http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore…
SDP to hold press conference to launch
Shadow Budget
Monday, 14 February 2011
Singapore Democrats
The Singapore Democrats will hold a press conference on
Wednesday at 11 am at the Post-Mueum, 107-109 Rowell Road to launch
our alternative to the Budget. Dr Vincent Wijeysingha will deliver
Shadow Budget 2011: Empowering the Nation for the SDP.
This is the first time that the opposition is delivering a
shadow budget to rival that of the PAP’s. It
comes on the eve of the Finance Minister’s presentation of the
Government’s Budget this Friday.
Members of the media have been invited to the press conference.
The public are also welcome.
Dr Wijeysingha will outline the SDP’s
priorities for the nation’s expenditure for FY2011. Shadow Budget 2011 will make proposals on how our
national spending can be used to empower the people by making our
economy a truly productive and resilient one.
It is one where the people’s needs are addressed and where
economic growth benefits all sectors of the society equitably.
We eschew the PAP practice of taxing the
people and making them pay beyond what they can afford, and then
doles out ‘goodies’ in the hope of getting electoral support
especially during an election year.
The PAP’s scheme is to force Singaporeans
to continue our dependence on it as a dispenser of the largesse so
that it can wield political and economic control over the people as
well as glorify itself.
Unfortunately this has been done at the expense of our economic
fundamentals. Our productivity level is low, the income gap is high
and we cannot generate healthy economic returns without the massive
injection of cheap labour from overseas.
Dr Wijeysingha will counter this dead-end approach by proposing
measures that will lift the socio-economic conditions of
Singaporeans, seeking to empower the people and allow them to truly
enjoy the fruits of their labour.
For example one of the proposals is to allocate developmental
expenditure to establish a committee under the Ministry of Manpower
to look into implementing a Singaporeans First Policy where
employers and businesses are required to demonstrate that the
skills they want to hire are not available among Singaporeans
before they are allowed to take in non-Singaporeans employees.
Such a practice is being adopted in other countries such as
Australia and the UK. It will stem the PAP’s
mindless policy of indiscriminately inviting foreign workers into
Singapore to dispace Singaporean workers.
Another item of the Shadow Budget trims the bloated cabinet and
the salaries of the ministers. In particular focus is the Prime
Minister’s Office which is current staffed by seven ministers: The
Minister Mentor, two Senior Ministers, two Deputy Prime Ministers,
and two Ministers without portfolio.
These posts, which pay an annual salary of about $2 million to
each minister, are redundant. These cabinet positions only signal
the weak leadership of the current Prime Minister. If Mr Lee Hsien
Loong cannot run his administration without the help of so many
ministers in his office, he has no business running the
country.
The removal of the ministerial posts from the PMO and the reduction of ministerial salaries across the
board will free up about $30 million dollars. This will halve the
expenditure for political appointees of $58 million for
FY2010. These funds will be re-allocated for
more productive use.
The Shadow Budget will be presented in full this Wednesday.