Tag: PAP

HDB Wants To Increase My Rental By 37% After Elections End?

Dear Editors,

In a sign of skyrocketing costs of living and business after this upcoming polling day, HDB had sent us a letter right after the election was announced warning us that they intend to raise the rental of our HDB rental unit by a whooping mind-boggling 37%! That’s more than one-third of our current rental and more than $700 per month! But that’s not all. It seems like the letter (see the attached) is a standard letter that is sent to all HDB commercial and industrial property tenants, so we are not the only tenant who is affected.

The PAP ministers had repeatedly claimed they wanted to help Singaporean businesses and workers thrive in Singapore. However, their actions speak louder than words. By increasing our rental by 37% and more than $700 per month, we will have no choice but to cut our workers’ salaries, retrench one of them, or increase our product prices to offset our rental increase so that we can stay in business and pay HDB the higher rental.

We are a small setup and we hire strictly Singaporeans only, so our labour costs are already much higher than our competitors who hire foreigners. We value our workers and we do not wish to put them out of job. But if you are in our shoes, faced with a worsening economy, increasing competition, declining business and skyrocketing rental, you will also have no choice but to take one of the above-mentioned courses of action or go out of business. Increasing our product prices will make our products less competitive and result in lower sales, so it is not an option. Cutting our workers’ salaries will lower their morale and they may quit in no time. Retrenching one of our workers is therefore the only option and the remaining workers will just have to share some of the additional workload. This is not an ideal situation but what else can anyone in our shoes do when forced by HDB to cough out more money for them?

As the largest landlord in Singapore, the PAP government, be it HDB, CapitalMall, Temasek Holdings or otherwise, wields the sole power to set our costs of living and business, and by extension, our quality of life. We elected them and pay them multi-million dollar salaries to work and fight for a better standard of life for us, not to make life miserable and worse off for us. As Mr Low Thia Khiang rightly pointed out, we are the owners of this country instead of the government. Why do we have to keep paying HDB, CapitalMall, Temasek Holdings etc. more and more to use our own land to do business or live?

SG50 is not working out well for us so far, so we cannot imagine how much worse SG100 will be.

Mai Kee Chiu
A.S.S. Contributor

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

August 28, 2015
Residents In Sunshine Gardens Still Plagued By Faulty Pipe Issues, HDB Say ‘Nothing Wrong’

We were informed by residents of Sunshine garden in CCK of these recurring problems that is still left unsolved.

When there is a heavy rain the void deck of some blocks keep getting floods, this has happened quite a few times and it seems that nothing was done to it.

Although the flats are only a few months old, there are many units with the piping problem that gave the residents much headaches.

On one particular night many residents heard a big loud bang in the night and after which many units have a systematic looking hairline crack at the center of living room the cracks are aligned together with the bedrooms. They thought that these problems can’t be coincidental.

They had informed their town council and was referred instead to HDB and had told them that there is “nothing wrong” with this problem.

But why that PAP keep saying that this election is all about Town Council issues?

Source: People’s Power Party

August 28, 2015
Shamsul Kamar Named In PAP Team For Aljunied GRC

The People’s Action Party (PAP) on Friday (Aug 28) officially announced its lineup for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) for the General Election (GE).

PAP members Yeo Guat Kwang, Chua Eng Leong, Victor Lye, K Muralidharan Pillai and Shamsul Kamar will attempt to win back the GRC from the Workers’ Party.

At the 2011 polls, the WP took 54.72 per cent of the votes in Aljunied GRC against a PAP team led by former Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo. It marked the first time a GRC had been won by an Opposition party since the introduction of the GRC system in 1988.

The WP has already announced that its 2011 lineup of Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang, Chairman Sylvia Lim, Mr Chen Show Mao, Mr Faisal Manap and Mr Pritam Singh will defend Aljunied GRC this year.

The five PAP candidates for Aljunied GRC are:

Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, 54, Assistant Secretary-General of National Trades Union Congress (NTUC)

Mr Yeo served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Cheng San GRC from 1997 to 2001 and Aljunied GRC from 2001 to 2011 before moving to Ang Mo Kio GRC. He was tipped to retire from politics this year, but at the PAP’s unveiling of its Ang Mo Kio candidates for the GE, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong instead announced that Mr Yeo would be fielded in another constituency.

“It’s so good to be home. I served here for years,” Mr Yeo said, on his return to Aljunied GRC.

“I’m a PAP man – I’m a man who serves with passion and purpose. I remind myself to be practical, pragmatic, get to the root of the problem and help,” he said.

