6/01/2011
A decade of failed public housing policies
With only a couple of weeks in office, Koh Boon Wan has virtually overturned many of the old housing policies of his predecessor and frantically trying to make up for lost time to make good what had went wrong drastically. Would the changes in housing policies be good enough evidence of the mismanagement of public housing or just a change of policies and nothing more?
The decade of under building of public flats and the influx of foreigners have caught many first time buyers of HDB flats sleeping. Many did not really understand what was happening and were caught napping through no fault of theirs. As a consequence, many ended up buying excessively priced flats or missed the boat altogether. Many too have to put off plans for marriage, for starting a family, while some were forced to buy resale flats at higher prices or private properties at even higher prices. The net result is that many young people have to pay overpriced properties and cleaning up their savings. Those that missed the boat are just as bad as the little savings they stinged to save can never make up for the runaway prices.
Could the victims of the decade of misguided public housing policies find recourse or reprieve in some way with new policies that will recognize their plight? Many have been forced out of the market for not being able to buy a HDB flat when their incomes were within the HDB ceiling. Is it their fault? Would there be an amnesty of sort to let these victims of past policies back into the public housing system? Or would it be a case of just too bad, caught by wrong policies at the wrong time? Or would some wise guy quip, ‘It happened, let’s move on?
How flexible and people centric will the new regime be to the victims of flawed policies?
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7 comments:
That shorty appears to have quietly disappeared into the sunset and now have more time at the MPS as he is just an ordinary MP for the final five years of his political career.
Good riddance.
What about accountability?
And with Groupthink, why isn't the problem apparent to the others, notably the Chief who presumably had his ears to the ground?
A decade of failed public housing policies not only resulted in a seismic dissatisfaction with the electorate, it also affected unfairly the hard work put in by his predecessors in making public housing the cornerstone of Sinkapoore's success story.
While we have no choice but to move on, the incumbent should realize that whatever housing policies are implemented henceforth, it must be for the greater good of the average true blue Sinkapoorean who trusted the Government to make good on its promise of affordable housing, especially for the young just starting to raise a family.
If the new credit goes to Khaw and the old blame goes to Mah, what is the cabinet for? Every one in the old cabinet, including Khaw, must share the blame.
Eeverything looks so funny these days in Singapore politcs.
When Khwa was Minister for Health, there were no problems according to him. When Gan took over, there were problems that needed quick attention.
Khaw now sits as Minister for National Development. Suddenly there are solutions for housing problems when Mah said there were no problems.
Can some one tell me something.
1. Was the previous minister "blind" to the problems?
2. Was the previous minister "sleeping on the job" by pushing everything under the carpet?
3. Is the new minister of the ministry so efficient, smart and hard working to come up with solutionjs to solve existing problems>
4. Is this a desperate PAP move to save their backside because of 2016 GE? By then the PAP would have further reduced its majority in Parliament. I am certain of this because there are some very desparado moves now and for the next 5 years.
Hi Peter,
My simple answer. Mah Bow Tan decided what is good for the country and the people. He set his own KPIs. He is very happy with his goals and objectives and met his KPIs with flying colours.
To him everything is planned accordingly. Where got problem. He can prove it with his KPIs. Probably he got the maximum bonuses for a job well done.
I agree that any bean that is part of and that comes out of the cabinet should take some blame. They voted in unison.
But when bonus is tied to GDP performance, why would anyone from the rusty cabinet want to vote otherwise.
Outwardly, you can see that besides Mah blaming himself, no other beans from the cabinet are saying anything that resembles censuring or blaming Mah, except common Singaporeans.
Inwardly, they are probably thankful that Mah helped to inflate many months of their bonus for the past few years.
Don't be fooled by all the admission about failure to read the ground well. It was a perpetuated con job that all common Singaporeans have to foot the inflated prices for HDB flats. Like the Americans, we the people will have to pay the price for the collapse of the property market when the time comes.
When there is no genuine change, PAP will be history by the next election. The people are really fed up except for the believers and converts.
There are some signs of change and some resistance to change. A mixed bag of signals with the old abrasiveness still intact.
If and when change is not good enuff within two years, it is time to call for no confidence vote on the Incumbents.
Let it be a wake-up call on the Rulers.
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