TR EMERITUS

Simon Lim I have an important announcement to make. My full name is Lim Kay Cheow Jireh and my friends have called me Simon Lim for many, many years now because Jireh is not a common english name such as John or Peter and it can be difficult for many to pronounce and remember. That is why I continue to use it and I am known to all as Simon Lim. Many friends, including my many online friends who have been my regular commentary readers have encouraged me to stand for our 2020 General Election and I am greatly humbled and honoured to announce that I am standing as a Peoples Voice (PV) electoral candidate for Pasir-Ris Punggol GRC. My party's electoral candidates are ordinary citizens just like many of you. We are not elites, generals or scholars. We may not be able to articulate in beautiful English but we are law abiding citizens, we work hard and we look after our families. We understand the value of every single cent that we earn through our labour. Like in my thank you speech after nomination closed, I have said that although PV is a new political party, we are not a stupid, irresponsible or troublemaker party. Our feelings and our love for our country is no lesser than the PAP's love for this country too. Over the years, I have commented widely on our politics and our current affairs and I have always strived to be be factual, credible responsible, and sensible with all my posts and if I had been reckless or if I have posted falsehoods, I would have got myself into trouble with either the government, Facebook or even the POFMA office. I have not. Too many things have gone wrong with our country over the past >5 years. The pap government today is a mere shadow of the strong and very capable pap government of yesteryears that past generations of Singaporeans knew, grew up with, trusted and deeply respected. When things go wrong in our country and they indeed have whether it is job insecurity, the explosion of Covid 19 among our migrant workers, CPF issues, liberal immigration of foreign PMEs taking away thousands of decent paying jobs at our expense, retirement inadequacies, HDB flat decay, depressed incomes, world record low total fertility rates or the ever increase cost of living etc, to take the easy way out of avoiding talking about them, too lazy to think deeper about them or simply refuse to blame the useless lhl government for their policy mistakes and failures out of blind loyalty that resulted in what is happening and more is not patriotism or good citizenry. It is the mentality and attitudes of slaves and sheep. I have also said to my children that my life is at the sunset phase while theirs is sunrise. I fight and I hope to leave for them and all younger Singaporeans a better Singapore than the one that I inherited growing up. If the status-quo continues, it is totally possible that in my lifetime, I will be able to see younger Singaporeans leaving their families behind to look for better job opportunities overseas just like what many talented Filipinos and the Malaysian Chinese are doing. If things on the employment front continues to be depressed and make worse by us being the world's most expensive country under this pap government, things will be real bad. While there is no minimum wage in Singapore for our citizens, pap ministers know how to pay themselves minimum wages at the top. It seems to me that they are left with the ability to create good paying jobs for themselves and not many others. I can easily go on and on... If elected, we will do our level best to voice out fearlessly the aspirations, hopes and fears of the majority everyday men and women in Parliament and when votes are taken, we will never, never sacrifice the interest of the residents who have placed their trust in us by meekly voting along PAP's party line like all pap MPs do because of their party whip. This is a big promise that I am making and a promise that I now give to Pasir-Ris Punggol residents if I am elected. A promise that I intend to keep. Please support the oppositions and my PV team mates who are contesting in Jalan Besar GRC, Pasir-Ris GRCs and Mountbatten SMC. Kindly encourage your family and friends to support us too. Please help us to help yourselves. Together, we can again make ourselves and our country a proud people and an outstanding country again. Kindly Share My Post Widely. Think. Simon Lim Member, Peoples Voice Party  Read More →

The recent live telecast debates among candidates was the first of its kind here. What emerged was the importance of having alternative parties in parliament and the need for not only a check on a party saturated with the arrogance of power but the need to have more clarity, transparency, and accountability in politics. For instance, after the opposition raised the issue about Deputy PM Heng Swee Keat’s purported support for a 10 million population, the latter had to clarify the issue himself subsequently, stating he had not proposed that kind of population size in Singapore: it is now on the record. Without questioning those who have been in power for too long, no such clarifications would be forthcoming. No clarification of any sort would be provided if there was no one to challenge the complacency of those who have created sinecures for themselves in public office. Imagine how much more will be cleared up that has remained hidden when a sizeable cohort of alternative parties have been voted into parliament in the next elections? There would be an inverse proportion effect shown for the more alternative voices with diverse ideas are voted into parliament the less the arrogance, complacency, and obfuscation (of issues) in parliament. As for the increased number of NCMPs (Non-Constituency Member of Parliament), it can understandably be seen as a ploy for less alternative parties in parliament: notwithstanding, we must follow the logic through. If the ruling party thinks it is necessary to increase the presence of NCMPs and even give them equal voting rights as fully elected MPs, then it shows the importance of having fully elected MPs in parliament. This move is, alas, a reductio ad absurdum, for what it does indeed imply is the importance of having as many elected alternative MPs as