He has been championing labour issues since he entered politics in 1997, Mr Yeo said. “We do our best to help them (workers) enhance their employability and to increase opportunities for all.”

Mr Chua Eng Leong, 44, private banker

Mr Chua is the chairman of the PAP’s Eunos branch. His father is the late former Cabinet Minister Chua Sian Chin, who passed away last year.

He joined PAP in 2011 because he was concerned about the future of young Singaporeans, he said. “Why the PAP? I was born PAP – it’s about Passion, Ability and Purposeful service.”

“Politics is just another name for service to the nation,” he said, adding “we can only be effective if we listen. Voters want to know we care”.

Mr Lye, who has two children, said that one of the programmes he plans to champion for is youth at risk. “This is a special group … All youths should get opportunities to do well in life,” he said.

More should also be done for young families, he said. “We need to pay more attention to (these) families, catering for more childcare, infantcare and eldercare facilities.”

Mr Victor Lye, 52, Chief Executive of Shenton Insurance

Mr Lye is the chairman of the PAP’s Bedok Reservoir-Punggol branch. He is also chairman of the National Council against Drug Abuse, and sits on the board of directors at the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.

An Aljunied resident, Mr Lye has been involved in grassroots work in the constituency since 1999, and has been the PAP’s Aljunied branch chairman since 2012.

Currently the CEO of a medical insurance company, Mr Lye said he enjoys turning businesses around. “My experience in the private sector helps me understand problems faced by Singaporeans … helps me empathise with others.”

When the PAP lost the 2011 General Election to the opposition Workers’ Party, he decided to stay on. “After 2011, it would have been easy to walk away. But we are here to serve and that hasn’t changed. Where few dare to tread, it’s more meaningful because I finally know where my heart is,” he said.

“I believe in ground-up leadership. We need to connect better with our people.”

Mr K Muralidharan Pillai, 47, lawyer

Mr Muralidharan is chairman of the PAP’s Paya Lebar branch. Before embarking on a legal career, he was Assistant Superintendent in the Singapore Police Force.

Mr Muralidharan, who also spoke in Tamil, Mandarin and Malay during the press conference for the unveiling, said he was honoured that the PAP decided to field him as a candidate, despite being the son of a former political detainee.

“If elected, my focus would be on social mobility. We all don’t want a permanent underclass to emerge in Singapore. The Government has done a lot for social mobility, the challenge is for families to grasp the opportunities,” he said.

“This isn’t a career enhancement move,” he said. “I don’t know how long my political career will be – it could be 10 days … I’m not fazed by the odds. I will fight this election with all my heart.”

Mr Shamsul Kamar, 43, former head of department, Spectra Secondary School

Mr Shamsul took over as chairman of the PAP’s Kaki Bukit Branch just this month, although he was a grassroots leader there from 2006 to 2011.

The former head of department in Spectra Secondary School, Mr Shamsul said he taught students from the Normal (Technical) stream. These kids are “underdogs”, he said, “not academically inclined but creative”.

If elected, he will ensure that students like these are able to complete their education. “Education is one of the most effective social levellers,” he said.

Another issue close to his heart is underprivileged families, he said. “Despite the support available to them, many still need a leg up. We can do a lot more.”

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

August 28, 2015
Elitism Quotes By PAP

Small collection of quotes by PAP Ministers etc. on the “aristocracy mentality.” Thanks to readers for contributing some of these 🙂

1. “Without a natural aristocracy. . .society will lose out.”
— Lee Hsien Loong, 2015

2. “I don’t respond to anything on The Real Singapore, which is a Facebook page and website written by morons, commented on by morons, and read and shared by morons.”
— Calvin Cheng, 2014

3. “The problem today is that PAP is a bit too elitist. . .they don’t feel for the people; overall, there is a lack of empathy.”
— Ngiam Tong Dow, 2013

4. “Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a little bit boastful.”
— Charles Chong, MP (on senior civil servant Tan Yong Soon’s S$46,000 five-week courseat a prestigious French cooking school)

5. “I feel my own angst riding with the common people. But I suppose it’s good to get the feel from the ground every now and then, to connect with the peasantry.”
— PAP Supporter and former Law Society employee, Nicholas-Seth Leong on his second MRT trip in 2012

6. “Please, get out of my elite uncaring face.”
— Wee Shu Min, scholar-daughter of former MP Wee Siew Kim

7. “Remember your place in society before you engage in political debate… Debate cannot generate into a free-for-all where no distinction is made between the senior and junior party… You must make distinctions – What is high, what is low, what is above, what is below, and then within this, we can have a debate, we can have a discussion… people should not take on those in authority as ‘equals’.”
— Former Foreign Minister George Yeo (1994)

