December 29, 2009
It has been 5 days since we broke the news about Lee Kuan
Yew’s disparaging remarks about Singaporeans made in a recent
interview with the National Geographic magazine and none of the SPH
papers in any language have reported on it.
Speaking to journalist Mark Jacobson, Lee spoke about the ruling
party’s liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies as if he was
their principal architect.
Though he said he was aware of the fact that “many Singaporeans
are unhappy with the influx of immigrants”, Lee continued to
insist that it is for the “good” of the nation:
“Over time, Singaporeans have become less hard-driving and
hard-striving. This is why it is a good thing that the nation has
welcomed so many Chinese immigrants.” Lee was quoted
saying.
Lee described the country’s new subjects as “hungry,” with
parents who “pushed the children very hard.”
“If native Singaporeans are falling behind because the spurs
are not stuck into the hide, that is their problem,” he
quipped.
There are 82 PAP MPs in Parliament and none of them have come
out in the open to dispute the remarks made by Lee. Can we
therefore conclude that all of them agree with Lee ?
This is as good as saying to Singaporeans in Hokkien – “you die
your business!” which should not be a surprise to Singaporeans
anyway.
Despite being the richest country in Asia after Japan,
Singaporeans enjoy few social welfare benefits which explain why
the country continues to suffer a brain drain of its brightest
citizens yearly to other countries like Australia, Canada and
United States.
The government can afford to lose billions of dollars in failed
overseas investments without blinking an eyelid, but unable
or unwilling to provide a basic social safety net for
Singaporeans, especially those from the low income group.
The PAP has long eschewed any form of “welfare” for
Singaporeans on the grounds that it will retard our competitiveness
by creating a “crutch” mentality in the populace.
As such, Singaporeans are exhorted to work for as long as they
can till the day they drop dead. One minister even urged local
workers to be “cheaper, faster and better” when he should walk his
talk first by reducing his own bloated salary.
Our per capita income is the fourth highest in the world, but
our income gap as measured by the Gini Coefficient is the second
highest in Asia after Hong Kong whose figures are skewed by a
disproportionately higher number of billionaires. On the other
hand, Japan has one of the lowest income disparity between the rich
and poor.
This discrepancy is hardly surprising as the PAP has opened the
floodgate to immigrants who flock to Singapore in search of a
better life.
One does not need to be an economist to figure out that the
influx of cheap foreign labor will increase the profit margin of
big businesses and companies thereby raising the income of their
owners and directors while helping to depress the wages of ordinary
Singaporeans.
At the same time, business costs are lowered contributing to GDP
growth without necessarily increasing productivity which explains
why GDP is a very poor reflection of the distribution of wealth and
the overall well-being of the citizens in a country.
Furthermore, a certain percentage of PAP ministers’
multi-million annual salary is pegged to GDP figures which may
explain the PAP’s perpetual obsession with the GDP.
To the average Singapore worker eking out a living in the
streets, GDP means nothing to him or her at all. All he/she cares
for is whether his/her pay is sufficient to support oneself and
family, to start a family, raise the children up and to
retire comfortably when he/she is old.
20 years ago, it will not be too difficult to achieve the
Singapore dream. Young couples are able afford a HDB flat
relatively easily, they face little competition from foreign
workers for jobs, the cost of living is low compared to today’s
standard and before 2003, they are able to withdraw their CPF in
one lump sum to enjoy life in their golden years.
Today, Singaporeans are facing an increasingly bleak, uncertain
and insecure future. The monthly median wage of a Singapore worker
is only $2,600, about the same 10 years ago while inflation has
more than tripled, especially that of public housing.
A graduate fresh out of school will earn no more than $2,800 a
month. After paying the tuition loan, one will have little savings
left to buy even a car, let alone get married and start a
family.
A new four-room HDB flat in Seng Kang cost less than $200,000 in
1999. A similar-sized flat in nearby Punggol now fetches close to
$300,000. In the recently launched Dawson BTO project at
Queenstown, a five room flat cost on average $666,000.
Acccording to a financial consultant, a couple should earn a
minimum of $7,500 monthly before they should even think of buying
such a flat and even then, they have to cough out a few hundred
dollars every month in cash in addition to their CPF to
finance the property which leaves very little for their retirement
needs.
Life is never smooth-sailing. What if we are retrenched and
replaced by a foreign talent in our mid 40s, met with an accident
which renders us permanently unfit to work, afflicted with an
incapacitating disease like kidney failure or get embroiled in
some lawsuits? How are we going to continue support ourselves and
families?
A netizen, Tracy Tan shared this heart-wrenching story
on the
Vote PAP out facebook:
“I know of a lady who has kidney problems, heart
ailment and is half blind. She can’t work because of her health
problems. She is 40yrs+, a single parent with a Sec 3 daughter. She
is poor, sick and helpless. She approached Family Service Centre
for help. FSC saw her need and helped her to pay her HDB rental,
utility bill and conservancy charges. In
addition, she received $300 per month and $250 school pocket fund
for her daughter for meals at school. After helping her for two
years, FSC recently told her that it can’t help her with the $300
per month and her daughter’s school pocket fund although her
situation remains the same. She was referred to Jayakumar’s MPS.
