Leong Sze Hian /
I refer to the reports “WP rebuts Minister’s criticisms of its housing proposals” and ”WP ‘not looking to raid reserves’” (ST, Apr 22).
The former states that:
“The WP had said it would lower flat prices by paying less for state land. Mr Mah said this amounted to an ”illegal raid on the reserves”, leaving less for future generations”.
So far, the debate may be described as one of rhetoric without much statistical or quantitative arguments or analysis.
How much ‘reserves’ raided?
In this regard, since the Minister was quoted as saying that the WP’s proposals were “calculated” to confuse Singaporeans, I would like to suggest a slightly different approach to the debate, by attempting to calculate the amount of ‘reserves’ being raided.
My starting point is not the raiding of Singapore’s reserves, but rather the apparent raiding of ordinary Singaporeans’ ‘reserves’.
Every Singaporean who pays more in his lifetime for a higher priced HDB flat under the HDB’s current Market Subsidy Pricing policy, may in effect end up with less ‘reserves’ for his or her retirement, available pre-retirement cash-flows or an emergency before retirement, compared to the WP’s median income pricing policy.
Since the prices of HDB flats rose by 69 per cent from 2005 to 2010, according to the HDB Resale Price Index, let us assume that during the five years, the average of say about 50,000 flats transacted (10,000 new and 40,000 resale) per year, had an average price of $300,000.
Of course, it may be more realistic and complete to do a much more thorough computation based on the per annum 11.1 per cent rise in HDB prices on a year-to-year basis for the five years. However, in the
interest of simplifying matters to facilitate readers’ understanding, I shall work on the simplified methodology of a $300,000 average flat price.
Let us next assume that under a median income pricing policy, the average price would have been say $200,000.
This may mean that every Singaporean family who bought a HDB flat over the five years, in a sense, had overpaid $100,000 ($300,000 minus $200,000).
The monthly repayment on a typical 30-year mortgage on a HDB Concessionary Loan at 2.6 per cent interest is about $400 for the $100,000 difference.
The cumulative sum ‘overpaid’ for 30 years, is $144,000 ($400 x 12 months x 30 years).
However, if we factor in the time value of money at say five per cent per annum, because the first $60,000 in CPF accounts now pay five per cent interest, and the excess of the Ordinary Account beyond $20,000 and Special Account beyond $50,000, can be invested under the CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS), the cumulative sum after 30 years may be about $333,000.
Therefore, every Singaporean family who ‘overpaid’ for a HDB flat, arguably, had his ‘reserves’ amounting to $333,000 ‘raided’ under the current Market Subsidy Pricing policy.
The Manpower Minister said in Parliament:
“For the cohort turning 55 in 2010, over 40% of active CPF members attained their cohort MS (Minimum Sum) set at $123,000. Of these members, more than half have set aside the full cohort MS in cash. If we were to add back the amounts withdrawn for housing, the average savings of active members turning 55 in 2010 would be $226,000, with the MS attainment rising to about 60%.”
Couple this with the fact that there were also 1,646,700 inactive CPF members, out of the total CPF members of 3,291,300 in 2009, (Department of Statistics Labour and Productivity who may have very little in their CPF, where did their money go to when they retire? Were they raided by higher priced HDB flats?
Hence, is it any wonder that Singapore has been consistently rated as one of the least financially prepared in retirement, according to practically every international study that has been done?
Multiply $333,000 per family by the 50,000 flats a year gives the sum of $16.7 billion that is in a sense, raided in just one year.
Multiply this by five years, and the total sum raided may be about $84 billion.
If you are a good investor like the Government Investment Corporation (GIC), at six per cent the amount is $100.5 billion; and if you are a super investor like Temasek, at 18 per cent the amount is about $1,411 billion, instead of the $84 billion I calculated above using five per cent.
To put these sums in perspective, they are equivalent to about 29, 35 and 490 per cent, of Singapore’s Official Foreign Reserves of US$233 (S$288) billion, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore
(MAS).l
I find the minister Mah Bow Tan’s remarks that “the land value is determined by a chief valuer according to market conditions and valuation principles”, somewhat self-contradictory, because since its valued by the chief valuer, why is it that the minister has consistently refused to disclose the land costs component charged to HDB flats?
Are we perhaps saying that the chief valuer’s valuation is secret?
So, who do you want to be your National Development Minister for the next five years?
