TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent The Housing Development Board (HDB) announced lately that it is now considering introducing a separate ethnic quota for permanent residents to prevent them from forming enclaves in public housing estates. However, it is too late as judging from the feedback from some PAP MPs, ethnic enclaves may already have emerged in the HDB heartlands. In an interview with the Straits Times, MP Lim Wee Kiat from Sembawang GRC related a notice he saw pasted on a wall in his Canberra ward written entirely in Burmese. It was from a real estate agent offering his services solely to Myanmar permanent residents (PRs) looking for flats in Sembawang. He said there are some floors of HDB blocks in his ward where more than half the residents are foreign. "They are a mix of nationalities. So although there is no 'ethnic' enclave as such, there is a high concentration of foreigners 'to the point where Singaporeans feel threatened and become a minority. When that happens, then it becomes an issue," he added. Another MP Ho Geok Choo recalled a visitor describing her Boon Lay ward as being so cosmopolitan that it felt like being overseas. She felt imposing an ethnic quota will "make it more difficult for PRs to artificially inflate prices in certain areas by all snapping up flats there." "It would also assuage the concern of those Singaporeans who feel besieged in their neighbourhood by new sights and smells. On her house visits, every block throws up at least two or three Singaporeans who voice their concerns about this," she was quoted as saying in the Straits Times. Due to the ruling party's liberal immigration policies, foreigners now make up 36 per cent of Singapore's population, up from 14 per cent in 1990. Of the remaining 64 per cent who are citizens, an increasing number are born overseas. Foreigners are now ubiquitous everywhere in Singapore. Besides Sembawang and Boon Lay, ethnic enclaves have emerged in Geylang, Changi, Sengkang, Tampines and Jurong as well. It is no exaggeration to say that one can find Chinese from almost all the 23 provinces of China congregated in Geylang or Indians from across the Indian subcontinent in Sengkang. While PRs make up "only" 5 per cent of the buyers of resale flats, many of them rent HDB flats which are not subjected to the ethnic quota. The root cause of the problem lies in the relentless influx of foreigners into Singapore which shows no signs of abating despite recent promises by PAP leaders to "moderate" and "slow" the inflow. At the rate the PAP is "mass-importing" foreigners into Singapore, we may soon find little Hunans, Liaonings, Yangons, Dhakas and Delhis emerging all across the island and it will be Singaporeans who need to "integrate" themselves into a new Singapore dominated by these newcomers instead of the other way round.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Fearful that the increased medical expenses of Singaporeans may become a burden to the state, the ruling party is likely to increase the Medisave contribution rate to "realign its healthcare financing policy to fit the needs of a greying population." According to Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan, the current rate of 6.5 per cent to 9 per cent set aside from the CPF of Singaporeans, "does not build up enough reserves to pay for both big medical bills and long-term care. "What worries me most is long-term care, because we've never priced that into the Medisave contribution rate..... The quantum will depend on what Members of Parliament say when the topic comes up during the debate on the Health Ministry's budget in March.....The amount will depend on the care you want to use Medisave to pay for," he was quoted saying in the Straits Times. All Singaporeans contribute 20 per cent of their monthly income to CPF while their employers' contributions go down with age, capped at a maximum salary of $4,500 a month. CPF was originally set up with the purpose of providing a source of ready income to serve the retirement needs of Singaporeans and can be used to finance their housing loans as well. While Singaporeans are able to withdraw their CPF in one lump sum in the past, they now have to keep a "minimum sum" in excess of $100,000 before they can do so. Almost 10 per cent of their CPF goes to their Medisave account which is used to pay for major hospital stays, some outpatient treatments and community hospital care. The minimum amount for Medisave was raised to $28,500 in 2007 and the contribution for older people also increased by half a point to 9 per cent. The increase means that Singaporeans will have slightly less money in their CPF to tap on for their retirement needs. Singapore is one of the few countries in the world where the government goes to such an extent to "manage" the savings of its citizens. Malaysia has a similar Employment Provident Fund or EPF too, but it is not "locked" away for life like in Singapore. With healthcare costs going up, the increase in Medisave may not be sufficient to cover the medical expenses of elderly Singaporeans especially when one is unfortunately struck with a chronic debilitating disease. There is a saying in among Singaporeans that "one can afford to die, but not fall sick in Singapore." Despite widespread sentiments on the ground that public healthcare is getting more and more expensive, the ruling party is adamant that it remains "affordable" to most Singaporeans, just like public housing. Unlike other first world nations like Australia, Canada and Japan, Singaporeans enjoy few social welfare benefits from its government which eschews all kinds of state-sponsored aids as "welfarism" which will create a "crutch mentality" in the population. Though the quantum of increase in Medisave is not known yet, it is likely to be passed very quickly with little or no debate in Parliament since the ruling party holds an incredible 82 out of 84 seats. There is no effective opposition in the Singapore Parliament to check on the ruling party which is allowed to rule at its whims and fancies often with no consultation with the people.  Read More →

