Syria v Singapore

Some soruces:
Singapore
Syria
Singapore-Myanmar relations
Singapore-Cuba relations
Military expenditure
Press Freedom Index 2011
iTunes store availability
Public holidays

Singapore- From First World to Third

1) The deterioration of SMRT and transportation in general.
When SMRT trains started running in 1987, I remember the buzz and excitement it generated. There was alot to be proud of. Metro train travels became part of our daily lives and travelling time was reduced. Happy days.
But ever since its listing in 2000, company execs (and technically PAP since Temasek Holdings own a majority stake in the entity) indiscriminately focused on cost cutting, revenue generation and keeping shareholders happy.
Today, train breakdowns are as commonplace as tissue paper packets used to "reserve" seats in eateries all across our business district. SMRT has become a national shame.

Whilst performance have gone down, fares have headed the other way. The regulatory body Public Transport Council has sanctioned nearly every adjustment request from buses, trains and taxi operators. These companies are majority-owned by the Singapore government.

The roads are no better. Toll gantries known as ERP are erected all over the island, expanding from town and business districts to heartland areas, in the name of traffic flow management. Yet the expressways and even in-roads are still jammed. Once I overhead an Australian remarking that if they did this ERP thing down under, the public would have the mayor lynched.

COE or the piece of paper that allows you to purchase a car now costs as much as a brand new Mercedes C Class in Australia!


2) The unspoken wage decline.

The real earnings, the most accurate measure of wage growth as it takes into account inflation, have been on a steady decline for as long as one can remember. UBS's latest prices and earnings studies reaffirms this. Singaporean's wage levels are in the league of Brazil, Slovakia and Malaysia. Nowhere near Swiss standards for sure. That's shocking considering how highly paid our leaders are.



An International Labour Organisation report also documents that Singaporeans put in the longest work hours globally!

3) Corruption in public service

-Golden tap, first class travels, undeclared directorships and a "peanut" salary package of just $550,000 per year. The man TT Durai was the head of the National Kidney Foundation. Instead of focusing efforts to help dialysis patients, his corporate extravagance and misdeeds were just small symptoms of the wider elitist network that the government has created.

-A senior civil servant at the Singapore Land Authority defrauded the government and bought luxury cars with the dirty money.

-Most recently, the former heads of the Singapore Civil Defence Force and Central Narcotics Bureau were arrested for alleged misconduct. Both were high flying government scholars chosen by the PAP establishment. Looks like there's going to be alot more fire fighting for PM Lee's party if the regime's foot soldiers can't start kicking the bad habits.

Corruption exists in nearly every country but Singapore's sycophantic media has always been quick to point out how the nation is one of the least corrupt in the world.

Unfortunately for them, the irksome social media has all but erased decades of cover up for ruling party.

Watch this space for more revelations of breaches of trust.

4) Ballooning public debt

President Tony Tan claimed in his recent Lunar New Year speech that owing to PAP's fiscal prudence, Singapore does not have high sovereign debt. But that's not true.

CIA and Eurostat estimate that Singapore's public debt is 105% of GDP or ninth highest in the world!

Most of the obligation is probably to the Central Provident Fund (CPF). When the PAP liberalised CPF for housing, they had the opportunity to "borrow" money cheap (the interest rate that CPF pays account holders) to fund their activities. Over the years, misguided policies and investments (mostly kept from Singaporeans) created losses that the government increasingly can't keep up with. See Temasek Holdings, GIC and other stat boards and GLCs.

This is why the PAP keeps raising the minimum sum and withdrawal age because they just can't afford to return the money to retiring Singaporeans.

More puzzling, none of the extraordinarily high debt is due to citizen welfare schemes for the state provides almost none, which is the case for most developed state with significant government obligations.

Singaporeans have a right to know where and how government borrowing is really spent all these years.

5) Love affair with foreign talent (or trash)

60% of registered doctors in 2010 are foreigners.

50% of expats earned more than 200k a year.

38% of the population are foreigners/PRs attracted by pro foreign employment policies, lax banking rules and good physical infrastructure.

30% of our private homes were bought by foreigners in 2011.

20% of A&E patients in our hospitals are foreigners... and enjoying subsidies.

Singaporeans aren't xenophobic. Many of us have grown suspicious of foreigners who are perceived to take away many PMET jobs that Singaporeans want to do. Most of these foreigners are here for the quick buck and simply use the country as a stepping stone (and Visa-less travel) to their dreams elsewhere.

Further, you just have to question the true ability and qualifications of some foreigners. There are reports of foreigners paying for fake certs to get into Singapore.

A prestigious club in Singapore had to sack its CEO for not producing a Masters cert which he claimed to have obtained.

The country's football association removed its French deputy CEO for not disclosing his bankruptcy before taking up the job.

We're not exactly sure how foreign CEOs like Jackson Tai, John Olds and Philip Paillart (combined total tenure of 4 years), added value to Singapore's biggest bank DBS before departing with very golden handshakes.

We're not sure how three expats who started a brawl and two of them subsequently fled the country before facing court, got jobs with leading banks here. It's outrageous how they let foreign trespassers post bail and retain their passports when they refused to allow bankrupt Opposition leader Chee Soon Juan permission to travel to attend an innocuous award ceremony.



SMRT see-Sawing

I must apologise for not updating the blog for several weeks. But I'm back now.
Kicking off with the most talked about story on PerezHilton.com, the Mass Rapid Transit.