One who raids your ‘reserves’, or the Official Foreign Reserves?
HELP keep the voice of TOC alive!
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It is the PAP that has raided our national reserves! Go read how the PAP has bankrupted our CPF money ->http://forums.asiaone.com/showthread.php?t=38611
That is why we are ranked no 9 in the world for the highest public debt ->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt
MBT raise the hdb flat prices so that singaporeans will have very little cash when they reach the “moving target” retirement age with the help of the minimum sum policies cos our CPF MONEY HAS BEEN BANKRUPTED AND THEY CAN’T PAY US OUR MONEY BACK!
Mr Leong, your conceit is that you pretend to dress up all your ramblings and rantings as supposed statistical analysis when we all know what your conclusion is even before anyone needs to read a single word. Just as the government is criticised for cherry picking what to present, you seriously expect anyone to believe you are objective? Gimme a break. Stuck in an old recording groove with nothing new to say.
Hi jacks325,
Maybe u r right, can u counter the claims with proofs?
Also, whats new with ruling party’s recording groove? Still the same, if u don’t elect us the upgrading will be stopped, yr false asset enhancement will not grow again, the country will not have mandate.
But one thing for sure, they will wake up to serve the people better once they are down from conceited. Anyway, wks did not want to admit he is wrong about mad selemat until recent election, mbt mentioned he is right, Vivian might be right that Yog can overspend, transport erp gantries and Coe and fees up and up causing our cost of livings indirectly up and up. Lees defending all these policies. Any new perspective. Also no, right? Cos the people are struggling for them to maintain what I called false glory behind everything. Their integrities also to be doubted from their claims.
I guess jacks325 is contented to be the sheepie popoulation.
Dear Mr Mah
Please do not continue to use the word “affordable” anymore in describing the price of HDB flats. Obviously you have no idea on what the average Singapore is living on these days. “Affordable” is a relative term and it has no meaning if it lacks a frame of reference. So, please invent another word to describe the fantastic prices that you will set for the pigeon holes. Oh yes, I am not trying to be mischievous. You were!
I know a couple of real estate agents who really believe this man’s words. In fact, they even say that there is an OVERSUPPLY of HDB flats, and they are still empty because Sinkees are CHOOSY. They claim they have seen the figures to prove it. Anyone can confirm this? It’s hard to believe.
mahbowtan mattherfucker dun tok cock okkk… TEMASEK HOLDING AND GIC LOSE BILLIONS of our actual money… where is the accounatability… you shut your mouth you bastard…
Base on MBT’s logic on the affordability of HDB flats, we can also ask the Govt to give us more ‘ang pows’ every year. It is affordable for the Govt as they can always get the funds from the reserve and it does not involve any CASH.
We need to remove the ability for foreigners to get PR by buying property. Under the current regulations, foreigners can get PR if they invest at least S$2m in property. This has driven the prices at the top-end up, thereby pulling up the rest of the market. That’s why land prices for new HDB flats are valued at a much higher rate than it should be.
Mrs Vanda Joachim,
Glad that you are up and about. You care. You speak for many. You touch life.
Everyone of us I believe has that sense of justice, fair play and empathy.
As you have stated the spirit of existence in Chinese, “stand up and be yourself” or else we will be missing something.
Thank God. I can through the veneer of hypocrisy and falsehood in what is going on.
So, I play my part. Be what you are, VJ, be at peace and be happy. God bless.
Sorry I have misspelt your name. It should be Mrs. Vanda Joaquim.
Just vote for the oppostion lor, the rich can migrate, the poor will be stuck here with 2 parties trying to prevent each other from doing anything.
Singapore is just a small company with no resources and land. If the company you work for has 2 bosses it’s time to look for another job.
singaporean hate waiting for housing,and moveover hdb housing is not free for us,we hv to pay for it.some couple cant wait at spike up due to many reason.if gov ready care for our hard work etc etc,they should think for us and not finding so many excuse.we all singaporean help to build up this country,beautyful country but end up,ask yourself,we gain what??an affordable housing which we hv to wait for many yrs??by rewarding us giving so many rule,policy??
If i understand correctly the situation is as follows.
1. Singapore Goverhment did lose huge amounts of money in failed investments, for which a large part of the seed money actually come from citizens savings ie.CPF Funds.
