Petition to revoke CECA

Revoke CECA  Click here to the Petition

I have just signed the petition. Every Singaporean must put his signature to this petition to revoke it. It is extremely harmful to Singaporeans and our future existence as a people and country.


Key highlights of the CECA:

ARTICLE 9.3: GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR GRANT OF TEMPORARY ENTRY

Movement of Natural Persons

Neither Party shall require labour market testing, economic needs testing or other procedures of similar effects as a condition for temporary entry in respect of natural persons upon whom the benefits of this Chapter are conferred.

The CECA enables Indian national PMETs no quota restriction on 127 highly skilled professions in Singapore and even granted spouses or dependants of these Indian nationals to work freely in Singapore.

The above two articles have very serious implications to Singaporean's competitiveness and employability and also to Singapore as a country.

And they are going to expand the CECA. Read more about it in TRE. Here is another quote from the same article,

News 2: More actions taken to enlarge CECA in 2015

Link: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-07-25/news/64850381_1_ceca-trade-potential-comprehensive-economic-co-operation-agreement

Negotiations on to upgrade CECA with India: Singapore

PTI Jul 25, 2015, 09.46PM IST
Singapore is keen to upgrade its existing Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement (CECA) as the East Asian country wants to be a ‘partner’ in economic development here.

“We want to be a partner in India’s economic growth. We want a strategic partnership to deepen bilateral economic and people to people relations,” K Shanmugam, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law of Singapore, said here today.


For your sake, for your children and grandchildren's sake, this is something you must do.

Redbean

Transport Ministry a high stress job

A former, Ho Kong Loon, wrote in Today paper saying that the Transport Minister worked tirelessly and deserves respite. I agree, seeing three Transport Ministers being bungled out of the job, this must be a very difficult job among all the ministries. And I don’t think any minister would dare to volunteer for this job. Would Boon Wan, the PAP magician and problem solver try to take this on? Or who would be the next poor minister to be assigned to this ministry after Lui?

Given that this is a difficult and troublesome job, I would like to offer a couple of suggestions to make this job more palatable. How about doubling the pay of this job? If this is not enough, raise it to the pay of the PM. That should make it worth while to risk career and reputable taking on this hazardous job.

You mean, raising the dignity not enough? How about raising the status with a fanciful job title like Emeritus Transport Minister? Or whoever given this job would concurrently hold the position of Dep PM? It is only fair that if a job is so difficult, it must deserve a just reward and recognition.

Come to the worst, rotate the job among the ministers. Everyone will sit on this hot seat for one year, then no one can hide in their cushy ministry and see the poor Transport Minister being hammered for doing a poor job that is not caused by him or for not working hard enough. This may be what they called work smart.

Ok, OK, my suggestions may be naïve, mediocre. As some clever people have suggested, split the jobs to smaller jobs to share around, to make the job easier. How can everyone be paid millions and some got easy jobs and some got to take on so difficult job? Not fair right?

What do you think?

Branding to win an election

Associate Professor Ang Swee Hoon wrote a piece in the Today paper on 12 Aug 15 titled ‘Of branding and relationship building’ with a subheading, ‘What marketing can teach political parties about winning votes’. Branding is important, and rightly PAP is the brand, the most recognizable and highest rated brand for the last few decades. WP is coming up and looking very good and credible.

PAP has been priming the brand to win votes for as many GE as there is to be counted in the island’s history. They had done well. The question today is whether the brand can continue to shine and to attract the votes it used to do or has it started to jade?

The other big question is that a brand is just a brand. If there is no substance, a brand can only hold on for that long. Nokia was the brand but no more. IBM and HP used to be the brand but no more. The PAP was the brand and delivered in the past. The barrage of yesterday’s news on TV is testament to the power and glory of PAP’s past achievements. Could the past glories of PAP be a factor to persuade the voters of today that PAP is a party for today and for the future?

In its heydays, putting a PAP badge on a dog would also get the dog elected. Has this changed?  In cyberspace, it is looking the other extreme. If that is true, the PAP brand is in for a beating in this GE.

What is the standing of the PAP brand today?  Has it lived up to its past records of uplifting the lives of the people and as Hsien Loong said, everyone is better off today under the PAP?  If PAP is still the brand, it will have no problem returning to power after the next GE. Or is it a brand on the wane, a brand of yesterday?

Foreigners can to the same jobs cheaper

‘Tan Chuan Jin: Manila graduates can do Singaporeans’ jobs for a quarter of their pay

In an interview with Rappler Talk, Minister of Social and Family Development Tan Chuan Jin said that because of globalization, graduates in Manila could do a Singaporean’s job for a fraction of the pay:

“But the competition today is so real. We have companies, jobs, departments being outsourced and completely relocating to Manila because graduates in Manila could do their job for a fraction of the pay.

That’s globalization. And that has resulted in the pulling out of jobs in many developed countries, those jobs are not going back.”’

