Nicole Seah should sue SPH then donate the compensation to help the poor

How often do you see the Singapore Press Holdings apologizing unreservedly to an Opposition member? Never, and in fact this is the first time in history Singapore’s 149th ranking only press media company apologize. From a strategic point of view, Nicole Seah should not be soften by SPH’s offer to settle the matter through a simple apology.

Nicole Seah should capitalize on this. Sue SPH in an open court, and donate the compensation to help the poor in Macpherson constituency.

Singaporeans are prepared for 2016 but it is clever and honest politicians we need to turn the country around. Crying on public TV (done by LKY and LHL) and taking photos of yourself with babies, children, old people and even rubbish is so yesteryear.

Singaporeans need MPs who are able to debate, strategize and the guts to push limits in Parliament. What we have in Parliament today is so mild, boring and criminally-silent, with the PAP clearly dominating the floor of course, it makes me lose faith in the future. I do not think Singapore is ever going to change with politicians who are only interested in gaining popularity. My idea of a good politician is one who is unafraid to challenge boundaries like Obama. I have been watching US politics ever since Obama got sworn in 2009, he is one politician every country wish to have. Such astute choice of speech and clarity of direction, I hope Singapore has such a leader one day.

Reducing Singapore’s population

From train breakdowns to expensive cost of living, overpopulation in Singapore has caused a myriad of problems that has contributed largely to a tank in standard of living for citizens born and bred here. In the recent years, the PAP government reacted to alleviate the impact of the foreigner influx by introducing patch policies like the Fair Hiring Framework, increase in property levies and the Progressive Wage Model. They have also tried to ramp up on housing and the public transport infrastructure so they can appease the angry people. These patch policies and knee-jerk reactions however do not solve the real underlying problems of overcrowding.  Reducing the population is Singapore’s only solution left to savage the country from an imminent social and economical destruction.

Before you see the solution, we must first understand the real reasons why did the foreigners come to Singapore in the first place. Being safe and multi-racial are some of the very superficial reasons why they chose Singapore, here are the in-depth analysis of what Singapore possess that attracts foreigners from different income gap:

Type of foreigners	Reasons for coming to Singapore
Rich Foreigners 1) Income above $120K or, 2) Net worth above 1 million	a) Income tax for those earning above $120K is just between 15~20%, this is much lower than what first world countries like Australia and US would charge b) Singapore abolished estate duty, aka inheritance tax c) Singapore do not have capital gains tax d) Singapore technically do not have dividends tax* e) Free to purchase any Singapore private property
Middle Class and Poor Foreigners 1) S pass, E pass and Work Permit holders 2) Foreign students	a) Most of them pay little or no tax b) Lax immigration policies: No English Test required, No Skills required, No Qualifications required Accredited qualifications not required c) Strong SGD exchange d) Easy to find employment e) Easy to secure employment passes f) Easy to by-pass MOM law by paying employer in cash in exchange for employment g) Foreign population in Singapore is large enough to form a small community, there is no need for integration with Singaporeans
Permanent Residents and New Citizens	a) No need to serve National Service b) Easy to get PR if you are Chinese c) Enjoy full citizenship benefits like BTO flat subsidies and voting rights Immediately d) Sg citizenship is a good springboard to Australia, Canada and US e) Reduced CPF contribution for first and second year PRs f) Option to withdraw CPF in full for PRs

As such, the solution for reversing Singapore’s population is to found in the following fish bone diagram:

 

By Alex Tan

Alex Tan to Nicole Seah: Ground Zero

Dear Nicole

Long time no see, this is Alex Tan previously from SPP. I read about your little revelation and would like to share my part what happened after the GE2011. Like you, I was the youngest candidate in GE2011 and I’m now 26. There are a lot of expectations from us young politicians and it is indeed suffocating hearing advice from different well-intended people. But unlike you, I resigned from SPP and do not wish to commit myself to the party, because that means a lot of walkabouts, meeting the people, writing stances, expressing opinions and basically just doing anything to get popularity. Hah. It’s a drag, I’ve tried for a month or so, it’s tiring. We are not elected MPs, we don’t draw a salary and everything we do is out of goodwill. Simply put in, we are just like volunteers.

But like volunteering, we could only afford spare time and resources. I notice you have made it a full time job with a tuition centre and NSP matters. Like you, I teach tuition too, but I charge a fee and it is at my own leisurely time. Perhaps it boils down to our primary purpose, for mine is just to remove the PAP out of power, contesting in GE2016 or not does not matters to me; whereas for you, is to get voted in by next election.