OPINION Once upon a time, Singaporeans are proud citizens of their own country under the leadership of the capable and charismatic Lim Chin Siong who spoke up fearlessly for the common folks in the streets. Everything were to change on a fateful day in 1962 where Lim and his colleagues from the opposition Barisan Sosialist were hauled up and detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) without trial. With the opposition crippled, the PAP went on the win the election in 1963 and subsequent elections from then on and with each single electoral victory, they consolidated their power and extended its influence to almost every institution in Singapore. Today, there is not a single institution in Singapore, be it the media, police, trade unions, grassroots organizations, or civil society which is left untouched by the PAP. Hitler, Lenin, Stalin and Mao would have been proud of their erstwhile successor Lee Kuan Yew in their graves - for he had surpassed of their accomplishments of establishing complete authority and control over a nation under the guise of democracy. Over the years, Singaporeans had their civil and political rights curtailed and robbed from them one by one. In the past, a gathering of more than 5 people is illegal; today even a solo protest is outlawed. Singapore used to have a vibrant media landscape with a few major papers; they are all owned by one single news agency SPH now which is controlled indirectly by the PAP. All the grassroots organizations are de facto PAP's branches in the community as admitted by Lee himself recently when he boasted ashamedly to a delegation of officials from China that "all CCs, CCCs and RCs are part of the PAP." The police has become the security apparatus of the ruling party to clamp down on political dissent. While Singaporeans were arrested and jailed for legitimate political activities such as distributing flyers in public, police stood idly by and allowed foreigners to protest on our own soil. With no opposition in parliament and no credible alternative in sight, Singaporeans have little choice but to lend their support to the PAP year after year. After the 2006 general elections, the PAP leaders gave themselves an astronomical pay rise and threatened to leave for the private sector if Singaporeans do not accede to their demands. (not that they can anyway). Lee claimed that without paying him and his subordinates millions of dollars a year, the country will lose billions of dollars under an "incompetent" government. A year later, Singapore's sovereign wealth funds GIC and Temasek lost a few billion dollars in failed overseas investment, but both Lee and his daughter-in-law remain in charge of our nation's coffers to this very day. Only then did we realize that we are no longer citizens of Singapore, but "lesser mortals" as pointed out rightly by a PAP MP Charles Chong. There are two classes of people in Singapore - the ruling elites and the rich who benefit the most from the nation's economic growth during the last decade and the "lesser mortals" who have to slog hard like dogs day in and out just to feed themselves. It is hardly surprising that Singapore's income gap between the rich and poor has widened over the past few years while the standard of living has dropped for ordinary Singaporeans - the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Again, Singaporeans have little choice but to stick to the PAP because Lee warned that if we do not so do, our wives and daughters will become maids in other countries. We have been turned into a flock of sheep following our leaders blindly wherever they lead us to, be it heaven or hell. One Senior Minister described himself and his colleagues as "lions" leading us, but the reality is - they are no more than sheep themselves being led through their noses by the only "lion" permitted to exist in Singapore. Singaporeans trust the PAP to give them another overwhelming "mandate" in the 2006 elections after which Prime Minister Lee opened the floodgates to immigrants and the sheep found themselves being swarmed by jackals, rats and vultures. Being pushed to the brink with nowhere to go, even sheep will protest. To their dismay, the PAP will hear no more of their whining and they are now relegated to being "donkeys" according to the words of one PAP member. That's all Singaporeans have evolved from citizens to lesser mortals to sheep and donkeys in less than one generation. Lee Kuan Yew said in a recent interview with the National Geographic magazine that if Singaporeans do not have the "spurs stuck in their hide", it is our problem. Which animal has the thickest hide in the world? Singaporeans must have the thickest "hide" in the world for after all the ruling party has done to trample on their rights, dignity and egos, they will still return it to power in the next election. As Lee himself said lately, Singaporeans must be "daft" if they have the temerity to cast a protest vote against him and his party in the next election. He cannot have put it more succinctly. After all, the grand  "forecaster extraordinarie" has predicted that the PAP will win the next two elections hands down. When happens next? The PAP will no longer exist by then for their name will be changed to FAP or "Foreigner Action Party" which will finally complete the evolutionary journey of the hapless, pathetic and daft Singaporean.  Read More →