But that is of course!
We don't pay them for looking after us, do we?? LOL.
They even finance us our education and our upbringing.!! We don't hv to pay a single cent. !! LOL
This ridiculous former PM talks rubbish. He can speak his mind without much thinking but not other people.
Isn't he the one who once called Singaporeans who chose to leave Singapore "Quitters"? Later, we found out his very own daughter married a Brit and left Singapore too. So his own daughter wants to have better life overseas can, but other people who want to do the same thing should be frowned upon??
And wasn't he the one who blatantly said Singapore should make Goal 2010 a reality? Referring to our national soccer team making into the finals of World Cup. Hahaha... Big joke.
His wife wasn't spared either. A lawyer by training. Supposed to be an intelligent lady but spoke worse than a kid. When the NKF saga cropped up, before even finding out the facts, and even though she was not a politician to rightly comment on anything, she blurted out something darn stupid: "(T T Durai) earning S$600,000 a year is peanuts!" Not long after, that guy was found to be corrupted, had gold tap installed in his office, and traveled on First Class flights, among other bad news about him.
Then now, when people point out to the government what is wrong, why they are unhappy, this same guy comes out and say he is "concerned" about the divide between the government and people, and that we should not criticize the government for their imperfections?
Yes, there are whiners out there. They complain blindly on anything and everything, even on irrelevant stuffs. We can ignore these rubbish people. But there are also many genuine citizens who have raised many important issues along the way. But did the government really listen? I thought they earn millions of dollars every year cos they take on very important jobs, "sacrificed their personal time" as one lady politician here once ridiculously reasoned out (Hey woman, that IS your job!!! When we work, we also sacrifice our personal time and we dont even earn anywhere near your salary!), but look at what happened?
Just to name a few: Over-subscription of foreigners taking over locals' jobs. Tell me which country does this to their own people? You go to the US, UK, Australia... the developed First World countries. See how hard it is to even work there with your proper qualifications, let along try to get a PR status there. Which universities overseas have foreign students pay only 10% more than their locals? None, as far as I know. But over here, it happens. And after that, local universities got the cheek to ask the alumni for donations, pouring out sob stories on pamphlets saying we can help the less financially able to see through their education. What is this, man?! It's not that we are not charitable, but to begin with, the priorities we have towards foreigners are questionable.
I'm not saying we don't need foreign labour here (as the government often misquote us), but could they have imported only the relevant people we need?
Because of the foreign overload, and giving out citizenship to these foreigners so easily in the past many years, we have faced several social issues. Remember the news: Foreign employers favour and employ their own kind, at the expense of our own people here. Pay got stagnated or cut. Simple admin jobs here require long working hours instead of the usual 9-5.30 or 6pm as promised. I have friends who end work typically 8pm almost every day. Where's the work life balance? You want them to have kids? What kids? Are we unreasonable to even sound this out? What labour union do we have? None. In other countries, they count by the working hours per week strictly.
And yet this government and their supporters can say "Oh, we employ foreigners here because you Singaporeans don't want the jobs." What load of rubbish!!! Sure, you can employ the Bangladeshi workers to do construction work. Realistically, no Singaporean can survive that kind of working hours and hard labour and be paid so little to survive here. But those workers will save up for a few years, and when they go back to their countries, they can live very comfortably with their families. The money they earn here is "big" to them.
But what about the white collar jobs? Who says Singaporeans are weaklings and don't want them? Of course when we pay someone with good qualification and working experience only S$2,500 or 3,000 a month, they have to think about their families and find better jobs, if they ever can find one. If the pay is so little, how are they to lead a good life?
Then because of these foreigners, naturally, we have many other social issues. Crowded and frequently broken down MRT trains, jam-packed buses, increasing cost of HDB flats, etc. As PM Lee himself admitted one day, his government did not plan the infrastructure carefully to cope with all these. Bloody h***... make money you all can, earn big bucks you all Number 1, but all you could say is you could have done better? Then justify your million $$$ salaries, when big guns like the US president dealing with urgent international affairs are earning a small fraction of that!
When citizens point out to you that HDB flats are too expensive, what did you do? Your government ding-dong along the way for years (think: period of 2007 to 2012), allowed the prices to rocket up, then instead of helping, get your useless then housing minister MBT to say "HDB flats are still affordable" and showed how we can buy flats by taking 30 donkey year loans. Basket.... I can also afford a Ferrari lah like that. Take a 50 year loan? If there is such a thing.
So when HDB flat prices appreciated exponentially, people use their CPF monies to buy, the $$$ go back to the government via HDB. Well-done. *whistle* First class MNC.
I don't care if these politicians want to earn their million $$$ salaries. But prove to us you deserve it. The rich can go make more money to be richer, but how could they have screwed up public housing for so many years? What was the motive for not building more BTO flats between 2007-2012 when they clearly knew literally thousands are left without flats, the new citizens and locally born Singaporeans included? Was it to allow flat prices to appreciate and so that they could channel flat-buyers' CPF money back to their own coffers? It took them a loss from GE2011 to wake up and only in 2013 did they decide to FINALLY build more BTOs. And they got to cheek to say, See, we have cleared the problem. Bloody h***.... Like giving someone a few hard slaps on the face and say: "Oh, I'm sorry. Heres some ointment."
The point the government is not getting is this: Citizens don't just want to merely scrap through in this country. They want to lead a comfortable and dignified life. By that, I don't even mean living in a condo, or driving a car. No one is talking about all these. But surely, asking people to consider nursing homes in JB, asking university educated young couples to "manage their expectations" and live in a 3 or 4-room flat, taking on a 25-30 year loan?!! Somethings not quite right here. Inflation can happen, no one is asking for the flats to be priced like some 20-30 years ago. But within just a short period of time, HDB flat prices (public housing, remember!) can appreciate by literally hundreds of thousands of $$$??? Come on, Im not convinced here!
No wise citizen is saying CPF is no good. Those who want to abolish CPF are foolish noise-makers. Rather, the concerned citizens are saying here, Look, P.A.P. Our salaries cannot cope with the minimum sum in the CPF. If you want to increase the sum, as it should be due to rising costs along the years, then shouldn't you also look into the salaries of your people? They are not moving in tandem with the rising costs here! You rich fellas can go make lots of money, we don't really care, but at least think about us! That's what the people are crying out for.
Then now, we are hearing, Oh to help you cope with retirement, as the PM said it yesterday during rally, you can consider renting out your flat, or stay with your children. Gosh, it has reached to the stage where you must do something drastic like that. Stay with children? Where? Who is this PM Lee referring to? Couples who live in 2,500 sq ft condo or 4,000 sq ft landed property? The children of common citizens are probably living in a tiny 900 sq ft 4-room flat. You want the parents to squeeze in there with their grandchildren also? Doesn't make sense again. Don't just suggest for the sake of it, man....