Standby for Bold Budget 2010

Budget 2009 was merely not ordinary

Budget 2010 is going to be bold!

Full report here

Guess we will be dipping into our reserves again…

Now we become bad guy liao…

In recent months, there’re many people kao peh say be citizen no use, end up become 2nd class in own country. Say citizen must serve NS, PR no need, say being a citizen no obvious advantage over

The garmen is not deaf, they got hear one.

Not happy that your son cannot get into Tao Nan while your non-citizen neighbour’s ah boy can right? Okay, garmen give citizen 1 extra ballot.

Full report

Not happy that your PR colleague is getting almost the same amount of medical subsidy as you right? Okay, garmen will increase yours decrease theirs.

Full report

Don’t play punk… or else!

Yet another ‘friendly reminder’ from THE MAN.

This time, it is not

“all our women will become maids in other peoples’ countries”

or

“that 5 years is all it takes to ruin Singapore.”

But if you any-o-how vote during GE, your precious CPF money, which you used to pay for your beloved HDB flat, will be gone!

Full report

… if Mr Mah loses to the opposition, he warned that Singaporeans better sell their flats fast as they would no longer be of any value.

Excuse me… your hole is too small

Full report

New bamboo holders for drying laundry have some residents in Bukit Panjang up in arms.

Residents at Pending Road said their bamboo poles are too big to fit into the new holders, increasing the risk of falling poles.

The new holders are 2.5 mm smaller in diameter than the original holders.

Some 2,900 units at Pending Road had their old bamboo holders changed — for free — after they told the Holland—Bukit Panjang Town Council their holders were corroding.

The change cost the town council an estimated $200,000.

It said the new bamboo holders comply with HDB design requirements.

But the feedback will be channelled to HDB.

And to cope with the smaller holders, residents are having to either modify their bamboos or buy thinner ones.

Just another example of wanting to upgrade, but yet want to save money and never using their brains, end up creating more inconvenience for people.

Here’re more past examples.

Full report

SOME residents in Bedok North have complained about the newly retrofitted lifts in their HDB blocks.

They are vexed that the “upgraded” lifts do not come with an electronic panel which tells them which floor the lift is at.

Such an indicator is within the lift and also in the ground-floor lobby, but residents waiting on all other floors have been unable to gauge how long the wait will be.

All they see is an arrow that lights up when the lift arrives on the floor they are at.

The lifts affected are in blocks 90 to 93, 94B to 94E, and 95 to 97 in Bedok North Street 4 and Avenue 4.

The old lifts in these blocks had the floor indicator, so the new ones are a climb-down for them.

Are foreigners to blame for raising HDB costs?

No – according to Law Minister K. Shanmugam

“It is unfair to cast foreigners as the villains driving up the prices of HDB flats.”

Of the five million, 3.2 million are citizens and roughly 500,000 are permanent residents (PRs). The remaining 1.3 million are here on temporary work permits and they ‘impose no burden’ on the public housing system, said Mr Shanmugam

Pardon me, but Mr. Shanmugam’s reasoning is extremely simplistic.
His reason is, because the 1.3 million foreigners are work permit holders (as opposed to permanent residents) they do not qualify to buy HDB flats, and because the number of permanent residents is small 500,000, they can’t possibly be the ones driving up the HDB resale prices.

Sir. where do you suppose the 1.3 million foreigners are staying? They are either renting HDB flats, private housing or already owns private property here. Now, wouldn’t that have any impact on the prices of public housing?

Just because they can’t own public housing doesn’t mean they can’t drive up prices of private housing, and anyone would tell you that the prices of private and public housings are related.

How so? Simple, if you can buy a bungalow with 500K, would you still want to buy a resale flat at the same price?

Please don’t treat us like fools.

Full report

Memorable Quotes from our elites in 2009

Thought I died right? Keke.
Haven’t really been able to recover from my rest since early 2009. But I told myself then I die die must post the memorable quotes by our world class, division one leaders in 2009 before Jan 2010 ends.

So here goes…. enjoy!

“It’s very hard to say. Both scenarios are plausible. Maybe the second one is more plausible.”

- Wong Kan Sen, giving his expert, Division 1, elite opinion on the status of Mas Selamat.
[Jan 09] Link

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“Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a little bit boastful,” he said. “Would people have taken offence if his wife (a senior investment counsellor at a bank) had paid for everything?”

