1/29/2015
CPF – Silver Brigade beware
When I hit 55, I was informed that my minimum needed to be retained by the CPF was $X. This sum is fixed and would not increase over time or as the years go by. This is quite assuring haven’t decided that leaving a small sum for retirement uses is reasonable, and with half set off by the value of the flat. This does not mean that I agree with the principle that anyone or govt could use the excuse that it is good for you to withhold your savings. This is fundamentally wrong.
Many seniors grudgingly allowed their money to be held in ransom by the CPF and had to squeeze their balls as they have no avenue to fight this policy, at least under this govt. Maybe a change in govt would give them a chance to reverse and get rid of this monstrous logic for good.
Then there was another minimum sum that was not that big then, the Medisave Minimum Sum. I would think that the principle governing retention of the people’s savings in the MS would be the same as the Minimum Sum for the whole savings. This is NOT the case. The MS for the Medisave continues to go up over the years. It does not freeze at the time when a member reaches 55. It keeps growing as and when the CPF choose to be ‘caring’ and decides how much to increase every year.
How can this be the case? Seniors who are still working or self employed would have their contributions transferred to the Medisave MS whenever it is raised. What the shit! Why is this MS allowed to keep increasing over the years? CPF no money? CPF needs more money? Money sucked into this Medisave MS is like entering a dark hole and can be there until one surrenders the IC. It is as good as money not yours except for those who need to use them for approval medical treatments.
I hope all of your can join me to protest against this obnoxious policy of taking our money as and when they like on the pretext of it is good for us. I say bull. Don’t think you can get away with this in the next GE.
$1m for Singaporean students and $2b for foreign students
In an article posted in TRE by a ‘Win battles lose war’, titled ‘$1m bursaries past 5 years – $2b for foreign students?’ he produced some statistics on the amount of money the govt spent over a 5 year period on bursaries for children of Singaporeans. He then presented another chart showing how much was spent on foreigner students on scholarships here and the amount came to a mind blowing $2n against a miserable $1m for our children. And the ministers were crowing how generous the govt was to help lower income Singaporeans.
The full article can be viewed in TRE. I took a look and almost gone crazy. I cannot believe our govt would spend so much money on foreign students and so miserly on our own children. What is going on? What is the weird logic? Is the govt mad? Is this part of the pragmatism that our elite have been drugged in?
No govt, or no one in his right mind will give away public money to foreigners in such a big sum but stinged on giving to the children of our citizens. I just cannot understand the logic? I keep asking myself, what the hell is going on in their minds? You mean all 80 over PAP MPs agreed to this kind of spending and did not see anything wrong with it?
As a country we can be generous, but to the extent of spending billions on foreigners and a miserable $1m on our own children is insanity. Yes, the only reason I can think of is that we may have mad people making decisions on how to use our tax payers’ money foolishly and extravagantly. I can’t think of a logical reason to spend this kind of money even if it is Other People’s Money. I just dunno what to say. What have they been smoking?
I still cannot believe what I read. I cannot believe that our super talents think this is the right thing to do, the right thing to spend our money on. Maybe that is why they deserved to be paid in millions for being able to see things that we commoners cannot see. We should vote them for another term of office and pay them more, increase their salaries, so that they can do more good to foreigners and their children. Even if we are scratching our heads, never mind, trust them to do the right thing, trust the deaf frogs. Remember, they are the smartest, the cleverest, the most talented. They know what they are doing. Fools like us would not be able to understand the goodness of what they are doing and that is expected. Just believe it is for our own good.
Pragmatism the guiding principle to go forward
Singapore Perspective 2015, did not follow what it was but saw a few clips of it on TV with all the luminaries and intellectual who’s who in the gathering talking about Singapore and its future. Happened to watch a small exchange between Assoc Prof Eugene Tan in an intellectual exchange with Prof Kishore Mahbubani on the topic on pragmatism. Eugene Tan was on the side saying that pragmatism as a guiding principle must be moderated or it would be too harsh and lacking soul and values when applied with no exception. Kishore was on the side arguing that pragmatism must be the guiding principle of our policies and we cannot afford to compromise on this great cornerstone of functionality. As a little island we would perish if we are soft and not pragmatic. There was no choice, but Eugene was saying that they were choices.
The audience of intellectuals, top civil servants and academics and many more, were put to a vote and more than 60% agreed with Kishore’s passionate plea that pragmatism is our only tool and pillar to survive. I believe, being a bunch or gathering of the brightest minds, they were indulging in a purely academic exercise and though they voted for pragmatism, it was just for the moment, a debate. I believe that they would not apply pragmatism in their policies or in the conduct of their lives and making decisions that affect other human beans.
Put it very simply, pragmatism in its extreme form, in black and white, is about functionality and usefulness. Anything that does not work, not practical, not useful, should be abandoned, rejected and threw away. In another word, if one is no longer contributing, ‘jiat liao bee’, one must be put away, culled or put to sleep. When a person is no longer useful to himself or society, he lost his reason or right to exist.
Using this pragmatic logic, all Singaporeans must be replaced by more talented and capable foreigners. No but’s and no if’s. Not good enough, you don’t deserve a place here. By the same logic, when one is no longer productive or useful to society, handicapped, sick, weak, with no relevant skills to contribute to the betterment of people, society and country, that person must be put to sleep.
Very likely not many people would be allowed to live past 60 years if pragmatism is the guiding principle for the right to live in this world class city. But then again we must congratulate ourselves that pragmatism would not be practiced to such an extreme and there are many other things that are of value to being human, kinship, family, compassion, love, caring, kindness, mercy, heart, emotion, feelings etc to temper the sharp edges of the ruthless and emotionless concept of pragmatism.
