAP for many years. Poor old man had no words, this time. Imagine a son, an officer in the Army not given a place to live in his own country.
When this govt allows, tom, ah nehs & ah kows to buy flats at our expense and push us aside, using some ridiculous policy, which don’t apply to foreigners.
Do you expect people to sit back & sip tea. PAP will see the results soon.
By the way, there is no truth, if you are educated enough, you would know what I mean.
……… WHEN ASKED TO HELP OLD FOLKS, DISABLED etc STUCKED AT HOME DESPITE LUP DONE.
Thought that the basic purpose of LUP is a lift landing at all floors to cater for an aging population and people with disabilities, wheelchair users etc.
SO WHY HDB BUILT LUP THAT DON’T STOPS AT ALL FLOORS?
http://forums.asiaone.com/showthread.php?t=32200
prettyplace,
as an educated person, you should know that any human system mended by imperfect creatures will always leave room to be faulted by other imperfect beings.
so of utmost importance, we must have leaders who are prepared to listen and make necessary changes to vexatious policies in the interests of the majority.
after all,policies are not cast in stones but are often works in progress.
there is no need to bay for the blood of generally good men when your pen is mightier than a bloody sword or canon.
NextSnakeParty
You talk like HDB is freehold & children do not need homes of their own – “children will one day inherit their parents asset”. Here’s why its problematic:
1. If the inherited flat has big positive equity, their own flats are hard to afford. Back to square one.
2. One or two generations may inherit but by the 3rd, its 99 yrs lease is up.
3. By the 2nd generation, the price would have depreciated so much that the positive equity is negated.
He is sitting on an ivory tower and preaching from a pedestal wearing rose tinted glasses.
Hes got,like all his colleaques, absolutely no grasp of reality , of what the common has to do to put three meals on the table.
Y? he resides in a good class bungalow in a prime area with a million dollar pay.
he needs not worry about lesser mortals here.
You Beget what you sow.
You didnt study so you hold a Two thousand pay(with Overtime)..that seems to be the Attitude.
so his regimes policies are geared for his partys self survival .he continues to allow FT PR to purchase HDB flats built with Yours and mine taxes . I dont think any country in the world allow foreigners to buy “Council Flats”.
Many Kudos To Mr.Goh
Hes made a scrifice to Stand for elections.
His comments are laced with reality and good sense.i hope he wins if not makes a huge dent in the incumbents votes.
The Incumbent and completely Incopetent Tampines Mp his wetting his pants Facebook His own RC People.where was he all this years.is he really so hands on.People in Tampines will know for sure
and wil cast the vote wisely.
iF i OWN PRIVATE PROPERTY AND CAN NOT SELL, HOW CAN I BUY NEXT HOUSE TO STAY ?
pLEASE ASKED MY QOUESTION AND REPLY AND HELP ME TO CLEAR MY PROBLEM!!!