Chitchat Why Jamus Lim join Workers' Party ?

[jw5]

Jamus continued house visits.

Jamus Lim​

22h ·
Over the past few weeks, #TeamSengkang completed house visits at 307B, 309C #Anchorvale, along with the final set of WCYH engagements, at the Fields/Plains and Cove clusters. For blocks 307B and 309C, this was our second visit since the #workersparty took over #SengkangGRC. This means that we have completed one full round of visits, for all the HDB blocks under my care (we’ve made it into some condos as well, such as Rivercove, the Vale’s, La Fiesta, and Sengkang Grand, but alas have not received invitations to the others). It marks the satisfaction of a small key performance indicator (KPI), which I had set internally for myself.
I’m not a huge fan of “management by KPI,” nor do I believe in blindly meeting KPIs for KPIs’ sake. But I do see advantages to setting achievable goals, knowing where one stands relative to those, and establishing credible benchmarks relative to others. But perhaps more important, it also means that we’ve been able to connect with thousands and thousands of residents across the town, to hear their voices and concerns, to be better able to assist them as well as represent them in parliament.
Heartfelt thanks go out to all the volunteers that have walked together with me, and engaged in conversations with the people of Sengkang and Singapore. I tend to take house visits at a more measured pace than most, so I am extremely happy that we’ve been able to complete one round. If we’ve yet to touch base, hopefully we’ll be able to do so as we head into round two!

 

[jw5]

Jamus put up a Christmas tree.

Jamus Lim​

4h ·
Our family put up the Christmas tree this past weekend (I know, it seems awfully early, but then again, the stores have been playing holiday music for weeks now). This was the first year that our daughter was actively involved—she was even going on about it before she got home from choir practice in the afternoon—and she loved putting up the decorations, and especially the final flourish of topping it with the star.
Everyone says that kids grow up too fast, but of course, when you’re living it, it’s an entirely different proposition. Every child will only learn to walk once, sing their first song once, read their first book once, believe in Santa once, and be two or four or five once. Blink, and you’ll miss it, and you can’t buy that time back. Our daughter has brought so much joy to our lives that it makes the occasional tantrum or stubborn episode more than worthwhile.
I love this time of the year, all the way through to the wet and rainy weather, the year-end hustle of wrapping up the school year and present-shopping for friends and family, and having way too many celebrations and rich food. For me, the season is a reminder to look back, and reflect on the Christmas spirit, of the things that truly matter in life.

 

[jw5]

Jamus debated about the cost of living.

Jamus Lim​

24 November at 16:12 ·
In the debate on the cost of living motion raised by the #workersparty last year, we offered many proposals on how we can contain the effects of inflation with structural reforms. My intervention at the time was on how to control COE prices. I made several proposals, but the main ones were to smooth out annual COE issuances (over a decade), and to shift the quota for private hire cars to the Open category (but pay Cat A/B prices). These basically boil down to fixing the most glaring supply and demand issues with the vehicle quota system, which lead to excess volatility and increased price pressure, respectively.
In his response, Transport Minister Chee circulated a table that showed that the share of COEs held for car leasing companies only came up to about a quarter of the total, over the past two years (presumably to show that their demand doesn’t drive prices). But as my #SengkangGRC teammate Chua Kheng Wee 蔡庆威 pointed out, this doesn’t even support that argument. After all, as bids won by car leasing companies fell this year relative to the year prior, COE prices fell in tandem (in Nov ‘24 vs Nov ‘23).
More generally, we can’t use the low share of total supply held by car leasing companies to infer that they don’t contribute to price pressure, because strong demand by such price-insensitive firms could shift overall demand upward. In fact, as Louis noted, this was exactly the observation made by LTA when it moved taxicab bidding away from Cat A/B: that prices fell after doing so in 2012 (indeed, our proposal simply calls for the same treatment for high-usage PHCs).
On supply, Minister Chee revealed that the recent decision to inject 20,000 new COEs was informed by the decline in post-pandemic car usage by about 6 percent. Importantly, he also acknowledged that this more aggressive approach to cut-and-fill would basically amount to a more aggressive effort to better rebalance cross-year supply. This is what we had called for, previously!
COE prices remain high, and are likely to remain so—at least till the end of the decade—unless we act decisively to expand supply today. Previously, the Ministry had declined to do so, claiming that overdoing cut-and-fill would disrupt current road usage too much. But if it’s true that usage has fallen by 6 percent after 2019, then this is precisely the window we can exploit to do the one-off rebalancing of COE supply that is so sorely needed, to keep prices stable into the future.
To be clear: COE prices, even after rebalancing, aren’t likely to return to the $30K range of the past. And I’m all for a transition to a car-light, public-transport-led future. But policy change doesn’t happen overnight, which calls for a transition plan. I firmly believe that this transition will be aided by both a more manageable COE/vehicle ownership burden (especially for families with young children or sick parents, and delivery riders), coupled with a shift to an EV/hybrid fleet. #makingyourvotecount

 

[jw5]

Jamus listens intently.