- Charles Chong, MP Pasir Ris-Punggol, clearly irritated by the reaction of us lesser mortal on how Tan Yong Soon had decided to spend his multi-million dollar salary.
[Jan 09] Link

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“This is where most people make a mistake…I have tried to explain that we are different. We are a city. We are not a country,”

- K. Shanmugam, Law Minister . In an desperate, bizarre, and illogical attempt to defend our country’s democratic credentials.
[Nov 09] Link

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“…draft came to me; I trimmed out the unachievable, and the Pledge as it stands is his work after I’ve trimmed it. What is it? An ideology? No, it’s an aspiration. Will we achieve it? I do not know. We’ll have to keep on trying. Are we a nation? In transition.”

- Lee Kuan Yew, MM. Bringing the house down to earth in his rebuttal of NMP Viswa Sadasivan’s call for the government to ’stick to the pledge’. Essentially demoting the nation’s pledge into an aspiration and hence negating the need for us to live our lives by it.
[Aug 09] Link

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“Yesterday’s event, I was told by the PUB, occurs once every 50 years. It could be tomorrow. But we have to plan accordingly. Most importantly, we have to have a proper drainage system… (that is) being continually upgraded, and a proper response system.”

- Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister of Environment and Water Resources, dismissing the flood at Bukit Timah area as a freak incident which “happens once every 50 years”. He said the same thing about another similar “freak flood” which happened in Dec 2006.

[Nov 09] Link [2009]; Link [2006]

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“This is not the first major decline in markets that they have seen, and will certainly not be their last…

GIC and Temasek have the ability and resources to weather the ups and downs, over multiple economic and market cycles…

They do not have to sell in panic in a market downturn and are in fact in an advantageous position to invest in good quality assets at prices that are attractive from a long-term perspective during a downturn.”

- Lim Hwee Hua, Senior Minister of State for Finance, demonstrating her clairvoyance and misplaced confidence in GIC and TH despite the latter posting 31% fall in asset.

One month later, GIC posted 25% fall in asset and in May TH sold off stakes in BoA at estimated loss of US$2.3 – 4.6 BILLION.

[Feb 09] Link; Link [GIC]; Link [TH]

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“A boy who is mollycoddled is a very different person from the one who is physically tough and to take spills without fear and whining…

The latter, I think, could be the approach that we take towards helping Singaporeans during tough time.”

- Sam Tan, MP Tanjong Pagar GRC, suggesting that the people should be left on their own during difficult times. Incidentally, he got elected via walkover, Tanjong Pagar GRC is headed by a big guy. Talk about being mollycoddled.

[May 09] Link

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“We expected the market to go down in equities…

But we went in too early. That’s part of the ride. We can tough it out for 10 years, 15 years.”

- Lee Kuan Yew, MM and Chairman of GIC, showing us that hindsight is always 20/20, regardless of age.

[Mar 09] Link1; Link2

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“…there was nobody inside Temasek equal to the job”

Lee Kuan Yew, MM. On why Temasek Holdings did not promote from within but instead got a star player in Charles Goodyear to succeed Ho Ching as CEO of TH.

[Mar 09] Link

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“A key consideration was his affinity for Temasek’s values and its position as a long-term investor, committed to delivering sustainable returns.”

- Lee Kuan Yew, MM. Who clarified himself and justified why Goodyear was the most suitable successor to Ho Ching as CEO of TH Little did he know….

[Mar 09] Link

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“Four months into the leadership transition, the Temasek board and Mr Goodyear have concluded and accepted that there are differences regarding certain strategic issues that could not be resolved”

- Official announcement by Temasek Holdings, shoving MM Lee’s foot deep into his mouth.
[July 09] Link 1 Link 2

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‘The board has been fully engaged with the management team in its evolution over the years and will continue to support the management and Ho Ching in taking Temasek forward’

- S. Dhanabalan, Temasek Holdings chairman. Pretending as if the entire Ho Ching quitting and Charles Goodyear taking over saga never happened.

[July 09] Link

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“We must become cheaper not by cutting wages but by improving productivity… We have to be better by building new capabilities. We must become faster by being more flexible.”

- Lim Swee Say, labour chief. Asking us to up our productivity again. Come on lah… do more or do less, take same pay, do fast or do slow go home same time, how about some proper motivation?

[Aug 09] Link

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“When you ask Singaporean residents for feedback, they will complain that they have to wait more than 15 minutes for the bus. But when you ask new immigrants, they are happy that the bus comes in under 30 minutes.”

- Charles Chong, MP Pasir Ris-Punggol, once again demonstrating his charming personal skills in dealing with us lesser mortals and showing his affirmation that waiting 30minutes for a bus is perfectly acceptable.

[Jun 09] Link

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“Immigrants make up for the children Singaporeans are not having”

- Lee Kuan Yew, MM. Explaining why we need foreign workers — To be our daughters and sons. Don’t know how come we’re not importing foreign babies instead. Babies won’t compete for jobs and drive up property prices.

