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Tag: Chan Chun Sing

  • Chan Chun Sing: Build Social Cohesiveness Through Property Design

    Chan Chun Sing: Build Social Cohesiveness Through Property Design

    SINGAPORE: Building rental units next to new Build-to-Order flats and getting real estate students to also study social sciences – some of the ideas raised by Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing to have more social inclusiveness in Singapore.

    Mr Chan was speaking to 50 engineering and real estate students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) at a dialogue on Wednesday (Feb 25).

    Homes today provide greater privacy – for instance, common corridors are no longer seen at newer blocks. Flat owners can have greater privacy this way, but it can have social implications, said Mr Chan.

    “In short, today’s privacy will be tomorrow’s social isolation,” said Mr Chan.

    “That common corridor doesn’t just serve a functional role to allow people to get from the lift lobby or staircase back to their house – it allows mixing, it allows people to get to know their neighbours, it allows people to walk past and greet each other,” he explained.

    “When we take away that in the name of privacy, then we have to ask ourselves the next design that we need to incorporate that will allow people to have privacy and at the same time, not create a situation where in 20 to 30 years’ time, we will have an aged population with a social problem.”

    Mr Chan said in fostering social interaction, those in the real estate industry have an important role. Developers could consider building different types of flats, including rental units, in a single project to bring together people of different social and economic status.

    “Perhaps it’s important, in our whole society, to have social mixing whereby the rich grow up understanding that there are poor people in this society, that we will count our blessings, that in this society it’s our responsibility for those who have been more blessed to extend a helping hand to the poor,” he said.

    Mr Chan added that in cases of the “not-in-my-backyard” syndrome, designers and architects can also help to mitigate the situation through careful design.

    But for the property sector to play that role well, those in the industry, and real estate students, need to have a good understanding of social needs. That is still lacking in the curriculum of some universities in Singapore, said Mr Chan.

    “If you want to be a good architect, a good real estate student, beyond architecture and real estate, you should really study sociology, demographics – you should study social sciences,” he said.

    When asked if the government will consider building HDB flats at prime locations such as downtown Marina to improve social interaction, Mr Chan said he is sceptical it would work, as there are other issues to consider.

    For instance, buyers can purchase HDB flats in prime areas at “artificially low prices”, only to flip them in the resale market and enjoy a windfall.

    “Who is cross-subsidising them? The Government? Actually the Government has no money to cross-subsidise,” he said. “The real answer is the rest of the people – the three-room flats and the four-room flats are cross-subsidising them. That comes to another point which is then, is this a fair system? So there are complex considerations on where we want to build.”

    Organisers of the dialogue, the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore, said it hoped to foster a better understanding of the real estate environment amongst youths.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Dear PM Can You Pass Me Your Minister?

    Dear PM Can You Pass Me Your Minister?

    I wonder which country in the world has a labour movement which writes to the head of Government to ask that he release an office-holder so that the man can vie for office in the…labour movement. But I guess it’s better than the parachuting of an unknown into a big office on someone’s say-so.

    It says much about the symbiotic relationship between the G (or is it the People’s Action Party?) and the NTUC, that no one has said anything about the above “poaching’’ process. One guess is that the concept is so in-grained or well accepted  that nobody talks about it anymore. The vision of the union and the G is aligned, and leaders move in and out. They even maintain offices on both sides of a (non-existent) fence!

    So Mr Chan Chun Sing is the man of the moment. The PM has said okay and Mr Chan has to win the votes of delegates in October to get the top job of secretary-general. We all know that the head of the NTUC has to be politically acceptable. As well as the ability to win the hearts and minds of workers. So both have to go together.

    There is a precedent in the form of Mr Lim Chee Onn, once the flavor of the month and among the front-runners for the premiership. Although he got the top job with the blessings of the political leadership, he was removed as the secretary-general because his leadership style rankled on the rank-and-file. I’m basing this on memory because I’m having a hard time researching the background. I’m not sure if he was removed at a conference or simply told to step aside in favour of someone more palatable, in this case, the late president Ong Teng Cheong.

    I am among those who were surprised at the choice of the NTUC central committee. MSM reports that even unionists were surprised. In fact, I am more surprised that there has been no successor groomed for Mr Lim Swee Say’s job after all these years. Nobody knew that Mr Lim was going to turn 62 soon and has to retire? Its current crop of deputy/assistant sec-gens not good enough?