 

[jw5]

Jamus is concerned.

Jamus Lim​

15h ·
Recently in Parliament, there was a motion to raise the debt ceiling. For those of us more familiar with economic reportage from the rest of the world, one may have heard of the (almost farcical) debate in the United States every few years on the matter. For those who aren’t aware, this involves Congress choosing to bicker over whether to approve the issuance of debt to finance a budget that had already been previously debated and passed—by the same body. As wrongheaded as this political posturing may seem, it has had real consequences. In 2011, Treasury debt was downgraded for the first time, with many more instances to follow. This has made government borrowing more expensive for America.
Thankfully, in Singapore, we don’t have such political brinksmanship over such a serious matter. There are also safeguards that prevent the misuse of any principal that was borrowed for the purposes of developing our financial markets. Still, every few years, Parley gets together to debate raising the debt ceiling. This is necessary, because as the economy keeps growing, keeping the ratio of debt to GDP stable requires an adjustment of the face value of debt issued.
The last time this matter was debated (at the start of 2021), I made the argument that there were good reasons to borrow even more, and to channel the borrowing toward productive uses. This was guided by simple economic logic. Interest rates (and inflation) were very low at the time, and so locking in a low rate would be advantageous. Moreover, with the economy still reeling from the pandemic recession, we could finance government spending that would have a large multiplier effect on output.
Circumstances are different now. We want to be more guarded about how much we borrow, since the interest repayment burden will be correspondingly larger (it’s 3 times higher than just 3 years ago). Perhaps more important, the increase asked for this round seemed disproportionately large: more than two-thirds the prior quantum. Granted, prices are higher, but even taking this into account, we arrive at $1.1 trillion, rather than the $1.5 trillion asked for. And relative to income, the current increase would grow the debt ratio from the historical range—of between 110 and 160 percent of GDP—to something closer to 225 percent.
Most fundamentally, governments borrow because they believe there is value to deploying the capital to productive uses in the economy. The ostensible reason is financial development, given our role as an international financial center. But precious little of that credit seems to have made its way to businesses and households in the economy. Domestic credit to the private sector here is about 130 percent of GDP, well below comparable economies like Japan, Hong Kong, and Korea. This isn’t a problem if you think that a thriving financial sector will eventually trickle down to the rest of the economy at large. But if not, you’d worry about just how much value all the borrowing generates for the rest of us. #makingyourvotecount

 

[jw5]

Jamus asks you to swing on by.

Jamus Lim​

3 December at 15:30 ·
This coming weekend, we’ll host another edition of our townhalls, #SengkangGRC Conversations, at #Anchorvale. We’ll have the usual mix of booths by community partners, along with the usual lunch buffet spread. But perhaps most important, #TeamSengkang hopes to see you, and to listen to your thoughts and suggestions on either local issues, or national ones. If you’ve a couple of hours on Saturday morning, do swing on by!

 

[jw5]

Jamus likes the Nutcracker.

Jamus Lim​

a day ago ·
When my wife and I were first dating—and for almost every year that we were married, until we returned to Singapore—we had a Christmastime tradition of catching the Nutcracker. We would try to do so in a different city each year, which was admittedly easier to do in the U.S., since most cities—even the smaller ones—would try to stage the seasonal ballet. We often went by ourselves, but we also went with different family and friends; we dragged my not-typically-classically-music-inclined father-in-law along one year, and for another, we convinced our then-three-year-old nephew to join us (with an enticement of buying him an actual wooden nutcracker).
I first heard the suite, by Tchaikovsky, when I was 13 or 14 years old. It was on borrowed CDs (remember those? Also, Ivan if you’re reading this, I don’t think I ever returned the set, sorry). But it was only in my adult years that I got to appreciate the full spectacle, with the fabulous costumes, captivating dances, and magical themes that accompanied the timeless music. But this year, with our daughter finally old enough to appreciate the show, it was a real treat to be able to expose her to what we hope will be the first of many more. And she said she loved it!
Every parent has their own dreams for their child. Some, like mine, hoped that their kid would grow up to be a doctor or lawyer (I, alas, failed at both). Others hope to see them excel in sport, or music, or some creative art. Yet others just want them to find fulfillment and be at peace. For us, we’ve found that we’re often happiest when our little one is herself happy. We’re lucky enough to generally have the means to enable her to meet those goals, which often lie in creative and sporty endeavors. But regardless of where we or our kids may be in life, I hope that we’ll give them the space and allow them to take the lead in pursuing their hearts’ true desires.

