Pension gone!

Read in the paper that the pensions for office holders, MPs and top govt officers have been scrapped. I presume office holders include ministers as well. And those still serving, on reaching 55 and eligible for pension will not be able to get paid their pension together with their monthly salary, which in toto, is getting two salaries at the same time instead of one.

As they said, things that cannot stand the scrutiny of justice and fairness will have to go when discovered. The principle of clean wage system as Chee Hean said, must stay clean. Anything unclean must go. The disturbing question is how could unclean stuff get into a clean system manned by highly honourable and righteous men and women?

This one is definitely not about bad policy, just unclean.

Consequences of bad govt policies

When a murderer killed his victim, only the victim and his closed ones would suffer the consequences and live with the pain. Even if the murderer killed two victims, at most 4 families will be badly affected. When someone in govt makes a bad policy, thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions will be affected, good or bad. The karmic retribution is not some to fiddle with and to be ignored. When a bad policy affects thousands of people, the grievances and curses of the thousands of people would be directed at you know who.

The bad housing policy of the past decade is a ‘bad’ example of what bad policy is all about. Take the current revision of eligibility for singles to buy direct from HDB. If they were allowed to do so 10 years ago, they need not have to pay such a high price of today. Some may no longer be able to afford the current prices even from HDB as their income may not have kept pace with the price surge. Some may no longer be eligible as the 10 years could see their income exceeding the HDB ceiling. For those who could buy, the price is so much higher. They were all victims of bad policies.

The single mother and divorced parents too become victims with the runaway prices. Allowing them to buy now instead of 10 years ago is no real reprieve as the prices would be beyond many. They too would have to pay for the price of bad govt policies.

The policy of not building until the order book is full and the 4/5 year wait also affected many adversely in monetary terms. Many waited, from being eligible to ineligible as their incomes grew. Many Sinkies could not even buy a HDB flat while foreigners who just turn citizens could do so and profited from those Sinkies who were forced into the resale market, and to buy from the foreigners. How crude and callous could govt policies be, favouring foreigners and discriminating against its own citizens. Many have to pay so much more, like paying a fine for a crime, to buy from the resale market or the private developers. Could clever policy makers realise that something is wrong in their bad policies?

There are others who were affected not financially but equally bad. The haughty and arrogant demand that young people who want to buy flat better quickly get hitched to be eligible had seen many rushing to the ROM to register as man and wife. And after the 4/5 years’ wait, before the arrival of the flat, they could end up as divorcees, without even married in the traditional way. They could have still stay apart, like two individuals. Now they would be classified or known as divorcees. If the divorce gets through quickly and smoothly, things may not be so bad. Some drag on and on, all because of the edict from the HDB, get married or else no flat. And get married fast to get flat earlier.

Then there would be those who saw a good financial gain by getting married, get a flat, sell it for a good profit without thinking much. And by the time they sold their second flat, they will find themselves at the end of the road. No place to stay, no more HDB flats to buy except from the resale market. The profits they made could be enough to buy that new car that would no longer be new and gone in 10 years. So they ended in the beaches or the parks, or waiting for rental flats.

But not everyone is suffering. The happiest people are the new citizens who bought direct from HDB and could sell to these loser Sinkies at a huge profit and to renounce their citizenship and disappear. Great job and sure profit that daft Sinkies would have no choice but to pay.

Many Sinkies are badly affected by the bad housing policies. And there is no recourse, no restitution, no apologies, no regrets. It is just too bad. It is all their fault, not the bad policies. No policymaker has to miss a heart beat for these losers. They have all done their jobs very well.

While Boon Wan is still trying to unravel the mess, would he bother to look at those victims of the bad policies still hanging and dry? I doubt so. Not his problem. He did not create them. Life goes on and the thousands that were affected are history. How many were made much poorer, how many still cannot buy a HDB flat, how many are divorcees and unable to remarry because of their past status?

Putin puts Hillary in her place

If a photograph says a thousand words, there were two interesting photographs emerging from the APEC Meeting in Vladivostok. One very nice photograph of a very nice Yingluck in a very nice long skirt and with several male admirers around her appeared in the ST today. Yingluck must have soften the harsh and tough image of the meeting where non other than the macho Putin was hosting.

And Putin made no one guessing who was the boss man. In the group photograph of the leaders, he chose to have the Sultan of Brunei on his side at the centre of the photo. And he made his feelings for Hillary or the US clear to all by banishing her to the back row on his far left. This must be a very uncomfortable position for Hillary or any American dignitaries to be in, having all the time claiming the spotlight and be the centre of attraction in any gatherings.

Maybe I am reading too much in the photos. Maybe Hillary was keeping herself clear of the Russian bear by staying far far away from Putin. Maybe there just walked into the photo shoot at random.

National Conversation topic

One major topic to be addressed in the National Conversation is the amount of authority to be given to an elected govt of a 5 year term. A democratically elected govt with a short life span of 4 to 5 years is very different from a dictatorship or a dynasty where the country in a way belongs to the dictator or the royal family. The people living in a dictatorship or a dynasty have no choice but to live with whatever decided for them by the dictator or the royalty. They can do whatever they want with the country without the consent of the people. They owned the country, not the people.

In a democracy, the country belongs to the people and the elected represenative govt is only a caretaker govt that can be kicked out of office in the next GE. Should such a govt be given so much authority to decide the future of the country and its people without the latter's consent? Issues that will affect the people for a long time is the population, property ownership, freedom, the people's savings, the national reserves, among other things.

This National Conservation should look into the power of a democratically elected govt and remind such govt that the country belongs to the people, not the few elected representatives, and major and far reaching policies must have the consent of the people, preferably through a referendum. Bringing in so many foreigners as new citizens, selling land and properties to foreigners are critical issues that should not be decided by a few without the consent of the majority shareholders.

Of prudence, prudence and prudence

This funny word seems to be appearing more often on the lips of people in authority. Prudence is taking on the image of a good word. It used to be a good word to the old and wise. Prudence or being not wasteful, careful in words and money, not extravagance, is an old value of goodness.

Prudence can be practiced by the govt, by organizations and by individuals. Prudence in the layman’s view is not overspending, or spending within one’s means. Extravagance is just the opposite, spending beyond one’s means, spending without a care of tomorrow or spending every cent one has.

How is this word prudence being practiced here? Are the govt’s policies based on prudence? Is the govt extravagant, encourages over spending instead of prudence in its own spending and in policies dictating to the people to over spend, or to be prudent?

Think of hospitalization and mean testing? Are they policies of prudence or extravagance? I think they are of extravagance than prudence. Any disagree?

Similarly, housing policies, despite all the crap calls about affordability and buying within your means, it is all about extravagance, buying at max with what one has in the CPF or according to one’s income. See the hypocrisy? The pricing of public housing cannot be prudence, and the income ceilings dictating one to buy more and more expensive flats according to one’s income, are all about extravagance.

Prudence, anyone talking about prudence? If prudence was the intent and purpose, why are people now finding that they savings are not enough for retirement? It must be the result of extravagant spending. It cannot be otherwise. If the people are prudent in their spending, they must have a lot of savings for retirement. What has gone wrong? Prudence? Yes it must be prudence that has gone wrong.