Confusing times for a confused PAP
leadership
February 5, 2010 by
Our Correspondent - Temasek Review
OPINION
Faced with rising frustration, resentment and anger from
Singaporeans over its misguided liberal immigration and
pro-foreigner policies, PAP leaders have been flip-flopping to and
fro in their recent public statements to an equally confused
electorate.
Some of them appear to have contradicted earlier statements made
by themselves while others give the impression that they do not
know what their colleagues are talking about.
While such blatant discrepancies can be attributed to the
senility of some senior PAP leaders, it is pretty shocking that
younger members of the party don’t quite understand the ramblings
of one another either.
As late as December last year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
told Singaporeans that foreigners are “essential” to Singapore as
they took up jobs shunned by locals.
Minister of Community, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan
added that the government cannot “shield” Singaporeans from
competition with the foreigners.
A week later on 1 January 2010, PM Lee tried to reassure
Singaporeans that they “remain a priority for his
administration.”
Now, how is he going to ensure that when he cannot even protect
locals from losing their jobs to foreigners?
In early January this year, Law Minister Shanmugam said he had a
“hunch” that foreigners and PRs are not responsible for driving up
HDB flat prices:
“You say maybe foreigners are paying these high valuations.
I think if you check, you’ll find that the majority are
Singaporeans.”
Two weeks later, the octogenarian Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew
contradicted him during a speech made at an event to celebrate
HDB’s 50th anniversary:
“…property prices have gone up because foreigners with
permanent residence are buying into the market.”
So who should Singaporeans believe, Mr Shanmugam or MM Lee?
The celebrated Minister in Prime Minister’s Office Lim Swee Say
has constantly urged Singaporeans to be “cheaper, faster and
better.”
Now Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong wants Singapore workers to
focus on acquiring new skills, rather than working longer and
harder, to be more efficient.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan seems clueless about
the sky-rocketing prices of HDB flats. He has been insisting that
they remain “affordable” to Singaporeans though evidence on the
ground suggest otherwise.
In November 2009, he said a family with a monthly income of
$3,000 can buy a flat worth up to $250,000 and spend only 30 per
cent of their income every month on the mortgage.
“Similarly, a family with a monthly income of $4,000 can
afford to buy a new flat worth up to $333,000 without spending more
than 30 per cent a month on the mortgage. This means they can
comfortably buy any of the flats offered in the latest BTO projects
this month,” he added.
A month later, he admitted that he was “caught off guard”
by how the HDB resale market headed north in a recession
year:
“Nobody, no matter how prescient, no matter how
clever, would have been able to predict that this was what was
going to happen,” he said.
Now he acknowledged that some people may be “adversely” affected
by his housing policies:
“There’s no question that our policies are designed for the
good of the people. While there may be certain parts of the
policies that are not favourable, overall, I think these policies
are for the well-being of the people and are good for the
country.”
Does he know what is happening exactly?
One cannot blame the junior ministers for being confused when
their paramount leader Lee Kuan Yew appears to be equally lost as
well.
The elder Lee has been one of the strongest proponents of the
PAP’s unpopular immigration policies. As late as August last
year, he was telling Singaporeans to “bear with the tide of
immigrations” as foreigners are “essential” for Singaporeans.
In a recent interview with the National Geographic magazine
published in December 2009, he was quoted as saying that “it is a
good thing” that Singapore has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants
(from mainland China) as they are more “hard-driving” and
“hard-striving” than locals.
He is now singing a different tune altogether:
“We’ve grown in the last five years by just importing
labour. Now, the people feel uncomfortable, there are too many
foreigners. Trains are overcrowded with foreigners, buses too,
property prices have gone up because foreigners with permanent
residence are buying into the market. The answer is simple: We
check the flow of foreigners, raise your productivity, do the job
better, so that instead of two workers, eventually you’ll do it
with one worker, like the Japanese do,” he said.
So is Lee admitting that his government has made
a mistake earlier by importing too many foreigners over the last
five years? If the inflow has been well managed, why is there a
need to slow the intake now?
To further complicate matters, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong
said a week later that these recent moves by the government do not
mark a “sudden turnaround” in its foreigner policy and that while
the rate of increase will “slow down”, the number of foreign
workers may actually rise!
These are indeed confusing times for a confused PAP leadership
who are getting cold feet over facing angry voters in the
next general election due to be called soon.
Both PM Lee and SM Goh claimed they were “surprised” by the
on-going “mini-election” frenzy. Perhaps they still do not
know that the real reason is that many Singaporeans cannot
wait any longer to vote them out of office altogether!
With more and more young Singaporeans joining the electorate,
there is a lingering fear that a mini “political tsunami”
resembling that of Malaysia in 2008 may happen in Singapore.
The signs are there: young Singaporeans are becoming more vocal
and critical of the government (at least online), more of them
are joining the opposition including former government scholars,
the new media is gaining sufficient readers to
counter the mainstream media and more importantly, the genuine
concerns of Singaporeans over the rising number of foreigners and
high prices of HDB flats are not going to dissipate with time.
After opening the floodgates to allow the foreigners in, there
is no way the ruling party can evict them to bring Singapore back
to the 1990s.
The demographics of Singapore has been changed beyond
recognition with certain parts resembling more than provinces of
China and India. This is the result of years of uninterrupted PAP
rule and voters will be reminded time and again whenever they find
themselves in “unfamiliar” territory surrounded by strange people
with strange body odor!
The recent “flip-flops” are nothing more than just strategic
posturing to appease voters and to crawl back lost support.
Cosmetic changes have been implemented in the fields of education
and healthcare to better “distinguish citizens from PRs.”
Even PM Lee is singing praises of Singaporeans by giving
“credit” to their “resilience” for keeping last years’ unemployment
rate low.
He forgot that his father had just called Singaporeans “daft” if
they were to cast a protest vote against the ruling party in the
next general election and also insinuated that Singaporeans are
“lazy” with his infamous remark made in the same National
Geographic interview:
““If native Singaporeans are falling behind because the
spurs are not stuck into the hide, that is their problem,” he
was quoted saying by journalist Mark Jacobson.
Perhaps what PM Lee actually meant is that Singaporeans are
“resilient” despite of all the “spurs” that the PAP has stuck into
their hide all these years!
Surely only a confused electorate will vote such a confused
party which does not know where the country is heading into power
again in the next general election!
Singaporeans must vote wisely in the next general election to
reclaim ownership of their beloved country which belongs to all of
us and not just to the PAP or a select few.
If we do not make our voices heard now, we will never get the
opportunity again because they will be drowned out by the new
immigrants who are likely to vote for the PAP!
Singapore for Singaporeans! Vote for change! Vote out the
PAP!
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Pay themselves world class salary but performance
is mediocre and below. Waste of $$$$ from
Singaporeans to pay such exorbitant $$$ world class salary to
get poor quality ministers. Tsk tsk
tsk! Shame on them.
