http://singstatistician.blogspot.com/2011/06/is-pap-prolifigate-government.html
I am very worried about a profligate
governement.
With all the publicity about the Elected President, everyone should
know that one of the key functions of the President is to
protect the reserves of Singapore. In 1984, Mr Lee Kuan Yew said
the following at a dialogue session in Tanjong Pagar Community
Centre.
If the Government acted
irresponsibly, he noted, 'your one dollar now may be worth 20 cents
by the end of the year'.
Indeed, if the Cabinet were
spendthrift and
cared only for
short-term gain, it could dish out freebies with
abandon, squandering reserves that had been prudently accumulated
over decades, he added.
'What has been built in 25 years,
you can throw away in 25 days of madness,' he warned, with a
sobriety that many had come to associate with
him.
http://www.singaporelawwatch.sg/remweb/legal/ln2/rss/legalnews/72132.html
Mr Lee’s words got me thinking about the recent
developments since GE 2011. During GE 2011, the Opposition adopted
a Minister specific strategy pioneered by Goh Meng Seng. This
strategy involved holding Ministers accountable for policy
failures.
I never expected my Minister specific
strategy to be
so effective at getting the PAP to listen to
Singaporeans.
The Minister specific strategy worked spectacularly well. Ministers
who were seen not to be performing saw their vote share drop
significantly. The PAP recognized the potency of the strategy and
“retired” Mah Bow Tan, Raymond Lim and Wong Kan Seng. Wary
that they may become victims of a Minister specific strategy,
the newly appointed Ministers have done a U-turn on many
PAP policies.
Mah Bow Tan made BIG mistakes. I
am going
to correct them.
For example, Minister Khaw Boon Wan wants to build 40,000 flats
a year to solve Singapore's housing problems. This is even though
our construction industry can only support building about 20,000
flats a year.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1132140/1/.html
Raymond Lim salah lah. I took bus and
MRT so I know.
Minister Lui Teck Yew wants the government to work with the public
transport companies to add more buses on the road. This is on top
of the earlier announced multi-billion dollar upgrade of the MRT
signaling system so that MRT trains can come at greater
frequency.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/immediate-priorty-add-buses-increase-travel-information-053844875.html
I hope Khaw does better at MND. He
left a lot of problem for
me to fix.
Minister Gan Kim Yong has indicated the 3 areas that he would be
working on to reduce the cost of healthcare in
Singapore. The only way to make a meaningful impact
would be to increase the level of government funding.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1132116/1/.html
I promise this time I will use a
calculator and be careful about
the zeros.
Flooding was not an election issue during GE 2011. The past two
weekends have however seen heavy flooding in Singapore. Not one to
be left out, Minister Vivian Balakrishnan also joined in. He
has convened an expert panel to look into the frequent
flooding. This panel will undoubtedly come up with recommendations
that will cost large sums of money to implement.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/expert-panel-review-flood-protection-measures-pore-123957983.html
The Ministers have therefore all discovered that the easiest way to
become popular and well liked is to spend money and make voters
happy. As this new thinking catches on, I expect more Ministers and
MPs to come forward with ways to spend money.
Where however is
all this money going to come from?
Did we find oil in Bukit Timah or
something?
During the elections, DPM Tharman promised that GST will not go up
for the next 5 years. If he goes back on his word or if he tries
some clever scheme of raising other taxes, it is likely that he
himself will become the target of a Minister specific strategy from
Singaporeans struggling to make ends meet.
http://singaporege2011.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/tharman-contradicts-pm-lee-by-promising-no-gst-increase-in-next-5-years/
As I see it, the only place that they can find the
money to keep all the promises is to get the money from the
Reserves. If the
money is going to be used to solve the problems above, I think many
fair minded Singaporeans will agree that it is a good use of the
money. However before we start drawing on the Reserves, we should
really think whether we should be spending on
the following:
$387 million YOG
$1.2 billion artificial Bishan
river
$1.87 billion National Stadium
$575 ergonomic chair for civil servants
