National Day Message, A Retake

Every National Day is a time for reflection about what this country is all about. National Day brings to light the meaning of nation, and the perennial question being asked is whether we are a nation, or are we getting there. After 45 years of strenuous nation building exercises, sadly, we acknowledge that we are not getting near there. It is still a work in progress. Maybe this is a blessing. Why should we want to build a nation when we can have the best of both worlds? We can have the best people, the most successful people coming here to live in the best city modern history can provide, and we don’t have to be bothered with the responsibility of looking after incompetent and loser citizens who could not make the grade. Just simply tell them to go else where and the vacated place can be quickly filled up by more able and talented individuals who are hungrier and less demanding. An indirect way is to make the cost of living so high that they will quit voluntarily. Should we therefore be craving to build a nation? Or are we chasing a construct that is no longer relevant to a small city state? A hotel, a piece of prime land for those who can afford the best, with no obligations or commitments, no responsibility, run by a mercenary force of hardnosed businessmen should suffice. Let’s be real and pragmatic and reinvent ourselves. Ooops, ourselves is no longer relevant. There is no us or them. Only the board of directors of a prime estate offering its space for those who appreciate how well it is being run. No citizen to please, no need to plan for social security and cheap public services. Pay for what you get and pay to live here. Nothing is free. The present citizens can always opt out of the scheme, sell out, clear their CPF savings and move on. Let this be the last National Day and everything shall start anew on 10 August, no citizen, no NS, no govt services, no social services, no subsidies, no handouts, no entitlement mentality, no gripes. And no need to be bothered by unreasonable and demanding citizens. Ah, no need to build cheap public housing. Sell private properties only, to the highest bidder, to the one who can pay the highest market price. Welcome to the world’s Best Run Private Real Estate. PS. Of course I am talking cock. The difference is that I know I am talking cock.

More flats to be built in 2011

Mah Bow Tan has come out to assure the first time home buyers that more flats, to the tune of 16,000 units will be built next year, and more to come if the demand is there. It is good that he has implicitly acknowledged that there is a serious mismatch in the demand and supply of HDB flats and is trying his best to meet the penned up demand. The current spate of new flats being offered would ease the demand somewhat and perhaps slow down the surging prices of resale flats. This does not in anyway help those first time buyers that have been adversely affected by the shortage over the last few years. Many have to put off their marriage plans, baby making plans and whatever plans. Even with the current measures, it means that they will still have another 3 years to go before anything will happen. It is still a consolation that there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Would Mah Bow Tan stop at this? How would he compensate those that have missed the boat to get a HDB flat and were booted out of the HDB scheme when their incomes exceeded the $8000 ceiling, while trying to get a flat when the supply was low. And the policy then did not give first time buyers higher priority? And there are those that would now have to pay for much higher price HDB flats because they could not get their flats earlier. These first time buyers were callously dismissed by HDB and fell victims to its slow building phase and are adversely affected both in their plans to set up family as well as financially. Their plight cannot be ignored and the boosting of building programmes did not in anyway help this group of buyers or alleviate their problems. Some are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, not enough savings to buy private and not eligible for HDB. Let’s see whether Mah Bow Tan would consider doing something for these people, or would he say just too bad, water under the bridge. Let's move on. Their problems were not totally of their own doing and Mah Bow Tan should shoulder some of the responsibility for not anticipating the mismatch of supply and demand. They have every right to demand HDB to reconsider their cases and bring them back into the HDB scheme. _________________

3 most costly expenditure of Singaporeans

The 3 most expensive items that Singaporeans have to throw their money at are property, car and hospitalisation. A simple flat is likely to cost an average Singaporean $1m by the time he pays up his mortgage. The cars which he would have to purchase in his lifetime would range from $300k to more than a $1m, to an average Singaporean. The rich would spend more than $1m for a car, let alone several million dollar cars in the backyard. Then, given the fact that a Singaporean will live past 80 or 90, the luck of spend a month in hospital could cost him another few hundred thousand. Add another $500k to raise a child through university, geeze, that's quite a lot of money to pay in one's lifetime. But Singaporeans are rich, so not a problem paying for them. Time to celebrate National Day for the good life and able to pay for it.

HDB flats are cheap and good

Kudos to HDB, said Chan Kok Wah in a letter to the Today paper forum. I agree with him completely. HDB flats are so cheap, when compare to the prices of private developers. They are extremely cheap when compare to those in HongKong and Tokyo. We should be so grateful that our public housing flats are so cheap when comparing with the two most expensive cities. Why don't we look closer and compare with what the Malaysian govt is giving to their people? You can get a 3 rm landed property for MY$120k. And this is about $50k! My god, if our $500k 5rm flat is cheap, I will go crazy trying to find a word to describe the Malaysian public housing. It all depends on what one is comparing. We are very good at using the worst to tell our people how fortunate we are. We never use the best in other countries to show how bad we are. Cheap, cheep, chip. Next please.

Who is littering my country?

Singaporeans are being blamed for the increasing littering on the streets. If this be so, our education system has failed badly. Our anti littering campaign has failed badly. Our heavy fines and CWOs have failed miserably. It saddens me to think that all the education and campaigns and fines could not teach our people to keep our streets clean. Don’t forget our toilets are still the dirtiest among the world’s worst. How then could we call ourselves a first world city with first world people and with first world etiquettes and conducts? Living among us there are more than 1 million foreigners, maybe 1 million. Would they be the one who are doing the littering and dirtying of our streets and toilets? I would suggest that we set up a task force to catch some of these culprits and check on their identities. If most of them are Singaporeans, then the schools are not doing enough. If most of them are foreigners, then we should know what to do. Living in our midst, in HDB estates, the school children, the foreign workers and the office workers, there are many foreigners. We need to know why are we failing in cleaning up our city and raising a population that takes pride in keeping our country clean.