Tag: CPF

Fandi Ahmad Wants To Retire In Batam Due To Lower Cost Of Living

Singapore is no longer the place to call home, not even for homegrown talent and soccer wonder Fandi Ahmad.

“I want to retire in Batam,” he said.

“It’s just a 45-minute ferry ride back to Singapore if I get bored, and I’m an Indonesian PR. I like the kampungs there with their coconut trees. Singapore has no kampungs anymore.”

Fandi also said, “and it’s getting so expensive (in Singapore)!”

Fandi said this in an interview for the 8 Days magazine’s 27 November 2014 issue.

Indeed, not one to mince his words, Fandi has said what many Singaporeans truly feel.

The Economist has earlier this year ranked Singapore as the most expensive city in the world.

But not just The Economist but the World Talent Report has also ranked Singapore as the most expensive country in the world.

But with all the price escalation – Singapore was only ranked 97th most expensive in 2001 – wages have still not caught up.

Since the mid-1990s, the real wages of lower income Singaporeans have been stagnanting and depressed by a lack of labour protection policies in Singapore.

In fact, Singaporeans today earn one of the lowest wages among the developed countries.

And there is still no minimum wage – only 10 percent of countries in the world not to have one.

Worse still, we have the lowest purchasing power among the developed countries, and our purchasing power is as low as India.

In fact, Fandi is not the only person who has become fed up with the government’s policies, or lack thereof.

A Mindshare survey in 2012 showed that 56 percent of Singaporeans want to migrate.

A survey this year also showed that 62 percent of youths have considered moving overseas.

A Blackbox Research survey also showed that more than half of Singaporeans believe that the Central Provident Fund (CPF) is unfair.

A study done by Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser showed that the CPF only accounts for 4 percent to 7 percent of the retirement savings for older Singaporeans today.

Indeed, Singapore has one of the least adequate retirement funds in the world.

OK, you get it. The picture is bleak. No thanks to the government.

And Fandi might actually be better off moving to Indonesia than having to pay for the high prices here and be like many Singaporeans who cannot earn enough to survive.

But yet, a question often asked, why should Singaporeans have to migrate in order to seek a better life? Why not change things here? Or advocate to the government for change?

Perhaps this is an obvious question.

If it is any consolation, even if Fandi leaves Singapore, his presence has been cast in wax in Singapore. Fans who miss him can still go to the Madame Tussauds’ Singapore museum in Sentosa to see a replica of him.

Not the real deal, but at least it is not going to be too far from home, until the fans decide to migrate as well.

Seeing how Fandi was cast aside in his later years as Singapore’s golden boy – he was passed over for a coaching job in Singapore – it might be better for Fandi to do what feels right for himself and find home where the heart is.

Unless of course, change comes to Singapore.

Source: http://therealsingapore.com

November 26, 2014
Government Ministries Refuse To Hire 60 Year Old Retirees

The Government is trying very hard to extend the employment of those aged 60 and above.

However, the effort seems focused on those already in employment at the age of 60, then continuing on to 62 or 65.

Various schemes in place are not meant for those in their early 60s who retired earlier and now want to get back to work after a gap of one to two years.

I retired last year at age 59 and, having turned 60 this year, decided to get back into the workforce.

I tried applying for positions in various ministries and government agencies.

There was usually no reply, except for a handful of rejections, even for positions such as administrative assistant.

I have more than 30 years of experience working in a multinational company in the oil industry and have done some lecturing at a polytechnic recently.

Yet, when I applied to be a relief teacher, I received a rejection from the Education Ministry.

I didn’t even get a shot at an interview.

Perhaps the Manpower Ministry could look at how to get the “young elderly” aged 60 to 65 employed.

Surely it shouldn’t exclude those who have retired and later want to work again and are willing to accept lower wages.

Lui Chiew Yee

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

November 10, 2014
Government To Set Up CPF Advisory Panel In Feedback Exercise

The government is setting up a CPF Advisory Panel to ask the public about what they feel about the CPF System.