2. In desperation, Singapore Goverhment find ways to jack up hdb prices, and does not publish land acquisition prices.
3. As a result of above point 2, many citizens get their cpf locked up for more years than necessary to servie the loans, and this solves the government’s potential problem of attending to citizen’s cpf withdrawal on reaching 55, because there is not enough money left in the vault.
4. The vault in fact is so much depleted, that the above scheme is not sufficient, and the government started the compulsory annuity scheme, as well as the DDA delay drawdown to age 62.
What a clever dirty trick, Mr Mah.
To be fair, these grand schemes are part of the pap plan to protect a drawdown on an empty or almost empty cpf chest which Mr Ong Teng Cheong tried to open to check many years ago.
Now let’s see what we can do.
You can throw out Mr Mah, you can throw out PAP.
But the cpf chest is still empty (almost) and not enough to cater to the citizen’s withdrawal of their own money.
It’s like Fukushima. You could scold TEPCO you could hang the CEO. But the nuclear faciltiy is still spewing poison. Of what use is it to crucify Mr Mah?
How do you solve the problem?
Simple! VOTE pap. continue to live in the lie that all the money in cpf still exists. The lie is better than the truth. If the opposition exposes all the truth we are even more broke than if the lie remains.
Crazy!
zero
@angry_one 26 April 2011
I know a couple of real estate agents who really believe this man’s words. In fact, they even say that there is an OVERSUPPLY of HDB flats, and they are still empty because Sinkees are CHOOSY. They claim they have seen the figures to prove it. Anyone can confirm this? It’s hard to believe.
: yes maybe, but i am also in real estate and i dont believe that it is affordable, because i bought one at high price out of no choice that balloting 3 times never go through, maybe i voted oppo…
they should top up our cpf with 10-100k so that our interests and loan repay can breath better since reserve they claimed to have so much… what is the use of given peanuts rebates and few hundreds when election comes… the cost structure of ministers and gov is simply too high as they got to give promotion, pay increment, increase head counts, bonuses along with the economists of banks, ntu, nus… etc people…
so our taxes, cost of living, our erp, housing becomes more and more years after years. also with money printing of most countries our currencies devalues year after year, meaning our money supply artifically inflated without backing to silver and gold and thus currencies depreciation and cost of living inflation…
this is a form of cheating and robbery..
wake up people..
First all your (retirement) CPF is used to pay for your hdb over thirty years. Then they open the floodgates for FT to come in leading to even more expensive housing. When you retire and need cash MBT ask you to downgrade. He even ask you to rent your rooms ( FTs again?). So here you have , first they swamped my country now the gahmen ask me to let them have one or two of my bedrooms to get money for my retirment.And PAP ask all of us to vote for them ????
Hi all..
like many, i am deeply concerned about the HDB affordability issue.
I am close to the age where it would be time for me to send in an application of my own.
with nearly all the constituents being contested this year.. would it be wise to put this application on hold and wait for the entire elections to be over..
and subsequently wait for a favorable debate to be held in parliament regarding this issue?
maybe new schemes might be in place then?
opinions?
Cannot tahan this guy – all the money his money? Because it is not the country Singapore but the PAP Company : Singapore Inc. That’s why.
Please give it back to the people. Give it back to Singaporeans. It does not belong to you and you only.
mushroom 29 April 2011
Hi all..
like many, i am deeply concerned about the HDB affordability issue.
I am close to the age where it would be time for me to send in an application of my own.
with nearly all the constituents being contested this year.. would it be wise to put this application on hold and wait for the entire elections to be over..
and subsequently wait for a favorable debate to be held in parliament regarding this issue?
maybe new schemes might be in place then?
opinions?
: inflation, greed of different parties, overprinting of currencies will cause housing to go up and up… you better vote oppo so that the ruling party wakes up and give all of us 150k grant each or top up 150k each(then mbt will say he potentially lost or lost more money).. they need to have competition to serve us better, since they are not sincere anymore… housing price will not fluctuate alot but should rise abit since they wanted it to maintain the range
go ballot /buy first anyway..
oh ya, on the note, maybe mbt not there to do his tricks anymore… someone more sincere and not so greedy might help you by then…
More than a year ago, I received a letter from HDB that I couldn’t use my cpf for payment any more. This was due to the fact of the rule of Cpf minimum sum. My house cost 426K. I got the 40k grant for staying close to my in-law. That brought it to 386K. I believed I paid the downpayment about 100K then.