I received a lot of threats and tonnes of trolling too, from both pro-PAP supporters, Opposition supporters and even foreigners.

I even have stalkers befriending me, downloading all of my photos and creating a fake profile to make seditious comments:

All these are people with their political agenda trying to affect us mentally. You could ignore these threats because most of them amount to nothing at the end of the day.

For my personal life, I faced the same problems as you when I date Singapore girls. They all know what I’ve been up to and the topic will just go round and round about current affairs and politics. I realized that soon enough and chose to date a foreign girl. And it was great, she befriended me and love me as a person. We got engaged last year and we are planning to leave for Australia.

When it comes to employment, I encounter many differences with people and threw resignation letters changing between 3 competitors of the same engineering industry just in 2013 alone. Now I am comfortable with my current one, and it surpasses in terms of remuneration and relations as compared to the other companies. You should never stop seeking to settle down. Since hire and fire is part of Singapore’s employment culture, job hopping and moving to greener pastures should be the natural response.

For politics, I choose writing. I believe Singaporeans will change if they are exposed to both emotional and rationale articles, instead of walkabouts and meeting the people. However, despite the different approach we have taken, both of us have the common goal of wanting Singapore to be a better place for Singaporeans. I have instead dedicate my time in constantly writing articles for The Real Singapore despite not being paid a single cent as well. 2013 is great for me because I am getting my degree and driving license soon too, but it wasn’t that smooth. I had my brief period of unemployment, like 3 weeks, and at the same time my mom was on wheelchair for 2.5 months over a fall and I had my exams to clear. Throughout the difficult period I just soldiered on, and it worked out.

Keep calm and carry on doggedly. Everything will fall right in place. You might have seen this video from Steve Jobs but it never fails to inspire me everytime. 2016 is within sight, the ground is very bitter now, go for a SMC, and you will become a MP sooner than you think.

“Sometimes life can hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I convince myself the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You got to find what you love.”
~Steve Jobs

Wiki Temasek
Alex Tan Zhixiang

Time to privatize SMRT

They have the market monopoly, they have benefited from a $1.1 billion government handout and they are already raking in hundreds of millions of profits. But that is not stopping the greedy corporation from wanting a fare raise.

So what justified the fare raise? Have SMRT provided better services like how the PAP will only encourage a salary raise for workers provided productivity increase? Nope, the services have worsen. There are more train breakdowns than ever before and the overcrowding problem has worsen. The photo below was taken yesterday 6pm at City Hall station:

 

The queue was so long that it stretched from one platform to another. What is more absurd is having to wait for 5 trains or 20 minutes, for me to finally board a fully packed train.

Such insanity.

It is really unbearable to live in Singapore with so many people. I applaud the PAP’s guts to call for a 6.9 million population, it seems that they are deliberately screwing themselves up so they can be voted out of power. But let’s just leave the usual rambling for a new government another day.

Let’s lay the facts on the table:

1) SMRT is inefficient in operations i.e. breakdowns
2) SMRT does not provide value to the public because they earn a premium off every ticket
3) SMRT is a monopoly

The above 3 facts showed that SMRT does not need a new management, given that it has already gone through 3 CEOs. The latest CEO, former army chief Desmond Kuek, made a lot of promises about fixing the breakdowns. But all he have achieved so far is to turn SMRT into an army camp by bringing former regulars into the train trade, and nothing else really change. There is no point firing Desmond Kuek because the new management is going to be the same.

Singaporeans should not be charged higher fares just because they are not earning enough profits. Corporate greed is immoral but legal. We need a complete overhaul of the train system to make it productive and value-for-money for the people, and we should be looking at nationalization of the train system.

Singapore’s train system was formerly nationalized and it worked for the period 1987 to 2000. There is no proof to show that the nationalized train system named MRT then was corrupted or inefficient. In fact if we compare the present with the past, a lot Singaporeans will agree that train services were a lot better when it was nationalized.

It is time the PAP stop looking at the profits SMRT can bring in for Temasek Holdings and start looking at the dismay performance of SMRT. Such incompetence is embarrassing for a self-proclaimed first world country.

Comparing LKY, GCT and LHL

 

	Lee Kuan Yew	Goh Chok Tong	Lee Hsien Loong
Employment	9	8	4
Freedom	2	4	5
Education	8	7	6
Retirement and healthcare	7	8	2
Purchasing power	7	9	4

How good is Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong?

