Hougang's Story: Upgrading abode but downgrading quality of life

In the recent by-election episode, Hougang residents highlighted a paradox of our quality of life.

Upgrading our public flats, provisions of sheltered walkways, lift access to each level of our abode bring about an improvement of our quality of life no doubt, at least from the day-to-day aspect.

Such provisions of hardware are invariably associated to our political choice in our unique political climate. In simple words, we have to sell our votes during election in return for these hardware even though some of them, such as lift access and sheltered walkways will never be part of our personal possessions but the public. 

As such,  do we then gaze beyond the facade and usefulness of these hardware and think of some other aspects that impact the quality of our life deeper and wider?

Such as the persistent inflation, meaning high cost of living including medical care and education which form an essential part of living, especially to young couples for family planning and care for their parents.

When we enjoy the shade of the walkways on our way to the nearest bus stop or train station, have we given up on the reliability of our public transport which was once our pride; is the possibility of a price hike by the transport operator always at the back of our minds? Can the shade of the walkways shelter us from the ominous dark clouds of cheaper foreign influx that loom above our heads as these immigrants will replace us imminently?And when that unfortunate day does come, will there be  re-employment opportunities of the same pay and benefits for us? If not, how do we invest in our young and support our old?

While admiring the refurbished look of our public flats and estates, do we not feel the stress of the increasing cost of goods and services that seep into all aspects of our lives? In education, in medical care, in transport and in retirement. That will eventually erode our retirement funds, if we still have any left for retirement after combating the rising cost of living with our existing salaries, and on the assumption that we could still hold on to our jobs till our retirement.

I love modern and convenient hardware like any other residents. However, I cannot overlook the harsh reality on the grounds that will ultimately eliminate the meagre, short-lived benefits that come with the refurbishment. In fact, these votes-exchanged hardware provisions will invite more nightmares to our lives in the long run as our endorsement at the ballot box endorsed the direction which the current ruling party is bringing our nation to.

The sheltered walkways offer no comfort when I am thrust with a big medical bill of my parents that will inevitably eat into my retirement funds. I'd rather shelter myself with an umbrella in exchange for a more affordable medical care. I'd rather have a less pleasing looking estate in exchange for the current price of my food and services. The inflation rate for April is 5.4% (Here) and this is the rate that is here to stay for years. Can you imagine the price of my rice in twenty year's time when I retire based on the current pace of inflation?

Voters do have the ultimate right in deciding the kind of quality that they would like for their lives.

However, Hougang residents value their quality of life over the longer term than superficial hardware benefits. At the ballot box, they manifested their objections to the policies formulated by the current political party that inflict long term pain and stress on our citizens--young, mature and old alike. The Hougang residents saw through deficiencies of the current policies.


The Hougang residents opened my eyes to the hidden price tag of the hardware provisions that will be ultimately borne by all the people of this nation.

Ferrari Crash—An epitome of Singapore’s future

Sit tight. Fasten your seat belt. We are going for a rough ride from here. And the seat belt could no longer warrant your safety. And I am not talking about road safety over here but the future of this island-state-nation for our citizens.  

Last weekend, a Ferrari beating red lights crashed into a taxi at a junction at 4am in the morning. The accident claimed three lives, including the Ferrari driver and injured two others (thank goodness the motorcyclist survived despite being the most unprotected vehicle user). The irresponsible act of one driver, a super rich Chinese national, to cause irreparable loss to two families. Especially saddened by the demise of the taxi driver who was working night shift on that fateful night as the sole breadwinner of his family of five. He was declared brain dead on the same day but hung on for 39 hours before succumbing to his injuries.

I couldn’t help but to see this accident as the future of Singapore and thus, feel even more disheartened by this mishap.

In this accident, 5 casualties were involved. The Ferrari driver and the passenger are Chinese nationals; the taxi passenger who was killed was a Japanese; and the taxi driver and the motorcyclist are both Singaporeans. Of the 5 people on the road at a random time at a random place, only two are Singaporeans. This is the growing reality of Singapore nowadays. Just this year alone of road-related fatalities, more foreign nationals than Singaporeans are involved : a Chinese national hijacked a taxi and ran down a Malaysian cleaner; a Chinese national bus driver killed a Malaysian pedestrian; a Malaysian bus driver killed a pedestrian….Yes, the situation where the proportion of foreign nationals is overtaking the natives could only get worse, judging from the recent series of justifications of more foreign nationals needed, determined by our pedestal leaders who possess more wisdom than mundane creatures like us.  