possible for they would provide that crucial voice and votes to enrich debates and keep unchecked power in abeyance. But this kind of thinking through does not happen as there is no substantive challenge to the dominance of groupthink within the ruling elite. Again, almost with the precision of Newton’s inverse square law of gravity you can see more absurd ideas proposed with a small presence of alternative members in parliament: count on it, there will be less absurd ideas proposed (or more sensible, feasible, and acceptable ideas raised) with a large alternative parliamentary presence. Mr Heng has also been known not to favour debates and the sense given is that he does not favour parliamentary debate (see “A Party That Is Lost, Confused, And Unclear”); yet we now have live telecast debates before a general election. How is this to be accounted for? Did Mr Heng indeed not favour such debates at all or has change occurred since they now recall the need for more NCMPs with full powers (i.e., the importance of debate and the valuable signals an increased number of differing votes cast can send). Is the present slew of ruling party candidates their ‘own men’ or are some others pulling their strings? Is Mr Heng for or against debate? Perhaps, instead of having to clarify what others raise as valid points in democratic debate without being present, he could be present himself at the next live debate to speak for himself and respond to his political challengers. This would be good preparation for anyone who aspires to be PM; and as part of Singapore’s democratic evolution there may be even a PM’s question time in parliament. But that will not come to pass unless there is a significant alternative presence in parliament. Another way to look at it: the greater the opposition presence, the greater the need for the ruling powers to stand up and account for themselves (akin to Newton’s third law). And you don’t need to be an Einstein to see this. Sanjay Perera *Writer, and founding editor of Philosophers for Change. The post first appeared at: Kafkaville. He is also the author of A Leap in the Dark; Trauma Inc. and Other Works: or, How to Read the World and End It; and the novels Golem & Traum, and Perfect iSland. [Picture: idlehearts.]    Read More →

Every candidate claims that they will do their best to serve Singapore and make life better for Singaporeans. But words are empty. It is the actions that matter most to Singaporeans. Below is the most critical problem facing Singapore today. Can the candidates please tell us what they are prepared to do to help Singapore over this crisis? The Root Cause of Many Problems What do the following problems have in common? 1. High cost of living 2. Failing economy 3. Insufficient Central Provident Funds (CPF) 4. High number of low-skills foreign workers 5. Inability to implement the minimum wages scheme 6. Low fertility rate All the above issues are problems caused by the Asset Enhancement Programme. Background In the early 1990s, PAP started the Asset Enhancement Programme. HDB flats were upgraded with promises of price appreciation on the upgraded flats under the Asset Enhancement Programme. The scheme was tied to the General Elections in that upgrading priorities were given to precincts with higher PAP vote-share. From 1990s, land costs are incrementally increased and factored into the sales of the new HDB flats. Since old HDB flats were transacted relative to new HDB flats, the prices of the HDB flats were given additional upwards momentum pushes. Housing prices appreciated tremendously during the few decades from early 1990s till recently. However, the wages of the Singaporeans did not increase at the same pace over the same period. To get some sense of situation, the prices of a 5-room HDB flat in Marine Parade cost less than 200 thousand back in the 1980s. The same flat costs close to 1 million today, that is, the prices have appreciated by about four or five times. In comparison, the wages of most Singaporeans hardly doubled over the same period. As of this moment, Singapore properties are now one of the most expensive in the world and beyond the reach of the average Singaporeans. 1. High cost of living The direct impact of high property prices is high rental costs and high business running costs. This directly impacts the cost of living. When we buy a plate of chicken rice from the food court, the stall holder has to pay for the stall rental before his business could even survive, let alone flourish. The stall rental for a food stall in the city area is easily above $6,000 per month. Even if the plate of chicken rice is sold for $5, the stallholder needs to sell 1,200 plates of chicken rice per month, or 40 plates of chicken rice every day, in order to cover the costs of stall rental without taking into consideration of the cost of cooking and the cost of ingredients. In simple terms, much of the $5 we pay for the plate of chicken rice goes into the stall rental as the running costs of the business, not for the actual plate of chicken and rice. After taking into consideration of all the overheads, only a small percentage of the $5 goes into the profit margins of the chicken rice stallholder. Repeating the same line of argument over all other business, the running costs of each and every business that need to operate on a physical premise increase exponentially since all business must first pay for their own rental and also pay for other business rental (whom they need their services or goods) before they can break even and start making profits. In particular, the construction businesses take a double whammy effects on property costs. Their need to increase the costs of their construction services (to run their own business) increase the building construction costs and hence the final property prices, which further push up the cost of living for everybody else. With every business jacking up the prices of their own goods and services to ensure survival, the final victims are the average Singaporean citizens, the end consumers of the goods and services. So not only we have to pay a lot more to stay in a HDB flat, we also need to pay a lot more for our daily goods and services. It is not surprising