We compare him to his predecessors based on the 5 basic aspects to a Singaporean’s well-being and summarised them in the radar chart above. The 5 aspects are specifically selected to determine the performance of the 3 PMs at different times. Here are the in-depth rationale how did the PMs fare:

Lee Kuan Yew (1965 – 1990)

Employment score 9: Singapore was a thriving port then but there were still many unemployed people. Along with Dr Albert Winsemius, Goh Keng Swee and other PAP old guards, the PAP team then managed to secure employment for many Singaporeans during the turbulent times.

Freedom score 2: Operation Coldstore, Operation Spectrum, exile of Devan Nair, use of Internal Security Act to arrest political dissidents…the list is endless. There is little or no freedom under Lee Kuan Yew’s iron-fisted rule. Things were so bad nobody dare spoke badly about the PAP government even in private conversations.

Education score 8: Most Singaporeans were uneducated back then, and through his numerous education campaigns like giving free food to children who attend school, helped shore up education level. By the 1980s, Singaporeans have became one of the most educated workforce in the world then. One of LKY’s most controversial yet successful education approach was an all-English medium. Chinese schools and other mono-lingual schools were stopped and everyone go bilingual.

Retirement and healthcare score 7: Most Singaporean elderly were able to retire and do not really face much problems paying off large medical bills. Unlike today, the people don’t have to be bankrupt first to get help in the name of means testing.

Purchasing power score 7: The cost of living was low then, most Singaporeans pay off their housing under 15 years of mortgage loan. A 3A room flat in Tampines costed only $43,500 then. Cars were cheap and there was no COE. Salaries were sufficient to upkeep a single-income family.

Goh Chok Tong (1991 to 2004)

Employment score 8: Outdoing his predecessor, Goh Chok Tong is credited for opening up Singapore’s market to the world. Public sector services were improved significantly and he has to be credited for the development of the train and transport system.

Freedom score 4: His predecessor and himself were still suing people into bankruptcy, most notably Tang Liang Hong and JBJ. Most oppressive rules remained but they were not as aggressively executed as during LKY’s times.

Education score 7: Education opportunities were further expanded through the opening up of the university sector to overseas universities. Although there was the implementation of the streaming practice, students were not half as stressed as they are today.

Retirement and healthcare score 8: Goh Chok Tong’s times is considered the Golden Years by many Singaporeans and one such reason is due to the ability of Singaporean elderly to retire without worries during the 1990s. Healthcare costs were heavily subsidized and help was readily available.

Purchasing power score 9: During the 1990s, Singaporeans see a rise in wages that we were officially declared a first world country. Housing was rising then, but still remained affordable with morgage servicing period still at a comfortable level of below 20 years.

Lee Hsien Loong (2004 – Present)

Employment score 4: The influx of cheap foreign labor caused many Singaporeans to lose their jobs. Professionals, Managers and Engineers were the hardest hit as foreigners with dubious degrees flooded the labor market to compete for jobs at lower salaries. Retrenchment age dipped further with more Singaporeans becoming taxi drivers and self-employed.

Freedom score 5: Defamation suits are still a trademark of the PAP government. The mainstream media continued to be controlled and now the PAP wants to control the internet too. People still get arrested if they protest without permit.

Education score 6: Lee Hsien Loong further expanded the private education sector but did not increase the number of local university places in tandem with the population growth, which grew more than 25% in less than 10 years.

Retirement and healthcare score 2: More elderly Singaporeans and poor are sleeping on the streets and picking cardboards for a living. The new PAP administration remained oblivious to the problem even as voices are getting more and more vocal. Most Singaporeans do not get to retire today because of the relentless rise in Minimum Sum, Retirement Age and the depression of CPF interest rates. Healthcare for Singaporeans is a complete screw up and the people develop a saying goes “rather dead than sick”.

Purchasing power score 4: The bottom 20 percentile income earners see a drop in their salaries under PM Lee’s leadership. The median income earner barely see a real income growth over the same period, but the top 20 percentile income earners see a sharp rise in their income. Income gap continues to widen, which again is neither reacted nor responded to from the PAP. Housing mortgage servicing period stretched from a minimal 25 years to 35 years. Car ownership has become virtually impossible with COE prices alone ranging from $65 000 to $90 000.

One of Lee Hsien Loong’s biggest failures: CPF Interest Rate

The CPF interest rate is one of the most important aspect for Singaporeans to achieve retirement. It’s role is not only to beat inflation, but also to grow a fund for a decent and dignified retirement. Through a compulsory monthly contribution, many Singaporeans are able to gather a large sum of CPF and there were hardly any problems with retiring in Singapore during the 1980s and 1990s.

The list of interest rate under 3 different Prime Ministers is found respectively on this CPF link [Source].

