Gardens by the Bay cannot assuage our insecurities

I need no crystal ball to foresee that Hsien Loong will be planning for some huge vanity projects....again this GE year. He has a habit of using these building constructions as a means to portray his "vision".

Again and again. 

There was already the Marina Bay Sands, the Gardens by the Bay, the Marina and then Jewel, the High Speed Train (on-going still?) and now there is this plan to build 3X the size of current Marina Bay at Tanjong Pagar, The Greater Southern Waterfront (GSW).

It is all about building, building and more building. Building a nation is simply not about the buildings. A vision that is determined by the number and size of the vanity projects that he can pull together is only a construction plan, a vision of architectural landscape? But for a nation, for a home, for our homes, that does not suffice. 

There is no doubt of the aesthetic values of these constructions and everyone appreciates beauty, however, at the end of the day, what purpose does it serve for a peasant like me? These constructions are indeed useful for me to showcase the wealthy side of Singapore. To boast. But how many times a year do I need that for? Ultimately, it serves only to intensify the hollowness of my own vanity. And to put it into the current situation where the peasants are overwhelmed by a huge sense of insecurities, Hsien Loong's "vision" appears a little too empty and a total lack of a sense of proportion.

The hardtruth is, I can't rely on these pompous projects for my job security, retirement security, healthcare security and even transport security. 

On the contrary, cosmetics like the GSW that serve to beautify our landscape may very likely to increase living costs as it will boost the land value in and around the area in the form of higher rentals, housing prices and higher profit possibilities for some groups of people. 

So what is Hsien Loong really chasing after?

The well-being of the peasants? Or more playgrounds for a specific strata of the population?

Vision serves as the framework for all necessary policies and ideas to be put in place. Does not necessarily involve constructions at all. And my vision for a nation, must serve to better as many stratum of our society as possible. Not the other way round of using isolated constructions and scenic areas to fill up that vision. 

What does Hsien Loong seriously want? I can't see his SG100 vision or even SG75's amid these bricks and cement. For bricks and cements do not translate into the care, security and trust that make a home, that enrich your presence. He wants to make Singapore a special place. But all such doings of his only make Singapore dull and shallow.

Lastly, these mega plans will only furher impoverish the already shallow pockets that I have. 
 

With you, for you, for Singapore. PAP cares....

“I know with my heart that this is a Government that has staked everything on serving Singaporeans.” ---Sim Ann.

I must agree with Mdm Sim Ann right from the bottom of my heart. And this is a short list out of a long one to show examples of how PAP truly cares for the peasants of this country. 

1) Wage cut for you; pay rise for them

Good intention: Wage cuts cheapen your labour price so as to help you to stay competitive.

For the peasants and for Singapore,  in 1999, in response to the turmoil of Asia Financial Crisis (AFC), 10% reduction on CPF employer’s contribution. Before the reduction, employer and employee contribute 20% each to CPF.

The reduction rate was never restored to its 20% pre-AFC period until now --SIXTEEN years after AFC.

Between 1999 and 2014, Singapore’s GDP has grown from USD$85.71 billion to  USD$307.87 billion. How much more of our GDP does PAP want before they will restore our 1999 CPF rate?

For the aristocrats, for Singapore, PAP rewarded themselves in payrise twice in the years 2000 and 2006. In 2000, 12%-14% pay rise for ministers. The extent of pay rise was higher than peasants’ wage cut. They did not recover the full wage cuts that year.

In 2007, ministers saw 60% pay rise. It’s a 60% increase of an already huge salary, not a 60% of $1000. And still, CPF rate contribution for employees did not return to the 20% level.

Conclusion: PAP truly cares for the you……. by enhancing peasants' labour cheapness even though the CPF cuts affected many who were servicing their housing loan through their CPF funds. However, as long as the peasants work hard, they will be rich in their CPF. And all peasants have equal opportunities to be rich as Lim Swee Sway.

2) Minimum wage for PAP but not for you

Good intention: To spur lazy peasants, otherwise they will not work for the economy

For Singapore, minimum wage for peasants will wreck Singapore’s economy. Because peasants are just pawns for our economy, therefore their cost of labour should be kept to the minimum to reduce the impact for businesses, GLCs and MNCs.