    As for the choice of Mr Chan, the surprise is that a career civil servant whose only experience has been in one “unique” sector, the military, should have been the choice of the key union leaders. Perhaps, it is because he heads the Ministry of Social and Family Development, which deals with bread-and-butter issues of the less privileged that makes top union leaders think he is a good choice? It cannot only be because he drinks coffee with taxi-drivers; he’s an advisor to the taxi drivers’ unions. Or because he can adopt as folksy a manner as Mr Lim?

    All I can say is that we seem to have an amazing paucity of talent, so much so that established institutions here have to raid each other, like companies poaching in the private sector. Or is there a bigger, long-term objective in sight, such as Mr Chan is being tested for an even bigger job. Much as Mr Lim Chee Onn was. Getting the endorsement of the labour movement, which has nearly one million members, is a big deal. Given that Mr Chan is a first-term MP, you might call this “hot housing’’.

    Okay, I am rambling. Sorry.

    Anyway, I have always liked Mr Lim Swee Say, since the days he was an officer in the Economic Development Board. Power and position hasn’t changed him one bit. I liked him even more in the past few years for what he was doing for the labour movement. For too long, I’ve always thought the NTUC was placing too much focus on the “social’’ aspects of its mission, such as setting up its “finest’’ supermarkets and pre-skools which it can’t spel, instead of the “organising’’ aspects of a trade union. It should be looking at wages, recruitment and workplace practices. I blame the union for not detecting the long stagnation of wages at the lowest levels.

    But I can see more “organizing’’ work done in recent time. It has managed to pry open the two integrated resorts and unionized their workers. It has tried to rectify the low wages of some sectors by combining a wage floor with a productivity ladder. It has pushed for $50 salary raises within the National Wages Council. And it has finally managed to get PMEs under the labour movement’s umbrella. I still think it needs to do a better job of selling the “re-hiring’’ of older workers to the people. That is not about working till you drop dead, but about being able to work beyond a certain age if you want to.

    It has also always been a source of wonder to me that the NTUC does not have its own labour experts in a strategic policy unit who can crunch the numbers on wages and employment. The labour movement should be leading the charge, rather than depend on the statistics and pronouncements of the Manpower ministry.

    If Mr Chan does get the vote in October, I hope that he will carry on the organizing aspects of the movement. After all, he has headed a big organization like the military and is now the PAP organizing secretary. Perhaps, under his charge, the NTUC will be the first thing that comes to the minds of workers who feel they have been short-changed in some way. And that it is not just a place to buy groceries.

    It remains for me to wish Mr Lim and Mr Chan all the best!

     

    Source: https://berthahenson.wordpress.com

  • Proud To Be A Failure Like Chee Soon Juan

    Proud To Be A Failure Like Chee Soon Juan

    Hi Chan Chun Sing, let me tell you ‪#‎IAmAFailure‬ by your standards. Now I don’t have a problem with you having a problem with Chee Soon Juan because he is your political opponent. I do however, have a problem with your definition of success because that affects the rest of us.

    I am not an army general. I am not well liked by my peers, certainly not enough to be elected into a central executive committee of any kind. I can’t speak my dialect because of you-know-whose-policy so I can’t eloquently ask my fellow hokkienpengs to ‪#‎keechiu‬. I am an entrepreneur running a business that seems like it’s stuck in startup mode, that won best website in Asia, in a competition that is not run by SPH or MediaCorp awarding prizes to itself. But oh well, since local media never picked up this story (since I beat all of them), I guess that is deemed a failure by you too.

    I am not an engineer, doctor or lawyer paying high taxes that this government loves. I did not study abroad as a government scholar so that effectively means I am out of the system.

    But guess what, the reality of Singapore today is this: Most of us are not IN THE SYSTEM and that includes 2nd, 3rd generation Singaporeans as well as new citizens. This coveted system of yours. Most of us are stuck in this rat race that we don’t want to be in. We don’t want shopping malls in every housing estate, raising rents high so local businesses are squeezed out of existence. Give me the Tiong Bahru before the hipsters took over. Most of us don’t ascribe to the milestones that an older generation thought was necessary to propel us to 1st world status. Most of us want to manage our own savings ourselves into old age — even if it is to splurge on a tour around the world in 80 days, then come home to starve to death. So be it, that is our choice, not one decided by someone else more “successful” than us.

    Anyways, long story short: You’re lucky I don’t live in Tanjong Pagar. I would still vote for Lee Kuan Yew but I certainly wouldn’t vote for you.

    You need to learn what it feels like to fail, before you know how to lead the people.