This is the CPF interest rate during Lee Kuan Yew’s time when he was Prime Minister from 1965 to 1990.

CPF interest rate went as high as 6.5% during Lee Kuan Yew’s stewardship. It certainly beat inflation by at least 2% during the 1973 oil crisis. Those were the good times where putting cash in CPF certainly makes sense than investments in the stock market. Notice how the interest rates were rarely adjusted, it reflects LKY’s leadership as placing the people as priority regardless of the state of economy.

Then the next Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, CPF interest rate’s performance were pretty decent averaging about 3.5% with a consistent up and down.

The returns look decent and there are consistent updates every 6 months to reflect the true state of the market. When times are good, interest rate were higher and Goh Chok Tong then ensured the people enjoy an interest rate higher than that of inflation rate. It was a very nimble and volatile approach like how Singaporeans were used to be given Singtel shares then.

Now we look at Lee Hsien Loong…tsk tsk tsk…

I wouldn’t bother with a screenshot because every single year, the Ordinary Account interest rate is 2.5%. This is even lower than the yearly inflation rate 2 to 4%.

Lee Hsien Loong was supposed to be a Mathematician [Source] from Cambridge, but why did he allow the interest rate to fall below that of a yearly inflation?

His excuse was of course mathematically blamed. Apparently he devised a formula for calculating CPF interest rate, and going by his magical formula, interest rate is always at its lowest [Source]. It has been a full 10 years since the interest rate were sitting on its mandatory minimum rate. The “formula” is not working at all, and its implications for Singaporeans is disastrous.

A person so good with numbers should know retirement will be impossible with such interest rates, especially when they fall short of inflation as I’ve highlighted in red above. There is no real return from the compulsory CPF. In fact it is such a bad idea putting your money with CPF, most Singaporeans are taking a risk with their retirement by putting their CPF in one of the many CPF-approved funds in the open market.

To make things worse, under Maths genius Lee Hsien Loong, Minimum Sum jumped 85% in the 10 years under his leadership.

This is world class calculation by the Mathematician. CPF interest rate stagnate while Minimum Sum keeps jumping.

The issue here is not about a Mathematician who can score straight As in Cambridge being a Prime Minister. How could any Prime Minister jeopardize his people’s retirement?

The severity of this issue is still at its infantile stage because we have only seen a decade of low interests today, and the effects can only be felt some 25 years down the road when Singaporeans in their 20s today retire. If Singaporeans in their 20s still vote for Lee Hsien Loong and his PAP administration, they have better buy their wheelchairs early while they could afford it.

Alex Tan Zhixiang

Medifund applications jumped by at least 45% over 5 years

The number of Medifund approvals have jumped by 45% over the past 5 years for the financial year period FY2007 to FY 2011. As the number of people seeking Medifund’s help were not revealed by the state media, the number of applicants should be higher than that of 45% given how infamously stingy PAP is as an anti-welfare government.

The PAP government have on several platforms consistently stated their disdain of giving anything free to the people. Just recently, The Real Singapore received a letter from a 69 year old elderly who have to skip a $77  vaccination jab recommended by her doctor [Source] because she couldn’t afford it. Stories of the elderly and poor who have skipped medical attention go unreported by the state media. In June 2013, an unemployed mother murdered her son who was diagnosed with severe liver problems [Source]. Elderly Singaporeans are also often seen collecting tin cans and cardboards for a living in the GDP-first nation state, which is ironically praised for having the world’s highest GDP per capita in the world.

In his recent National Day rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made grandiose plans about having a new airport terminal and a $1 billion garden right next to the new airport. This is after spending $1 billion on Garden by the Bay with a princely $50 million yearly maintenance fee. Minister Chan Chun Sing, a widely speculated candidate to take over the Prime Minister, even stated proudly that there is no need for a poverty line in Singapore. Setting a poverty line, he claimed, will have more truly needy people falling through the cracks.

It is hence evident that the PAP has become a leadership with misplaced priorities. The new administration have been paid too much and divorce themselves from the real Singapore. Unfortunately, a good 60% of the population along with the yearly 20,000 new citizens intake do not think so. They are comfortable with the status quo and are quick to telling people who disagree with the PAP to emigrate. It turns out all problems from increasing Medifund applicants to overcrowding, are endorsed and indirectly caused by these selfish Singaporeans. Singapore can never improve with narrow minded and self serving individuals like them.

