Written by Ng E-Jay
12 April 2008
Icebergs partially float on water with the top part jutting out
of the water’s surface because ice is around 9% less dense than
water. Some icebergs are huge, and only a small fraction of their
total volume is visible above water. The rest is submerged beneath
the water’s surface, its true destructive force on vessels and
ships hidden from plain sight.
This is precisely the situation confronting Singapore. While the
government tries to attract an increasing number of foreigners to
Singapore, little do the outsiders know that Singapore is on a
collision course with a political iceberg whose tip is visible but
its enormity is obscured beneath an ocean of propaganda.
Singapore’s productivity has fallen in recent years, and the
government has tried to make up for declining birth rates and the
brain drain by importing a huge number of foreigners. The growth in
Singapore’s GDP has been due to the expansion of the population by
foreign talent import rather than through real gains in
competitiveness and productivity.
The government has turned our nation into a mere hotel where
visitors can come in, milk our jobs, and then move on to greener
pastures whenever they decide to. Singapore is no longer a nation
for Singaporeans. Singapore males still have to serve National
Service, but in return they face hardship and even discrimination
at work due to their NS liabilities. Foreigners on the other hand
enjoy most of the privileges afforded to citizens, but none of the
associated liabilities.
The indiscriminate import of foreign workers has depressed real
wages in Singapore for the lower income class, and wages as a whole
have not kept pace with inflation. Till today, there is no minimum
wage, and cleaners are still earning little more than three to four
hundred dollars per month, same as what they earned a decade ago.
Octagenerians are seen making their rounds at coffeeshops and
hawker centres collecting drink cans or wiping tables. Escalating
costs of living due to government policies like the GST hike have
only made matters worse.
The PAP government likes to portray Singapore to the world as a
shining example of a nation under good governance, with prosperity
for all. In reality, only the ruling clique is benefiting from
Singapore’s economic growth, with GLCs deeply entrenched in all
parts of the economy and minister’s salaries pegged to the highest
private sector wages.
Working class Singaporeans are being squeezed till the point of
suffocation by rising HDB property prices because HDB flats are
only granted a market subsidy rather than a cash subsidy. This is a
prime example of the government’s blatant neglect of its own people
and profiteering from the most basic survival needs of its own
citizens.
As a direct result of Singaporeans’ putting in a large portion
of their CPF savings towards their home, many do not have enough to
retire on, and the government has to invent schemes like CPF Life
in a frail attempt to plug the holes of this sinking retirement
ship.
Even in policies like CPF Life, the government carefully designs
it to ensure that it will profit from the scheme over the long run
no matter how life expectancies or return on investments change.
The risks arising from mortality changes or changes in investment
gains are entirely borne by Singaporeans, who ultimately still have
to depend solely on each other rather than on the government for
their retirement funding. That is how callous and mercenary the
government has become.
The PAP government however continually uses its own
state-sponsored media to obscure these facts with a steady stream
of propaganda that has become a mighty ocean of hogwash.
It is high time for activists and politicians to unite and
expose the full extent of this political iceberg that if left
unchecked will ultimately sink the great ship of our nation’s
destiny.
http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=162