Levels of Engagement on Twitter

PART  1 of 3
The government has made
Singapore for what it is today. It is a model country to the rest of the world
which many countries utter desire to emulate.

The main income of the
Government is from the citizens of the country. It comes in various forms like
ERP, GST, COE, Personnel Tax, Property Tax, Company Tax, Casino tax, cigarette
tax, diesel & petrol tax, Levy, Fines etc, etc. It has been seen that if
the statuary boards do not generate profit, the consumer price is increased to
make up for the losses. If we do not have enough citizens, there will not be
enough income.

However it has come to
a stage where the present population is not able to sustain the economic growth
of the country. It has brought in foreign talents to nudge the economy with
dire consequences. It has raised the crime rate, impact on the infrastructure,
raised property prices, strain on the utilities, increase in car population and
the frustration brought to the people because they try to impose their ego onto
the citizens. You can see these things at Beach Rd., Serangoon Rd., Coleman
St., Eu Tong Sen St. etc etc.

Their mien expresses
that they are more superior then our citizens. Some even say, on the internet that,
without them, the country will be in mayhem. Those who say that forget that they
can always be replaced by someone else. No one is indispensable. Today many
migrants are here to reap the fruits. There is absolutely no denial about this
fact. Look at the amount of remittance shops flourished all over Singapore over
the last ten years.  

It has been seen that
we are taken for a ride by many so called imported citizens. Many imported
citizens, like the footballer Egmar Goncalves, table-tennis’ Zhang Xueling,
shot putter Dong Enxin and badminton’s Xiao Luxi, to name a few, are good examples
of people who make their money and leave the country or to obtain the Singapore
passport which becomes the gateway to migrate to any other country.

We
have to remember, all these foreigners who become citizens are from countries
below the standard of Singapore. They have their own country to fall back on.
In 30 years from now, they would have assets worth more than half a million Singapore
dollars, if not more. It will be worth anywhere from 3 times to 44 times their
own currency back home.

Would you expect them
to stay like the present old age people in Singapore or they will be better off
staying in their own country, with a few big houses, cars and deriving a regular
income from their assets and with their children staying together and looking
after them. Surely any of them will be more comfortable living back in their
own home country enjoying the fruits of their labor during their twilight
years. If this problem is not arrested,
our children are going to face the consequences of our action, 30 years from
now. It is similar to the problems we are facing today.

Those people who park
their money here and became citizens, has taken up citizenship for security
reasons. It may seem nothing wrong with that. However it is our citizens who
have to sacrifice their lives to protect them. They feel unsafe and insecure in
their own home country. This is a reality. If today Singapore is insecure, they
will be the first to move elsewhere like what happened in Hong Kong in the year
2000.

Building more old age
homes in land scarce Singapore, giving rise to more children exploiting the
homes as a form of care for the aged, finding the necessary health care staff
to manage it, seeking for donations and ensuring the aged tenants are not being
abused, increasing the retirement age, increasing the withdrawal age of CPF,
forming social groups to encourage singles to marry, enticing couples, with
monetary gains, to have babies, subsidized rates given to foreigners to give
birth in Singapore, giving citizenship to foreigners to balance the population,
giving PRs to nudge the economy, building the infrastructure to accommodate the
rise in population, are not solutions but only a remedial action.

 

Now
our Prime Minister has every reason to raise these issues in the National Day
message.

For
Singaporeans to “bring up our own next generation” and grow their own families.

To
create equal opportunities for all, building an inclusive society and creating
a sense of belonging and identity.

It
is called up to create a “fair and just society which creates opportunities for
all”.

It
is called upon the successful ones to have a “duty” to contribute back to
society and share the fruits of their success widely so that no Singaporeans is
left out.

Singapore
must be a “home that all of us love… where we build treasured memories and
lifelong friendships”.

It
is widely known that the feeling of belonging and identity is getting
increasingly harder to nurture with the swelling inflow of new immigrants and
foreign workers.