When I saw the letter, I was shocked and when to HDB to inquire. It turned out that I couldn’t use Cpf to pay beyond my housing price of 426K. I was needed to pay the balance of 50K plus in cash. I almost fainted. No more installment. or unless I find another finance.
I drove to Cpf board straight away to find out. turned out that both HDB and CPF don’t talk to each other. CPF was nice and professional to explain about the new rule impact on my payment. And turned out that I still have excess after meeting the then minimum sum.
the story didn’t end here. This year, I received my CPF statement. Together with my wife, we in total paid 470K to HDB to buy the flat (after my downpayment, I probably if not mistaken, loan 260k?)
The interests really sucked up my Cpf savings.
I shared my story with my colleagues. Many of them thought they could pay everything by cpf. Yes and no. ONly if you have the minimum sum and have excess. And the interest, although loan from HDB, slightly less than market rate. It really hurts.
The only good thing about loaning from HDB is that, you can pay them early and without penalty, not like commercial bank. So, what I did is to use half of my cpf monthly income for the installment, then cummulate cash in my cpf at the same time (because the interest rate is higher compare to the loan rate). Then every 5 years or so, we paid lump sum.
But still, the interest rate is hefty.
the chicken rice up from $1.5 to $3, the kopi up from 40 cents to 80 cents. the new flat up from 20k to 200k!!! what subsidy???! in fact, maybe the rice n kopi have to up price because rent increase!
MBT again fighting for his cock and bull stories.
Tampines friends – pls vote the oppositions to wake him up from his dream !!!!
MBT is clearly shirking the issue. The example gave on how a couple can afford to buy a HDB flat is one where they satisfy all teh pre-requisites of salary and grant.
Can the Minstry/HDB provide the average waiting time and the ration of first time applicants to available flats? I have friends who h ave been passed on so many times because their queue number is in the thousands where avialable flats for balloting is in the hundreds.
Public housing and helping first time buyers of HDB flats is not just about affordability but about availability and location.
We the citizens of Singapore,
Pledge ourself as one united Cyborgs.
We Study hard and have no EQ, to build a
cold, selfish, automated society.
We dun respect ppl, looks ourselves as elitist. We ostracize those who’re poor, unfortunate and lower IQ.
We only know how to work and have no lives. Young people work till old and only realized how much time they have wasted not with their family, to feed the rich and to leave behind or oppress the poor.
To achieve elitism, inequality, supremacy, racism and godlessness as one united Cyborgs!
This should be the original pledge that PAP intended for us.
Let me give you 2 scenarios for your retirement:
1) High value asset – S$400,000 HDB
When you retire you have $400,000 of your cpf going to the leased 5 room HDB and maybe you are left with $50,000 to retire. If you wish to have more cash, you would have to sell away your current 5 room flat and stay in a 1 room one which may cause $200,000 by then.
2) Low value asset – $200,000 HDB
When you retire, you have a fully paid up flat and $250,000/- to spare and live a life comfortably.
Always remember the HDB flat does not belong to you. It is only rented to you for 99 years. So don’t be too happy when your rent goes up.
Latest News: As reported by CNA today.
Chinese PM Mr. Wen Jia Bao announced that the Chinese Government is determined to bring down the high property prices.
He has people’s interests at heart.
By comparison, Mah Bow Tan insisted that he will stick to his market-price public housing.
Whose interests is Mah working for: Developers’, the rich, or government land reserves who are supposed to be for public housing in the first place when Land Acquisition Act and Housing and Development Act were passed.
There is always no need for any accountability from PAP, especially investment losses with GIC and Temasek, you know why? It is Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and Mrs. Lee Hsien Long at the helm in these organizations. That’s the nation’s reserves being treated like Lee’s family fortune!
after 40-50 years, it is still public housing and public transport, aka the singapore trap, for the vast majority
Dear ALL WISE, BRAVE AND BELOVED Citizens,
The Voice of Righteousness(for OUR NATION LONG TERM BENEFITS)
Reason why I am posting in the internet at this early hour of final day before cooling day(I am not a good writer) :
I just love my country Singapore which I was born. I want to contribute to our people. And I really want our country to grow healthily and with morals and ethics and compassion, as much as our citizens want.
The following state of mind of mine many of us may not want to see through this article.