After the 2010 World Cup, Brazilian coach Dunga offered to step down after the country's failure to get past Netherlands in the quarter finals. Reaching the last 4 of arguably the world's most prestigious and competitive tournament is no easy feat.
But in a nation which is football crazy and that once was the global leader in the sport, this is failure.
In any case, Dunga was promptly fired by the CBF.

The UK faced one of its worst winters in recent times last Christmas, leading to the resignation of Scottish Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson for failure to tackle the travel chaos.
In the words of Scottish Labour leader, "Scotland had lost confidence in the transport minister and it was only right that he should resign..."

If you recall, state-owned monopoly SMRT picked up the "Best Passenger Experience" award in an annual conference in 2008. The win was debatable even then, more so if you've ever taken the trains in Seoul, Taipei or Hong Kong.
Since then, SMRT has come a very long way. A long way down.
I documented in September about the less than stellar track record of the rail operator.
Two months later, SMRT's CEO Ms. Saw Phaik Hwa was given an extra 176, 600 shares as a reward for "performance". This is equivalent to S$332,008 at Nov 11 closing price of the stock.

Much has been said on and offline about the recent spate of SMRT malfunctions. I will not list the details since the Singapore Democrats have already done so here.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that a leader should always step down when things go wrong. Everyone should be given a second chance to redeem themselves.
What is clear here is that Ms. Saw oversaw, no pun intended, and presided over a spate of breakdowns over the last two years, in addition to two hugely embarrassing graffiti incidents.
As CEO, she obviously had ample opportunities to put things right but no.

As of today, SMRT trains are running at increased intervals. Waiting times have shot up and queues have gotten longer. And they are going just about as fast as Cinderella's pumpkin carriage.
Retailers are reportedly hit, people are late for work and some couples even cancel their dates. In short, SMRT has adversely affected the lives of many Singaporeans.

But our transportation woes lies deep within the system...the same regime that took quite a few brazen gambles over the last decade. Not just the casinos but the irresponsible immigration policy to prop up its "GDP growth at all costs" model.

You see, when the first SMRT trains started running in 1987, I don't think the urban planners then  envisioned over 5 million people squeezing into this island in such a short period of time. Singapore's resident population then was just 2.7 million.
To make matters worse, our current generation of Ministers keep getting caught off guard, using stop gap measure like ERP, COE etc to "regulate" the system.
Minister for Transport Lui Tuck Yew's comments summed his party's inaptitude perfectly:

 "There have been a number of train disruptions in recent days. I do not know if these are isolated incidents or whether there are systemic and more serious underlying issues causing these breakdowns."

Ms. Saw's position is totally safe for now. This is because Ong Ye Kung, who also happens to be a PAP MP, is on the Board of SMRT. And out of sheer coincidence, he's also tasked to carry out this on-going independent investigation into the breakdowns.
So with salary that is higher than any former SMRT CEO and a position with zero accountability, this lady is here to stay.

Million dollar homes- who's buying?

According to a Straits Times report, average sales value of both resale and new condos crossed the S$1 million mark in Q2 this year.
You wonder who's snapping up these homes when the government reported that median household income in 2010 was just S$5,000. This figure is also likely to be skewed as Permanent Residents are kneaded into the calculation. So the actual income is in all likelihood, lower than the figure published.
Without a strong and independent Press, our politicians will continue to use statistics as a smokescreen.
Indeed, a publication by the World Bank describes how a free press is no longer a luxury but essential to equitable economic development.

In an effort to revitalise the nation (and win votes), Malaysian PM Najib promised to review press controls and media censorship. Following his speech, there are even calls to totally abolish such stifling laws.
Will PM Lee ever do the same?
Will we ever find out the actual standard of life of Singaporeans and Singaporeans alone?

The PAP has always played the "housing value" card whether at elections or a Sunday luncheon.
MM Lee continues to forewarn that without the PAP, our housing value will fall. The former Minister Mentor even went so far as to challenge Aljunied GRC voters to compare the GRC's housing values with Opposition run Hougang estates.
Unfortunately for him, they didn't listen.

In 2002, there was a study by IMF covering 16 OECD nations that claimed that rising housing prices have positive effect on consumption. This would be music to our ministers' ears.
Bearing in mind that the sample size consisted mainly of developed states in Europe and North America, does the study apply to Singapore?
A Singapore Management University faculty member, backed by the Wharton-Singapore Management University Research Centre did her own study using Ministry data and rejected the findings.
This paper claimed that rising housing prices did not create wealth effect. Rather, there was some evidence to say that "house price increase appear to have a dampening effect on aggregate consumption".
One implication of this is that "policy makers should treat housing wealth as distinct from other assets when considering the impact of wealth on consumption".

Put simply, rising housing value does not necessarily mean that standard of living is improving or that Singaporeans spend more.

One key reason could be that unlike the OECD countries studied, many Singaporeans have their retirement savings wiped out by housing loans.
Another possible reason is the relative low purchasing power of Singaporeans caused by stagnant wages and a general lack of subsidies on anything from petrol to healthcare. This is confirmed by the widely circulated UBS Prices & Earnings Study.

Thus, it will be interesting to know who are the ones buying those million dollar properties.
What's pretty clear, not all are Singaporeans.

Tan Jee Say: Heart of the Nation, Voice of the People

For those who have not made up their minds, and for those perilously close to voting for the wrong candidate, please view this video before casting your votes.
Thank you.