[Aug 09] Link

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“What type of Singapore do you want – a relaxed, quiet kampung, or a buzzing cosmopolitan city?”

- Lee Hsien Loong, PM. On why we need foreign workers. Cos without them, we will become a fishing village once again… just like before Raffles came.

[Sept 09] Link

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Singapore ranked 3rd least corrupt…. yar rite!!

According to the watchdog Transparency International (TI), we are there because of our

‘political stability, long-established conflict of interest regulations and solid, functioning public institutions’

However, there were no mention of astronomical pay of our leaders…

This is not a surprise given that the salaries of leaders in countries ranked 1 and 2 are much lower than what our division 1 elites are getting.

However, are we truly 3rd least corrupt country in the world? Perhaps this screen shot I took from ST would give you an indication.

It’s tough being a teacher

During the budget debate… MOE, in particular, Senior Minister of State for Education Grace Fu made a case that 1) we need more teachers, 2) we need to reduce the workload of teachers.

Both are valid points.

In fact, when concerns were raised over plans to scrap examinations in lower primary, Grace Fu defended the plan.

Full report here

Several MPs (Amy Khor, Ong Seh Hong, Michael Palmerexpressed concerns over the absence of a yardstick to measure kids academic performance if examinations were scraped.

But given that there are other ways to assess students and that exams are really quite taxing, MOE is keen to go ahead with the implementation, which personally, I think is a good policy.

Perhaps sensing that the MOE people are not prepared to give up their plan, Ong Seh Hong and several other MPs next touch on the need to teach values also. Pushing the parenting responsibilities to the schools.

Full report here

Hello!? Aren’t we talking about reducing workload? Not increasing workload? Parenting and education should never be mixed in my opinion.

Next, Grace Fu touched on another one of my favourite topic, past year papers…

Full report here

Until you have had the experience of someone working out 10 years worth of past exams and dumping it on you to be marked will you understand the frustrations felt by teachers. 10 years is a long time, syllabus change, emphasis change, yet some over zealous students believed that examination do not. Which is kinda idiotic if you ask me.
It is not a smart way to learn, yet teachers would be obliged to go through the attempted solutions because the student had done the same. For that reason, I applaud Grace Fu’s stand on the removal of online access to past assessments.

It seemed like only Christopher de Souza understood that many of the teachers are overworked. His call to reduce workload of teachers was not particularly well received.

Full report here

After all, those teachers are already getting free parking!

Some more you want to reduce their work load, what will they do with their spare time?

They may… gasp!! …end up having sex with their pupils. Talk about impeccable timing… same day paper reported a case of a female teacher having sex with a boy from her school.

Full report here

So will teachers workload get reduced? I doubt so.

Town council to get report card

Recently, it appeared in the papers that our beloved town councils who if you remembered, was reported to have gotten burnt in the stock markets just last year, will be getting report cards soon.

Full report here

According to the report…

This move by the Ministry of National Development (MND), which oversees public housing in Singapore, is to give residents more information on the work of the councils.

The report’s aim is to better inform residents about their councils so that they can play a part in shaping their housing estates, said Senior Minister of State for National Development Grace Fu.

The need to evaluate town councils was raised last year when it was revealed in Parliament that several People’s Action Party town councils had lost a total of $16 million because of investments in toxic products linked to the failed Lehman Brothers investment bank.

So in short, this is a knee jerk reaction to the report losses of a mere $16million. If this is a measure of things to come, perhaps we can look forward to seeing report cards on Temasek Holdings and GIC soon?

Anyway, Grace Fu, who carried the turtle shell for Mah during the peak of the public uproar over town council investments fiasco, was quick to point out to the public what the assessment exercise is not…

Full report here

THE Government’s impending move to assess town councils should not be seen as a ranking exercise, says Senior Minister of State for National Development Grace Fu.

It should instead be viewed as a way to give HDB residents the facts that will help them engage better with their town councils on estate management issues, Ms Fu said yesterday after a Housing Board event.

For this reason, punishing town councils that perform badly in the assessment, like reducing government grants, is ‘not envisaged at the moment’, she added.

She stressed that ‘the whole purpose of (the report) is to allow residents and town councils to have an objective set of numbers to talk about’.

Firstly, I must point out that it is quite obvious that it is not an ranking exercise… so what if you discover that your town council is more cock up than another town council? It is not as if you’re enrolling your child to primary school here… it is where you live. Are you going to just pack up and move to another estate because of that?

Secondly, I agree that reduction of funding for town councils that are performing poorly is not the way to go, because at the end of the day, it is the town that will suffer as a result of reduction in funding. What should be reduced should be the bonuses and salaries of those in poorly managed town councils.