In a media release, the Ministry of Manpower explained that they want to hold Focus Groups to gather feedback on four main issues. These issues are:

How the Minimum Sum should be adjusted after 2015, whether members should be allowed to withdraw a lump sum, how to increase the choices of the amount of cash payouts and how to give members more flexibility to get higher returns.

The CPF Panel will be holding the discussions over the next few months and members can get more information and sign up at www.cpfpanel.sg.

It seems that the government is finally listening and taking feedback from the public after much public discussion and dissatisfaction.

The public have organised their own gatherings, spoken up on many occasions at Hong Lim Park through the monthly CPF protests and one activist, blogger Roy Ngerng, is even being sued by the PM for writing about CPF.

Why is it that now, the government wants to listen but fails to acknowledge that they have only finally decided to do so after citizens made so much noise about it?

Is this the way the government “gathers feedback” in Singapore – Ignore the people when they speak up and even try to silence them by revoking permits and issuing legal threats only to turn around and open up public dialogues months later and pretend that it is their idea to listen to the public?

Source: wwww.therealsingapore.com

November 10, 2014
Roy Ngerng and Han Hui Hui Are Anarchists, Visceral and Vicious Towards Special Needs Children

The actions of the ‘activists’ at Hong Lim Park on Saturday betray the anarchic nature of their cause and the demagogic character of the individual actors.

The anger with which Roy Ngerng and Han Hui Hui spoke was visceral and vicious. What cause have they to speak so incensed? What gross injury is being done to them? One can hold different views on important issues but there are mature and peaceful ways to communicate and debate them.

Instead these self-styled “champions of the people” choose confrontational methods which play on the emotions surrounding hot button issues. They blow things out of proportion and seek to provide legitimacy for themselves and their cause through “victim-seeking” tactics.

Their actions to disrupt the YMCA event speak to self-indulgence, social carelessness, immaturity and this is ironical, a disregard for the rights and concerns of other Singaporeans especially those in genuine need.

But that is not what is fundamentally egregious about these political provocateurs. This is that they are possessed of a mind-set framed by two self-reinforcing features.

First, the view that Singapore and specifically, its governance, is a grand conspiracy. Everything about the government and all events are construed as being part of a system of control. All and any action but anyone who differs from their extreme views is treated as a co-conspirator. It is this mind-set that explains how they could perceive an event to raise awareness and support for children with special needs as a power-play to stymie their protest.

Second, they seem to believe, and waive dubious charts and circular arguments to the effect, that they possess some special insight into the truth about public policies. The simplistic and even silly interpretations of complex policy issues makes the propositions of these provocateurs superficially attractive. Instead that they reveal is that the output of being uninformed and uneducated is the conviction that simple straw man arguments have credence because they are asymmetrical to matters which have innate complexity.

These two mental qualities play into each other into a simple set of motives. First that the government is out to cheat the people. Second, that foreigners are a source of evil. Third, that our social challenges are easy to solve. Fourth, confrontation is the best mode of advocacy.Tools

Each and everyone of these motives are a nonsense and the twinned frames which make up their mind-set are shoddy construct made up of intellectual drift-wood held together by the creeper vine of ignorance.

The failure of the official opposition to date to take a strong stand on the behaviour of these provocateurs is reprehensible. But this failure would be a shared one by all reasonable Singaporeans if we do not now take a stand to condemn these provocateurs, see them for what they are – anarchists, and insist on ejecting them from the space for legitimate debate on issues of national importance. This is their McCarthy – Murrow moment.

Let us stand up for Singapore by demonstrating to ourselves foremost but to all others too, both what we, as a people, are not – we are not stupid, we are not anarchic, we are not gullible, we are not xenophobic and we are not socially careless, and what we are – active, informed, mature, considerate, welcoming and respectful.