Oh yes, please observe Cooling Off day which begins in 3 hours.

Opposition sweeps Thai Elections

Opposition Puea Thai won a clear majority in Thailand's landmark elections on Sunday.
Thai voters have overwhelmingly ditched the elitist Democrat Party in favour of populace policies of the poor that Thaksin's party stands for.

While nothing is black and white in politics, the fact that Thai people had the guts to vote for change after waves of red shirts, yellow shirts protests, speaks highly of the electorate.

In Singapore, a developed state, more and more people have fallen through the cracks. The poor has gotten poorer. Purchasing power is diminishing.
The middle class is increasingly sandwiched between chunks of foreigners who've taken away good jobs and depressed wages in the long run. Housing has become a life long burden, retirement a dream and marriage rates have dipped to an all-time low.

Yet 60% of Singaporeans didn't have the testicular fortitude to vote for change.

Singaporeans have lots to learn from our Northern neighbours. Or remain daft for life.

Help, there's a WWII relic in my backyard!

I must admit, despite the below average acting and mediocre script, I do catch the odd episodes of the current Channel 8 police drama. Just call me a sucker for detective stories. Of course, it's nowhere near CSI.

In case you didn't realise, the People's Action Party controls most aspects of Singaporean life. During the late sixties and early seventies, Lee Kuan Yew told people how many children they should have by implementing the infamous "Stop at Two" policy. Third and fourth children were to be given less priority in education etc etc.
That policy has shaped Singaporean family planning. We now have one of the lowest birth rates globally.

He also told us who we should marry. Concerned that the growing numbers of "lesser educated" will "breed" "less educated" people, he urged men to choose wives who were graduates through the controversial Graduate Mother Scheme.

So it is no surprise that the government even uses entertainment to shape our lives a.k.a propaganda. Channel 8 programmes are laced with Party messages from promoting working women to the maritime industry.
The latest dose is an attempt to promote careers in the Singapore Police Force.
Everyone's favourite ex-Minister Wong Kan Seng had touched on the manpower shortage in the Force. Just like how Mah Bow Tan was "caught offguard", Wong Kan Seng totally let his guard down with the Mas Selamat issue and probably didn't take enough steps to ensure the Force grew sufficiently to match the growing population caused by the large influx of foreigners.
Forget UFO sightings. Dead bodies have been turning up in water tanks and reservoirs.

The recent fracas over the Police handling of the WWII bomb relic found in Sungei Kadut has cast new doubts over our Protectors.
Actually, they pretty much left the handling of the relic to private companies because it was found on private property. Isn't the Police supposed to "uphold the law, maintain order and keep the peace" wherever needed on this island? What if the bomb actually exploded?

Last year, there were a couple of high profile cases of gang activity in Downtown East and Bukit Panjang.
Do you actually know that regular police officers have no power to force gangs congregating at void decks to disperse? They can only "advise" them to move away. This is confirmed by one of the Staff Sergeants at Choa Chu Kang NPC.

While I salute the men and women who work the ground, the senior officers making decisions ought to relook their strategies and priorities.
Is it sound strategy to dispatch bus loads of officers to halt a peaceful 2-man rally but not offer assistance when an unexploded bomb is found?

Most S'poreans want to work past retirement age: survey

In 2010, Lee Kuan Yew suggested that there be no retirement age.
I quote “You work as long as you can work and you will be healthier and happier for it. If you ask me to stop working all of a sudden, I think I'll just shrivel up, face the wall and just that."

And he continues, "(When) you have reached the maximum you can do at your age in that position, you move sideways and you take less pay and you move gradually, (getting) less and less pay because you are moving slower and slower, especially when you're doing physical work,"
So he exhorts us to take less pay when we are in our golden years but his pay as Minister Mentor (MM) kept on rising. Who would want to retire when they get paid millions just to do some periodic "forecasting"?

In news from State Media today, a story was published claiming that most Singaporeans want to work past retirement age. This possibly to prove a point that the pressure cooker society is no fault of the government.
They made this conclusion after Ranstad Group surveyed 405 out of over 3,000,000 Singaporeans.
Statistically, this is sufficient for a confidence interval of +-5%.

However, what the survey (and State Media) didn't reveal is the background of these 405 people.

Generally speaking, there are two groups of people who don't want to retire.
1) Those who can't afford to retire financially
2) Those who can afford to retire but want to continue working

I suspect a large number of Singaporeans fall into the former. Why?

A HSBC survey published 20 June found that 42% of Singaporeans DON"T have retirement financial plans.
That's a very significant proportion of the population. And by the way, HSBC's sample size was 1,046.

So if such big numbers of Singaporeans don't have retirement plans, you can conclude that they cannot afford to retire. Hence the need to continue working past the official retirement age. (quod erat demonstrandum)

A Japanese friend of mine visited the country recently. Through the media, he thinks that Singapore is a modern society full of rich and happy people. But his view changed when he saw: (There's a problem with posting videos/pics on blogger. Will get the video up asap. In the meanwhile, please see this).

He couldn't believe that elderly folks were carting used cardboard boxes in the 34 degree heat. He couldn't believe that old women were wiping tables at food courts.
You wouldn't see these things in Japan.
You wouldn't see these things in most developed countries.

Yet State Media publishes a meaningless story stating the obvious. The hard truth is that many Singaporeans fear retirement because they don't have enough savings in their later years.
Instead of probing the government for answers and accountability, our media continues to sweep the harsh reality of life in Singapore under white coloured carpets.