But Please let me do an analysis why most GRCs and SMCs contests ARE ALL LOST to Ruling Party INCLUDING ALJUNIED except maybe Hougang. Real Democracy is LOST. AND SEE THE LONG TERMS PROS AND CONS BELOW……
See Below Notes
1) ONE MAIN REASON of Failure of this election is because Traditional Media, for example Newspaper Like Straits Times, New Paper, Today. TV like channel 8, Indian channel and Malaysia channels Suria, Channel News Asia and also radio channels. And who listens to these channels?
It is the less internet savvy common people who outnumbers internet users by 20-30% at least(that is lots of votes, we need 5 to 10 years before we can catch up with to at least match the traditional media population, although now our internet take up rate is 70-75%
BUT how many common folks even internet savvy or abled are politically that upright and concerned? Which is much lesser even when they are internet savvy), which is especially more senior, elderly folks, people who are handicap and cant walk and cant walk well due to old age and also those too busily working fighting for these survival…
Thats why the ruling party is controlling us with very smart IRON FISTSSS for 50 over years, THROUGH THE TRADITIONAL MEDIA.
They are also using traditional medias to drive traffic to their various websites like facebooks and also http://WWW.GE.SG which is quite biased favourably towards ruling party. How SMART.
THEY ENSLAVE the people to work hard and fast till we cant work still cant receive our CPF and retire well, how sad and disappointing and they are brilliant money makers WITHOUT EVEN USING WHIPS, and occasional giving us very very small carrots year after year.
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WE should promote to people to listen to all media to all sides of stories or at least 2 sides of the story. We need to let them know Media is biased and untrue about some stories, at least let the public take traditional media with a pinch of salt.
Other important but not as major REASONS as above :
2) Ruling party apologized, toned down to mellow to gain sympathy, empathy and swing votes and more neutral votes or rather their usual old supporters who fear changes and also fear of anarchy which will not happen as during 1959 our ruling party were having issues and with the resilent of our people and not just government we pulled through, also during 1965 our national building thanks to the old guards of Goh Keng Swee and many old MPs and ministers, and they are now focused on policies, which they would win back 5-10% of the votes, enough to break the opposition by GREAT numbers!!
3) Cooling day magic may see lots of surprise reports / accusation about opposition parties or their members. AlsoThey are actually depriving all voters of chances to last minute evaluate the situation by talking to opposition parties also.
4) PAP average speakers are better speakers and given more airtime and radio time from traditional medias(maybe selected from ruling party tea parties, not using our public money?)
5) Digging out opposition parties and opposition candidates old issues which might not be valid like privatization of hougang HUDC when the hougang accounts are intact and ruling parties are not giving full details, both parties need to clarify but not at this point of time.
6) From what I understand, the ruling party got a team of advisers to teach the ruling party candidates about how to write, speak, dress, public speak, address issues, make newsletters and magazine, and put them into newspaper.
7) GRC created and also democracy dead from that day, and also our feedback system of election is distort until few years later till next election it is too late.
8) electorate is biased towards the ruling party and the rally rules bias including cooling day.
9) Using Anchor ministers like George Yeo, Wong Keng Seng to be a shield to gain political compassion, how smart.
10) Using HDB upgrading and MRT and estate and facilities upgrading to lure voters.
11) The ruling trying to control using websites like http://www.GE.SG
12) Also Take for instance after seeing yesterday night tampines rally by NSP(my hometown), I think MBT can still win Tampines by a HUGE margin(at least 10 more percent).
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So Sorry to say that… (MBT is good businessman really and I really don’t like him as he is draining our money.)
a)Because the NSP team new members are mostly not public speakers(although they might speak from their hearts glad to say that).
b) Also some of them did not capture the hearts of people from the beginning to the end.
c) The opposition parties did not cover enough the blocks of HDB and condos when elderly people, senior folks and people who wants alternative voice or rather representative voice of opposite MPs from Tampines will be heard. I suggest those not so good in public speaking(example speaking too emotionally, some are too soft, some are too monotonous tone, some dont catch rhythm well, eye contact if media is catch no enough) will go to visit in buddies system to reach out to as many residents as possible as tomorrow is the final day.
d) Luckily guest speaker Tan Kin Lian-ex nutc income CEO(spoke many good points like our hdb cost and transport cost too high, but abit too soft but can be better voice projection) lift up some spirits to gather swing and rational votes, followed by Goh Meng Seng(can be better) and also Nicole Seah(rational yet to the point and simple).