They wrote her a letter to SE CDC to support her case. The reply
from the CDC was that “she had been helped for two years already
and they can’t help her anymore”. She went back to her MP and he
said that he can’t help her anymore as he had already written to
CDC for her.”
The above story is not an isolated case, but one
which we can easily identify with in our everyday life and it can
well happen to you or me one day.
The PAP does provide temporary forms of financial
assistance to the needy in the form of NTUC vouchers, utility bill
rebates and waival of conservancy charges, but these are stop-gap
measures which address only the symptoms of the disease and not its
underlying cause.
If this lady is unable to find or hold a long-term
job, then it is the duty of the government to step in to help
family for as long it is necessary till her daughter complete her
studies and start working.
There are many needy Singaporeans who are in dire
straits and yet not able to qualify for state support due to its
stringent criteria: one must be certified either permanently unfit
to work forever by a medical specialist or completely destitute
meaning that one has no living relatives left before one can apply
for Public Assistance (PA) and even then, it is granted only on a
case by case basis.
Another real life story: a 73 year old lady has to
pick used cardboards for a living in Toa Payoh Lorong 7. She has a
fifty year old son who is mentally challenged and therefore unable
to hold on a permanent job. She could not qualify for PA because
she still has a son, never mind the fact that nobody wants to
employ him!
The PA scheme which is run by the Ministry of
Community, Youth and Sports, offers only $330 monthly to its
recipients which is surely insufficient to maintain a decent
standard of living fit for a human being in
Singapore.
A few years ago, the amount is only $290 and when
PAP MP Dr Lily Neo asked MCYS Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan to
increase the sum so that PA recipients can have three meals a day
as an entitlement, he shot back:
“How much do you want? Do you want three meals in
a hawker centre, food court or
restaurant?”
It is not as if MCYS is so cash-strapped that
it is unable to provide more to the PA recipients. Dr Vivian just
unveiled a $10-million dollar Community Integration Fund to make
new citizens and PRs feel “welcomed” in Singapore. Why not spend it
to help Singaporeans who have contributed to the nation in one way
or another?
The primary role of the elected government of
the day is to take care of its citizens who voted for it, not to
compete with other nations in terms of some obscure economic
indicator, flaunt one’s wealth to the world by saving distressed
foreign banks or jet around the globe at the expense of taxpayers
to lecture other leaders on how to run their
countries.
Lee’s latest remarks will demolish any future
attempts by the PAP to portray itself as a party which cares for
Singaporeans. He has already stated very clearly in no uncertain
terms: if Singaporeans are unable to keep up with the immigrants,
don’t ever expect the PAP to help us – it is our business, not
theirs.
For a young graduate struggling to start a
family due to sky-rocketing costs of public housing, it is not the
business of the PAP to bring the prices
down.
For a middle-aged man who is retrenched
because his company manages to find a younger and cheaper
replacement from China or India, it is not the business of the PAP
to help him find another job.
For an elderly man who has to work as a
cleaner to support himself because he has no savings left in his
CPF, it is not the business of the PAP to ensure he has three basic
meals a day.
This is the kind of society Singapore has
become under 44 years of uninterrupted PAP rule – cold, unfeeling
and materialistic. Can such a country ever hope to attract the best
talent in the world to settle here? Is it little wonder that
Singapore is getting the “discards” from China and India and not
their crème de la crème who prefer to migrate to U.S,
Canada, Europe and Australia?
The PAP’s economic policies have already taken
a toll on the low income group and are now affecting the middle
class. The rich businessmen, doctors, lawyers, accountants and
engineers may think they have “prospered” under PAP rule, but wait
a minute – stop and ponder over the future of your
children.
Do you want them to grow up competing with
foreigners over a coveted place in a Singapore university? Do you
want them to fight tooth and nail with the more “hard-driving and
hard-striving” immigrants for a job which pays no more than $2,000
a month? Do you wish to see them perpetually stressed, frustrated
and unhappy because they are unable to make enough money to finance
their lifestyle? And lastly, do you really bear to see your
children working for as long as they are able to because they are
unable to retire?
Even for PAP members with
connections inside the system – your futures are not as secure
as it seems. Unless you belong to
the elite, you may soon find yourselves replaced by their new
“pets” from China, India, Malaysia, Philipines, Bangladesh,
Timbuktu and god knows where.
The PAP is not even a political party now after the
departure of the Old Guards in the 1980s. It is nothing more than
an empty shell filled by department store dummies whose only
purpose is to masquerade Singapore as a “parliamentary
democracy” to the rest of the world.
As Lee puts it succinctly himself:
“To be the prime minister, you don’t have to
know every instrument, but you got to recognise, ah, he’s a good
violinist, he’ll be the first violinist, he’ll be the double bass.
He will play the viola, he will have the trumpet, he will do the
drums. Then you coordinate them and then you have great music. And
if you already have a great orchestra, you can put a dummy there
and you still got great music.”
Now we know why none of the 82 PAP MPs dare to
contradict the old man – because they are all dummies who do not
deserve a seat in parliament in the first place.
So Singaporeans, the next time some PAP MP come up
to you and promise to voice your concerns in parliament, just
remind them of the PAP’s mantra to Singaporeans:
“YOU DIE, YOUR
BUSINESS!”