that Singapore is currently the most expensive country in the world for the last few years. To make matter worse, PAP further increases the cost of living by increasing GST, electricity prices, water prices, town council fees, transportation costs, ERPs, airport taxes, university fees, property taxes, parking charges, carbon taxes, sugar taxes, etc. 2. Failing economy Along with the huge costs of living, employees in Singapore demand higher pay to cope with the increased expenditure. This creates an oxymoronic situation within the Singapore society. Most Singaporeans will claim that their pay is not enough to handle the daily living expenses and can hardly make ends meet, which is quite true. Many newly married couples have to use double income to finance 30-year loans on medium-size HDB flats, with little spare monies to save for raining days. And these are the lucky ones! Non-graduate married couples usually slough and live from-hand-to-mouth every day. Some of these poor families ended up being homeless and resorted to pitching tents by the beaches or in public parks. The government has since forcibly evacuated these “illegal settlers”. The truth is that the cost of living is so punishing that the poor in Singapore can no longer afford homes. Nevertheless, the demand for higher wages takes a toll on the economy. Singapore is a small country and faces massive competitions from many neighbouring countries. In the past, many foreign investments came into Singapore because the standard of education was generally higher (which translate to more skilled workers) and the operating costs were reasonable. Over time, other countries have caught up on the level of education and have similar, if not better, skilled workforce than Singapore at much cheaper costs. So while Singaporeans are complaining that wages in Singapore are low and unable to sustain daily living, foreign companies feel that wages in Singapore are too high and that they can get better values with the same costs for their operations elsewhere. Over the last 10+ years, many foreign companies relocated their operations from Singapore to cheaper locations elsewhere. At the end of the day, companies seek to maximise their own profitability and are not charity organisations. This has resulted in unprecedented number of PMET retrenchments and many families falling into economic hardships. Many white-collar jobs have disappeared in Singapore and these jobs have relocated in cheaper locations elsewhere, never to be seen here again. This can be analysing the pre-Covid-19 GDP growth rates of the neighbouring countries in Asia as well as around the world. This issue has nothing to do with the need to upgrade skills for the new economy. No matter how one attempts to upgrade his skills, there will not be any jobs at the end of the tunnel. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has worsened the situation in Singapore. When the pandemic is over, our neighbourhood countries are likely to recover fast but Singapore is likely to remain in the dunes because companies are likely to setup new operations in cheaper locations. 3. Insufficient Central Provident Funds (CPF) As the property prices rose over the years, they became more and more unaffordable to the general public. As of this moment, property prices in Singapore are currently one of the most expensive in the world. Over the past few decades, the Asset Enhancement Programme led Singaporeans into the delusion that the values of HDB flats will always appreciate. The delusion was fuelled by senior ministers making guarantees that the values of HDB flats would always increase and backed by massive payouts during en bloc acquisitions of old flats by the government. Over the years, some Singaporeans deliberately bought flats in matured estates with the hope that they could get a windfall when the government called for en block acquisitions. To allow Singaporeans to pay for the HDB flats, the government has allowed Singaporeans to use their Central Provident Funds to finance the mortgage payments. Unfortunately, this has the effect of letting the HDB prices spiralled even higher. And it also means that a lot of Singaporeans’ CPF were depleted by the time Singaporeans finished paying off their 30-year mortgage loans. To compound the problem, this usually occurs when they are already in their late 50s or early 60s when they were no longer in the prime of their working lives. Hence, most senior Singaporeans do not have enough CPFs for retirement because much of the CPF have been used up to pay for their housing. All these turned to nought when Lawrence Wong announced that 98% of all HDB flats will be returned to the government at zero costs upon expiration of the 99-year lease. Many middle-aged PMET Singaporeans were trapped because they could not even sell off their HDB flats, as there were basically no buyers of old HDB flats while they lost their jobs during the economic downturn, even before the start of the current Covid-19 pandemic. In the process, their CPF were depleted and they are likely to outlive their old HDB flats, putting them in a precarious position of not having jobs, not enough retirement money and no place to live in their old ages. And this is assuming that they are able to withdraw all their money from their CPF accounts in their old ages. 4. High number of low-skills foreign workers One of the consequences of the high cost of living is the need to import foreign workers into Singapore, particularly for low-skills workers. Over the years, the number of low-skills foreign workers has grown to more than 1 million, which is more than a third of the population of Singapore backed in early 1990s when the Asset Enhancement Programme was first conceived. One of the reasons is that Singaporeans are no longer able to support their families working as low-skills workers. The wages are too low to handle the cost of living. Paradoxically, some of the essential-services companies need to lower the wages of the low-skills workers, which they need to employ in large numbers. Thousands of low-skills workers are needed for the daily rubbish clearing operations or for the construction of buildings and facilities. Employing low-skills at