Singaporeans work past retirement age because of failed social and government policies:
1) CPF
2) Depressed wages
3) Cost of living
4) Immigration

Retired Ministers like Mah Bow Tan, Wong Kan Seng, George Yeo etc continue to receive multi million dollar pensions.
Yet the Minimum Sum (which stands at $131,000) has prevented thousands of retirees from accessing their hard-earned money. Just across the Causeway, the difference could not be more apparent. Malaysia's EPF allows full withdrawal without any outrageous conditions.

If citizens can't spend their twilight years playing with grand kids, touring the world, pursuing hobbies, hanging out with friends or just relaxing, then the system has gone horribly wrong.

Staff strapped companies need more foreign workers?!

I was at a Fortune 100 company's spanky new premises at Mapletree Business City.
The corporate giant takes up 8 floors, just about half of that building tower.

Like most office buildings, you need to exchange for a visitor pass before proceeding.
The company has its own "security" on the ground floor.
What struck me was that it was manned by two... you guessed it... foreigners with their foreign names proudly displayed on tags.
They were young Filipino women.

I suppose if the weren't hired, then the company probably has to turn away visitors. And this company is so damn sure they absolutely cannot find a single Singaporean to do this job.

You step into Universal Studios and you will find that about half the staff there are foreigners.
The PAP, to justify the building of the Integrated Resorts (IR), said that jobs would be created for Singaporeans. Yet then Filipino President Gloria Arroyo proudly proclaimed they had secured 5,000 jobs for Filipinos at the IRs.

The difference cannot be more apparent in other countries. When the Hong Kong government built Disneyland, thousands of jobs were promised to locals.
And that they delivered. Walking around the park, you see that nearly all the cast members are Hong Kong citizens. Despite proximity to the Mainland, you hardly find any PRCs employed.

What is the evidence that Singaporeans are fussier than Hong Kongers?
After so many years of easy access to cheaper labour, have Singaporeans firms become too lazy to focus on employee welfare and retention?
If certain jobs are "shunned" by locals, is it because the pay is insufficient to maintain basic quality of life, one with long term commitments?
The foreigners displacing Singaporeans hail from developing countries with dismal track record of job creation. Philippines, India and China are struggling to create jobs.
It is not surprising that a second rate graduate who can't find a job back home would jump at a chance to work in Singapore in overqualified positions. You will find university graduates working in Metro, Starbucks and in frontline positions. They also take up administrative roles.

The lower salaries they are paid compared to Singaporeans is still alot better than no salary back home.
Most of them also don't have as many long term commitments like housing, raising children, taking care of elderly etc.

Our government must stop saying that Singaporeans are fussy. The onus is on them to encourage companies to make jobs reasonable to Singaporeans. The onus is on the government to implement a Minimum Wage to ensure locals are not exploited. Hiring and firing laws must skewed more towards employees.

Singaporeans have the right to demand better jobs because our Ministers are the highest paid in the world.
Lee Kuan Yew boasted in 2007 that Singapore is entering its "golden period".
Goh Chok Tong, another one of our psychic politicians, promised to achieve Swiss standard of living by the turn of the century.
You can't paint such rosy pictures without ensuring that quality of jobs keep improving.
Do you want a "first world" country where its citizens continue to be cleaners earning $450 a month?

So there's a fine line between being fussy and the right to proper jobs.
And we certainly don't need Angmos to tell us which is which.

Singaporeans' purchasing power or lack thereof

In the August 2010 edition of the world famous UBS "Prices and Earnings" study, Singapore was ranked a dismal 48th out of 73 countries in terms of domestic purchasing power. (DPP)

DPP is calculated using gross and/or net hourly wage divided by the cost of the entire basket of commodities

excluding rent.

In the same edition, Singapore was also ranked the 9th most expensive city if rents are included.

Putting two and two together, it means that Singaporeans would struggle more financially compared to even cities like Kuala Lumpur and Moscow. It also alludes that Singaporeans need to work alot harder to obtain  the same standard of living as many of its peers globally.

In a study by the International Labour Organisation which was published in The Business Times last year, Singaporeans clocked the longest work hours on this planet.

Which explains why most Singaporeans feel stressed all the time.
Which also explains why workers in Raffles Place use tissue paper packets to "reserve" tables. There is simply no time for a proper break. Hence the "Kiasu" society.

In the State Media today, a survey by HSBC found that most Singaporeans will hardly have sufficient funds when they retire. An obvious cultprit could be the unaffordability of housing

In April 2010, a paper from the National University of Singapore researched by Mr. Ng who then was pursuing a Doctorate in social policy, claimed that 68 per cent of annual CPF contribution is spent on housing, while health took up 18 per cent and pensions 14 per cent.
Needless to say, the paper was immediately refuted by then Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Vivian Balakrishnan.

Singaporeans must wake up and realise that we are indeed a long long way from Swiss standard of living..... 47 places to be exact.

Our government has set in stone policies that combine to depress our purchasing power and make us work Cheaper, Better and Faster so that our Ministers can continue to justify their multi-million dollar salaries.

The lack of independent Unions, influx of foreigners, sky-high housing prices, expensive medical care and the general lack of social welfare has inevitably stagnated our wages and living standards.

It's little wonder that we've been accused of being "champion grumblers".

Singapore Housing Bubble?