Alex Tan Zhixiang

Response to comments on If I were the Prime Minister

Tan Ruiwen

[Alex Tan Zhixiang i think you need to consider that Greece, Spain & Slovakia are all countries that are suffering problems that might appear similar to Singapore, but are actually quite different. Their governments are basically broke, and are borrowing large sums of money to sustain their economy. That is quite unlike our situation.

I’m not saying that we apply the old adage of “if it ain’t broken, lets not fix it”. Your proposals neatly sum up the grouses of many Singaporeans. They all sound great. its a utopia. But you have to be pragmatic about it. I will give you some examples:]

It is funny how rich you think Singapore is when you don’t even know we are one of the countries with the highest debt as a percentage to our GDP. Do you really think our economy is sustainable? Our situation is worse than them, because the PAP trivialize on the people’s freedom and money.

The system is broken, fix it. My proposal is fully pragmatic until you are able to prove otherwise.

[1) Your nationalized insurance scheme sounds great. everyone would not complain about free healthcare. But the problem is funding, and application. Take the UK’s NHS system for example. I’m sure you, having studied at Bradford, know first hand the problems of having a free national health regime. Long waiting times and poor treatment are all hallmarks of state-sponsored healthcare. Bureaucracy has a habit of tearing things apart.]

1) When it comes to the issue of funding, you like the PAP, are putting the horse behind the cart. The question should not be whether if there is enough funding, but rather, the question is whether if the people could afford treatment. Welfare like unemployment benefits and nationalized insurance are matters of morality and indications of a first world society. Could I bring across a scenario to you: If you are a father and your kids are hungry, do you restrict your kids’ intake by your salary or do you go out and earn more for your family? My answer to you is to find the funds, whatever it takes to ensure your people have affordable healthcare.

Trim the defence budget, stop defence purchase if necessary, healthcare comes first.

2) You mention nationalizing the transport system. Sounds great too. However our current transport system is kinda already nationalized. Most of SBS and SMRT are owned by Temasek one way or another, and therein lies the problem – a lack of competition. As such, they are able to fix rates as and how they want it to. In any case, i honestly don’t see a problem with our transport network. Other countries are trying to copy us (e.g. Malaysia). We have prevailing subsidies for the elderly, and students. The recent proposals by SMRT to expand our train network all over our island, and the opening of numerous new stations has brought alot of convenience to Singaporeans. Yes there are problems, but so far, i would say its okay.

2) Do you even know how much SBS and SMRT are making? SBS and SMRT are clocking tens of millions of profit every single year, recession or not. Contrary to what “experts” see, the lack of competition in this monopolies is not the problem, the problem lies with the Singapore transport market being too small for private competitions. Unlike overseas, we do not have an alternative to public transport. Private transport is reserved only for the 15% of the population who could afford a private vehicle.

[3) You mention scraping NS, having a complete professional army, and opening it to foreign nationals. All at a cap of 3% of annual GDP. Firstly, i refer you to our Singapore Budget 2013, which budgeted 3.3% of our GDP for Defence this AY. And this increase was explained by the Defence Minister to be due to acquisitions of hardware such as HIMARS & the Leopard 2, which were essential replacements of old systems. Further, I understand that you’re migrating, so you don’t feel the way that I feel, but I’m kinda uneasy about having foreign nationals, with no ties to my country, defending us. I’m already uneasy about the Gurkhas being here. What you’re proposing sounds like a way to outsource national defence, and the americans tried that in Iraq with Private Military Contractors. Look at what happened. I would love to delve into how it is our responsibility as Singaporeans to defend what is ours, but lets not go there, as it is not applicable to you.]

3) Hello, where did you get your 3.3% statistics?! Defence Budget for 2013 is 20% of GDP or $12.3 Billion. Don’t waste my time if you are not doing your due diligence.

You are uneasy about Gurkhas? Do you know that Lee Kuan Yew and the Ministers clearly trust them more than they trust you a Singaporean to guard their house? Please wake up your idea and look Chatsworth Avenue for goodness sake.

[4) Unions. I think we can agree on the point that Singapore’s survival depends on being a global player in a global economy. A large part of our revenue is derived from taxing companies- about double that of personal taxes, and it is the single largest contributor of wealth to our nation. Now, sure we have problems with regard to “exploitation of our countrymen”, but focus on the big picture: they are here, because we have a safe, and reliable workforce. there are statutory provisions in place to protect our workers, such as the workmen’s compensation act. Having unions of the old might take away this image of Singapore being safe, and reliable, and drive investors offshore. Note, I’m not saying we don’t allow our workers to air their grouses, but we can do it in better ways.]