For them, our ministers need a minimum wage before they are willing to sacrifice and step forward to serve our country. Minimum wage for ministers will also ensure good talents will step forward and lead the country. Without these highly-paid ministers, Singapore will collapse!

Vivian is the epitome of the quality of our ministers. In his world, no one will work for free. Only those who are either rich or corrupted do. Our ministers went through diligent checks, as stringent as our immigration bureau which allowed a talent such as Yang Yin to attain PR status with his fake degree to con a wealthy old lady in the most innovative way, therefore ministers are all proven to be people of quality and integrity. Our uncorrupted ministers are still far from  the level of wealthy yet to work for free. Therefore, peasants need to satisfy the ministers’ insatiable greed bank accounts so that one fine day, ministers will be rich enough to work for the nation for free.

Conclusion: PAP truly cares for you……. by enabling peasants like us to slug for third-world-country income in a first world costs of living. This is for the betterment for Singapore. Nation welfare precedes unimportant individuals. National reserves should not be raided to help individuals.

3) For you to pay for the social cost; for them to reap GDP

Good intention:  For Singapore, for them, peasants have to pay socials for the ills of GDP and PWP to appreciate the privilege of being the citizens. Free lunches are only reserved for 2nd grade talents from foreign countries. Because we must treat our guests with hospitality.

Social costs are not included in the calculation of GDP. Fortunately, otherwise it will pull down their sterling achievement and Hsien Loong might sob. 

The ills of population growth are borne by individual peasants. Growing crime rate and new forms of crime for our outstretched police force, depressed wages lead to hardships for families, increased tensions between cultures of different nationalities, increased possibilities of infectious diseases in a densely populated area, increased competition on limited resources causing stress and anxiety, increased responsibilities of our NS men who are paid a meagre allowance to demonstrate their duty towards our nation, increased job insecurity. But remember, all these are done for Singapore. It might be too profound for the peasants to understand.

For Singapore, the two casinos brought about job opportunities for the peasants and our foreign guests. If peasants insist to gamble away their money and allow casinos to break up their families, there is little PAP can do. Peasants can make their own choices. Either they commit suicide when they are heavily in debt, or they can choose not to. Broken families are not a concern for the PAP as it does nothing to beef up GDP figures. Trade offs for you and for Singapore.

Conclusion: PAP truly cares for you…... as it has already spent a fortune with the best intention on advertisements to educate peasants about the vices of gambling. It has done its best to protect local peasants from the ills of gambling. For Singapore, we should not burden our nation further.

4) Hospital Bed crunch for you

Good intention: To enable peasants to understand the hardship of a third world country in order to appreciate what PAP has done for Singapore. The peasants’ hide will become thicker after this.  

For Singapore, Khaw Boon Wan, the compassionate buddhist, deliberately maintain status quo for the number of hospital beds in Singapore despite growing and aging population during his time as the Minister for Health to help save costs. If the peasants are being warded at the corridor of the hospital, either they choose to fly out of the country to seek cheaper medical care elsewhere, or they can choose to die. It is cheaper for the latter.

Conclusion: PAP truly cares for the you...... by spurring the peasants to lead a healthy lifestyle. Either they fall sick, or they don’t fall sick. They can start collecting cardboards under the scorching sun. In this way, they can prevent sickness and then spend less on healthcare. If peasants fall sick, they must take note NOT TO FALL SICK AT THE SAME TIME. Otherwise, peasants will cause over-crowding at the government hospitals. Anyway, the PAP has ensured there is sufficient space along the hospital corridors and even went to the extent of setting up tents likened to a refugee camp, to accommodate paying peasants. The peasants must be grateful for PAP’s efforts because it is worse in the Sahara desert where there isn’t even a hospital in sight.

5) Hazey days at PSI 400 but no stop-work order for you

Good intention: So that working peasants can acclimatise to the haze and continue their healthy lifestyle through work.

Vivian and Shanmugam have already repeatedly told the peasants that there is nothing they can do about the natural disaster. We cannot go against the nature. If the winds decide to blow the haze towards a tiny, vulnerable, resourceless, defenceless country like Singapore, there is really nothing the PAP can do at all.