8. “They (top civil servants) get paid more, they’re highly educated, and they have bigger egos, bigger than any government employees I’ve met anywhere else in the world. It’s not good or bad, but they consider themselves superior to almost any government employee in the world.”
— Renowned executive coach Marshall Goldsmith on civil servants’ ego in Singapore (2011)

9. “$600,000 a year is peanuts.”
— Mrs. Goh Chok Tong (2004)

10. “We are our own check. The integrity of our leaders, of our MPs. That’s where the check comes from.”
— Goh Chok Tong, 26 August 2015

11. “I didn’t ask for it. That was the rate for the job, that’s what I accepted. You don’t like the rate, I can’t help it.”
— President Nathan who doesn’t feel he needs to defend his high salary which was criticised extensively online. (The Sunday Times, 7 Aug 2011)

12. “I don’t think that there should be a cap on the number of directorship that a person can hold.”
— PAP MP John Chen who held 8 directorships

13. “It’s not for the money because some of the companies pay me as little as $10,000 a year.”
— PAP MP Wang Kai Yuen who held 11 directorships

14. “One evening, I drove to Little India and it was pitch dark but not because there was no light, but because there were too many Indians around.”
— Former PAP MP Mr Choo Wee Khiang, in a speech in Parliament in 1992

15. “Smaller Medisave means you’re lazy and work less.”
— Khaw Boon Wan (2013)

16. “There’s no ladder to climb when the top rung is reserved for people with a certain name.”
— Forbes (2009)

17. “The elite’s privileged position in decision-making and exclusive formulation of organisational policies will only serve to reflect the elite’s self-interests instead of that of the masses.”
— Classical elite theorist Robert Michels, via Soh Yi Da

18. “Our funds are accountable to the government. I would not believe that transparencyis everything.”
— PM Lee Hsien Loong, The Telegraph UK

19. “As an anti-PAP retired civil servant, I can tell you that all the PAP media events are staged with great care. Every photo opportunity is meticulously planned. As a former government press officer told me, we must manipulate the message.”
— TRE Comment

20. “We are same — same but different.”
— Lim Swee Say via Teo Chee Hean (2015)

21. “The reality as societies developed is that leaders often come from the same social circles, educational backgrounds and even family trees.”
— Lee Kuan Yew, 2011

22. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.”
— Lee Kuan Yew, 1987

23. “In short, the elite.”
— Lee Kuan Yew, 1966

Source: https://jesscscott.wordpress.com

August 28, 2015
PAP – Same Old, Same Old

The Elections Department (ELD) is tweaking the rules again, raising maximum spending limit from $3.50 to $4.00 per voter, tilting the “level playing” field to political parties with deeper pockets. Other changes include new ballot papers featuring candidates’ mugshots “to help the elderly identify the candidates”. Since we only get to see these guys face to face once in fifty five years, we won’t know the purity of their hearts from a brief encounter. What they should include is an accompanying short quote reflective of their true colours:

“If you’re lazy and work less, you’ll have less Medisave” – Khaw Boon Wan

“Without foreign workers, Singapore is likely to become a ‘garbage city’. Cleanliness is a character thing. It shows who you really are.” – Goh Chok Tong on Tokyo has no rubbish even though the Japanese capital has no rubbish bins in public places

“A manpower policy that advocates hiring “Singaporeans first” will not benefit the economy in the long term” – Senior Minister of State for Manpower Amy Khor

“We (also) need to reflect, are we the way they described?” – Baey Yam Keng on Sun Xu’s “more dogs than humans in Singapore”

“However, it may not be wise to call for the tradeoffs to be tilted further to an extent that it dissuades good people from coming forward in future” – Grace Fu on ministerial pay cut

“Some cardboard collectors treat it (collection of cardboards) as a form of exercise and activity rather than being cooped up at home” – Tan Chuan Jin

“Well, everybody has a car, we have two — my wife drives one, I drive one. We are both professionals, we need to travel” – Koh Poh Koon on car ownership

“…I regret making the decision because, in the end, the baby continued to be in intensive care, and KKH now runs up a total bill of more than $300,000…”- Lim Hng Kiang on regretting the decision to save a baby’s life.

“If we spent 387 million dollars, will we get value from that expenditure? In my mind, the answer… is yes.” – Vivian Balakrishnan on YOG budget blowout

“Whether a participant perished or survived depended on where he or she happened to be at the time.” Heng Swee Kiat on why 12 year olds died on Mt Kinabalu

Tattler

* The writer blogs at singaporedesk.blogspot.com.

Source: www.tremeritus.com

August 27, 2015