4) Singapore is a global player in the global economy is what sense? Elaborate.
The big picture is the MNCs needed us too not the other way round. The relationship is bi-directional and mutual, please grow some pride and stop sounding as if we are begging for them to come here. What statutory provisions are there to protect our workers from not getting paid on OTs, working pass the weekly 72 hours limits, depression of salaries and many other unscrupulous employment rules? MOM is useless and NTUC is the same.

You have been brainwashed into thinking the bads of unions. If unions are so bad, why do Malaysia, Taiwan and Hongkong faring better than Singapore? Even Thailand, Burma and Vietnam which have seen much turmoils in the recent years are also doing well with the presence of unions. Shouldn’t MNCs avoid them like plague? The PAP argument that unions scare off investors is hogwash, and you, are the hogwashed.

[So you say that we shouldn’t all complain about your proposals, and actually try and make something work. Well, here are my proposals-]

[1) I agree with your point on HDB Flats. I think the government should sell them at cost to locals, because at the end of the day, it is social housing. I would say that the current ABSD regime has hit alot of foreign speculators of property in Singapore hard. Ask any property agent. They will tell you that the market is cooling rapidly. That’s one possible way to deal with housing in Singapore.]

1) Ok so what is your proposal aside from agreeing with me?

[2) With regard to “Engines of Growth” for Singapore, i have a problem with High Tech Manufacturing being the leader. The reason being that China has a) more land space, b) more cheap labour, c) more cheap electricity to do so. Our wafer fab plants are already facing problems due to rising costs of operations. Instead, I believe we are very suitably positioned to act as a market leader for the financial industry. I point towards foreign perception of Singapore being safe, reliable and efficient. These are things that the financial world wants, and we can deliver.]

2) Going by your logic, Germany and France are already bankrupt by the direct competition of the cheap labor in Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Eastern Europe.

Speaking about financial market, Singapore is a big joke. We flopped in the Malaysian stock exchange, S-chips and now the recent scandal of the 4 penny stocks. Oh please obviously you do not invest and know nuts about Finance. I am an engineer, I don’t study Finance, but I can tell you Singapore’s financial image is very poor. Go ask the traders, we all know how sloppy accounting standards here can be. Our Singapore Exchange (SGX) are desperate for companies to list, it is such an embarrassment. Perhaps you should stop reading the Straits Times painting such a wonderful picture for you.

[3) the “Foreigner” issue. let’s be honest. every country has this problem- Germany, Australia, the UK… everyone. Nobody likes it when someone from outside the community comes in, especially when people don’t understand their culture and practices. I’m sure you will face the exact same problems when you emigrate. But this does not mean that we completely shut them out. I think foreigners have a part to play in Singapore. I’m just worried because their large purchasing power has caused our cost of living to shoot up. Take for example a foreigner’s acquisition of a coffeeshop at $10 million dollars (which can happen). Commercial space is open to foreigners to own. They would need to charge rent of at least $5000 – $8000 in order to gain back what they put in, which would correspondingly drive up the price of food for locals. Basically, i think the biggest problem with foreigners is their ability to purchase property, which has a huge impact on the lives of locals. I think the ABSD, and Commercial Property Tariffs should be re-examined.]

3) You are talking nonsense, this foreigner issue is exclusive and unique only to Singapore based on 3 criteria no other countries have:

a) Foreigners is at 40%. UK is not even 15% and there they are kpkb-ing already. Please lah go read first before you even talk to me, this is really a waste of time of me throwing statistics at your face.
b) We have National Service for Singaporean males. New citizens, PRs and foreigners are excused. This is one big inequality that can never be addressed.
c) We are overpopulated. UK, US, Germany, Australia do not see overcrowding in public transport, failing infrastructures and most important of all: Depression of Wages. Why do you like to compare with these OECD countries in terms of foreigner population, but when we talk about Minimum Wage, Universal Healthcare and Welfare you shun away?

[right. i have alot more but i’m tired. by the way, did you run under the banner of the reform party during the last GE? As a sidenote, I declare that I’m generally politically apathetic. I see myself as a Singaporean, and i support policies, not parties. Your policies are premised on good intentions, but i feel that alot of them fail to see the bigger picture. As Sean Liew said- if you put them all together, they might cause Singapore to fail. Its nothing personal, its just economics.]

You are tired from writing such a short article? Yes I ran under RP during GE, but I am not their member. If you are politically apathetic, it means you are a PAP supporter. You like many other PAP supporters, fail to see the big picture and sustainability of the existing system. Singapore is sinking and falling already for your info, many old guards have spoken up, so are many respected professionals and independent writers like me. It is nothing personal, this is not economics, you are just a kid.