The PAP announced today that it will release more land sites for new homes to meet demand for housing.
A record 17,000+ homes are expected to be built.
You kind of wonder what the former Minister of National Development Mah Bow Tan was doing all these years.

But will increasing home supply solve Singapore's housing woes?
Yet again, the PAP is failing to address the root of the problem

What are the reasons for sky-high public housing prices?

1) Like all the other social problems in Singapore, our housing bubble is a result of sudden surge of demand due to PAP's lax immigration policy. Lee Kuan Yew remarked in April this year that we need another 900,000 workers cramped into this tiny island. Even if 17,000 more homes are built, where do we house  these foreign workers? And it's not like houses appear instantly as in Sim City, it takes 3-4 years for their construction.

As of mid 2010, data from United Nations put Singapore's foreign population at almost 2 million or a whopping 40% of the population!
Similar data for other developed states: South Korea (1.1%), United Kingdom (10.4%), USA (13.5%), Australia (21.9%), Hong Kong (30.8%)

2) Cash over valuation (COV) is what a buyer agrees to pay the seller when he feels a particular flat is worth more than its valuation.  A friend of mine told me that he recently got a foreign couple offering $60,000 COV for his flat in Bukit Panjang. Many richer foreigners from China and Indonesia can easily afford outrageous COVs for resale flats. A young Singaporean couple will have to "outbid" COV or wait several years for a Built-to-Order flat. This overinflates the value of the resale market.

The above is taken from the HDB website. The resale price index has shot through the roof and is at an all time high! It has even easily surpassed the 1996 peak. And we know that prices of new HDB flats do trend the resale index.

And to debunk the PAP's claim that housing is affordable to ordinary Singaporeans, this chart clearly shows that resale flat prices has oustripped median household income by 2:1 in the last two decades.

In November 2009, Member of Parliament Chiam See Tong asked how much HDB flats cost and the profit margin added to the cost when selling the flats to which then National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan replied in Parliament:
“The total cost of building flats varies based on when we build, where we build and what we build. It includes cost of land, as well as cost of construction of the flats and ancillary services. It varies from $230,000 for a 3-room flat in Punggol to $530,000 for a 5-room flat in Tiong Bahru.”

But in order to make a fairer assessment of the costs, we need a breakdown of cost of land and construction which the PAP has refused to do.

Since the government owns most of the land, there is no excuse not to do so.
Besides, the Land Acquisition Act empowers the President to acquire land cheap for public purpose, except that it is not always the case.
There have also been unconfirmed reports that land has been acquired, left barren for years and then sold to private developers to build condominiums, obviously at a handsome profit to the government.



In any case, PAP policies could very possibly lead the country to the point of no return. Although never mentioned in our state controlled media, there is a housing bubble waiting to burst.

In 2008, it was reported that 33,000 or about 8% of HDB households defaulted on their payments. That is about the same scale as the sub-prime crisis which plunged American homeowners into the abyss. Many Americans were (and still are) in a position of negative equity- a mortgage debt higher than the value of the property.

The one and only reason why the Singapore housing bubble hasn't burst is because waves of foreigners come in the shore up demand for flats, this at the same time where the Ministry of National Development has deliberately kept supply low. The result is that property prices continue to trend higher.

So what good will raising supply of housing do when immigrant numbers continue to swell?

And what will happen to home prices when 60% of Singaporeans finally wake up from their slumber and decide to vote for policies that will see significant reductions in foreign residents?

Unfortunately, there is no pain free way out of this mess that PAP has created for Singaporeans.
And as the saying goes, what goes up must come down.

For the sake of restoration of social sanity and to pursue a Singaporeans first policy, and in the interests of our future generations, we have to bite the bullet hard.

This country cannot sustain the uneven proportion of foreigners in the long term as our physical infrastructure and cultural fabric is already at breaking point.

The housing bubble will burst...but when?

"How to run your train system?" by Bukit Panjang LRT

There was yet another disruption at the sprawling Bukit Panjang LRT system yesterday.
Oh wait, it's just a 7.8km light rail system actually.

Before that on May 17, another disruption took place.

Before that on April 19, another disruption took place.

I will run out of blog space if I'd posted all the disruptions.

In January this year, it was reported in Straits Times that between Jan 2008 till Jan 2011, there were 32 major disruptions at the LRT.
That is about 1 disruption per month!

SMRT, which runs the LRT line and effectively monopolises nearly all train lines in the country, was fined $400,000 in 2008 for a horrific maintenance accident that left thousands stranded.

From time to time, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has also imposed earth-shattering $100-300 fines for lapses in service provision either by SMRT buses or trains.

What is the effectiveness of such fines?

Let's figure- SMRT is about 50% owned by sovereign fund Temasek Holdings. LTA is a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport.
Common factor: Government>>> PAP

The only way we will see service quality improvement from a monopoly is if real competition is introduced.
If you carefully study Hong Kong's public transport system, arguably one of the best in Asia, you will find that from buses to trains and taxis, there is a very strong private sector participation.
This forces the previously government-owned MTR Corporation, which runs Hong Kong's biggest metro system, to stay customer focused and vigilant.
Commuters also have viable alternatives.

Singapore's public transport woes are only getting worse. If you can't stand the squeeze in the MRT, you can take the bus or taxi.
However, Comfort Delgro runs most of the buses and taxis in the country and the company is also more than 50% owned by Temasek Holdings.

Thus, the entire public transport system in Singapore is operated by and owned directly or indirectly by the Singapore government aka PAP.