Authored by Devadas Krishnadas*

*Devadas Krishnadas is the chief executive of the Singapore-based Future-Moves Group, an international strategic consultancy and executive education provider. The views expressed in this Facebook post reproduced in Singapolitics, are his own.

September 29, 2014
Bekas Suami Enggan Bayar Hutang, Berfoya Dengan Wanita Batam, Habiskan Wang CPF

AKIBAT main kayu tiga dengan wanita Batam, Cik Siti (nama samaran) dan tiga anaknya yang masih kecil bukan saja hidup terumbang-ambing, malah terpaksa menggigit jari apabila bekas suaminya enggan melangsaikan hutangnya sebanyak $10,000 kepada beliau meskipun telah mendapat wang Tabung Simpanan Pekerja (CPF).

Puas beliau merayu dan menitiskan air mata, namun bekas suaminya tetap buat bodoh dan hanya mementingkan kekasih yang kemudian menjadi isterinya.

Bekas suami beliau yang pernah menjaja makanan dan kemudian bekerja kapal telah menceraikannya dan berkahwin dengan wanita Batam itu.

Cik Siti dan tiga anaknya yang masih kecil hidup terkontang-kanting.

“Dia sedikit pun tidak pedulikan nasib saya dan anak-anak yang masih bersekolah. Saya tak ada pilihan dan terpaksa mengadu kepada Mahkamah Keluarga yang mengarahkan bekas suami saya membayar nafkah $400 sebulan,” kata Cik Siti sambil menyatakan beliau lega apabila bekas suaminya mula membayarnya.

Bagi beliau, perceraian satu-satunya jalan keluar kerana beliau menjadi mangsa habis madu sepah dibuang.

“Bila ada orang ketiga, rumah tangga kita tentu porak peranda.

Sebagai isteri, saya makan hati berulam jantung melihatkan perangai suami yang tidak lagi peduli anak, baik daripada segi makan minum mahupun pelajaran mereka. Saya jadi ibu dan saya juga bapa kepada anak.

Bila dapat duit CPF, lagi beliau tak pandang saya. Dia masih hutang saya $10,000 yang merupakan duit edah dan mutaah ketika bercerai. Hingga sekarang dia masih belum bayar!” tambah Cik Siti sambil melahirkan harapan agar pemerintah hanya membenarkan pencarum mengeluarkan CPF memadai apabila mereka mencecah 55 tahun.

“Ini lebih-lebih mereka yang belum memenuhi jumlah minimum yang ditetapkan. Pengalaman saya menunjukkan suami saya dan banyak lelaki lain yang main kayu tiga, sanggup berhabis untuk kekasih mereka.

“Makin banyak mereka dapat duit CPF, makin mereka umpak-umpakan sehingga lupa tanggungjawab kepada anak dan isteri,” tegas suri rumah yang menetap di Marsiling itu.

Cik Siti telah berkahwin lagi dengan seorang lelaki yang simpati melihatkan keadaan dan nasib beliau empat beranak. “Alhamdulillah, hidup saya kembali aman dan saya rasa bahagia bersama suami saya yang begitu hemah berbelanja dan anak tirinya seperti anaknya sendiri,” katanya.

Menurutnya, rumah tangga bekas suaminya dengan isteri Batamnya itu kini di ambang runtuh kerana “rumah tangga yang mereka bina atas dasar duit semata-mata”.

Cik Siti yang pernah aktif dengan sebuah badan akar umbi menyatakan beliau sering mendengar kes isteri mengadu suami menghabiskan wang CPF dengan menjalin hubungan sulit atau berfoya-foya di Batam.

“Masalah ini perlu dibendung kerana perbuatan suami hidung belang menjejas kerukunan rumah tangga dan menimbulkan masalah sosial di sini,” tegas Cik Siti.

Sumber http://beritaharian.sg/setempat/bekas-suami-masih-hutang-10000-lepas-habiskan-wang-cpf

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September 5, 2014