Singaporeans
are called upon to “remain confident and open, and welcome those who will
strengthen our team and help us and our children do better”.

Singaporeans
are called upon to “remain confident and open, and welcome those who will
strengthen our team and help us and our children do better”.

Singaporeans
is called upon to keep society open to immigrants.

Our
forefathers came here to build a new life and to build this country. They came
here at a time where there were no fruits to reap.
Today Singapore is a First World country with First World Reserves. It is now
the richest country in the world. Some citizens who were rich have become
richer. Some of our forefathers and their families who are entrapped in
poverty, have not made it. However the country has prospered to the First World
status. It is time for the country to give it back to society and to our fathers.

Mr. Lee
Kuan Yew rightfully said recently, that if no answers are found, this country
will “fold up.” If this flourishing economy balloon were to burst in the near future,
it will be very, very sad, all the dreams, the vision and imagination will have
gone down the drain. Singapore will still remain a country on the world map,
southernmost tip of Malaya but it would not be the same for the citizens,
especially the middle income and below.  All
foreigners and the rich will leave Singapore as they have their own home
country to fall-back on and the wealth to bring along. The economy of this country
will be in shreds. There will be turmoil. They are straddled in their own
folly. It will be time then, to reinvent the wheel again, perhaps looking for
another Mr. Lee Kuan Yew.  

Our Prime Minister has
said that the successful ones have a “duty” to contribute back to society and
share the fruits of their success widely so that no Singaporeans are left out.

Many a times we have
talked about the Swiss standard of living. Many have gone before us and have
not seen it. The present population has yet to catch a glimpse of that vision
in the horizon. It is only being prudent in giving back to society, the fruits
that our forefathers have sowed, where it rightfully belongs and inherit the
success while it is still blooming, not the foreigners.

There
are 2 issues here of grave concern. One is the concern of the ‘Government’ and
the other, the concern of the ‘Country.’ If you are more concern of the
Government by overlooking the country, then the country will suffer along with
the citizens which would subsequently have repercussions on the Government
itself. It is a trend that has been seen and acknowledged by the Government. To
address this issue we need to look at the past in the right perspective, in
order to find a solution in the near future.

Solutions can only be
found if we allow our minds to think out of the box. Even the best of minds
cannot vision the best solutions if they are made to think within the box. They
can only come up with medicinal remedies hoping to find a cure.

Let
us look back at the past.

a)    
Mr. Lim Yew Hock, the then Chief
Minister of Singapore sold Christmas Island to Australia. It cost him his post
and his government.

b)    
More than 50 years ago many of our
forefathers came here to work in factories, boats, construction, roads, as
coolies, samsui women, farmers, tailoring, trishaw riders and did hard labor to
bring this country up and at the same time cared and looked after more than 7
children. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew was right to say that Singapore is what it is today
is because of the sacrifice of our forefathers. They have to go through with
pay cuts, stagnant salaries, stop at 2 policy, tubal ligation, Vigilante Corps,
National Service, sacrificed their sons, injuries sustained through hard labor,
etc, etc during that hard times. He is absolutely right.

c)    
About 35 years ago the ‘Stop at two’
policy was introduced against the wishes of many citizens. Those who could
afford to pay the accouchement fees had more than 2 children. The people whose
family values were above monetary gains had more than 2 children. Many couldn’t
afford the fees and stopped at two. Some even went to the extent of going
through tubal ligation. It has now cost the country dearly with a poor
procreation birth rate.

d)    
More than 25 years ago there was an
exodus of Singaporeans migrating and nothing was done to arrest the problem. It
is easy to say, that they left, out of their own volition to greener pastures. People
would not easily sacrifice their family and their citizenship, starting life
anew in a foreign country without a reason. Many of them never returned. Some
even took the family with them. It has been a cost to the country.