Since PAP cannot blow the haze away, it has to be pragmatic and take the opportunity to train its people to acclimatise to the hazards of the haze. Peasants should not shy away from work like the natural aristocrats who can stay in the comfort of their air-conditioned palaces. Otherwise, our economy will crumble to the grounds into bits and pieces and vanished into the thin air in puffs if PAP calls for work stop for 2 days. The entire country will come to a standstill and there will be no one to clean the estates for the natural aristocrats. For Singapore, peasants must inhale the haze.

Conclusion: PAP truly cares for you…... by being honest of the problems that the PAP are incapable and uninterested of solving. They will not seduce the peasants into the belief that PAP is an overpriced superhero who is reluctant to shield Singapore from all man-made and natural disasters. Haze is good as it will reduce visibility and therefore, the peasants will spot fewer rodents running amuck during this period.

6) Jobs for foreigners; underemployment for you

Good intention: Foreigners are our guests. It is ill-manners if peasants do not treat them with respect and lavish them with the best opportunities that Singapore has. Don’t let the emperor Xian Long Hsien Loong be fully ashamed by the peasants’ behaviour.

Foreigners will create jobs and learning opportunities for peasants! See, there are lots more local peasants driving taxis than 2 decades ago because of the presence of foreigners. Some taxi drivers come with degree qualifications too! Don’t you feel proud to be driven around by a graduate? Which third world country has that? For Singapore, peasants must do the country proud. Foreigners have also created more jobs for police, security guards, inspector for fake paper qualifications and cleaning jobs.

Some peasants, being lazy, who refused to take up lower rank jobs, deserved to be unemployed. It is not shameful at all to work as a maid for $500 salary. Look, some maids went home and bought land and set up business and became bosses. Such aspirations! Peasants should learn from foreigners. 

For Singapore, peasants must sacrifice some small inconveniences to better our country and strive for the best opportunities for the foreigners. So that Hsien Loong can boost about the generosity of Singapore. He will be proud! How well we treat foreigners, much better than the Aussies!

Conclusion: PAP truly cares for you……..by bring hordes of foreigners to spur the peasants. Otherwise, how do peasants compete globally? PAP has brought the entire globe to Singapore for the peasants without even stepping out of Singapore!

7) No CPF for them; can-see-cannot-touch-CPF for you

Good intention: To help idiotic peasants who cannot manage their own finances from squandering away their hard-earned money on mistresses, gigolos and casinos.

PAP has a responsibility in ensuring the peasants on how they should spend their retirement funds. Otherwise, Singapore will collapse! Where on earth can you find such caring political party. In the meantime, PAP can divert the CPF funds for overseas gambles investments to benefit the peasants. Hopefully there will be returns for such ventures. Which first world government will milk money out of peasants to help invest for them?

As a caring and responsible political party, PAP will consider extending the full withdrawal age for the peasants as the population is aging. Many peasants are living longer than they should. 

For Singapore, peasants should not burden the country. Withdrawal age at 80 might be a fair age for withdrawal. By then, the peasants will have attained sufficient maturity to spend their retirement funds wisely. They will be too weak to travel to Batam by then.

Conclusion: PAP truly cares for you……... Enough said. Because they are the PAP, they are honest with their words. When PAP said they care, they really care because they are the PAP. For the past 2 decades, PAP has never said that they care. So when they claimed that they care, that is the hard truth that peasants must accept with gratitude. 

8) Care about your money; not your health

Locking up peasants' CPF savings is  one of the difficult choices that PAP has made. Because PAP knows what is best for peasants. PAP does not ban the sale of cigarettes because as long as peasants keep themselves healthy, cigarettes do no harm. BUT CPF will harm peasants.

Conclusion: PAP truly cares for you……...and knows exactly how to care for you.

9) Breakeven for you in healthcare; blank cheques for them for vanity projects
Good intention: Peasants can't bankrupt our country with their healthcare costs; vanity projects can put Singapore on the world map to boost about the PAP.

PAP needs money to build or sponsor vanity projects/events like Gardens by the Bay, Heliz bridge, pretty ministry buildings, F1 which can't even breakeven by themselves. This will help put Singapore, not Singaporeans, on the world map. PAP can claim credit for that and boast explicitly about themselves, not Singaporeans. It will bring glory to the country too although the peasants can't use this glory to find good jobs, affordable healthcare or to assuage living costs.
 
