TR EMERITUS

By Voice of Citizen Here lies the conundrum: can we trust them once more? : ·        Yes, we may lose our rights completely. ·        No, we have to decide our course, prepare to face challenge ahead, never fear the unknown. There is a middle-ground, provided enough opposition wins this Election. PAP must bow, come clean and frank, down-to-earth with citizens and work out solution with the Opposition, Voice of Singaporeans. For Citizens to work smarter and harder there must be an environment conducive to such drive. Here are some key pre-conditions, amongst others: 1. They must first and foremost bring the cost of living down. 2. Secondly, they must provide affordable home in citizen terms, the terms of the citizen rights and privilege for Cheap Housing. 3. Thirdly, the must provide better medical welfare for citizens. 4. Fourthly, the economy must be re-engineered to make it more sustainable economy employing higher productivity with measured and moderate influx of FT, not with incessant cheaper manpower. 5. The stratum of employment market must be dissected and studied to ensure no citizen is marginalized by foreign influx 6. The rights and privileges of citizens must be differentiated distinctly with PRs and foreign workers. 7. Government of Nation must be a separate entity from political party. This is the general framework for Government to work out a more citizen-centric solution to Nation-hood that is worthy of Million Dollar Ministers. The current policies DO NOT need Million Dollars Ministers to come up. The present way of increasing GDP growth with cheaper influx and widening costs of housing and living cannot be sustained. There is a limit to which the size and infrastructure of the country can sustain rapid population growth at this rapid rate without over-straining the citizens with adverse consequences. Instead of reaching that limit of population quicker(as it seems to be the objective of the current policy) and in the process creating so much strain on citizens for GDP growth, a more moderate rate should be adopted at the pace which is amenable to the citizens. In the process, we need to find a sustainable growth solution that is measured and will bring maximum benefits to the Nation, every citizen, with more help to the lower class citizens. Reserve has to be spent in this process, so be it. Growth GDP will have to be sacrificed on interim, so be it. But the Nation will get stronger once it sees hope in current generation and next that they can own Home and Affordable living at a measured pace without over-straining and over-stressing while they hard-strive and hard-drive to make the best for their livelihood. The Government MUST stop “putting spurs in hides” of citizens and dicing their future with debt. Once citizens have affordable home and lower cost, they will be more motivated to spur upwards for higher goals as we once did with environment conducive to generate growth that places emphasis on citizen resource & needs, productivity and sustainable growth trends. The present system will not only create de-motivation factor, it creates tremendous stress and strain on families and relations, uncertainty of sustainable income to maintain future cost due to inflated present high cost base. This compounded with fear of losing jobs and many concomitant costs associated foreign influx and housing policies. Government must create environment where citizens benefit the most, not the foreigners. If the environment is good there is no fear of foreigners not wanting to come in BUT land must be available to citizens first and so as for other citizen privileges. For those Foreigners, Rich & Elite who are disadvantaged by these citizen-centric policies of Nation-hood, they can pack and leave. There is no point in exhorting citizens to work overseas when at the rate the cost goes UP, UP and UP added by MP exhortations, they cannot afford to buy decent home-not to mention many who do not have such opportunities to work overseas. There is no point in making citizens buy housing with huge debt payable over 30 years when there is no guarantee of sustainable job over this period where citizens can earn enough to over decent retirement nest to enjoy this “beautiful” Nation. There is no point in making citizens “feel good” on wealth creation when there is no guarantee that this ever-cascading upward cost will not one day collapse as the Re-sale get older and older while overall cost of living gets higher and higher. Where is the limit of such high cost of artificial housing inflation made purposely by pegging to Re-sale value? Has the Government seriously studied into the limit of its viability? If not why did Ministers NOT TAKE caution BUT instead create speculation that prices will continue upwards through the litany of speeches as if such wealth creation is GOD GIFT for voting in the MIW Saints? When all pro-citizens conditions are in-place, yes, every citizen will work NOT only SMARTER and HARDER, they will be spurring themselves to hard-strive and hard-drive if he/she SEES HOPE in the future and their Generation-that there is a NATION, NOT A PLACE to only work. They will be striving for Swiss Standard as home affordability is NOT an issue any longer, for current and future generation. Presently, many do not see the day they can pay off, own a home and yet have enough for bread and butter in future, NOT to mention dreaming of striving and driving for Swiss Standard. Much as Greed begets Greed, Power beget Power, Nation Collective Will begets Nation Drive once citizens feel the fabric of Nation is intact. The citizens must sense the fabric of the Nation Heart & Soul-a Nation they can call home, they can afford to have with much lesser DEBT, NOT compelled to dice their stake in the Nation with DEBT as the Government appears to be driving such stake into every citizen. It is clear the intertwining effects are current foreign influx and housing polices have adverse ramifications. The price we have to pay in the future is HUGE if these policies are not checked. Current policies are stained with conflict of interests. It is plain that PAP and Governance as ONE cannot be allowed, it must be separated. Civil government must be for the citizens first. The government is NOTHING but puppets of PAP and these puppets are heavily rewarded, creating governance machineries so prohibitive that they exert heavy tax on the Nation. For those who manage to cross the boundary to fortune, fine. For many, it is damnation-forever a sacrificial lamb to the Lords, the Lion. Yes, we do not only need to work smarter, harder and better, we need to make sure that the Lions are tamed as Cat and we are not Sheep but Beaver of our future. Voice of Citizens  Read More →

