medisave: is cpf violating the law

there are two laws on medisave. one requires a self employed to continue to contribute to the medisave regardless of his age as long as he is self employed. does it mean that if a person is 100 years old and still self employed, he is still required to contribute to his medisave? obviously it is and no one in cpf cares two hoots why or is this an anomaly. the second law says the ceiling for contribution to the medisave currently stands at $32,500. this means there is no need to contribute to the medisave once this ceiling is reached. but the cpf practice is to transfer the medisave contribution into the ordinary account. or if this account is closed for members above 55 years, then the excess will be transferred to the retirement account. is this legally right to do so? all these laws seems to be conceived separately for different reasons in different times. should not the cpf straighten these laws to make them more sensible and relevant to the other cpf regulations like partial withdrawal at 55 and paying out at 62? should there be a law to stop cpf from demanding contributions from the self employed after a certain age? why is it so fun and shiok to keep collecting people's money? is cpf in violation of the laws that it introduces and implemented for its own convenience?

snoop squad kenna snooped

a snoop squad broke into a room, beat up the young man and followed up by molesting the girl. then they hauled the couple to the police station. the police on hearing the girl's story decided to arrest the snoop squad members for molesting. what about beating up the man? this kind of kangaroo court still exists in malaysia, the icon of modernisation in the muslim world. this type of tribal behaviour is quite frightening for the innocents. is it a country with laws or lawlessness?

singaporean IQ: an interesting post in soc.cul.spore

Hello there, I am an Indian graduate from the University of Madras. In the next few weeks, I will be traveling to your country Singapore to take up a job as a Chemical Engineer. I hope that I can integrate well into your society. I am a fresh graduate without any working experience, but was surprised to get this job with a handsome pay package. May better than most of you all. I understand through my daily news that young working Singaporeans is less intelligent than their elder. Is that true? Someone told me that you people have very low IQ, and because of this, your government had no choice but to import foreign workers. More than half the population is foreign workers I supposed? Anyway, immediately I was told by my interviewers that I will be classified as a foreign talent. I hope that I can impart some knowledge or teach you while I am there. As you know, Madras University is among a few top universities in the world, and from my judgment, it should be much higher in subject level and competency and more prestigious than any of your universities in tiny Singapore. Although it is not officially stated that I shall be employed as a foreign talent, I wish to be treated as one with due respect base on your lower IQ. above is an article posted in soc.cul.spore. i am truly amazed by the responses to the above articles, presumably by singaporeans. though a couple expressed doubts that the article was from a genuine indian foreign talent, several took him and his comments seriously. now what does that say of singaporean IQs?

general election: prelim round 6

this is more a kopitiam impression of how things have changed over the years. not too long ago the most frustrating compliant by the opposition is that they find it very difficult to contest the election. and the reason was not the redrawing of boundaries or grcs. the reason against the opposition is simply the brand name. it was often heard that you wear the badge on anyone or anything, it will be voted into parliament. the pap brand was so strong that it was quite pointless for the opposition to think of winning. today kopitiam talk is quite different. the impression is that if you wear the badge on anyone or thing, it is likely to lose. what a reversal in trend. a 180 degress about turn. would such an impression really be an indication of a big vote swing? kopitiam talk is one thing and the voting pattern or the actual voting is another. given the track record, the goodies, and the lack of good decent candidates from the opposition, even if there is a vote swing, the impact is not likely to be very great. but it will all depend on how good the opposition is. the issue now is not how good the pap is. so if the opposition is able to attract and put up good people, the mood may be more favourable to them to get voted in.

crooked bridge: a bridge with no returns

by now the message to the malaysian govt must have been very clear. it is a bridge that has no value to singapore but going to burn a big hole in the pocket. now why would the singapore govt go ahead to spend public funds, in the billions, on something that is not only of no real value, but comes with a string of liabilities. this just does not make economic sense to the singapore govt who would have to justify to the population for its unsound decision. but then again, if the money is spent as a goodwill for some other tradeoffs, maybe that can be considered. simply spending the money for no returns is absurb and out of question. now if the malaysians can say, ok, these are the sweeteners for the goodwill. then the issue will be what kind of sweeteners will be worth a billion singapore dollars? that will be the money the singapore govt will have to cough out to go ahead with the bridge. now the horse tradings start. you want the singapore govt to pay, then what is there to offer?

thaksin, shin corp and temasek

the trouble with thaksin is trouble for the sale of shin corp to temasek. and the fallout can be quite painful if the emotions of the thai public is played up. will temasek and singapore be embroiled in a domestic uprising in thailand and scuttle a seemingly business transaction? the rise and fall of thaksin is so dramatic that fortunes can change overnight. let's keep our finger crossed that this is strictly thai internal politics.

expensive health care

i have touched on this topic many times and will continue to bring it up every now and then until the cost of health care becomes reasonable to the average singaporeans. for this is going to be a pain to many singaporeans as age catch up with them but without the money catching up with the high cost of healthcare. and many singaporeans know that this is a serious problem close to their heart. the government's health care expenditure for the year 2004 is $1.71 billion or about $500 per citizen using a rough population of 3 million. on the other hand, govt subsidy for healthcare is a whopping $1.28 billion for the same year. now that is very high indeed. in fact far too high if one extrapolates on the amount of subsidy to the actual users. why is the govt unable to bring down health cost? or are we having the same kind of formula or logic used in the computation of hdb flats and subsidies? there is no reason for healthcare to be so expensive when all the people needs is basic healthcare. maybe a different set of figures shall be produced to look at health expenditure according to the classes of wards. how much is being subsidised at the lower end and upper end. i always call for govt hospitals to provide decent and adequate healthcare and not the luxurious kind. the latter can be provided by the commercial hospitals. and if govt hospitals do provide such services, there must be no subsidy. but the bottom line is still the factors used in coming out with the cost of healthcare.