Hsien Loong mentioned the need for Medishield Life to breakeven. Gardens by the Bay needs no breakeven. Speaking from the point of profit-making for healthcare shows his care for our peasants. Because taking care of our sick and elderly is not PAP's responsibility. It is the peasants' own responsibility. Therefore, this is to train the peasants to be self-reliable and avoid bankrupting the country.

Some people choose to be sick, to be struck with chronic sickness, to be born with health issues; the elderly should maintain healthy lifestyle by collecting more cardboards or choose to die off instead of burdening our healthcare system. 

We are such vulnerable country; resources are limited. After making heaps from our HDBs, ERPs, COEs from the peasants, healthcare must contribute to the national revenue. It is the honour of our senior citizens to build this nation but they cannot bankrupt the country. The country does not owe them anything. But the country owes the PAP for everything.

Conclusion: The PAP loves vanity, they build their self-esteem from these hardware. And because they care for the peasants, the peasants should share the cost of PAP's self esteem. 

After listing a few examples of PAP’s care, the peasants should be moved to tears. If they don’t, they got to reflect why they felt this way. Look, the PAP has turned Singapore into such wealthy nation, much much more successful than Sahara Desert. What more do you want? Anything more than this is simply greed and corruption! If peasants do not appreciate it nor want to contribute to Singapore, PAP will then be forced into getting foreigners to contribute.

For you, with you, for Singapore!

By the way, who does the “who” actually refer to? And “for Singapore” means for all the people in Singapore right?

Population growth is NOT the real mother of problems

The mad and frentic population growth impacts Singapore peasants from both tangible and intangible perspective. It strains all our infrastructure, shrinking all our public space, inflates cost of living, destroys our social fabrics, dilute our national identity, impacts the sense of security and the list can go on and on.

Therefore, we tend to believe that it is the main culprit for all our current woes. But when delved deeper, there is this underlying philosophy that connects the whole string of problems that have been persistently impacting the peasants. 

Even without population growth, all other existing issues will remain if the underlying cause is not addressed. We can freeze population growth but prices of public housing can still soar through the manipulation of the supply of public flats. For eg, supply of BTOs were eventually rammed up after 2011 in response of population growth but that fails to bring down the prices of new BTOs. 

How else then, when supply has satisfied demand, to soften the prices? And who actually controls the price? As such, population growth is not the cause of high housing prices. Also, housing prices have been an issue as early as the late 90s but it was curbed by the Asian Financial Crisis.

Therefore, population growth is a problem itself. It does not create existing issues such as stagnant wages/fall in real income, high living costs, escalating heathcare costs, unfair job competition, deteriorating public transport etc but merely exacerbates the extent of the whole range of issues.  (However, I do note that population growth does cause new forms of crime.)

What population growth does, is to bring our problems to their back-breaking points earlier than they should.

For eg, the 2011 massive train broke down. Prolonged period of under-maintenance will inevitably shorten the lifespan of both our trains and train system even in the absence of a growing ridership. Massive breakdown is just a matter of time. 

The Art of Monetizing Everything

If we were to look at all our current issues, be it population growth or healthcare affordability, they share the same underlying philosophy--absolute obsession with money. For it is this single philosophy that frames all our aristocratic policies to achieve the aim of profit making from the peasants.

Vivian says it best. To him, there are only two type of people who will serve at zero cost – the wealthy or the corrupt. Plain and simple, for a person like him, money is the sole motivation for everything he does and every breath he draws.

We need money to enable the basics of life. However, there is a huge difference between the means and the end. 

When aristocrats are driven by profit-making movitation across our public housing, public transport, healthcare, living costs, workers’ stagnant wages....., the peasants will be sacrifced. 

We should not be surprised that public housing meant for housing the masses at an affordable price deviated into a profit-making mechanism; public transport deviated from delivering efficient transport services to lucrative retail business; our healthcare is not about patients but breakeven?

It is all about--the pursuit of more profits and even more profits.

Population growth

Many others had mentioned about the true intent of this 6.9 million human target. It has nothing to do with our aging population in truth but the economics. 

Population growth brings direct lucrative profits in the forms of cheaper labour for businesses (a check on the salaries of the peasants too), demand on housing needs for developers, increase consumption for retails, upward pressure on residential rents (to justify higher property tax) and commercial rents which both benefit the government coffers and….many more which the PWP did not tell you.