e) Speak of pros and cons and give example for end of chapter of speech and also try to back it up with substantial information and quotes.
f) Talk more about plans, dont be too radical do it progressively as it may scare voters.
g) I agree with Mr Goh Meng Seng on high housing price and also compassion of gov is lost which renting house to foreigner for more profit than to rent to Singaporean and left alone to sleep openly in void decks, streets and also parks like east coast. Luckily he mentioned they are not anti-foreigners but must take care of citizen housing and other rights first which saved abit of vote, if not some good number of votes. Also opposition parties please please say about good to have PR and new citizen but seriously the balance of managing these foreign people were lost and they need to
i) Also Miss Nicole Seah cost of livings points which she spoke sincerely and close to our hearts. She present well with very well tone(not emotional but sincere and not pushy)
j) Good points of candidate to say give discount to hdb flats, but seriously for example I would rather want to let ruling party every year give us back 20k of rebate since we got that much reserves for the next 5 years(but ruling party will say it is saved for rainy days, if it is unaccounted for and unaudited but we cant even use to pay our internal debts of housing and cost of livings to save fire what is the
page 3 of 6
use of having some much reserves and CPF when there is minimum sum policy which is more than 110k-120k for each person), instead of the petty handouts(or sweets) or rebate(which sends shivers to my spine and mind.
Sorry, Even Hougang may not be safe to opposition, the rest of opposition party are in very jeopardy state. I dont put the ruling party up to bring down opposition morale at this point. But I have to wake loved fellow Singaporeans up.
Hopefully Singaporean have done enough positive deeds and generous mindsets previously to be appreciative of opposition parties so that they can really win, but I doubt Singaporeans have such a good fortune as most of us are self centred about short terms gains about upgrade of hdb, environments, cpf and monetary handouts before election.
And after that struggling to pay for housing debts and bills and payments to counter cost of living for next 5 years, which the people have been doing actually since again I mentioned GRC, because GRC was first CREATED 25 years ago(if we forgot when the GRC Matrix(the movie) was created to kill democracy from day 1).
Many non-ruling parties candidates may be sued for defamation, one of them is Nicole Seah maybe, hope by writing this I am protecting them through public eyes……
Hopefully, opposition becomes stronger, but I doubt so as ruling parties will try ways and means to tear them down and most people like the past elections with capabilities will not want to come into election again, maybe until the day when the cancer of democracy got too serious like we become HK or Japan asset bubbles and higher cost of living. but it would be too late to help.
I vote THE VOTE of no confidence for ruling party on the high housing prices(my children will not be able to afford hdb due to higher price definitely due to inflation, pegging to market prices, overprinting of money, greed of authorities, high cost of building which by right is not so high), ERP(200 over ERP Gantries standby with some 3-5 Singapore dollars, transport cost including CRAZY TAXI prices which the authorities should allow car pool and waive ERP for Central Business District Area, which would drive up cost of living and even housing prices, mark my words here also),
no accountability(no independent groups of auditors with members of the public to witness, tally and sign off) and transparency of Reserves, GICs and temasek reserves, Ministers and Super Scale Civil Servant Pays, bonuses and increment and promotion and increase of headcounts each year(plus retrenchments/retirements of older and more senior staffs). Their cost structure have far become too much higher than what they can give Singaporean back year after year. that’s why they tax more and more in various form year after year and this is a form of price inflation of cost of living. Town councils accounts should be audited also.
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The ruling parties have been good for first national building, but they have already lost the balance between national building of well being for people and money making.
And I intend to leave Singapore as much i don’t want to.
AGAIN MARK MY WORDS HERE, Singapore WILL soon become Hong Kong and also even Japan, China and India where housing price and cost of living are too high!! It WILL GET OUT OF HAND.
It is getting harder each day. Pay and pay without knowing why we need to pay more and more, and we piss and piss. Work and work and work for long hours and when we retire still cant take our CPF(maybe cant even fork out any CPF to pay for housing) and think when my retirement age is 80 to 100 years old by then. And I have to pay 30 years for our house.
I guess Singapore Pte Ltd(not Ltd) has just really becoming a Very Very Very Big MNC(s), even bigger after THIS election….
Singaporeans will continue to be unwilling boiling frogs, and will continue in a way that they wont even know how, where and when to voice out publicly although deep inside their heart they are very tired working and paying debts and bills.
