TR EMERITUS

The govt faces two conflicting problems with the HDB lease decay. if they do not understand the contradiction, they cannot find a solution. What is this contradiction? The existing owners want to preserve the value of their HDB flats, especially if they have paid a high price for them. The younger citizens do not want to pay a high price for the HDB flat, when they know that it is no longer an investment and will have no value at the end of the lease. How can the govt solve this contradiction? Should they keep the HDB prices high or allow it to drop? My solution is out of the box! The govt should adopt the following measures to allow the HDB flats to preserve its value for the remainder of the lease. a) Allow the unrestricted use of CPF savings to pay for mortgages below 60 years. b) Buy back old flats at a fair valuation, and not a depressed valuation due to weak demand c) Allow expiring leases to be renewed for 10 to 30 years by paying a lease renewal premium. What about the interest of the younger citizens? I suggest the following: a) Allow them to rent a HDB flat and to opt out of contributing to CPF from their salaries (but the employer should still contribute). b) The rental should enjoy the same subsidy given to buyers (estimated to be 20% from market). c) They can still buy new HDB or resale HDB flats using the govt grants. These measures will also free up the HDB market and allow it to be used more efficiently. It might even encourage young people to get married earlier, i.e. as they have the option to rent a subsidized HDB flat, and improve the birth rate. I hope that the above measures will help to find a solution to the HDB lease decay issue and generally improve the prospects for young citizens.   Tan Kin Lian      Read More →

When Nafiz Kamarudin of 'unregistered' group Happy People Helping People Community (HP2) emailed a few political parties on a plan, my comrades agreed that we should take part in such activity. The plan was to get all politicians from both the ruling and opposition parties to come together and experience the life of the cardboard collectors. We didn't give much thought on whether HP2 is a formerly registered organization, as it is refreshing that there is a group of people who had initiated a bottom-up effort to get politicians involved. After all, politicians drive debate and crystalize policies which will affect the socially disadvantaged and underprivileged group of people. Elderly cardboard collectors are people without sufficient retirement funds. Due to low education levels, most do not know how to use smart phone to become food delivery riders, which is why cardboard collection is the only viable option for them to earn just really peanuts to sustain their livelihood. Remember, it was a PAP Minister who first politicised the issue of cardboard collectors by making a claiming that they are just doing it for “exercise”! What is might be implying is that the PAP government has not failed its welfare system (i.e. CPF retirement). I was not surprised that the PAP did not send any representative or indicate any interest in such activity. However, I was flabbergasted to know that the police had attempted to stop this event by requiring that the organisers register for a permit as it is "political" in nature at the very last minute. It is indeed "political" as it is very good opportunity to give "social-political education of empathy" to politician-wannabe. In fact, we should actually have more of such activities. While organizers like Nafiz are totally inexperienced, I can feel their passion, compassion and sincerity. It is really a joke to me that as a developed country, we actually have a Police with a third-world mentality which requires that people to register for carrying out compassionate work! Singapore will become joke if the international media reports on how the Police has prevented citizens' initiative to get politicians aware of the social problems of the downtrodden!   Goh Meng Seng      Read More →

I disagree with Josephine Teo's comments that the retail industry in Singapore is far from being a sunset industry. Worldwide, the X'mas season is usually a busy time for the retail trades and also a time when companies employ more part-time staff to help cope with the expected business increase. In Singapore, our retail industry is another sick man under this useless PAP government. Apart from the brightly lighted buildings at Orchard in the evening, at least 80% of the people who go to Orchard nowadays go back empty handed (i.e. they don't carry any shopping bags). When I look at Takashimaya Shopping Centre, I could hardly see anybody inside, not even any moving shadows. Statistics corroborate this. In October, the retail sales was down by 4.3% and this marked a ninth month quarter of decline as consumers are moving online instead. Whether the government cares to admit or not, high rental and high cost of doing business in Singapore is killing a lot of our retail businesses. Over the years, we have seen so many retail companies in Singapore either call it a day or scale down their operations. The latest casualty among them is Home fix. From the Metro flagshop store at Centrepoint to Times, MPH, Kinokuniya, there are no shortage of examples. If our citizens are willing to be brutally honest with themselves, many people must realise by now that although the PAP government is creating new jobs, most of them will go to foreigners. The PAP is unable to create suitable, decent and good paying jobs for Singaporeans. Our citizens badly need to be more street-wise for their own sake.   Simon Lim      Read More →