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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Boy arrested for Slamming Chair @ MP Off</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
Subscribe </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>SGNEWSALTE <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>9:15 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 3) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>12869.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Another case of frustration against fuckup PAP MP. This time it is Cynthia Phua who scolded the poor mother and son when they see her for financial assistance, and the boy (who has low IQ & suffers from "thalassermia") got so frustrated that he slam a chair agains the glass door of the room. Cynthia Phua then promptly called the police to arrest the boy.
http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2009/05/boy-arrested-for-slamming-chair-at-mp.html
Boy arrested for slamming chair at MP Office!
A 17 year-old-boy was arrested by the police for slamming a chair against a glass door at a meet-the-people session at Serangoon North. This happened after the boy and his mom walked out of MP Cynthia Phua's office. It is not clear what transpired in the office to trigger such rage but in an interview with the New Paper, the mother said that Cynthia Phua had asked his son a series of questions : "Who are you? What are you doing? Why are you not working?". The mother explained that she wanted to answer the questions but was not given a chance. The mother and son said that they felt like they were "being scolded". The mother was working as a cleaner at $400 a month salary (Singapore has no minimum wage laws) and lost her income when she broke her wrist fixing a ceiling fan. As there is no comprehensive safety net in Singapore she had to go to the MP office wait in line for help. She goes to the MP office every month for aid. In this MPS, she had defaulted on her HDB loan and HDB threatens to repossess the flat and give her a rental unit but she cannot afford the $138 rental deposit & stamp duty. She was at the MP office to get MP Phua's signature for an appeal letter. Although the request was granted, the mother and son said they walked out of the office feeling like they have been put down.
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I thought that the root cause of the problem is the govt opening the floodgates for foreign workers to depressed the wages of our low income workers and the refusal to set a minimum wage. ...may be Cynthia should be asking her own party pointed questions instead.
http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2009/05/boy-arrested-for-slamming-chair-at-mp.html
Boy arrested for slamming chair at MP Office!
A 17 year-old-boy was arrested by the police for slamming a chair against a glass door at a meet-the-people session at Serangoon North. This happened after the boy and his mom walked out of MP Cynthia Phua's office. It is not clear what transpired in the office to trigger such rage but in an interview with the New Paper, the mother said that Cynthia Phua had asked his son a series of questions : "Who are you? What are you doing? Why are you not working?". The mother explained that she wanted to answer the questions but was not given a chance. The mother and son said that they felt like they were "being scolded". The mother was working as a cleaner at $400 a month salary (Singapore has no minimum wage laws) and lost her income when she broke her wrist fixing a ceiling fan. As there is no comprehensive safety net in Singapore she had to go to the MP office wait in line for help. She goes to the MP office every month for aid. In this MPS, she had defaulted on her HDB loan and HDB threatens to repossess the flat and give her a rental unit but she cannot afford the $138 rental deposit & stamp duty. She was at the MP office to get MP Phua's signature for an appeal letter. Although the request was granted, the mother and son said they walked out of the office feeling like they have been put down.
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"I had to ask some pointed questions about his employment status to understand the root cause of the problem, so that I can be more effective in helping them" - Cynthia Phua
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I thought that the root cause of the problem is the govt opening the floodgates for foreign workers to depressed the wages of our low income workers and the refusal to set a minimum wage. ...may be Cynthia should be asking her own party pointed questions instead.
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"From what I understand, Madam Phua was being very motherly and very helpful inside the room with them" - MP Lim Hwee Hua
"From what I understand, Madam Phua was being very motherly and very helpful inside the room with them" - MP Lim Hwee Hua
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According to the New Paper, the 17 year old boy has low IQ and suffers from thalassermia which renders him weak and sickly. He may be charged in court for "committing a rash act" which carries a fine of up to $2500 and a jail term of up to 6 months.
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I wonder what we gain out of making needy people in our society seek aid this way : cutting it into small little pieces and making poor people go all over the place to make multiple requests from many different agencies. Isn't it clear that a woman making $400 a month with a sick kid will need help with housing, utilities, medical care and food the moment she loses her job? So she is made to 'tackle' the HDB which threatens to take her flat, Singapore Power which cuts her utilities, go apply for medical aid separately when she is sick and visits the MP for piecemeal financial help every month. Maybe the govt believes that putting obstacles to help can make being poor so painful people are motivated to get rich - not working lah, the number of poor people have been growing year after year. For a govt that prides itself for being efficient, they have the most inefficient way of helping the poor euphemistically called the "many helping hands" approach...it is more like "the many obstacles" approach.
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You would think a govt that pursued policies that resulted in the biggest income gap among east asian economies - by opening the floodgates to cheap foreign labor, regressive taxation such as GST, and allowing state owned monopolies to increase profits by raising prices for transport, utilities etc - would feel responsible for increase in number of people who cannot cope with rising prices and falling wages. Hong Kong has a comprehsive social safety net, Taiwan has universal healthcare...and poor Singaporeans continue to struggle because its govt cannot overcome its own ideological barriers and doesn't want to fix a problem that it has caused.
</TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>According to the New Paper, the 17 year old boy has low IQ and suffers from thalassermia which renders him weak and sickly. He may be charged in court for "committing a rash act" which carries a fine of up to $2500 and a jail term of up to 6 months.
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I wonder what we gain out of making needy people in our society seek aid this way : cutting it into small little pieces and making poor people go all over the place to make multiple requests from many different agencies. Isn't it clear that a woman making $400 a month with a sick kid will need help with housing, utilities, medical care and food the moment she loses her job? So she is made to 'tackle' the HDB which threatens to take her flat, Singapore Power which cuts her utilities, go apply for medical aid separately when she is sick and visits the MP for piecemeal financial help every month. Maybe the govt believes that putting obstacles to help can make being poor so painful people are motivated to get rich - not working lah, the number of poor people have been growing year after year. For a govt that prides itself for being efficient, they have the most inefficient way of helping the poor euphemistically called the "many helping hands" approach...it is more like "the many obstacles" approach.
.
You would think a govt that pursued policies that resulted in the biggest income gap among east asian economies - by opening the floodgates to cheap foreign labor, regressive taxation such as GST, and allowing state owned monopolies to increase profits by raising prices for transport, utilities etc - would feel responsible for increase in number of people who cannot cope with rising prices and falling wages. Hong Kong has a comprehsive social safety net, Taiwan has universal healthcare...and poor Singaporeans continue to struggle because its govt cannot overcome its own ideological barriers and doesn't want to fix a problem that it has caused.