Population growth is a short cut money-making mechansim to help boost Hsien Loong’s GDP pride. Without GDP, he is nothing.

Housing.Public transport.Healthcare.

The obsession of money seeps through every single vein of our aristocrats. You see them peering at all matters on earth through their money-tinted glasses. Homes, family bonds, integrity, aspirations can be valued in dollars and cents. 


Money-obsession will motivate our aristocrats to produce innovative means to milk money. Think of COE. It is the only kind in the world.

Public Housing.  From the moment when our homes can be monetized in the form of asset enhancement, we have stopped building a nation. If your home is created for the purpose to be traded for profits, then one needs no home. There isn't any need for a nation either. For nation can be traded for profits too.

A public housing scheme targeted to make HDB flats accessible to the general public at a minimum rate has been infested by all kinds of profit-making notions, such as including the “cost” of land, calculated at market price, into the cost of building public housing. Pegging our PUBLIC housing pricing to market rates until this was changed in recent years. Effectively, we have a public housing with market price. It is about profit-making, not about the provisions of affordable housing for our peasants. 

Public transport. Everybody knows too well of the story of our beloved MRT system. Private companies exist for the sole purpose of making profits. Inevitably. It is not SMRT's issue but rather why was SMRT allowed to act in this manner? And SMRT's largest shareholder is our Temasek Holdings. 

Surely anyone with eyes can see that the MRT system had been far more reliable during the era of pre-privatised days than the privatised version. Since that woman took over SMRT, our public-funded train system had deviated into retail business and a profitable work-place for former generals.

Healthcare. Hsien Loong mentioned the need for Medishield Life to breakeven. He denotes our sickly and elderly in dollars and cents. In his twisted aristocratic mind, defence budget, Gardens by the Bay, SG 50 celebrations need no breakeven.

Then we have the Khaw Boon Wan’s blatant advice of sendiing our elderlies to JB for cheaper home care.

If we are so short of fund to provide for a genuine low-cost healthcare, then why built an unsustainable project such as Gardens by the Bay? The revenue it generates cannot cover the cost of maintenance.

We have public funds to prop up the vanity project but holds back funding for our sick and elderly? Does the Gardens mean more for Hsien Loong than our sick and elderly? “With you, for you, for Singapore” sounds hollow at this juncture.

Many bloggers before me had pointed out the inadequate spending on our healthcare as a developed nation. We even fall behind countries like China when we boosted about our near-the-top GDP per capita.

If that is not enough, CPF also profits from Medishield premiums. For every $1 of premium that CPF collects, it only pays out $0.43 on the average and the rest will be profits. 

Education. Calculative is the word. The calibre of our students are measured in a narrow-minded manner that determines the amount of resources that they deserve. The “thick ones”, whatever that means, should resign themselves to the fate of low-status manual workers. That is how a human being is stripped off its meaning in the eyes of our aristocrats. They claim that we have limited resources and precisely so, why are we reserving a growing size of our limited resources for foreigners?

Capital Gains and Estate Duty

For a money-obsessed mind of our aristocrats, it came as a surprise that there is no capital gains tax levied on the sales of stocks, bonds, precious metals and property, especially when we have such hot real estate that requires 10 rounds of cooling measure to rein in the prices. 

Estate duty which was mysteriously removed in 2008? Hsien Loong’s mama fell into a coma in the same year.

Singapore is loaded with the super wealthy beings. It doesn't make sense not to collect more money from the growing rich. The aristocrat resorts to double taxing the peasants on our utilities to make every cent counts--GST was levied on our water conservation tax but would be generous enough to leave inheritance value untouched?

For afterall, estate duty and capital gains tax will only affect those wealthy beings, including our natural aristocrats. Who will stand to benefit from the absence of such taxes? Not the peasants definitely, who are already struggling to pay off their PUBLIC housing.  


Aristocrats' dull talents

黔驴技穷(qián lǘ zhī jì)。Our aristocrats likened to the Guizhou donkey which has exhausted all his tricks in the face of a tiger. 

Plain to see, our aritocrats are only interested in fleecing the peasants for every cent they can off us but not their wealthy friends. Which in other words, it is the poor peasants who are propping up these expensive aristocrats with the little money that we have and providing them with the "profits" that they revel in. 