Foreign nationals overtaking natives in numbers is already happening now and there is no reversal to this situation. But this is not the only phenomena that the Ferrari crash presents.

Of the two Singaporeans in the wee hours of the night, one Singaporean was working—the taxi driver. The purpose of the motorcyclist out at this hour was unknown. All the other foreign nationals were most probably having a Friday night chill out. Driving taxi for long hours is tiring and it is an occupation with zero benefits: no paid or sick leave, no bonuses or medical benefits. But this is a common option left for people who were retrenched in their mid careers who could no longer find employment in their previous industries despite their experience, given the unfair competition which some foreign nationals have with their cheaper labour and their presence in every industry.

The disheartening fact which this unfortunate accident highlighted, is that the helpless average working Singaporeans, in this case, the taxi driver, will be run over by the super rich, represented by the Ferrari driver. Pun intended. We are already run by the super rich for the last two decades. In the future, average Singaporeans will be run over by even more super rich, locals and foreign nationals alike. Ran over and crushed. Similar to what the Ferrari driver did to the taxi driver. Although in a different circumstance.

Singapore’s playground for the rich is growing bigger and faster. Look at the number of sports car growing on our roads and luxurious bungalows springing everywhere in the last decade. Luxurious malls for the super rich are mushrooming. Foreign nationals are lured to this growing pool of wealth too.

Undeniably, their wealth allows the rich to game the current system which for a start is pro-rich. Given their wealth, natives or foreign nationals alike, they can afford to flout all rules and regulations. Like that Ferrari driver.

This pool of wealth boosts real estate, businesses and landlords. And they can afford to grow wealth from their ready wealth. Salaried employees benefit little from that influx of wealth. In fact, they have to pay for the rising cost of living in consequence of that. No, I don’t buy into Tharman’s logic that inflation only affects those who will be buying houses and cars only.  On the facade, prices of housing and cars contribute substantially to inflation.

But inflation affects everyone. When prices of cars and housing are soaring high, the cost of transport and the high rental charge for businesses and retails will be eventually passed on to the consumers in the form of other commodities. And inflation is increasing from year to year. If we add up each year’s inflation, despite not buying houses and cars each year, the inflation for commodities, utilities, transport fare, medical and education costs are very, very real.  On the other spectrum, wages are not rising faster than inflation. In some unfortunate cases, wages actually fall or became stagnant. In short, salaried employees who do not possess any property to flip or to rent out, are fighting an eminent losing battle against the rich. The super rich feel little pinch from the inflation and profit more from the inflation via real estate.

Back to the Ferrari crash analogy, there is only that number of working hours a taxi driver could work per day. And the cost of running his taxi will definitely increase—have you ever seen fuel costs or rental for taxis coming down? His real income will be wiped off by the rate of inflation eventually and there will come a time where his income will not be able to cope with the living cost, no matter how prudent he chooses to be.

Inflation comes crashing on average Singaporeans fast and furious. Won’t be long before that crushes us to crumbs.

Policy-makers, the Ferrari driver in disguise, crush working Singaporeans in two ways: (1) allowing cheaper immigrant influx to control the rise of local wages for the benefits of the rich; (2) allowing super rich influx to sustain the current “economy” to benefit the super rich. 

Either way, average Singaporeans will be crushed.

价格与价值

是有区分的。价格指的是金钱上的标价，而价值是非金钱、主观的标价。

只懂得以价格来衡量一切的人，包括对人命，永远无法掌握任何事物和行动的内在价值。One who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

因此，来自金融业的新任部长为了要重整狮城没落的道德，决心从教育着手。于是，拿了一袋金子，来培养学生用有良好的品德。唯有金钱的诱惑才能让自己“决定”拥有良好“品格”的动机叫“利欲熏心”。砸钱来培养品格，只能反映出当事人看不懂什么是发自内心的品格。

要求地铁局在月台上设置栅栏，以确保搭客安全，避免重演搭客意外跌下月台的事件。地铁局的劈头反应便是：设栅栏的费用不小。对地铁局来说，一条人命的价值比不上挂牌公司的利润重要。

要求提升低薪工人的待遇时，让各界惊恐得犹如海啸当前那般。一桶又一桶的冷水泼下来。抱歉，企业的开销压力必须由工人全权承担，以保全中小型企业以及海外企业。员工的切身生计以及日益加剧的通膨压力事小，吓跑外国企业事大。只能怪工人自己命苦。