    Kien Lee

     

    Source: www.therealsingapore.com

  • Chee Soon Juan: PAP Should Not Stigmatise Failure

    Chee Soon Juan: PAP Should Not Stigmatise Failure

    Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan has criticised Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing’s decision to make scathing remarks about him on Thursday, adding in his response laced with sarcasm that Singaporeans “detest” the politics of mud-slinging.

    Referring to Mr Chan’s description of him as a “political failure”, Dr Chee said unlike the “accomplished” minister who had risen quickly through the ranks of the army and assumed political office, he had chosen a different path that does not lead to “power, privilege and a high salary”.

    “In this respect, Mr Chan is right — I have not succeeded. I have instead undertaken (the task) to speak up for the people of Singapore in what was, to put it mildly, a very difficult political terrain,” said Dr Chee.

    “Nevertheless, I am proud of my achievements … But I want to sound him a note of caution: When we attain our goals in life, we should not look down on and criticise others who have yet to achieve theirs.”

    The minister wrote to The Huffington Post on Thursday about their decision to publish two of Dr Chee’s articles — Without Freedom There Is No Free Trade and Free The Singapore Media And Let The People Go, printed on Nov 13 and Dec 11 last year, in which he criticised the Government for violating human rights through its trade processes and for its control over the media.

    In the letter, Mr Chan also detailed Dr Chee’s lacklustre electoral performance against that of Mr Chiam See Tong — founder of the SDP who had been forced out by Dr Chee — and his dismissal from his lecturer post at the National University of Singapore for misappropriating research funds and other misconduct.

    “It is because of these and other failings that Dr Chee is a political failure — not because he was persecuted, as he likes to pretend (to be),” the minister said.

    Taking issue with Mr Chan’s sharply worded letter, Dr Chee yesterday said the ruling People’s Action Party’s (PAP) “outdated practice of stigmatising failure” troubles him.

    He also hit out at the PAP’s “habit of engaging in the politics of name-calling and personal destruction”. “It is disappointing that the younger generation of ministers like Mr Chan has not set a new direction for the conduct of politics in Singapore, instead relying on that of a bygone era. How does calling me a failure help to solve the problems that Singaporeans face?” said Dr Chee.

    “For the sake of Singaporeans, let us go beyond such an unconstructive form of politics that Singaporeans detest and graduate to a more mature level of contestation of ideas that the people deserve.”

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Chan Chun Sing In No Position To Criticise Chee Soon Juan

    Chan Chun Sing In No Position To Criticise Chee Soon Juan

    Yesterday, Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing wrote a scathing letter to the Huffington Post about Chee Soon Juan claiming that he was a nobody in Politics in Singapore.

    Chan had taken issue with the fact that the Huffington post, which is a media not censored and controlled by the Singapore government unlike our mainstream media, had published two of Dr Chee’s letters which were critical of Singapore and he tried to make them understand that they shouldn’t continue publishing Dr Chee’s letters.

    In doing so, he highlighted all of Dr Chee’s “failures” including all the instances where he had been ‘fixed’ by the government to discredit him personally and professionally.

    See his full letter here: Chan Chin Sing: Chee Soon Juan is a Nobody

    In another separate letter to Straits Times, Chan Chun Sing, has gone even further to attack Dr Chee.

    He said that Dr Chee was a failure and he rebut Dr Chee’s other articles where he criticised the fact that Singaporeans cannot live on $1000 a month.

    Mr Chan insisted that Singaporeans who earn $1000 a month can afford a flat and benefit from many aid schemes including getting subsidies on healthcare, transport, education and utilities.

    Chan Chun Sing also attacked Dr Chee saying he had failed to win any elections and kicked out the former leader of his party Mr Chiam See Tong.

    It is interesting that Chan Chun Sing attacks Dr Chee for failing to win any elections as he himself also never won any elections.

    Chan Chun Sing was parachuted into parliament iin the walkover GRC of Tanjong Pagar on the coattails of Lee Kuan Yew.

    Mr Chan never won a single vote but Dr Chee had won many, just not enough to get into parliament. This is despite the mainstream media in Singapore continuously painting him as a madman and a criminal.

    For Mr Chan to bring up the “kicking out” of Chiam See Tong from the SDP as a character flaw in Chee Soon Juan, perhaps he should be looking at his own party and fellow MP in Tanjong Pagar.

    Back in the 1960s, Lee Kuan Yew also “kicked out” the main charismatic character in the PAP, Lim Chin Siong, by taking over the party. When Lim Chin Siong left the PAP and formed his own party like Chiam See Tong from the SDP, Lee Kuan Yew then him in jail accusing him of being a communist despite declassified British documents indicating that this was not the case at all.

    What do you think?

     

    Source: www.therealsingapore.com