In a situation like this, lots of groupthink happens in the strategic decision making of our transport system and the best we can get is the ERP, and now, Satellite ERP.

While the May 2011 Elections is a watershed in many ways, it seems the PAP is sticking to the same old ways in the manner it runs the country.

From the Tanglin flooding to dead body in water tank, PAP Ministers and officials are only working hard to shirk responsibility.

Heaven forbid if we continue to get a President who only toes the ruling party's line.

Lee Wei Ling steps up for Singaporeans

A couple of days ago, someone wrote to ST Forum accusing Singaporeans of becoming racist.
I don't think Singaporeans are racist.

I think Singaporeans are more cowards than racists.

Why do we not even make a noise when half the people in our office are foreigners? Because we are cowards.

Why do we accept the unbearable squeeze in our trains, buses, hospitals and malls due to the massive influx of immigrants without a single protest? Because we are cowards.

Why do we allow almost 2 millions new citizens and PRs to go without a single day of national service and not confront our MPs about this? Because we are cowards.

Kudos to LKY's daughter Lee Wei Ling for writing a letter to the ST Forum arguing that Singaporeans are not racist.
In her letter, she mentioned that nearly a third of doctors from the National Neuroscience Institute are Indian nationals!

For years, NUS, a government university, has refused to increase the intake of medical students.
This despite the desperate need to train more doctors to meet the burgeoning demand for healthcare caused by the sudden surge in foreign residents and a fast ageing population.
The PAP has also been positioning this tiny country as a medical tourist hub for rich foreigners and as many as 200-300k flood our hospitals annually.
Obviously,our former Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan must have been "caught off guard".
His solution, like all his counterparts in other Ministries, is to import more foreigners.
They even went to the extent of expanding the list of recognised foreign medical schools, including several from India.

What's worse, and I quote
"Foreign-trained specialists now need only to complete two years of supervision, compared to three previously, while for foreign-trained non-specialists, the duration has been halved - from six years to three."
It doesn't take an expert to conclude that we are playing with fire here and the chance that the quality of medical care will fall is very high.
If Singaporeans were less cowardly, they will take the Health Minister to task.

I for one would not trust an India trained doctor...not even for $8.




Two days ago, a PAP supporter Yap Yien Li wrote to the ST Forum accusing Singaporeans of becoming more ‘racist’ based on comments posted on a TR Facebook (started by fans) about a photo showing three expat Indians sitting in strange positions on a SMRT train.
An unlikely public figure came to the defence of Singaporeans – Lee Wei Ling, the only daugther of PAP paramount leader Lee Kuan Yew. In a letter published in the Straits Times Forum today, Lee who is also the director of the National Neuroscience Institute argued that Singaporeans are not racist.
Using herself as an example, Ms Lee wrote that two of her best friends are Indians and she has many friends who are of mixed Indian-Chinese heritage.
She then made a shocking relevation that 27 percent of doctors in NNI are Indians:
“At my hospital, the National Neuroscience Institute, we have a disproportionate percentage of doctors who are Indians – 27 per cent. There are many Indian doctors in other hospitals. By and large, race is not an issue for patients, except for a few among the less educated and the older among them.”
Ms Lee did not reveal the number of expat Indians among them, but MOH has been increasing the intake of Indian doctors with M.B.B.S from Indian universities to make up for the shortage of local doctors in Singapore.
Besides working in unpopular specialities in public hospitals like Neurology, many expat Indian doctors are also deployed to work in the polyclinics. One polyclinic in the central part of Singapore has 6 Indian doctors and only one Singapore doctor among its staff.

Foreigners- be thankful

An Indian "FT", in a desperate attempt to justify his existence in Singapore, commented on a Temasek Review Emeritus post:

"There is nothing that an “FT” cannot do here that he cannot do back in India or China."

Let me correct this to " If an employer cannot prove that Singaporeans cannot fill a role, then "FTs" cannot be employed"

Actually, the phrase "foreign talent" has been over abused. 10, 20 years ago, the foreigners we employed from Western countries were indeed foreign talents- they were expatriates who brought skills and knowledge Singaporeans had very little of.
Today, the foreigners you see here are mostly just foreigners.

In the same period of time, Singaporeans have acquired these talents that should enable us to manage and lead on our own, unless the PAP's much touted education system has failed. To date, we have yet to hear any admission of failure.

It may be argued that the cream of the crop in India and China prefer posh government jobs in their own countries or head for US and UK.
Indeed, A Chinese publication stated that most of the top Chinese scholars end up in the US.
So what talents are we really attracting?
Are some of them here on fake qualifications?

It is totally unacceptable that mediocre foreigners are employed to do jobs that Singaporeans want to do, especially in the PMET area.

For any foreigner reading this, these are the only reasons why you are here:

1) Your mere presence would add to GDP growth. Our Ministers' bonus are tied to this

2) HR managers are foreigners themselves and so the affinity to hire their own. In some countries, HR managers must be locals

3) You are happy to work for lower salaries because you don't have long term commitments that Singaporeans have and the Sing dollar is alot stronger than your home currency

4) Our Ministry of Manpower does not properly scrutinise foreigners and there are lapses in due diligence. My company has an application for a foreign hire approved in ONE hour

5) You could somehow decide to turn citizen and add to the ruling party's voter base

My advice for foreigners is that be thankful for getting the chance to live in a modern, clean and safe country that Singaporeans have built over 40 years.
Be thankful that hundreds of thousands of Singaporean men sacrifice their time and careers to protect you if the inevitable happens.
Be thankful to know that for you to stay in your job, a Singaporean has by default made way to accommodate you.
Singaporeans are more than capable bankers, strategic planners, project managers, IT specialists, academics, sales leads etc etc.