I personally guess and believe all these are due to the reserves and loss of GICs and temasek holding that they want to cover up the losses(including in CHINA Suzhou and India and Thailand) that lead to the recent years mania increase of the prices of everything including housing and ERP, non-withdrawal of CPF, retirement age increase.
No ones want to be left, no ones want to be left at home, no ones want to be forced to leave their homes, but I guess we will.
The education system is THE SOURCE of why our policies of meritocracy and elite, but all along it is emphasizing in second place morals, ethics and compassion. That’s why now our ruling parties leaders or rather followers are yes men and also more close to the party than the nation. The quality and non monetary motivation of candidates for this election from non-ruling parties are far better than ruling parties despite all odds and doubts of people fear change for the better of democracy and monopolies, but ruling parties are dividing them and conquering them one by one… The balance of conscience is lost.
Also, the healthcare is too high and also not enough time to take care of health due to cost of living, for example the lower income like contract workers and more than 30000 taxi drivers and many other private bus drivers…
Upgrading of HDB estate comes with a price, which we have to address the false glory behind it as we are driven so hard so fast to work harder and harder, longer and longer each day. Not sure when we can retire is a scary thing.
The government only spend 1.6% of GDP to healthcare, that’s why we have to work hard for our hefty and long medical bills. Plus lack of hospitals and healthcare scheme where we are reminded that we are not welfare state, but remember the word we can die, but we cant be sick or ill.
The lists goes on and on.. I am neither a statistic guy nor a pro-hdb upgrading man(as it is promoting false glory while we work and struggle for livelihood) but I sense as a concerned resident of Singapore and resident of Tampines,
I urge that Mah Bow Tan(MBT) be removed from election so that he can move on to the private sectors to help ruling parties make more money. George Yeo can retire since they are millionaire, we definitely have talents from non ruling parties.
If we vote ruling party WITH LANDSLIDE VICTORY USING GRC SYSTEM and they don’t control the situation well, Singaporean might be swarmed with 1000000 to 1500000(1million to 1.5 million) more Foreigners soon that our next generations are squeezed out of Singaporean even they work very very very hard and fast, till the day they die. Filial Piety may be lost from children to their parents and before that parents can afford to have any child and don’t even want to get married like many of my friends above mid 35s, due to cost of living to even support themselves…
Remember the cooling day tricks… It is not about voting opposition, it is voting for votes of no confidence of ruling party and voting for ourselves and our children not be enslaved by ruling party, be brave and be farsighted..
To the well-off, powerful and richer people, you might want to rock the boat by allowing GRCs to be biased favourably towards ruling parties, but once the cancer of democracy due to GRC formations are uncurable, the vicious cycle might impact you in vicious cycle manner and even your children in future.
The MAIN, MAIN reason why ruling party don’t want opposition parties is so that they wont check their billions of dollars lost and cannot account for, since the early day Suzhou Industrial Park losses…
Be cautioned in advance my beloved Fellow Countrymen.
Have a GOOD VOTE(there is no best vote, don’t waste your vote to void as opposition need your vote to voice out your real long TERM concerns and NEEDS) using LONG TERM VIEW of balanced multi-parties yet ensure that parties and their candidates are morally, ethically and compassionately and passionately about the people, not just meritocracy and elite system!!
page 5 of 6
Bless ourselves and Bless Singaporeans :)..
Guardians and Forefathers of Singapore help US!!
Hope the positive and pure balanced energies finally flows in Singapore
Let there be no over greed, morally, ethically and compassionate government and people through education from young to nurture with patience!!!
page 6 of 6(final page)
read http://www.goldclubasia.com/forum to see why ruling party are crappy also
YOU PAY for it
Share with your friends the lyrics of the links is so heart warming
http://www.youtube.com/user/project2O11#p/a/u/0/p1tzIRkIFs0
It ALL about your future n your children
MBT and garment can smoke Singaporeans 50 years ago but they can’t go for it now cause we are smarter, more vocal, and we know how to farking count.
i agree with the wp statement that the “raiding of state land” is confusing. Lowering the cost of securing the lease to use the state land by hdb is not a raiding of reserves because there is no reserve exists to raid.
if we have a million barrels of oil underneath and each barrel costs one hundred dollars, we will have one hundred million dollars of reserve. if it is used up, the reserve is gone. so pumping more oil up will drain the reserve faster.
state land is still state land after 99 years. sla is still the owner of the land, and need not pay to re-acquire the land after the lease expire in 99 years, what is there to raid? further, en-bloc scheme will re-maximise land use. the land do not change. it is still the same land, same size, same geography.
if hdb pay less for the lease, buyers in turn pay less for the flat. the buyers are the one ultimately paying for the lease, not the government.
a more appropriate statement should be “it will reduce possible maximum revenue for the government”.