Finally, I found the need for “objective set of numbers” laughable. Picture this…

Just like how mothers can compare their children’s performance during the recent spelling test in school, in the future, when Ah Beng and Ah Seng are drinking coffee and complaining about their town councils, they can compare notes and say something like…

Ah Beng: “My town council sibeh cock up ah! Only scored 17 out of 50 for financial management”

Ah Seng: “My lagi worse lah… only scored 15 out of 50, you consider lucky already.”

But even before any assessment is done and actual numbers are published, Mah Bow Tan is already pinning part of the blame on residents for any poor performance of their town council.

Full report here

Hello, Mr Mah, I don’t think you can share the blame with us so easily hor. Things like losing millions in investment is not done by residents… and also cock ups like the one below also not our fault ok?!

Full report here

Another report…

Girl’s fall puts spotlight on town councils
By Nur Dianah Suhaimi

When a girl fell four storeys from a Telok Blangah block of flats recently because of a gap in a metal railing, the work of town councils in maintaining HDB estates came into the spotlight.

According to the uncle of the seven-year-old, the railing had been broken since December last year.

The Tanjong Pagar Town Council has formed an independent inquiry committee to investigate.

The Sunday Times spoke to MPs who said defects that can be potentially dangerous are usually rectified immediately after they are reported to the town councils.

Town councils were started in 1998 to manage and maintain common areas in Housing Board estates. There are 16 of them.

Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP Charles Chong said every town council has its own special emergency unit whose members will be dispatched immediately to handle cases such as power failure, people stuck in lifts, gas leaks and broken handrails.

Dr Teo Ho Pin, mayor of Northwest CDC, said the speed of response depends on the severity of the case.

‘If there are people stuck in the lift, a rescue team will be there within half an hour. If there is a beehive in the neighbourhood, the pest terminators will be there within one hour,’ he added.

There is a 24-hour hotline for residents to call in an emergency. The number, serviced by a call centre, can be found on the notice board in every HDB void deck.

Town councils, funded mainly by conservancy charges, are responsible for cleaning works, building and lift repairs, as well as major cyclical works like repainting, reroofing and rewiring.

While the town councils are individually run, they have to adhere to maintenance guidelines, said MPs.

For example, lift motors are serviced once every fortnight. Inspections of block rooftops are conducted once every three months.

Playgrounds and fitness corners are audited twice a year by independent safety inspectors.

Said Mr Zainudin Nordin, mayor of Central Singapore District: ‘There is a schedule and maintenance roster for everything found in an HDB estate.’

He added that town council officers are kept on their toes as HDB officers in plain clothes audit the upkeep and maintenance.

Last year, HDB set up an inspection unit, which carries out checks and audits.

HDB also introduced a framework to grade and benchmark the performance of town councils.

Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education, has said that once ready, the results will be compiled and made public.

Mr Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports, said that from his observation, town councils respond to all complaints and feedback received.

The problem lies with managing the expectations of residents.

‘Sometimes, they expect the town council to address their feedback immediately. There are also times when the work is done, but they are not aware of it,’ he said.

Mayor Teo Ho Pin agreed.

‘Recurring problems, such as loanshark graffiti, sometimes give residents the impression that the town councils have not been cleaning or repainting the walls,’ he noted.

To address this issue, Mr Teo Ser Luck said it would be good if town councils vigilantly update residents on action taken.

Mr Chong suggested that town council officers be trained in hazard identification and risk analysis.

‘It’s possible that sometimes they may notice a defect but are not able to identify the risks involved. As a result, they may not take immediate action,’ he said.

ndianah@sph.com.sg

Incidentally, I would like to point out yet another cock up by Teo Ser Luck here… I am starting to believe that the man doesn’t think before opening his mouth.

Helloooo!!!!

People’s child in ICU leh…. due to sloppy management by the town council that delayed the repair works and there you are talking about managing residents’ expectation on town councils’ promptness in repair works?

Or is it we need to manage our expectation that some times, the railing will be there and other times not? That kind of expectation?

But, maybe we cannot blame the town council lah…. perhaps the folks there were too busy playing the stock market with your money to do what they were originally established to do.

Hopefully the report card will change their attitude towards their core duties and responsibilities.

So much for multi-million dollar salaried, divison one team

Yes, our elites are the highest paid and according to them, they are a divison one team deserving of their high salaries.

Yet… recent reports in the papers some how implied that they aren’t really doing a good job, compared to the other countries.

Full report here

Full report here

Maybe it’s time we experimented with cheaper, division 2 teams.. they may end up doing a better job.