They are unable to create a profitable local economy without profiteering from the peasants. Like the Guizhou donkey. No more tricks to play. Their talents are even more pathetic when it comes to profits-making/investments in the real world beyond our country.  

The essence is, our aristocrats cannot live their aristocrat lives without the peasants! In order to make even more profits, they can only fleece more from the peasants. By holding back the peasants' own CPF money, increasing taxes for them, increasing the price of all necessities which the peasants will need.

Conclusion

Population growth is an issue itself. We have to stop the madness of population growth. But the bigger monster is our aristocrats' money-mindset--this  is the "mother" of all problems. Deep-rooted in our system and are rotting our healthy system. The aristocrats will not relinquish the easy lives that they have been enjoying. 

These cheapskate aristocrats got to be removed. Else the peasants will not see the daylight at the end of the tunnel. 

When the current level of profits satisfy the aristocrats no more, rest assured that they will produce new efficient ways to harnest more profits from the pockets of the peasants.

PAP fails if Singapore fails without PAP

Singapore will fail without the PAP.

Who put that idea into us and turned it into a self fulfilling prophecy? And if we believe that scenario, Singapore would certainly fail. Because we would resign to our fate and stop exploring other alternatives to succeed apart from the PAP-format.

It would be a dent to the pride which is boosted by the likes of our Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay and F1, to see beyond these glamour which Hsien Loong is so proud of, are nothing but a skindeep definition of “success”.

Because a country, after coming through 50 years of nation building of supposedly solid foundations, cannot wean off its dependence on a mere political party, cannot be deemed a “success”. It only raises serious questions about (1)the foundations of our country, (2)the strength of our citizenry and (3)PAP’s deliberate creation of a nation which allows PAP to grow into every ounce of our nation’s flesh, so much so that the two merged into one. If PAP has become an inseparable entity with our nation, that only exposes a few things:

1) Weak fundamentals of our nation

PAP claims, our nation cannot withstand the change of political parties. PAP, for all the credit it has claimed for our nation-building, failed to build a sound and independent foundation for our nation that can stand on its own. On the contrary, it has produced a weakling that is entirely reliant on PAP, a political party. PAP is the crutch that it has built itself into, which Singapore will be forever reliant on it. If that is really the case, it explains the need for PAP to propagate the threat idea that Singapore cannot do without PAP.

Let’s pause and think.

If Singapore was to collapse without that crutch, wouldn’t it make sense to endure the short term pain of removing that crutch which hinders our nation to learn to stand on its own? A child will never be able to learn to stand, walk and run on his own if he is forever reliant on a crutch. The same logic applies to our nation. Unless you do not aspire to walk on your own.

PAP’s propaganda also betrays the unsustainability of our country. No doubt we need leaders with vision (I am not talking about a leader who can only envision how much of GDP growth--that is not a vision) to navigate Singapore Boat in the right direction, however, if the Boat has been built with strong elements to sustain storms and challenging waters, then even in the absence of the previous captain, the Boat should not sink. It will sink if the building materials are of inferior quality. The Boat might sail in a different direction but that may not be necessarily a bad move. With a dedicated crew, that is, our people, we can help the new captain to keep the Boat afloat. This brings us to the next issue.

2) Humiliating Singaporeans

There are crew on board the Singapore Boat. The captain cannot hold the boat all on his own. This appears to be missing from the dimension of PAP’s claim.

Having a strong, dedicated crew, that is our people, on board helps to assuage the impact of the absence of a capable captain. Nations cannot be strong with a weak citizenry. The smartest captain on board will be rendered ineffective without capable crewmen. This is the dimension that is conveniently missing from PAP’s claim. We have never realized that it is not a mere political party that makes a country strong--it is the people.

For all the compliments that PAP heaped upon itself, it is simultaneously and indirectly humiliating Singaporeans. That we lack the talents, the competency, the far-sightedness, the strength to lead our country, only THE PAP can do so. Do you get the message? We are the wretched souls awaiting for their saviour. Without PAP, we are rubbish.

Does that not explain the rationale of PAP’s indiscriminative foreign talents policy? We need foreign talents to build our nation for us. That implication is humiliating us, after all that 50 years of nation building, our people are incapable of bringing our nation forward. 

Did PAP fail to invest appropriately in our people, the only natural resource that our nation has?

