Surest sign of decline

The boom years of the 70s and 80s are over. Those were the real golden years when everyone is upgrading and improving their lives. Today the decline has set in. There is still great growth to the very rich. These are the people that are living it off and having the best of everything. These are the people, the same few people, that are buying up the high end properties, their 6th or 10th properties, maybe 20th. The affluence is confined to a smaller and smaller circle. Compare to the 70s and 80s, there was a general uplifting of the standard of living of the majority of Singaporeans. The people were moving from rented flats to 3rm flats, 3 rm to 4rm, to 5 rm and to private properties. Everyone is looking to move to a bigger flat or a private property every few years. What is happening today? Dr Beng Teck Liang, a member of the PAP's Policy forum council found out that 'When it comes to money woes, the hardest hit are those living in 4 rm HDB flats.' They are not able to pay their utilities bills and would be better off to downgrade to 3 rm flats. They simply cannot afford to live in 4 rm flats. Huh? What's happening about more good years? And this is the biggest group of people in trouble. Mah Bow Tan is even considering mean testing for HDB flat applicants to make sure they can afford to buy 4 rm flats. How come 4 rm flat is now beyond the reach of so many Singaporeans? Why are they so unaffordable when our economy is growing by leaps and bounds and our country is getting richer and richer? Are we saying that our people are getting poorer and poorer or because everything is getting more expensive? On the other hand we are hearing that Singapore is populated by jet setters and trend setters and their lifestyles revolve around Formula One car racing. It is more likely that paradise and hell are existing side by side.

Living the sins of the past

Muhyiddin Yassin, the Malaysian Trade and Industry Minister was in town yesterday to promote more trade and investment in Malaysia. He promised that politics would not get involved in economics and everything that needed to be done to create a favourable business environment would be done. He appeared very sincere and earnest in what he was saying. Would the Singapore business community bites? After so many years of abuses and politicising of economics and the judiciary system to adversely affect Singaporeans and Singaporean investors in Malaysia, after losing so much money over ridiculous changing of rules and uneven playing fields, would anyone dare to invest in Malaysia again? The precedents set by the former govt and his reckless style of managing politics and economics are still reflected in the style of many Malaysian leaders. And anyone of them can be another Mahathir or even worst. Can there be any protection or guarantee that things will be normal and our investment be protected by the rule of law and the law enforcement officers? The sins of the past is catching up with Malaysia and it is a tricky business to cleanse itself from its devious past.

Happy MPs and grassroot leaders

There were repeated clips over the local news on MPs and grassroot leaders giving up food packages to the poor and needy. It was reported that more of these desperate poor are appearing to seek financial assistance as they could not cope with the high cost of living. Many must have reached desperation point that they could no longer hide in their little nooks and corners and are crawling out for help. They need not look far. Help is around the corner. The MPs and grassroot leaders were there to help them with food and financial assistance. And they are doing it with great zeal and enthusiasm. After distributing the packages, they went on a flat to flat hunt for more needies who would not come out to look for help. The MPs and grassroot leaders must be very happy that they were doing a good deed to help the poor. What was obviously overlooked, in my view, is that the act of giving and help the poor, so many of them, is a sign of failure. We have done something wrong that resulted in so many people needing help. We can expect such situations in poorer countries and should not happen in one of the richest country in the world. A few pockets of poverty are inevitable. But the scale of poverty in paradise is unacceptable. Who or what is causing all these poverty and desperation? High cost of living, high cost of basic necessities and transportation, not forgeting high GST. They all eats into the pockets of the poor. Why is there a need to take so much from them, force them into difficulties only to give some back to them? When help is needed openly, by so many, we have failed. The most effective way of helping the people is to create a system that allows them to help themselves and be self sufficient. Helping them without having to be seen to help them through a systemic change in our economic structure is the better way. When the people can help themselves to earn enough to feed themselves, there is no need for all the high profile help to be flashed across the tv screens. We need not have happy helpers helping those who need help. It is not a happy thing.

Fake or forged certificates

More than 400 foreigners were caught last year for using fake or forged certificates to apply for jobs here. This may just be the tip of the iceberg. How many more were not caught and happily working here and being highly paid? The sad thing is that some Singaporeans would have lost their jobs to these fakers and none the wiser. Would there be a systematic review of all foreigners and their qualifications to return some justice to the displaced Singaporeans? It would be good if the MOM set up a committee to look into this and splash it on the newspapers. This will tell those who have yet to be caught to make their exits. And include caning in the punishment. If we can cane people for vandalism, we should cane people who cheated Singaporeans of their livelihood and jobs.

The unhealthy disquiet

Is there a disquiet among Singaporeans? We have 4.6m people here. The Singaporeans do not include the more than 1m foreigners. It does not include the probably another 1m PRs. Don't let anyone change the definition of Singaporeans. The Made In Singapore, the true owners of this land is about 2.5m. And if we remove the top 20% from this group, we will be left with about 2m Singaporeans that really matters. The top 20% don't matter in the sense that they can go anywhere and are welcome anywhere. And many of these 20% may have made alternative arrangements to be somewhere if need be. The unhealthy disquiet is about the disquiet of the balance 2m Singaporeans who are gradually being displaced or eased out of their comfort zones. It is like the parents bringing in a few strangers and telling the children to make room for them, squeeze out a room for the strangers. And also being told to smile and to be nice to the strangers. The children will not accept that and will protest or refuse to budge. Why should they give up their space in their home to strangers? But parents would not do that. They know the difference between home and the right of their own children. They will provide for their own children, even sleeping in the corridors themselves. That is what parents would do. The landlord will do exactly as above. They will make the tenants make way. They will tell the tenants the best rooms will be reserved for the one who can afford to pay. And if the tenants could not pay the higher rent, they will have to squeeze into one room, or move out. Is this disquiet healthy? Some may think that since no one is screaming or protesting, then it is good. But do they read into the disquiet? Why are Singaporeans not protesting? Resigned, gave up, no use fighting, accept their fate, or think of leaving? A nation is a collection of people who owns and belong to a place. The people must think and believe that that place is theirs, their home. And they will not take it lightly when their rights to their home is challenged. But when there is a disquiet, something is missing. The soul of the nation, the spirit of a people is missing. Where is the spirit?. When a people gives up fighting, when a people gives up protesting, they deserve to be replaced. It may be a good thing replacing these hopeless and less talented people. They lack the motivation to fight for themselves and their rights to ownership. They should be replaced by the highly motivated and energised foreigners who brought along a different vibration, a higher vibrancy. They should be the new owners of this paradise. You find them everywhere and they can be easily recognised. The chirpy and happy faces in trains or foodcourts are the distinct faces of the newcomers who have found their paradise here. The grumpy, groomy and lost look faces are those of the Singaporeans. Lost in the pursuit to making ends meet, and a lot of bills to pay. Singaporeans who are complacent of their rightful existence in their own homeland will live to regret it one day. Many are still in their comfort zone and think it will not affect them. Before they know it, things would have changed so much that they would not know what hits them.