Category: Politik

Why 50K HDB Rentals Can’t Buy When Less Than 1K Can Afford?

1,800 earning less than $1,000 bought HDB

According to the Straits Times news report “GE2015: PM Lee’s assurance on cost of living” (Sep 3) – “With more subsidies, the net price for a two-room flat is now $30,000 and many families have been able to afford it, he said. In the last four years, 1,800 families earning less than $1,000 a month have bought two-room flats.

“So when I say we have made housing more affordable to help people with the cost of living, I’m telling the truth.””

50,000 HDB rental tenants can’t afford to buy HDB?

If even most people earning less than $1,000 a month find buying a HDB flat affordable – then, arguably why do we have more than 50,000 HDB rental flats that are rented by Singaporeans?

How many of the 1,800 families earning less than $1,000 who bought HDB flats in the last four years were HDB rental flat tenants?

From the cheapest to the most expensive public housing in the world?

Our public housing has arguably changed from being the cheapest public housing during our late former Prime Minister’s era, to the most expensive in the world – if measured by the price to wages ratio

Supply of HDB flats to meet demand?

The supply of HDB flats to meet demand was also an issue.

For example, whilst the total number of HDB flats grew by 201,755 or 25,219 per year, in the eight years from 661,163 in 1994 to 862,918 in 2002 – it only grew by 21,438 or 3,063 per year, in the seven years from 868,774 in 2003 to 890,212 in 2010.

In other words, the average increase in flats per annum declined by a whopping 88 per cent (3,063 divided by 25,219).

Huge population increase

During this seven-year period when very few HDB flats were built – the huge influx of foreigners increased the population by a whopping 961,906 or 23 per cent, from 4.1 million to 5.1 million, from 2003 to 2010.

HDB prices

With this huge increase in the population – the HDB Resale Price Index increased a whopping 66 per cent or 7.5 per cent per annum during the same period from 75.1 in 2003 to 124.4 in 2010.

Housing problems compounded by low CPF %, wages, population increase?

Our public housing problems were perhaps compounded by the decrease from 6.5 per centCPF interest to 2.5 per cent (the lowest real return amongst national pension schemes in the world since 1999), huge influx of foreigners, hardly any real increase in wages, etc.

We should relook the “great” policies like HDB and CPF implemented during the late former Prime Minister’s tenure – in the context of how they may have convoluted to become the key problems that Singaporeans have today?

Leong Sze Hian

A.S.S. Contributor

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

September 4, 2015
PAP’s Darryl David Is A Serial Monogamist

So funny how the media will play up any scandalous news about opposition politicians but when it comes to the PAP, they won’t even touch it with a 10 foot pole. Well, this is not exactly a scandal, but it is somewhat tabloid-y and definately worthy of some attention because we wouldn’t want another Yaw Shin Leong or Michael Palmer in Parliament do we?

Did you know that Darryl David is a skirt-chasing serial monogamist? It’s not that much of a surprise, as anyone who knew him personally can attest, especially given his past as a media personality before his foray into politics.

But isnt it somewhat odd that no one mentioned his previous marriage to radio personality Georgina Chang, when their marriage was previously given quite a bit of media coverage at that time.

Their wedding was covered by The New Paper and they were even featured on the cover of Women’s Weekly!

Even a recent article about his marriage to his current wife omitted the fact that this was his second marriage!

It seems as if everyone just wanted to erase poor Georgina out of his public life! But why would anyone want to do that? Unless he did something that he didn’t want anyone to know….?

Source: http://sgdirtypolitics.blogspot.com.au

September 4, 2015
Difficult To Get A Job With General Degree And No Work Experience

Hi Mr. Tan,

I came across your blog and would like to share my thoughts and experiences with you.

I have a diploma in business (merit) from a local polytechnic. After NS, I was rejected by NUS for a place in Business School but was offered sociology instead. Because of my interests in business, I did a minor in management and realised to my shock that 30% of those in business school were foreigners – from Vietnam, China, Malaysia who don’t even understand business terms!

After a year, I lost interest in my course and just breezed through and scraped by with a basic pass degree. Although I admit this is my fault for not working hard and securing a comfortable government job like a few of my peers, but the whole idea is that the private sector is a completely different ball game although.

When I graduated, I sent in hundreds of resume but only got two interviews. The reality for fresh graduates is that unless you have a law, accountancy or medicine degree where you have secured a training contract of some sort then you are safe. Civil service aside, the private sector is very unwilling to take on someone with a general degree with no experience.