面对人口老化的事实，要求降低医药价格，以减轻医药负担时，那名重金聘请的天才理所当然地建议狮城儿女把父母送去邻国的医疗中心。因为那里比较便宜。对眼睛只看懂金钱价格的人而言，无法要求他明白道德的价值。

就因为价值是无法标价，所以是无价的。因为无价，所以更不可能随着价格的起落而摇摆不定，也不必等待金钱的肯定，所以也不用金钱来推动个人的行动。

当然，眼睛里只有标价的人自然无法理解。

扭曲的成与败

英国伦敦地下铁工人在最后一次的罢工行动中为自己争取到五万英镑的年薪（约新币十万）。

重点并不是这些地下铁工人是否贪得无厌，而是这样的待遇比大专学府讲师，甚至是一些从事金融业者更丰厚的事实。

不可思议是吗？蓝领工人的待遇竟然高于白领工人。

可是，又为何不呢？

地下铁工人不重要吗？没有了他们，瘫痪了的伦敦繁华不起来。清道夫低贱吗？少了他们，狮城肯定难保干净的美名。

可是，我们惯用“不好好读书，以后就去路边扫地”这样的价值观来鞭笞孩子努力学习，不假思索地就否定了某些工作的价值。这样的价值来由何处？

狮城社会的那名总工程师拟定了成功的标准及人数，在观念上否定了运用劳力工作、站在前线的服务人员，顺理成章地在待遇上剥削他们，更巧妙地让这批人潜意识地接受了自己的“失败”。拟定这一标准的那名工程师只肯定“会读书”的人。

成功与失败的定义被人为地扭曲了。

一个国家的运作靠各阶层、各角色的分工。不可能只是一个人的功劳。试叫旷世奇才统领沙漠，把它变成先进国吧。再庞大的重型机器，少了该有的微小螺丝钉，就无法安全运作。社会是分工运作的，有策划者与执行者之分，是角色不同，而不是优劣之分。这道理，真的很简单。

伦敦地下铁的工人肯定自己的工作价值。英国水管工人每小时收费40英镑（约新币80元），凭相关的技能与经验完成工作。

反观狮城重金聘请的那个会读书的博士，面对狮城水患频繁时，只懂得以设置闭路电视观察水患程度来“解决”淹水问题。到底，谁的技能与经验更有价值？

My experience with public bus accidents/breakdowns

I am most fortunate to encounter 4 separate public breakdowns and minor road accidents on SMRT public buses in less than a year.

It is such experience that highlights the good work of some of our Singaporean bus drivers and the severity of the lack of training given to our current fleet of transport workers especially with the rising proportion of foreign workers into our public transport service.

Of the 4 incidents I encountered, two which involved road accidents occurred with the same bus route and coincidentally both buses were driven by foreigners (not sure if they are both PRs!) , a Malaysian and a Chinese national respectively. Honestly, in both accidents, I could not tell whose fault it was—the bus captains or the other motorists.

The other two bus break downs involved local drivers. The reason of me pointing out the nationalities of these drivers being, of these four incidents, coincidentally again, only Singaporean drivers could conduct proper breakdown procedure to the passengers involved, by issuing complimentary bus tickets for passengers affected to continue free-of-charge with their subsequent journey and also instructing passengers to tap out when leaving the bus.

In my most recent encounter of a bus break down, our Malay bus captain gave clear instructions and explanation in English of each procedure that I realized, for the first time, in addition to the given complimentary ticket, passengers actually received a refund straight away when they tapped out of the affected bus. I always thought that I have to travel to the bus terminal to get refund and because of the time and cost involved, I never did.

In comparison, on foreigner-driven buses, both bus drivers appeared hapless after the accident and had to call back to SMRT or stopping other buses for advice. Passengers were told to get off the bus with or without a complimentary ticket. And in one case, even communication between the driver and the non-Mandarin speaking passengers was an issue.

These accidents/breakdowns on public buses and in comparison with different groups of drivers, highlighted the importance of training the transport workers receive, to safeguard both the safety and convenience of passengers. Training is especially crucial to overseas-recruited drivers as driving in foreign road conditions with foreign language and commuters are very challenging. Therefore, training provisions must be sufficient to overseas-recruited transport workers to ensure the safety and convenience of both the commuters and the drivers.

Lastly, I would like to express my appreciation to those local drivers who have been upholding the standard of our public bus service, in the challenge of ever increasing number of motorists and public bus commuters.