The People's Association must have no association

The People’s Association (PA) was established in Singapore as a statutory board on 1 July 1960 to promote racial harmony and social cohesion.
It was supposed to be a non partisan group interested in fostering better ties between citizens of all races.

The PA also oversees various grassroots organisatoins like Citizens' Consultative Committees, Residents' Committees, Neighbourhood Committees etc.

Therefore, the mission of the PA is clearly non-partisan.

The Chairman is none other than PM Lee Hsien Loong himself.
What's worse, they've just added even more PAP MPs into the ranks.

Further, the PA is funded by grants via taxpayers' monies.

Because of the one-sided nature of PA, it's obvious that the grassroot leaders all toe the part line.
These activists are blamed for not passing on proper feedback to the Ministers. In all likelihood, they would rather paint the rosiest picture on the ground firstly to impress the Ministers and secondly to save them the trouble of explaining otherwise.
This has prompted PM Lee to openly defend the activists.

It can be argued that PAP activists are a huge factor in General Elections. Using taxpayers grants, they hire "volunteers" to go door to door, distribute pamphlets, attend rallies etc etc.

The end result is they end up representing the views of the PAP and alienate the views of non supporters. The goal of promoting social cohesion is invariably lost.

Therefore, I would like to request for a radical overhaul of the PA and committees under its charge.

1) The management of the PA should consist of memebers from each registered political party
2) The Chairman of the PA is decided by a popular vote
3) Disallow PA funds from being used for party campaigning during elections

Obviously, it's not going to be easy.
MM Lee once told Chinese Officials visiting Singapore to see how the former ran his country:

“They discover that the People’s Action Party (PAP) has only a small office in Bedok.

But everywhere they go, they see the PAP – in the RCs (residents’ committees), CCCs (citizens’ consultative committees), and the CCs (community clubs).”

That to me, smells of a party wanting to perpetuate it's grip on power indefinitely, regardless of the hard truths on the ground.

If PM Lee is sincere about engaging Singaporeans better, there's no better place to start than a total overhaul of the PA.



So why then is it OK for the PA management to include only PAP MPs?

Please "Like" my Facebook page

It seems that PAP MPs just don't get social media. While Opposition candidates have mostly embraced social media like ducks to water, the men and women in white continue to bumble and stumble like a gymnast constantly falling off the beam.

The PAP's REACH website meant for citizens' feedback to the government has far less views than the Temasek Review.

Then there is the infamous Wee Shu Min, daughter of PAP MP Wee Siew Kim, asking a disgruntled Singaporean to "get out of her elite uncaring face".

Even the Young PAP has had numerous faux pas online where they succeeded in antagonising netizens more than anything else.

Just this past week, Tampines PAP MP Irene Ng erected banners all over her constituency asking people to "Like" her Facebook page.
If that isn't lame, I dont know what is.

By the way, she is also the same MP who whined about the Workers' Party "excessive" media coverage of its first GRC MPS.

While I applaud PM Lee's attempt to engage voters over Facebook during campaigning, it's all just too contrived and insincere. Just like their previous attempts to do rap videos and hip-hop dances to woo the younger generation.

Since we are on the topic of Facebook, here are the top 10 Opposition candidates by number of  "Likes" as of 26 May 2011, 9pm. Achieved without any form of solicitation. (Please let me know if I missed out on anyone. Thanks!)

1. 104,525- Nicole Seah
2. 27,558- Chen Show Mao
3. 20,227- Low Thia Khiang
4. 12,702- Chiam See Tong
5. 11,632- Sylvia Lim
6. 9,492- Dr. Vincent Wijeysingha
7. 5,137- Pritam Singh
8. 3,031- Michelle Lee
9. 2,859- Chee Soon Juan
10. 2,802- Glenda Han

What do you make of the Workers' Party's silence?

It's been over 2 weeks since the Workers' Party historic victory in Aljunied GRC.
I was one of the thousands of Singaporeans rejoicing in this momentous event.
Born are five heroes who will take the battle to 81 other PAP MPs in Parliment.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'd deliberately driven into Aljunied GRC just this past weekend to get a feel of the change in the air.

Since then, a number of significant things happened- Stepping down of MM and SM, reshuffling of the Cabinet, Ministerial salary reviews, Woodlands water tank incident etc.

But the Workers' Party has kept largely silent. The only comment of note was Low Thia Khiang quoted in Straits Times "praising" the Cabinet musical chairs.

While it's WP's prerogative when the want to comment, some people think they are adopting an overly cautious approach in their quest for a first world parliment.

Personally, I urge Singaporeans to give this new GRC team time to prove their track record.
History has shown that it doesn't pay to take the confrontational route with PAP.
However noble the causes, Dr. Chee's and his party's image had suffered all these years due to the media's portrayal of them as the "rebellious" bunch.
If not for this, one could argue that the SDP could have performed even better this elections.

Singaporeans, especially the older generation, are too used to LKY's  approach where he has moulded a whole generation into obedient and apolitical people who view rebels with an admonishing eye.