I got my HDB 1550 sq ft executive flat in the mid- eighties for $118K.
The selling price of a less than 1200 sq ft HDB 5 room flat in the same area now cost about $350K.
The price increase is about 3.5 to 4 times vs ???% increase in salary increase over the same period.
So it looks like the current generation of youngsters are contributing more to the our national reserves.
The government should not be making $ from the sale of public housing. I do recall that the government had this resettlement policy that pays 1974 land prices for those who were resettled on the basis that it would benefit the greater majority by using it to build public housing – why then is the HDB buying land from the govt at market rate and not at cost?
So many people have been sacrificed by the PAP while we slumbered over 50 years. It may be unbelief that this son of Singapore LKY could do us any harm. It may be the Asian mind to respect their leaders. It may be taboo. It may be a deep seated avoidance of a terrifying question: Has the PAP committed crimes against the Singapore citizenry over a period of 50 years? against individuals whom they locked up without trial on some pretext and others whom they destroyed and wasted by libel Laws wielded by compliant judges who bend over backwards for their masters.
Has the PAP done the above crimes so as to be the sole effective power in the country continuously, so as to be able to arrogate to themselves and their connected persons the role of managing the country’s wealth and enterprises at mind blowing remuneration, so that the Ministers here receive salaries as if they are on another planet?- a planet where Singapore is the top country. Just the thought is absurd but you have it now as calibrated by their current salaries.
If the answers to the above are Yes, then I suggest you make a complaint to the UN Human Rights Council. You can Google it, and follow the instructions to make your complaint. When there is a critical mass of the citizenry complaining then the UN may be persuaded to get the PAP to speak up on our accusations. Fifty years of criminal activities will be difficult to explain away in the face of the largesse they brought to an almost unchanging select group of elites.
By getting togeher a Committee of people who have links with the Government, the PAP is ensuring that the answer for Ministerial salaries will be biased towards them. In due course we will receive from the Committee an answer which is somewhat less but still topping the world average for similar Government officeholders, ostensibly debated in a predominantly PAP Parliament and stick the results down our throats and continue to enjoy millions upon millions per annum. This time around we the citizenry cannot voice our misgivings again because the PAP will claim that the matter having been decided by an ‘independent’ committee and thoroughly ‘debated’ is legal and payable without further harassment.
No country in this world links Parliamentarian’s pay to the top earners in the private sector, except the PAP in Singapore. If America were to link its senators’ pay to its top earners, they would have to be paid billions per annum. Same consideration applies to British Parliamentarians, Australian, German, French, Chinese, Japanese,Indian, Malaysian. Indonesian etc. This is because the top earners are in the billionare range.Like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Bernard Arnault, Lawrence Allison, Lakshmi Mittal, Amancio Ortega, Eike Batista, Mukesh Ambani, Christy Walton, Li Ka-Shing etc No country has its officeholders salaries even close to the top bankers, lawyers and other professionals in their country’s private sector. If the US for instance had done that, Obama’s remuneration would be in the billions too. This is because the largest enterprises are based in the US and their CEOs are typically paid in billions.
It is only in Singapore that this concept that the Parliamentarians pay should be some percentage of top earners in the private sector. The PAP led by Goh Chok Tong had the temerity to initiate this concept in 1994 because they found that Singaporeans are a cowardly and docile lot. A whiff of the ISD shakes their knees. The thought of libel and having to face compliant judges in Court sent everyone scattering to their own private concerns and shutting their mouths tight. So through our inaction and silence we allowed the Ministerial salary scheme to get out of hand and out of this world.It is time we bring some reality back into the aspirations of the PAP, as otherwise they will rob us in the broad daylight, by Committees and the much vaunted Rule of Law by which they swear.
The oppositon party which we voted into Parliament should speak out for us now or it will be too late. We do not want a compliant committee ( just like judges in Singapore) to decide the Ministerial salaries, We want the salaries to be decided by International Business Consultants appointed by each opposition party. Tell this to PMLee, NOW !!!