The above is quoted from an article in the statestimesreview.com. Technically this is true. But to take this as a justification to run down on Singaporeans for wanting to do the same job for more is not very clever.  Look at the full picture and compares apple with apple. How much does it cost for a Singaporean to get his degree and how much does it cost a Pinoy to get his degree, presumably both degrees are of equivalent standard. If this is the case, our universities are underproductive, producing the same standard of graduates but at a much higher cost.

The other point, how much does it cost for a graduate to survive here and a graduate to survive in the Philippines? What is the comparative cost of living?  Just on these two points alone you know that the comparison is out of context, spurious. And to use it freely is, ok I won’t say it is stupid, but bizarre!

How can anyone use these two examples to make a logical and sensible case for comparison? Why don’t we say the govt of USA and UK or for that matter in all the developed countries are able to do their jobs at a much cheaper cost, a fraction of what Singapore pays to its politicians? Should we then farm out our political offices to the Americans or Europeans or to China? Xi Jinping’s annual salary is less than one day of Hsien Loong’s pay. You think Xi Jinping or Obama or Cameroon is doing a lousy job?  We can save a lot of money by outsourcing our whole cabinet right? Before that we should outsource all our PMETs and CEO jobs to the cheaper countries. We should even move our banks and airlines and whatever to operate in Manila or Mumbai or Jakarta.

Can I have a more sensible argument please.

A mismatch between honesty and reality

“We have proven that together, we are greater than the sum of our parts,” he said. “Most of all let us celebrate how we journeyed from Third World to First, as one united people, leaving no one behind.”

Mr Lee reminded all that every Singaporean has benefited from Singapore’s progress.

“We are a nation of home owners,” he said. “Everyone has opportunities to improve themselves. Everyone can look forward to a brighter future.”

The above is the gist of Hsien Loong’s National Day Message to the people. I would expect many Singaporeans would be very pleased and grateful to him and his govt for taking the country so far and bringing wealth and well being to the people of Singapore. 

A post in TRE under the title ‘PM: We will always have a bright future ahead of us’ drew many flakes and many negative responses. Let me just quote a few comments here.

• PWP architect:

August 8, 2015 at 9:21 pm  PWP architect(Quote)

There is no future for the people if you continue to wield absolute power !

Unlike your father who while harsh, will never think of subjecting our lives and livelihoods to the mercies of millions of 3rd world migrants.

You cannot be trusted to have the blank cheque anymore.

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Rating: +225 (from 237 votes)

• Pui pui pui:

August 8, 2015 at 9:28 pm  Pui pui pui(Quote)

You have become public enemy number 1 the day we knew of your PWP.

Instead of protecting our lives and livelihoods, your PWP has, and is exposing us to dangers and unacceptable risks.

Do you realize what you are doing to this once beautiful country your father and his patriotic founding members have worked so hard to achieve?

Do you realize that the people are not that daft to know that your PWP is a policy to fix the people – to fix them for giving you lesser and lesser votes?

Do you know why you are being despised by almost half the population, if not more?

You have destroyed our motherland … sad that you chose to treat us with contempt.

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Rating: +144 (from 146 votes)

• Traitor lee get lost:

August 8, 2015 at 11:23 pm  Traitor lee get lost(Quote)

The old guards and the pioneers build this nation.
You betray the people and sold the country to feed yr ego and greed.
You are the main cause of the declining population with overpriced public housing, crumbling crowding transport, insufficient public housing, insufficient child care and support, insufficient healthcare and support.
What is your solution?
Pea brain import and replace your own countrymen.
You are a bloody traitor. Get lost before the people kick you out.

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Rating: +41 (from 41 votes)

The above are just 3 of 128 comments posted with very strong words against Hsien Loong and his policies. How could these people be so negative about what is happening in Singapore? The recent National Day Parade to celebrate SG50 was all pomp and pageantry, something that made Singaporeans proud for what we have achieved over the last 50 years. Or could the commentators in TRE be just a very small minority who did not benefit from the success and growth of the country? Were they biased or simply blind and not able to see the great happenings and goodness in the country arising from all the good policies of the govt? Why so negative? Why couldn’t they see the bright future going forward painted by Hsien Loong and his team? Don’t they believe anything Hsien Loong said?

Is there any element of truth in these negativities expressed by the commentators? They did not seem to be nuts or ignorant people. They did not seem to be from IMH. Why is there such a mismatch in the perception of the future of Singapore?

What is the truth? Or is this a case of the big divide, where some are getting richer and richer while some are getting poorer and poorer? Maybe the answer will come from the result of the GE. If the majority of the people are benefiting from Hsien Loong’s govt and policies, he should go on to win this GE with a comfortable majority. Otherwise his majority will be reduced and he may find himself with a bigger opposition in Parliament, or worse.

We have perhaps a month to find out the truth.