 

[jw5]

Jamus cooked duatao.

Jamus Lim​

a day ago ·
Over the weekend, I had a free evening, and since our local supermarket had fresh duatao (cheap and good, grabbed two small trays for just under four bucks), I decided we could have moules marinière (literally, “sailor’s mussels”) for din-din.
The dish comes together with remarkable simplicity. You first sweat the aromatics in butter (I used a mix of shallots and garlic, but I might try adding leek next time), before adding in the liquid base (I usually use white wine, but we had run out, so I dumped in about two-thirds a bottle of ale instead; if you’re worried about the alcohol not cooking off, you could use stock or a mild white wine vinegar). This is when you can also introduce some herbs (bay leaf, thyme, parsley).
After allowing this to reduce a little, you throw in the cleaned and debearded mussels, and allow them to stem (the trick here is to do so only a little, basically allowing them to pop open; this keeps them plump and juicy). You then fish them out, before embellishing the broth (you can just keep reducing with fresh-ground salt and pepper to extract flavor, but I also added some crème fraiche, along with chopped chives, which lends a piquancy without actual use of lemon).
We paired the main course with soft French-style bread (basically, I didn’t want the excess crustiness of a baguette, so I used jiamtao loti instead). As a side, we had roasted cauliflower, tossed in a ghee-and-garam masala blend; I added some cayenne pepper for some extra heat.
These dishes are a testament to how it’s actually quite straightforward to enjoy seemingly exotic dishes, with fairly little effort, in the comfortable setting of home. For us, this is especially useful given the rather picky dietary preferences of our little one. But more generally, it is a reminder that if you break things down and not allow something different or foreign to intimidate you, you’ll find many commonalities that lend themselves to a familiar comfort.

 

[jw5]

Jamus invites you for a Christmas party.

Jamus Lim​

12 December at 14:47 ·
Tis the season! #TeamSengkang will be hosting Christmas parties in #Anchorvale and #Compassvale over two weekends on each side of Xmas day. Entry is, as always, free, although registration is limited to one per household (you can still join in the festivities if we run out, just that you’ll be unable to redeem any snacks or win any prizes for the games). There should be a snow machine as well, it try to conjure up some seasonal magic! #SengkangGRC

 

[jw5]

Jamus continues house visits.

Jamus Lim​

17 December at 21:44 ·
Recent #TeamSengkang house visits rounded up 313A and 316A, accompanied by a coffeeshop visit to 215C.
For one of the evenings, we met with one of our youngest residents: a 3-month old, who was incredibly born in the home! (The couple didn’t have enough time to get to the hospital). While non-hospital births may still be common in some parts of the world—and perhaps even in Singapore in its distant past—it is certainly unusual to hear of such cases today. Of course, the usual fear has to do with how well a midwife/doula or obstetrician may be able to handle complications, especially without access to hospital-grade equipment. Thankfully, this particular birth was successful, and the baby is healthy.
This time of the year is often associated with a particular miracle birth. But regardless of how a child enters into our world, I think we can all agree that the very fact of bringing forth new life is a miracle in and of itself. For me, a deep appreciation of the magic of simple things we may have gotten used to—and may even take for granted—is just as important as those that may turn heads and capture headlines. #SengkangGRC

 

[jw5]

Jamus invites you to JB.

Jamus Lim​

21 December at 17:06 ·
Christmas isn’t quite here yet (but as our daughter’s advent calendar reminds us , we’re almost there!), but with an earlier Lunar New Year coming at the end of January, #TeamSengkang is organizing a #SengkangGRC-wide one-day shopping tour to JB, in anticipation of the event. Tickets go on sale at #Anchorvale tomorrow and the first Monday of January (the interim Monday is the fifth Monday, and so there’s no meet-the-people session), so grab your tickets while you can!