e)    
Our spouses and single ladies were
encouraged to work as there was already an insight to the labor shortage. This
aggravated the ‘Stop at 2’ policy as ladies remained single as they enjoyed the
progress rather than being burdened with family and with the cost of living
rising constantly. They do not have to carry any blame for it, as they too reap
the fruits of their labor but it has come with a cost to the country.

f)     
Our education systems vaunts as one of
the best in the world. It may be true but the results have not yielded the
necessary requirement to fill the vacancies of today. From 25 years ago our
children were not educated to the level of qualifications required to fill the
job vacancies that FT’s are filling in today, like cooks, service crew,
administrative jobs, customer care consultants, which pays not less than $2000
a month salary according to the legal requirement of MOM. Singaporeans do not
have the degree or diploma to qualify for these $2000 dollars paid job. Even though
some Singaporeans, without these qualifications, may be able to perform these
jobs, perhaps even better, but not able to do so.

g)    
We are now importing foreign talents who
do not possess the second language as required by Singaporeans. So how does the
education fair out for many Singaporeans who wants to excel academically or
even get into university when the second language impedes them to get into the university.
Those parents who can afford it send their children to go overseas to study and
in the end, they do not return. If they find the country more conducive to them
they will decide not to return. Again it is a lost to the country.

h)    
Hanyu Pinyin was implemented in schools.
Parents were encouraged to change their names to Hanyu Pinyin so much so that some
of them literally changed their surnames and lost their links with their older
generation. How did it help Singapore?

i)     
Now we are facing a problem. The
retirement age is being continuously raised to make the citizens to work. The
idea is good but is entwined with the CPF preventing them from withdrawing
their hard earn money (CPF). They
cannot get to reap the fruits of their labor as some of them, in the end, do
not even get to see it at all.

j)     
When these aged people start working, it
is said that these people are old and should accept lower wages. Just to make
ends meet, these people accept the lower wages.

k)    
The aged now have to work with lower
salaries, in hawker centers’ cleaning chairs and tables, selling tissue paper,
tit bits, picking up cardboard boxes and bottles, working as security guards or
driving taxis for 12 hours a day, just to live hand to mouth. It is not wrong
for these people to continue to work. In fact it helps them to be fit. But
these are the people, who built this country, are being treaded and looked down
upon by the very people who came here to reap the fruits of their labor.

l)     
There is a serious concern by our Prime
Minister of how Singaporeans would be able to accept and nurture a united
community with so many different foreigners. It can be seen, from the
remittance offices around the island that the foreigners are here to reap the
fruits and build their own future either back in their own country or any other
country. It becomes increasing harder to inculcate the sense of identity and
belonging to this country called Singapore.

m)  
There is another serious problem lurking
in the horizon. The procreation rate now of Chinese 1.08, Indians 1.09 and
Malays 1.64.  It shows a trend of
imbalance of the population ratio in the near future. The foreign import into
the citizenship does not make the situation any better. A foreign national can
never be a Singaporean Chinese, Malay or an Indian. They may fall into the
‘others’ category only to make the ‘others’ category to become the majority of
races in the near future. This becomes a problem for the country.

The decrease in the procreation birth
rate because of the stop at two policy making singles to reap the economic
success, combine with the exodus of migration of our citizens from the late seventies
and couple with the lack of foresight for our children 25 years ago, followed
by the ageing population and the inherent foresight of policies, not looking at
contemporary trends of our society, has brought about the turmoil of poverty
entrapped citizens not able to reap the fruits of their labor, working and
walking to their deaths. Our citizens are losing their foothold on their own
motherland and making imported citizens better than Singaporeans.
We allowed ourselves to be wounded. Now
we feel the effects of the wound and looking for a remedy. It is time to look
after the country and its citizens. It is never too late.

So
what is the solution?

PART 3 of 3

81)       There may be many more reasons which the
citizens can come forward with, which are not included here which is beyond my
foresight.

Now
the question is where do we get the money to pay for the pension scheme ?????????

Where
is the money coming from?