Cheap foreign labor in Singapore is just not cheap enough for General Motors

News flash: General Motors has relocated their headquarters from Singapore to China.

Apparently Singapore’s cheap foreign labor is just not cheap enough for General Motors. Singapore under PAP leadership have been exploiting cheap foreign labor to spur growth, but apparently this strategy doesn’t work any more. General Motors is not the first MNC who have left, Boeing chose Malaysia from Singapore as the preferred location for the manufacturing of their 787 Dreamliner [Source] in Feb 2012. More interestingly, Boeing actually labelled Singapore as a “second-tier” country in terms of technological capability and experience. This pretty much sums up how Singapore’s position in the eyes of Multi-National Companies.

Singapore is losing its edge

Singapore is lagging behind countries with first world infrastructures like Korea, US, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. In terms of IT infrastructure, the PAP has only just began to invest in building the fibre optic network, where Taiwan and Korea have already got them up and running a long long time ago. And when it comes to quality, Singapore have been recently plagued with so much boos-boos like having the trains breakdown [Source], expressway collapse [Source], ceiling collapse [Source], flooding [Source] and who knows what’s next. The drop in productivity is prevalent an indication that the Singapore quality is no different than that of Malaysia’s. All these coincides with the influx of cheap foreign labor, to much of the PAP’s denial of course.

A decade or so ago, Singapore prides itself as an Asian gateway for the Western countries. English-speaking Singaporeans were considered one of the world’s best workforce back in the 1990s. With the influx of cheap foreign labor, we have engineers and service crew who couldn’t converse in basic English. The drop in English standard has been reflected in a survey recently where Malaysians are perceived to have better English than Singaporeans [Source]. Anecdotally, we hear Tagalog, Chinese and Hindi everywhere in our workplace. The rot in Singapore English standard is just festering with the loose immigration policies of the PAP government. Other Asian countries like China, Malaysia and Indonesia have recognized the importance of English and have already started building up English as their second official language for business. Give Asia another 10 years down the road, even Thailand and Vietnam can possibly attain similar English standard as Singapore do. What language gateway is Singapore going to boast about then?

Solution? Cheaper labor

The addiction to cheap labor is very strong in Singapore businesses. PAP’s solution to Singapore’s growth has always been about cheap labor. This is a rat race to the bottom among Asian countries. Having the PAP in power means there is going to be a further depression of labor and more violations of employment laws. What the PAP have now is to ban private unions, ban protests and cut off channels of redress for employees. This has only resulted in unmotivated workers who are just passing time to do what is within their specifications. Going the extra mile and achieving better standards is out of the question especially when Singapore workers are usually overloaded with long working hours.

The fake soluton?

There is a fake solution we see from the PAP. Through the fake union NTUC, they called it “Progressive Wages”, and they do it by linking productivity to pay raise. So how does it work? Let’s take the bus drivers for example, their salary went up by 35% [Source] but they ended up having a 6-day work week instead of the usual 5. Henceforth, they are simply increasing the pressure in the cooker for workers. There is no intention to increase salaries after all.

Then the PAP also have a “Fair Consideration Framework”. So it basically nationalized job portals and set an almost non-existing 14 days waiting period for the employers to hire foreign labor. What has this in for Singaporean workers? The PAP has merely made it a slightly fairer for Singaporeans and foreigners to compete for employment, there is nothing done to make Singaporean job seekers attractive to be hired. A company just simply has to sit out 14 days, hey its no big deal. What about salaries? The crux of the issue has always been about low domestic purchasing power in this high cost of living. The PAP initially said having cheap foreign labor will lower the cost of living, but it turned out to be a lie as inflation just keeps going up every year and getting worse with more cheap foreign labor.

The Real solution?

Singapore has to steer its course and work towards being the Germany of Asia. Like Asia, Europe used to be fixated with cheap labor until the region decides to go for quality products to establish its brands. However, in order to produce quality products and services, we need a workforce who is well-paid. A degree holder working as a skilled machinist in Germany and Switzerland is nothing new and he is paid even more than his project manager.

For a start we need to implement a Minimum Wage and eradicate the cheap labor culture. We need independent and powerful trade unions who have the power to conduct protests, reject salaries offer and prosecute employers under the labor law. We need to make the rich pay more taxes because it is the people and environment that made them profits. Singapore must be people-centric, and this is where PAP fare very poorly at. The PAP have a very bad habit of equating human beings to machines and applying very simplistic solutions be it in labor or immigration policies.