So I feel WP knows this very well.
And I hope that the five Aljunied GRC MPs will take the good fight to PAP in Parliment and be that alternative voice they have promised voters.

Best summed up in Pritam Singh's May 5 rally.- "We raise national issues rationally, respectably and responsibly..."

Sweeping changes to Cabinet

PM Lee announced a tide of changes to 11 of the 14 ministries today.

Some significant departures:

• Wong Kan Seng- DPM and National Security
• Mah Bow Tan- National Development
• Raymond Lim- Transport

No surprises here. Theses are Ministers which have performed poorly in their respective areas.
Mah Bow Tan who oversaw the convolution of public housing , which is now incredibly overpriced.
Then there's our rapidly deteriorating transport system- trains breaking down, overcrowding, jams on all major roads and expressways during peak hours, cars costing more than houses in many countries etc. Mr. Lim's only response is to erect more ERP gantries!
And Wong Kan Seng and Mas Selamat.

Not to mention that these three were part of GRCs that performed relatively poorly and could be ripe for the taking next GE- Bishan-Toa Payoh, Tampines and East Coast.

Some curious appointments:

• Heng Swee Keat- Education Minister
• Vivian Balakrishnan- Minister for Environment and Water Resources
• Gan Kim Yong- Health Minister
• Khaw Boon Wan- National Development Minister
• K Shanmugam- Law and Foreign Affairs

I did a search on Heng Swee Keat's background. MAS, Trade Development Board, Singapore Police Force and Singtel Optus- nothing that screams "education" here. Maybe his experience with SPF will make our kids more disciplined.

Vivian Balakrishnan will now be tasked among other things, to stop the frequent floods in Singapore. Seeing how he burst his YOG budget by three times, I wonder if the Marina Barrage will overflow.

Gan Kim Yong presided over possibly what was the biggest influx of immigrants ever in this country. I suppose as new Health Minister, he will have the opportunity serve the healthcare needs of the 1.5 million or so foreigners.

Malaysian-born Khaw Boon Wan once blogged about his $8 bypass surgery. Will Singaporeans have a chance to buy a flat for $8? Tantalising prospect.

Multi-talented K Shanmugam will now helm both Law and Foreign Affairs portfolios. I guess Foreign Affairs is just not important enough to get its stand-alone Minister considering there are only 205 countries and about 2,469,501 cities in this world.

Noteworthy:

Our NTUC Chief and singer Mr. Lim Swee Say gets the Minister in Prime Minister's Office role again. I'm not exactly sure what this type of Minister does for a $2 million salary.

Yet another new title is born: Emeritus Senior Minister- Goh Chok Tong.

Avril Lavigne Black Star Tour- Singapore Indoor Stadium 9 May 2011

Please allow me a little break from politics..:)

I mentioned before that I was a massive Avril Lavigne fan...yes almost as massive as those Bieber die-hards I dare say!
Just came back from a sold-out crow at the Indoor Stadium- Avril Lavigne "Black Star" tour.
This is the second time I'm catching her in Singapore and the show literally blasted us into the black star.

Although just 1.5hours long, the music was continuous (unlike lots of Chinese acts who'd rather use 1/2 hr of precious time with costume changes). She sang all her favourite songs like "Complicated", "I'm With You", "Girlfriend", "Don't Tell" etc.
Of course, there were new songs like "What the Hell", "Smile" and "Wish You Were Here".

Let me tell you she has one of the hottest vocals in the music industry. She is absolutely fab "live"!
No auto-tune, lip synching and pitchy notes and people who listen to Avril's songs will know they are rather hard to sing.
And she writes them herself. An artiste in every sense of the word.

Anyway, I leave you aptly with a "live" performance of her current No.1 hit single on 91.3, "Smile".
Just as Aljunied GRC residents will be smiling for the next five years...

Our opposition MPs have already begun to work for us...

It's amazing what a team of strong, credible opposition can do to the once almighty PAP...even before stepping into office.

PM Lee issued at rare "apology" at yesterday's lunch time rally, saying the PAP made mistakes on the floods, Mas Selamat, housing and a range of other issues.
What's so rare about apologies? Governments around the world apologise for wrong-doings all the time. Japanese and Korean lawmakers readily step down when they commit mistakes.
For the benefit of non-Singaporeans or Singaporeans who've been hibernating all this while, it is probably easier to catch a solar eclipse than to hear any PAP minister apologise.

Law and Home Affairs Minister now says that the PAP needs to communicate more with Singaporeans.
Dr Amy Khor, MP in charge of PAP's feedback unit "Reach", previously admitted in parliment that it was useless to give feedback to the government.
Lim Swee Say once claimed that he was deaf to all criticisms.

Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan has finally come out to explain his busting of the YOG budget and the now infamous "three meals" answer he gave to Dr Lily Neo in parliment--- albeit insincerely.

Khaw Boon Wan "cried" when someone asked him about this $8 heart bypass. He admitted to deficiencies in our healthcare system and probably cried because he's worried the voters will kick him out this time.

So you see dear voters, especially those still undecided.... just because we have a real political contest, 82 out of 87 seats, just because we have excellent opposition candidates of equal or better calibre asking the right questions and contributing viable alternative proposals during rallies and campaigning, we are seeing the PAP slowing taking responsibility for their past actions.

Imagine what 20-30 opposition candidates (hopefully more) in Parliment can do. They will absolutely make a difference in policy making and the end result is that our lives can only get better.

Do the right thing. The future is in our hands.