That
is the big question on everybody’s mind. This fund may be called Care of Senior
Citizens. ( COSC )

a)             
The minister disclosed that tax revenues
from the integrated resorts experienced a net increase of $900 million in 2010
and $1.1 billion last year in the form of taxes. Reported by By
Elena Torrijos | Yahoo! Newsroom – Tue, Jul 10, 2012. The citizens does not
like the idea but would change their mind if they are going to benefit from it,
especially the aged.

b)             
There is close to two million FTs
working in Singapore. They pay a levy of $400 or 15% of their salary a month
whichever is lower. It is $800 million dollars a month may be more. You can
provide 800,000 citizens above 60yrs with this money. It is time for FTs to
contribute back to society to the people that made it happen.

c)             
There are more than 500,000 PR’s who
shall contribute $300 per month for 20years which will amount to $150 million a
month. It is 20 years because that is the amount of time taken to build this
country if not more. All foreigners are here to benefit from the country’s prosperity.
If they do not make the money, they would have left the country. We welcome
them whole heartedly.

d)             
All investors’ who have parked their
money in Singapore and became citizens shall contribute $300 a month for 20
years. This is a small amount compared to the huge sums of money parked here
and to pay for their own personal security and for the sacrifice of our
citizens.

e)             
All maids’ levy will be transferred to
this fund. This again within the ambit of foreigners.

f)              
It is sad that ministers have sacrificed
36% of their salary cut which shall be transferred to this fund.

g)             
All taxes on cigarettes shall go into
this COSC. If there are 500,000 smokers a day and make a nett profit of $7
dollars a packet may be more. It is $7million dollars a day or 105 million dollars
a month. You can provide more than 100,000 people above 60yrs with this money.
This money is collected from the people on the assumption that they stop
smoking. So give the money back to society.

h)             
It is only by 2030 that we would have
about 900,000,000 elderly citizens according to a survey. So even in 2030 we would have sufficient funds to pay the pension
scheme.

i)               
The huge sum of taxes on the liquor is
not taken into consideration.

j)               
The huge amount of GST collected is not
taken into account.

k)             
The huge sums of money collected from
the COE and ERP every month is not taken into consideration.

l)               
The huge sums of fine imposed is not
taken into consideration.

m)           
The country’s
reserve need not be utilized at all. It can remain where it is.

There are more than sufficient fund to implement
this proposal.

Now
look back at each of the concerns of the Prime Minister. Every concern has been
appropriately addressed with this proposal.

If any FTs or imported citizens do
not agree to this scheme they are free to leave the country like many
Singaporeans who have left. We can always replace them, like what we are doing
now. This is the truth but sometimes the TRUTH is hard to swallow.

This
is not making Singapore a welfare state. It is only being prudent, to give back
to society, for all the sacrifices Singaporeans have given to this country. If
approximately two third of the population are not native Singaporeans, there is
no reason why one fifth of the population could not benefit the fruits of their
labor.

Times
have changed over the years. Children learn their ABC
at the age of two years. Things are different from what they were before. The
society is different, the access to IT is different, and the thinking is
different. Winning medals for the country is glorious but not at the expense of
the citizens. The winnings instead of bringing happiness and unity to the
citizens, it brings about division, frustration and anger. These incentives can
be better utilized for the welfare of its citizens and our national service
men. It is time for us to envisage the reality with the changing times and get
our prerogatives right. There is a saying ‘none is so blind as those who do not
want to see.  

The
losing of a GRC, the cut in the Ministers’ salary and the loss in the
by-election is just a reminder of the aspirations of the people. It is very,
very sad that it has come with a small cost to the Government for not flowing
with the times.

It
is not a question of, can it be done? It is a question of how it is going to be
done?

The question is, do we have the
political will to do it when the country is still progressing?
Do we want to share the fruits of our
forefathers while it is still blooming? Do we want to build our Reserves to
equal that of America or wait for the balloon to burst and the country suffers
for its ludicrousness.

It remains to be seen.