But hey, asking the PAP to change is impossible, we should be changing the government in 2016.

Alex Tan Zhixiang

If I were the Prime Minister

1) Retirement, poverty and low purchasing power

1.1) Abolish CPF and implement a pension state for all citizens. The mandatory pension fund will be publicly announced and published with an annual report stating the allocation of the fund. The payout will be on a sustainable self-funding basis funded on not less than 15% of our national GDP, which is estimated to be about at least $5 billion a year. This should work along with a new tax regime and an austerity measure to cut down on defence spending(which is currently standing at 24.4% of GDP).

1.2) The Medisave/Medishield system will be replaced with a new nationalized insurance system. It will be a compulsory one-payer system that covers comprehensively from the common flu to limbs implants. Funding of the new healthcare system will come from at least 5% of the national GDP and the total contribution fund of the healthcare tax.

1.3) A Minimum Wage based on a formula with considerations of inflation, cost of living and amount of the social security fund will be implemented for both Singaporean and foreign employees. To further arrest the income gap problem, income tax should be changed constructively.

1.4) Income tax will be progressive based on a percentile structure. The bottom 10% income earners will be excused from paying income tax. The next 10% income bracket will pay taxes progressively. GST will be abolished and will be covered by the increase in income tax. A new security income tax will be imposed on all non-NS serving citizens. Bring back estate duty, capital gains tax and dividend tax.

2) Reducing the population of foreigners in Singapore

The influx of rich foreigners has resulted in speculation in property prices and driven domestic demand for private car ownership so high, that it makes car ownership impossible for the middle class Singaporeans. The poorer foreigners in Singapore cause wages depression, increase in domestic prices and severe social integration problems.

2.1) All HDB flats, both BTO and resale, will be nationalized under the administration of the HDB. As such, transactions can only take place between HDB and the seller/owner. This will eliminate COV and unrealistic property valuation prices.

2.2) Qualification for Permanent Residence will reassessed, with at least a minimum English standard obtained via IELTS or other equivalent and internationally-recognized English examinations. A new point system to assess the work relevance and experience required of the country.

2.3) Remove the racial quota and base immigration on the migrant point system

3) Complete overhaul of the employment system and the cheap labor culture

3.1) Abolish NTUC and allow the setting up of independent unions, that will be funded for by the government. Unions will be the sole medium between employers, the government and employees.

3.2) Allow peaceful protests and mass demonstrations.

3.3) Implement Minimum Wage (see 1.3) and Minimum Remunerations of at least 21 annual leaves, standard parental leaves for fathers, mothers and single parents, and substantial medical healthcare benefits.

3.4) Set up a nationalized job portal and every employer must provide sufficient evidence of their due diligence that they are unable to find a Singaporean for the job.

3.5) All salaries must be approved and endorsed by a unionist.

4) Social benefit

4.1) Free education up to A-level/Nitec/Diploma for all Singaporeans, regardless of age.

4.2) Increase in the number of nationalized universities and ensure that no eligible Singaporean student who applied be denied a tertiary education.

4.3) Remove the ASEAN scholarship and deny all government-funded scholarships for foreign students.

4.4) Imposed similar enrolment standards, A-level or Diploma, for foreign students.

4.5) Regulate all private education institutions and assign an MOE education audit officer to ensure teaching standards.

5) Abolish National Service, implement a full time professional army

5.1) Limit the Defence Budget by no more than 3% of the GDP

5.2) Allow recruitment of foreign nationals in the professional army, subject to recruitment standards

6) Economic restructuring

6.1) Shut down MBS and RWS casinos

6.2) High tech manufacturing and quality services to be new twin engines of growth

6.3) Eradicate cheap labor by implementing Minimum Wage

6.4) Fund education, internship and RnD

6.5) Nationalize SBS and SMRT and all public transport under the Land Transport Authority

6.6) Allow taxi drivers to buy their own cars. Nationalize taxi fares. Abolish daily mileage quota

7) Political Reform

7.1) Remove the control of Election Department from the Prime Minister

7.2) Abolishment of GRC system, cooling off day and electoral deposit

7.3) Limit the amount of spending on political campaigning

7.4) Remove the President post. All decisions will be made by the Prime Minister

7.5) Remove the Newspaper Act, Internal Security Act and the Internal Security Department

7.6) Deny all defamation suits from political party members, statutory board and any organization or person drawing a taxpayers’ salary/funding

7.7) Remove Mentor Minister, Emeritus Senior Minister and Minister of States posts

7.8) 10 MPs will have the right to call for a National Referendum

7.9) Remove NMPs and NCMPs