By Lawrence Pek, Mark Chwee and Abdul Gafoor The Temasek Review would like to take an unprecedented step in asking to our readers regarding our future. Internally, the success of the site has prompted discussions about mission re-alignment as well as resource management. Simply, we would like to evolve from our current shape and size to include video and audio, with more exciting stories and faster to air. This brings us into a bit of a pickle. Although we have ideas of our own, we would like to take this opportunity and humbly ask our readership for their learned views (we know we have several readers with professional experience in this area). Below is a list of issues, which we are pondering and please comment accordingly. 1. While Malaysiakini used to be a model for us to emulate, we are deliberating if we should abandon our original goal of developing TR into an independent daily online reporting news from a fair and balanced perspective and blazed a unique path not taken by any others for ourselves. We are going to set an agenda for all our articles we published here. Since the Singapore media serves the interests of the PAP, we shall be the mouthpiece of voiceless Singaporeans - to be a media run by Singaporeans for Singaporeans together with Singaporeans. We will represent the interests of all Singapore citizens regardless of whether you are from the PAP or the opposition, Our new slogan for this site will be - "Singapore for Singaporeans!" Foreigners are more than welcomed to study, work and live in Singapore, but the interests of Singaporeans must always come first. 2.     Under our TR umbrella, we would like to have a sleuth of journalists (young and passionate younglings) that will pound the pavement and pursue the alternative voices, which will never be covered by the state media.  The concern here is one of credibility, will young journalists be willing to work for a website, which is not a registered company in Singapore, even though we can afford to pay for their stories, but the crux of the matter is the career and pride of these young journalists when they are pursing each and every story. As a matter of fact, we have met up with a few former journalists from SPH and MediaCorp in the last few months and though some have expressed their interest to join us, the lack of a "status", organization and career path proved to be a major stumbling block. What relationship should TR have with these journalists, to what extent do we support and be liable for their activities? 3.     Given the fact that the PAP has a history of suing political opponent in oblivion, obviously exposing ourselves to legal liabilities is an area of concern. With the explosive growth of readership, TR would like to respond accordingly with considerations of growth areas and social responsibilities.  However, we need to clarify that TR is not a political organization or an opposition party. Is it necessary (if yes, in what form or shape) for TR to register itself as a company or other entities? Is it necessary to register in Singapore? One of the (but not exclusively) sources of income is from donations (by pay pal) by our readers. With growth, TR would like to call for more donations to support this growth and we will appreciate each and every $10 or even $5 that comes in. This stream of revenue will ensure the continuity of TR as an Alternative Voice in Singapore. One possible option will be to register a company overseas and sell a stake of the company in tiny bits i.e.  $50, $100,  $500, $1000, $10,000 to Singaporeans as a form of a social venture capital project which will give everybody a stake in TR as well as a sense of ownership. If TR makes a profit eventually, the investors will get yearly dividends from the company. Please continue to support TR with what you can and how you can. Temasek Review maintains that as a mouthpiece of the everyday Singaporean, the man of the streets, we would like hear from responsible stakeholders about the future, the shape and size of TR. Please send your comments directly to [email protected] or blog directly under this article so that everyone can see and hear your views.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent According to business weekly, the Edge, Sim Lian Construction Co. has been awarded a contract worth $99.8 million by the Housing & Development Board for the building works at Queenstown Redevelopment Contract 30 with a total of 774 dwelling units. The contract is scheduled to start in March 2010 and be completed by February 2013. This amounts to a construction cost of $129,180 per unit. The land cost, as for previous projects is unknown as HDB has never revealed the exact breakdown costs of HDB flats. The land is owned by Singapore Land Authority, a statutory board. As the project is situated in the prime district of Queenstown, the flats are likely to fetch more than $300,000 per unit when completed. The prices of HDB flats have sky-rocketed in recent years by more than 30 per cent while the median wages of ordinary Singaporeans remain stagnant. Though HDB has insisted that public housing is "heavily subsidized" in Singapore, there is a pervasive perception among Singaporeans that it is making a huge "profit" at their expense. When HDB released that it has "lost" more than SGD$2 billion dollars last year "subsidizing" Singaporeans in new flats, few buy its story. In this case, the exact cost price of each flat is likely to be less than $129,180 since Sim Lian Construction Co. is a private limited company and it will not bid for the project if it is not going to make a profit from it. Despite rising frustration, anger and resentment on the ground at the sky-rocketing HDB prices, National Minister Mah Bow Tan continues to insist that public housing remains "affordable" to ordinary Singaporeans. While he admitted that he has been "caught off guard" by the increasing prices of resale flats, he promised to "monitor the situation" closely to "address concerns" that prices may be spiraling out of control. By the time Mr Mah realized the severity of the problem, HDB flats may well be priced beyond the reach of Singaporeans. Perhaps he will have to adjust to "afffordability benchmark" to above 30 per cent so that HDB can continue selling them at exorbitant prices.  Read More →