In fact, I have been unemployed for 2 years after graduating and helping our my mother in her restaurant. This has made me feel very inferior towards the S-pass holders from third-world countries!

Eventually, I decided to put my diploma as my highest educational level and secured a part-time job as an admin executive earning $1,200 a month with a local SME working about 20 hours a week.

I can tell you for a fact that the graduate employment surveys are bullshit! It is done on a voluntarily basis and only those who have secured jobs would have sufficient information to fill such as basic salary and so on. The reality is that the unemployed like myself are too ashamed to fill up the survey.

Even for those who do, what does 15% of FASS (faculty of arts and social science) graduates who are unemployed SIX months after graduation is no joke, considering the amount they spent on their education. I would personally estimate that around 30% of my peers are unemployed and another 30% are like me underemployed doing jobs like estate and insurance agents which do not even require degrees!

In my free time, I am also studying for an ACCA to enhance my future prospects after seeing how general degrees have no value in the job market while there are so many foreigners competing with Singaporeans who have served NS.

I have really really lost faith in our PAP.

Source: http://tankinlian.blogspot.sg

September 4, 2015
Concerned Voter: Is Our Vote Truly Secret?

Hai.. I receive white envelope plain with just a stamp in my letter box. There is my name and my brother name on it. I was wondering from whom was it? And i was shocked when i open it? Guess what? Its a manefesto pamphlet from the PAP asked to vote for them? And i was wondering if our voting is confidential?

I admit i vote for PAP last election but can it be this way to send their pamphlet to resident? It just like for me what i feel is they are so desperate? Now the main question is ‘HOW ON EARTH DO THEY KNOW OUR NAMES IN OUR FAMILY’?

So what i can see is that election department has connection with PAP? Giving them out our particular? So after all voting is not private and confidential? What if we dont vote for PAP? Are they gonna treat us like 3rd class citizenship? “Profit Are Professionalism” all about money to them.

Hope singaporean will realise who to vote for. How can singaporean to afford on buying Car and house for the low income n middle income? So expensive. No vote for me..

Concerned Singaporean Voter

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

September 4, 2015
Walid. J Abdullah: On Freak Election Results And Voting For The Sake Of It

On freak election results and voting opposition for the sake of it:

It is that time of the year when you hear people warning about a ‘freak election result’ and voters who ‘do not know what they are angry about’ and ‘want to vote opposition for the sake of it’. To be fair to the PAP candidates, i have not heard them use this card too much during hustings, so that is commendable. Unfortunately, some of their overzealous supporters choose to propagate this rhetoric. To which, I say:

1) There is no such thing as a freak election result. If people have voted, they have voted. If on september 12, for instance, there are 89 PAP MPs, it is not a freak election result: people have made their choice. Likewise, there is no reason to state that it is a freakish result if PAP does not do well.

2) The PAP WILL remain as the government: you can be sure about that. In fact, in all likelihood, they will retain their two-thirds majority. Quite comfortably, i believe. I shall justify this claim by detailing the different electoral contests in a later post.

3) Do people realize how condescending they sound when they say this? It is as though any vote for the opposition is irrational, and the only non-freakish or right outcome is a PAP victory.

4) Let us just look the logic of the claim. Let’s say John tells people that ‘we must be careful not to have a freak result.’ When you ask him why, he will say ‘because the people still wants PAP as the government.’ So when you ask him what is the evidence, he will say: ‘they have been voting for the PAP all this while’.

So…

Assertion: People want PAP as government.
Evidence: Their voting patterns.

Then you say, hang on a minute: let us say the PAP does not become the government. Why is that a freak result? If the evidence for people wanting PAP as their government is the voting pattern, then when the pattern changes, why don’t you trust the pattern and accept that the people do not want PAP as the government anymore?

John would then go ‘errr, almost all the people i know want PAP as government and those who support the opposition, have no idea why they are doing so’.

Then you would tell him: ‘the people you know, are not representative of the population. The voting results, are.’

He would then go: ‘err, this is just what i feel.’

Then you would say: ‘Well John, i feel like slapping you right now too, but that doesn’t mean my feeling is rational or justified.’

5) If you believe that voters cannot be trusted to make the right choice, have voters been wrong all this while then?

Singaporeans have voted for the PAP as our government 11 times since independence. For each of those 11 times, was their judgment sound or suspect?
You can’t have your cake and eat it.

6) Ultimately, claims like these only serve to obfuscate matters and distract us from what really matters: discussions on policies.

Let us get back to those constructive discussions.

Source: Walid J. Abdullah

September 4, 2015