<TABLE id=msgUN border=0 cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD id=msgUNsubj vAlign=top>
Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Lim Swee Say: U sucks!</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right> </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 vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt89 <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>9:02 am </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 1) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>47358.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD id=msgtxt_1 class=msgtxt>Mandarin political forum
April 8th, 2011 |
Author: Ng Kok Lim |
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Dear Minister Lim and Mr Sam Tan,
I refer to the 3 Apr 2011 television broadcast of the Mandarin version of the Political Forum on Singapore¡¯s Future.
You said the People¡¯s Association had been planning for old folk activities and amenities more than thirty years ago in anticipation of an ageing population. Still, the more important issues of old folks not having enough to retire and of the decreasing old age support ratio weren¡¯t adequately addressed. The mad scramble to boost our birth rates in recent years indicates a fire fighting nature and a conspicuous lack of foresight on the part of our government.
You said the future of this country is not about having more opposition mouths but getting the most talented people to be elected into the government. But the people have always responded positively to this call by voting in nearly all the talented people the PAP has fielded. But look at what we have gotten in return? The country is flooded with foreigners with no adequate provision of housing for them. This has in turn caused property prices, the most basic determinant of cost of living to spiral out of hand. This is what your call to vote in the PAP talents have brought to our country.
So no, thank you. We will not be fooled by the PAP this time. We have seen that all 82 talents from the PAP could not prevent it from pursuing convenient but detrimental policies. The future of this country cannot be about voting in more of these so-called ¡®talents¡¯ but to have more opposition voice to make sure that PAP polices put Singaporeans first.
You said the 14% GDP growth has brought better bonuses compared to the last few years. But not many people got 14% bonuses. Also, the last few years were Global Financial Crisis years. There is no reason why, with the passing of the crisis, we would not have achieved better bonuses even without the stupendous pouring in of foreigners.
You referred to the old Chinese adage ¡°Country first followed by family¡±. But family is not people. Only when all the families are included would we have the people. The people is the country, the country is the people. Doing good for the country is meaningless without doing good for the people.
You said the PAP is different from the opposition in that you provide solutions on top of pointing out problems in Singapore. That is not true, the opposition has proposed many solutions including reducing GST and setting a minimum wage. Just because you don¡¯t agree with their solutions doesn¡¯t mean they have not proposed solutions.
You asked the opposition if lowering the price of flats is good. But the opposition never asked for flat price to be lowered, only for it to remain stable. You said the government aims for flat price to increase gradually. What is gradual increase? HDB resale prices have been shooting up by double digit figures in three of the last four years. Is that gradual?
You said over the past ten years, skills upgrading and foreign labour have led to good salaries. But real income of low wage workers has remained stagnant. On the whole, income growth hasn¡¯t kept pace with HDB price increase.
You said the government cannot prevent short term HDB price fluctuations. But HDB prices have been shooting up for the last four years already. How can that be short term?
You said the government cannot prevent factories from migrating. But if the government is always bent on inviting companies to start factories instead of growing our own ones, we will always be faced with this issue of factories migrating.
You said the country¡¯s impressive feat of going from third world to first world in fifty years is the result of government policies and support from the people. But there is no reason why good alternative policies wouldn¡¯t have brought Singapore to where it is today or even better.
You said while Singapore is slightly sick today, it is still fundamentally strong and healthy. But our slight sickness has revealed a much deeper weakness and un-healthiness. It shows a sick man who doesn¡¯t even know that he is sick and insists in his own ways even as that brings harm to all around.
We must change the sick man of Singapore. We must change the PAP.
Thank you
Ng Kok Lim
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Dear Minister Lim and Mr Sam Tan,
I refer to the 3 Apr 2011 television broadcast of the Mandarin version of the Political Forum on Singapore¡¯s Future.
You said the People¡¯s Association had been planning for old folk activities and amenities more than thirty years ago in anticipation of an ageing population. Still, the more important issues of old folks not having enough to retire and of the decreasing old age support ratio weren¡¯t adequately addressed. The mad scramble to boost our birth rates in recent years indicates a fire fighting nature and a conspicuous lack of foresight on the part of our government.
You said the future of this country is not about having more opposition mouths but getting the most talented people to be elected into the government. But the people have always responded positively to this call by voting in nearly all the talented people the PAP has fielded. But look at what we have gotten in return? The country is flooded with foreigners with no adequate provision of housing for them. This has in turn caused property prices, the most basic determinant of cost of living to spiral out of hand. This is what your call to vote in the PAP talents have brought to our country.
So no, thank you. We will not be fooled by the PAP this time. We have seen that all 82 talents from the PAP could not prevent it from pursuing convenient but detrimental policies. The future of this country cannot be about voting in more of these so-called ¡®talents¡¯ but to have more opposition voice to make sure that PAP polices put Singaporeans first.
You said the 14% GDP growth has brought better bonuses compared to the last few years. But not many people got 14% bonuses. Also, the last few years were Global Financial Crisis years. There is no reason why, with the passing of the crisis, we would not have achieved better bonuses even without the stupendous pouring in of foreigners.
You referred to the old Chinese adage ¡°Country first followed by family¡±. But family is not people. Only when all the families are included would we have the people. The people is the country, the country is the people. Doing good for the country is meaningless without doing good for the people.
You said the PAP is different from the opposition in that you provide solutions on top of pointing out problems in Singapore. That is not true, the opposition has proposed many solutions including reducing GST and setting a minimum wage. Just because you don¡¯t agree with their solutions doesn¡¯t mean they have not proposed solutions.
You asked the opposition if lowering the price of flats is good. But the opposition never asked for flat price to be lowered, only for it to remain stable. You said the government aims for flat price to increase gradually. What is gradual increase? HDB resale prices have been shooting up by double digit figures in three of the last four years. Is that gradual?
You said over the past ten years, skills upgrading and foreign labour have led to good salaries. But real income of low wage workers has remained stagnant. On the whole, income growth hasn¡¯t kept pace with HDB price increase.
You said the government cannot prevent short term HDB price fluctuations. But HDB prices have been shooting up for the last four years already. How can that be short term?
You said the government cannot prevent factories from migrating. But if the government is always bent on inviting companies to start factories instead of growing our own ones, we will always be faced with this issue of factories migrating.
You said the country¡¯s impressive feat of going from third world to first world in fifty years is the result of government policies and support from the people. But there is no reason why good alternative policies wouldn¡¯t have brought Singapore to where it is today or even better.
You said while Singapore is slightly sick today, it is still fundamentally strong and healthy. But our slight sickness has revealed a much deeper weakness and un-healthiness. It shows a sick man who doesn¡¯t even know that he is sick and insists in his own ways even as that brings harm to all around.
We must change the sick man of Singapore. We must change the PAP.
Thank you
Ng Kok Lim
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