low wages is not a choice, but a necessity for business survival. While the number of foreign workers is huge by any account, they are hidden from the general public through accommodations in cramped dormitories. The main difference between the foreign workers and the low-skills Singaporeans is that the former do not need to pay for rental or housing mortgage. Hence, foreign workers are able to get by with low wages (by Singapore standards), although their wages are comparatively high when compared to their country living standards. The difference is the resultant of the extreme high cost of living in Singapore. Nevertheless, foreign workers are not totally exempted from the effects of the high cost of living. Dormitory operators have to procure the land space to build the dormitories at very high costs, though the costs will be split over the number of foreign workers. To cover the overhead costs and to maximise their own profitability, dormitory operators squeeze in as many foreign workers as possible in the most cramped and unhygienic conditions, while Singaporeans are blissfully unaware of the pathetic living conditions of the foreign workers. Incidentally, the current Covid-19 outbreak is the resultant of the need to accommodate as many foreign workers as possible in the dormitories. Once any worker was infected with Covid-19, the cramped and unhygienic living conditions were just fertile fields to allow Covid-19 to spread like wildfires. 5. Inability to implement the minimum wages scheme Paradoxically, the high cost of living prevents Singapore from implementing a minimum wages scheme to protect the lower income Singaporeans. In fact, implementing a minimum wage scheme in Singapore will further collapse the economy and hasten Singapore into depression. As discussed earlier, even as of today, the cost of living in Singapore has led to the need for high wages. The entire Singapore economy is dying with many companies relocating to cheaper locations, resulting in more and more people losing their jobs. If one thinks about the issue of minimum wages scheme, there should not be any wage differential between local workers and foreign workers for the same amount of work done. This means that implementing a minimum wage will necessarily lead to wage increase of more than 1 million low-skills foreign workers. The cost of all the current low-skills work that depend on cheap labour will escalate upwards and will push the cost of living in Singapore to way beyond the current level (which is already the highest in the world). The entire economy will collapse into a great depression. 6. Low fertility rate The ever rising cost of HDB flats from the Asset Enhancement Programme has led to flats being built smaller and smaller over time, with less privacy and personal space for each family member. The physical living condition is not conducive for large family living since every additional family member will further cramp the limited family living space. At the same time, the high costs of living also discourage family from wanting to start having children. One can of milk powder easily over $50, which is a huge burden on poor families who may be struggling with their daily living expenses. Even without the burden of having children, both members of the married couples often need to work to get double income in order to sustain the daily living expenses of the household. When babies are born, the married couple does not get to enjoy the bliss of having children in the family. On the contrary, they need to work even harder to provide more income to offset against the higher living expenses. The baby bonus did not help since the parents have to add money into the baby account, and the money are locked away into the child’s account and will eventually be transferred to the CPF account. The children are usually looked after by the maids or by the grandparents while the parents are busy working to earn a living. The companions to the children are usually mobile phones or computer tablets during their growing years. This issue was further compounded by the Singapore elitist education system, whereby the academically strong students were given privileges and opportunities whereas academically weak students were simply left behind. This breeds an unhealthy culture whereby a high proportion of children attended tuitions in order not to lose out in the ever suffocating rat race. Some families spend close to a thousand dollars on tuitions per child. Over time, families simply choose not to have children so as not to be stressed out by the high costs of living or choose to have only one child so as to focus the effectiveness of their financial resources. Final Note Despite these teething problems of the Asset Enhancement Programme, one cannot simply lower the costs of HDB flats immediately. Doing so will collapse the entire property market immediately and many banks will serve notifications to mortgagees to top up the shortfalls of their bank loans. If anything, many people have lost their jobs in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and it is likely that a significant number of families will not be able to continue their mortgage instalments. It is likely that many families will need to downgrade their houses and this may cause property prices to collapse. Compounded by the need to pay interests for any CPF usage for funding the mortgage instalments, the sale of some properties may incur negative cash flows. This is a very serious issue facing Singapore. If the candidates are sincere to serve Singapore and make life better for Singaporeans, can they please tell us what they are prepared to do to help Singapore over this crisis? If the candidates are not aware of the above issue or have not thought out how the issue should be addressed, then there is really no need to tell Singaporeans how sincere they are sincere to serve Singapore and make life better for Singaporeans. How is it possible for any candidate to serve Singapore if they do not even know what is one of the most pressing issue that Singaporeans are facing? It is merely empty talks. Let Singaporeans will know who they can and should cast their votes for.   Celest Lee      Read More →