3) Failure of our education

If our people are that ineffective, incapable, what went wrong along those years of nation building? It wasn’t a matter of five years but FIFTY SOLID years! What went wrong with the education which parents and the country have both invested heavily in?

It contradicts the global rankings of our tertiary education when PAP finds us not good enough. What is the good of excelling in the international Olympiad Maths when the products of our education are deemed inferior to those of South East Asia’s or North Asia’s?

What went wrong?

Have we been educated in the wrong direction? Or have we been forced to accept an inferior local education? How did our international rankings manage to score high?

Confusing and contradicting facts.

Could it be that those who have helped to improve our education global rankings are foreign imports? If so, does that not say that PAP has not invested sufficiently on our very own people? Or that they have given up even on investing on us?

When words and actions contradict one another, there must be hidden lies.

We have good education and yet we need “foreign talents” to support our country. There must be reasons beyond the incapability of our people. They have not be forthcoming about this issue. SEA and NA foreigners have been welcomed onto our shores to replace our highly educated people. It implies the futility of our people pursuing a tertiary education at all cost. 

4) The strangle on our people

For all the insults PAP has heaped onto us, such as lazy, dafts, be trained like dogs, choosey, uninnovative etc, did you ever pause to think what was the cause of the "failures" which we have been rightly or wrongly accused of?

We are cultivated since young to pursue higher education, as the salary scale of the civil service says so, an indirect admission of despise on the lower educated and the kinds of jobs associated with it. Manual jobs bear the brunt of distaste. It would never come across to us the unique skills a plumber holds. Instead, we judge on his low education and label him as a failure. We can never understand why would Europeans pay so much for manual jobs which Singaporeans shun. Likewise, we can never understand why a British plumber or a construction worker can hold his head high as compared to their counterparts in Singapore?

Where did such kind of values stem from? Most of our forefathers started off as manual workers. Did we use to despise them?

We accepted readily the low wages of manual labour and justified the high salaries of a handful of professions. We didn't question the rationale. And we didn't fight to improve wages for the low-income to rise in tantrum with living cost. Instead, we looked away when real income of low wage workers falls. Who should we blame when we refused to take up such jobs? Ourselves or the kind of values bred in our society?

We accepted that it is “punishable” to be single; to be non-tertiary educated; to be a manual worker; to be poor; to protest in the public; to strike for unfair treatment…..

There is only one right perspective for everything. We did not realize all our acceptance of certain “values” was actually achieved/cultivated through social engineering. Through the means of carrots and sticks. The “values” of our society are dictated and executed. The pay scale of civil service penalizes non-tertiary educated; housing policy is linked to family planning; size of family is linked to fines; protesters and people who strike are arrested etc that influenced the types of values that we choose to uphold.

Democracy has to be evil; protests have to be a demon; social welfare will only head towards wreckage. Did anyone tell you that Germany has a higher social welfare than the UK and its country is not even close to the brink of collapse?

A highly-educated nation but with dismal thinking ability.

We think in one direction. Whatever PAP decrees is the truth, the alternatives got to be lies. If you cannot turn left, you got to turn to the right. Can we not walk straight on? Or create another path ourselves between the left and the right?

Who is strangling our people? And killing the thinking ability of our people silently.

Conclusion--It is about the people!

Contradictions. Threats. Half truthful lies.

Whatever the ruling regime may spin say or advocate, we got to rely on ourselves. Otherwise, we will be losers, forever under the paternal care of PAP and there will never come a day when we will learn to walk on our own feet. PAP has no intention to let us walk on our own with the strangle it holds in all aspects of our life. Media, national education, transport, healthcare, political arena etc. Even public housing has to be linked with marital status. And no one thinks that it is wrong. And that is the wrong.

Ultimately, it is not whether PAP can take Singapore into the next lap, but whether we, as a people, can rebuild our country’s foundations in the right way that can withstand the change of political parties and political figures.

Our nation must outlive the short-lived political parties and human life span, if it aspires to be a strong nation.

If Singapore would fail without PAP, then it is PAP which has failed us. Failed to build a truly strong nation manned by a strong people. Instead, what we see is a glamourous but empty shell.

Stop pondering whether Singapore can do without PAP. Move on. Grow ourselves in order to grow our nation.