Are we first world?

A summary of the features that we are first world standard. 1. Education standard and facilities 2. Medical services and facilities 3. Country infrastructure. 4. Per capita income 5. Economy and GDP 6. Quality of govt 7. Standard of living 8. Cost of living 9. Litigation to solve personal differences 10. Political system Features that are short of first world standard or even third world standard 1. Politics and political process a. over dominance of one party b. exaggerated uneven playing field c. engaging political opponents 2. Quality of opposition parties 3. 250,000 families struggling and need financial assistance. 4. Political immaturity of the people, apathy etc 5. Sense of fear Features that are out of this world 1. Remuneration of politicians 2. Prices of cars 3. Govt control over people's savings

the gomez slips

One slip people will raise an eyebrow, even if it happens in a serious election paper when everyone knows that no mistake is allowed. But it did happened. And everyone got to bend backward to treat it as a genuine honest mistake, though many questions were raised. Yesterday another slip. Now why again? Another Gomez slip? This is one slip too many. Even the most dumb candidate in the whole election will not do it twice. Maybe it is providence. God says Gomez is not destined to run for election. He can only show his face around and appear to be a very keen candidate. But he can never be successful even in the submission of paper stage. That is life. Or perhaps Gomez should switch party. Join one that is meticulous and so efficient that such things will never be allowed to happen. Then he will have a better chance of getting through the first hurdle of the nomination process.

a time and place for freedom

PAP MANIFESTO 1954 Quote: Freedom First However we cannot change the economic structure until we have freedom of political action. Such freedom can be achieved only through an organised mass movement. Independence will not be conferred on the Malayan nation as a gift. It will only be ours when we are organised and united in our fight for independence. What do they mean ? Was it only ideally valid for that era ? Why they seek freedom when it was deprieved of them at that time, and now deprived us when we seek now ! What freedom are we talking about ? Is it not like a freedom fighter after winning change Principle & Belief ! The above was posted by Grunt in redbeanforum and below is my reply to the post. Can I attempt to answer for the change in the manifesto? And if I am wrong, please take it as my biased interpretation. During the fight for freedom from colonial rule, freedom to express, to demonstrate, to fight against the colonialists is paramount. Without the freedom to fight for our own right, then there is no way to achieve independence. Now that independence is achieved, the priorities are bread and butter and nation building. It is unhealthy for the people to have too much freedom to challenge the govt. And the govt is a good govt that is working for the best interest of the nation and people. And the people know that too. So freedom is no longer important. And this is vindicated by the continuous support for the govt despite more and more restrictions over the years on freedom to express or demonstrate. The govt is reading the people correctly. The people is all behind the govt and know that the govt is doing a good job. And they elected the govt to let the govt rule them in the best way the govt thinks fit. The people are happy and not complaining. In this coming election the people will again elect the same govt with a stronger mandate to tell the govt that it can do whatever it thinks is good for the people. Singaporeans will always have the govt of their choice. And this is what Singaporeans want. Only a small group of dissidents think otherwise. Now did I make myself clear? Or are my reasoning reasonable? All the empirical proofs are there. Otherwise the ruling party would have been voted out of office long ago.

full time no good, part time good

Part time MPs are good, full time MPs are not good. It is good to have part time MPs. Personally I rather have good people to be full time MPs. Having part time MPs is like saying that the MP's job is not that important to deserve full time attention. The MPs need only be present when he is free, like in the evening or on weekends. Is the MP's job important enough and deserving enough to have a full time MP? The $13k may be small change to some but very big money to others who reckon it is more than enough to serve the people full time. Given an option, a full time MP must be a better option.

lets tell the politicians

The political parties are telling the people what they stand for and how they are going to serve the people. It is about time the people tell the politicians what they really want to see and what they want the parties to do for them. And I think telling them what the people want is not meddling with party politics and the general elections. Let the politicians fight their battle for the ballot box. And while they are at it, we can tell them what we really want. I hope forumers can contribute to this thread and the message can get across to the politicians. We are just ordinary people and we want things that will benefit us. We do not support any political parties but just want our interests to be taken of. For a start, the retention of CPF money must be minimal, enough to buy an insurance to cover the remaining years from 55 to 75 perhaps and for an annual claim of not more than 20K. My assumption here is that if one is past 60, and cannot afford more than 20K medical bill, it is more pleasant to let nature do the necessary. And the rest be returned to the rightful owner. And anyone still working, employee or employed, should not be made to contribute to CPF except to top up to cover for the above insurance. Let the senior citizens pampered themselves with their hard earn money over a life time. It gets very ridiculous to keep forcing people to save at the ripe age of 55 and above only to be left with a little fortune when their time is up. And they have no chance to be a little extravagant on themselves. Living a lifetime of hands to mouth existence while a nest egg is wasted in the CPF.