Less than 8 hours away from voting, still listening to rally by the opposition in my GRC. It is such a pity that I didn’t make it to any of the rally, nonetheless I still like to hear what they say. I was advised that the reports that we read through the general media stream may not be comprehensive enough thus watching online video might be better.
From the videos, I can see the huge crowd at the rally and how rar rar the crowd were. Sometimes I can’t help but to feel that the current govt’s position might be overtaken (very unlikely I guess). However, I wanted to listen to them not because I am pro-opposition, but rather because I know what the existing govt are doing and but do not know enough about the opposition thus I am listening to their rallies. Thus I believed many people who were there at the rally site might have the same metality as me too, therefore the big crowd crowd at the rally doesn’t implies high voting count for them.
I realised that hearing the rally allowed myself to know more about the party’s plan and idea, more than what was reported in mainstream media which more often than not left me thinking “it easier to say than done. How does the reduction in XYZ be substainable?”. Listening to rally unveiled the details and I actually think some of the ideas are logicial.
For example, govt salary should not be tagged to the top tier of the income range, they should take home X times (they mentioned 30 times) the median income. Why? Because the top tier of the income range more often than not may be accounted to the individual’s capabilities at the top which may not implies growth in the country / economy. The opposition’s idea was that tagging it to the median income, govt has to ensure that our salary increases before their salary increases. Though the Maths works this way, I have a different thinking. I agree with the approach because I find that thats a better gauge of the economy growth and perhaps if the govt is doing well in this area.
I liked the idea that this speaker presented, unfortunately the next 2 candidates that I listened to disappoint me. It really turns me off when more than half the rally session was focusing on “shooting down” the other party. We are not here to listen to some scolding or blaming speech, tell me whats your plan and how you can do better is the KEY! … Though I must agree that the blaming / scolding did make the crowd “high”. Nonetheless, I look at the team as a whole not by the individual though that does +/- the impression a bit.
Didn’t get to hear more details about the housing prices, personally I think the HDB flats sold by govt should not be tagged to the market price. I understand the theory of demand v.s supply but you are building the HDB flats with our $$ and since the aim is to allow affordable housing to us, HDB flats for first timer who bought from govt should be sold at a lesser profit. I read that govt suffered $100 million losses every year on HDB flats / housing… I really find it hard to apprehand. A 4 room flat in my area cost ~$60,000 23 years back but now it cost near to $300K. The price of HDB flats raised by 5 folds or more, yet our salary did not even doubled. Thus I felt that the cost of building HDB flats should not have increased by 5 folds…so I cannot understand why govt is making a lost (unless that is a lost in opportunity cost, then yes I understand). I might be missing something here, feel free to shed some lights on this.
However, for resale market, it is reasonable to tag to market price as it is up to individual how much you want to sell your own property. Afterall, you bought it with your own $$ not using everyone’s $$.
Every 5 years when they give out $$ to us, it didn’t really excites me. Why? Those are our money and yet usually after the GE, GST and various HDB living cost will just shoot up. This is what we called “dou chew chu, jiat chew lip” in Hokkien (out from the left and in by the right). Actually, if I were to describe the people’s situation, is not out from the left and in by the right, is out from both left and right!!! Those $$ were from “us” anyway … and now we are paying more.
I am glad the current govt heard us and promised that there will not be any further GST increase over the next 5 years, at the same time I hope this doesn’t translate to higher electricity bill or higher town council charges. This at times really puts me to wonder if the check and balance that the opposition mentioned is indeed useful?
CPF wise, I still think it is a good initiative and those who complained about it are more often than not are people who needed it the most! Why? Because those who complained are frequently those who did not ( or were unable) to plan for retirement and do not have enough $$ to spent thus they wanted to touch on the money in CPF. If there isn’t CPF, I can imagine the state of these people to be worst. You may argue that if they don’t even have $$ to fed themselves now (e.g. age 55) then whats the point to talk about 10 years down the road (age 65). The truth is … if you are desperate for $$ now, you are most likely still able to work and actually at age 55 you do get 40% (or was it 60%?) of your CPF regardless how much you have in your CPF ordinary account (even if it did not meet the recommended “minimum sum” required in the retirement account). If only at age 65 then you are at the state of no $$ no job, isn’t it worst to be forced to find a job and work then?
What if we don’t live beyond age 55 or 65? The fact is that the average lifespan of Singaporean Man and Woman is 79 and 82 respectively. There isn’t a plan to fit all, but it is definately a plan that fit most.
What about those who not only planned for their retirement and are able to fetch much higher return than the 2.5% interest given by the CPF Board? I don’t see the need for these people to overreact about CPF also. Why? Diversity in investment, just take this as some low risk (near to no risk unless the govt default) investment and/or savings. You most likely do not need these $$ anyway!
In short, for those who can’t plan, CPF is your saving grace and most likely you won’t be able to achieve the interest rate that they give by yourself. For those who can plan and invest, you most likely do not need the CPF $$ desperately, so why not just patiently wait till age 65? However, I do not agree to move the retirement age any further to beyond age 65! My dream is to retire by age 50 … though now it seems even more challenging since I haven’t been actively investing in last 2 years…what a waste!
Lastly, I do not see the need for the current govt to apologise for the floods and etc. Yes, you may not have forecasted the demand accurately but no one is perfect, you just need to admit that you have not done well but need not apologise. As for the flood, it was a natural disaster … and was resolved in hours which I think is reasonable. What the current MM did in the past was not wrong, at least in my opinion, he did what was necessary to bring us to our current state for the past X years. It is just that we are now no longer a third world country, thus the approach should be changed accordingly. Perhaps some of the approaches / policies set in the past needs a review but I don’t think it is nice to say negative things about him. Afterall, without him, we won’t be where we are today. I am a strong believer of learning is the way out of proverty which was his way to bring us to a first world country. (But of course, my support for which party will not take our dear MM into consideration as I also think he should take a break and rest now … everyone of us will need to let go at some point in time don’t we?).
I believed that existing govt will win > 50% of the seats, unless too many people voted with the mentality that PAP will win so it is OK to vote the opposition for the check and balance regardless of the party that they truely think can lead them for the next few years. However, I hope it is a marginal win … else I am unsure what does it says about all the rar rar-ness that has been going on for the past 10 days.
Less than 2 hours ago (you must be confused with my timing? Yes…I started writting last night and only managed to complete it now), I did my part as a Citizen, casted my sacred vote (投票是神聖的). Which party did I vote for? Hahaha….投票是秘密的 ^__^
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