The thought is quite frightening if a society or country is run or operates under the principles of being useful and functional or not and with its elite talking about them emotionlessly as the right way forward. If our top talents and intellectuals were to rule using pragmatism and survival as the only basis, where would we be heading to? We would probably keep a population that is young, healthy and clever. Anything else would be deleted.
1/28/2015
Peaceful protest against PWP - 31 Jan 2015
Press release: Peaceful protest against 6.9 million Population White Paper (2 years after) – Sat 31st Jan from 4pm to 7pm.
A permit has been granted by NParks and we will abide by all the rules and regulations related to the protest.
Two years have lapsed since the government introduces the population white paper in January 2013 – passed in Parliament without a whimper of a complaint due to the majority rule of the PAP.
Gilbert Goh - Organiser
Public Transport works better when the Community Drives Them.
Singapore’s Public Transport Social Enterprise (PTSE).
By MIKOspace
The
latest arbitrary, non-transparent and unreasonable public transport fare hike
creates a severe Crisis of
Public Trust with serious far-reaching social consequences. Both ComfortDelgro and SMRT have cited
incredulous rising costs and lower profits to justify a public transport fare
hike of 2.8% effective April 2015. And
surprisingly, the Public Transport Council (PTC) agreed.
Indeed,
their Betrayal of Public Trust has finally come to a head as our public transport operators
(PTOs) traded social conscience and responsibility for profits as they
gradually erode the sacred Social
Contract in Public Transport with Singaporean commuters.
The Betrayal of Public Trust
The
PTO case in support of their claims of rising costs and lower profits has not
been made available by the PTC to the commuting public. Never mind that the formula
used by the PTC to “compute” fare increase is mathematically flawed.
According
to an independent DBS Bank report BEFORE the fare increase announcement, earnings by
ComfortDelgro and SMRT are estimated to increase by 4% and 7% respectively,
mostly resulting from the sharp 50% oil price drop over the past 6 months and which
is expected to remain low and lower in the near future. Energy and fuel account for 9% to 14% of our
PTO costs.
ComfortDelgro
also benefits from the $1.1billion the Singapore Government agreed in 2013 to
provide for the purchase and maintenance of new buses over 10 years from 2014. In
2015, it would therefore receive another $110 million from this public handout,
thereby subsidising its hitherto huge corporate profits.
The
truth is that the PTO awaits huge public subsidies and do not provide reserves
from their profits for public transport operating assets development,
investments and timely replacement. Commuters are therefore constantly plagued
by overcrowding, delays, breakdowns and other manifestations of inefficiency,
poor management and poor service standards.
In
further violation of their public duty commitment to make all fare increase
“affordable”, the new fare increase has to be subsidised by a further
$7.5million. In making
unjustified and un-affordable fare increases, the case of PTOs’ betrayal of the
public trust is undeniably conclusive and decisive.
Public Transport Social Enterprise
(PTSE) Solution
In
the wake of the failure of PTOs to act in the best socially responsible manner,
the solution is to replace them with Social Enterprise organisations. A Social
Enterprise is a
business organisation that focuses on creating social impact by tackling social
issues, improve communities, improve life-style and improve the environment.
It reinvests profits back
into the business and the Community.
Public Transport Social Enterprises
(PTSE)
The
era of a new Public Transport Social Contract begins with PTSE. Some key characteristics with PTSE are:
[1] A Mindset Change and Strategic
Leadership
The
PTSE goal is nothing less than to change the world of Public Transport for the
common good of Singapore commuters and Singapore overall. Strategic leadership with
enhanced social responsibility values are needed to steer PTSE onto the higher
ground to embrace a natural tripartite partnership with public transport
commuters and government. Specifically,
the vision is to empower a continuous enjoyment of public transport at a
constant low and lower fare through continuous social investments and
responsible management.
[2] Community Profit-Sharing
Under
a Commuters Profit-Sharing (CPS)
Scheme, the profits of PTSE
companies at the end of the financial year can be proportionally shared in the
30:30:40 ratios between the Singaporean commuters, the PTSE companies and the
government. The government takes 30% of
the profits and the PTSEs retain another 30%.
The remainder 40% is shared with Singaporean commuters in some relation
to their total spending during the year.
This
CPS Scheme also acts like a profits buffer which returns “excessive” profits to
its stakeholders, trims “excess” fares and regulate for a normal, reasonable
level of returns on assets deployed. In this way, community
profit-sharing creates a balanced Public Transport eco-System for Future
Generations. The
Management and employees of PTSE also enjoy gain-sharing bonuses … , even as
the Government obtains early returns for its social investments in public
transport infrastructure and operating assets.
[3] Public Transport Commuter
Consultative Council (PTCCC)
We
need to replace and enlarge the PTC to be more inclusive and effective. The new
National Public Transport
Commuters Consultative Councils (NPTCCC) is created and it in turn forms
Community Public Transport
Commuters Consultative Committee (CPTCCC) in each and every community
constituencies. The PTCCC/NPTCCC embraces social
responsibility and transparency as its twin operating guide and the values of
honesty, mutuality and trust in directing its conduct. Membership is voluntary and …..
The
NPTCCC is supported by a Professional Resource Panel consisting of …..
The NeXT Steps ….
The
road to create Singapore’s National Transport Social Enterprises begins with a
strategic plan and time-table to re-acquire all public transport operating assets
in the hands of current PTOs. SMRT is originally created by public funds. It
can now be dissolved and re-constituted into a new PTSE directly owning at
least 80% of its operating assets. The operating assets funded by public funds
in ComfortDelgro are to be re-acquired and transferred to another PTSE. In any case, all license for the operation of mass
public transportation like train and buses shall henceforth be issued to PTSE
only.
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