Refining The GST Mechanism

By National Solidarity Party

A blanket application of GST affects the poor more than the rich. Fortunately, the measure has rooms for refinement. But will the lazy minds of the government, too used to taking the easy way out, figure out the way to improve the scheme, or will they predictably bully their way through?

The signs are discouraging.

Second Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam dismissed the notion of GST exemption as flawed by citing the experience of “other countries” and how “it leads to all kinds of distortions.” The Minister was guilty of distortion by omitting to differentiate the plan (GST exemption) from the implementation.

Tharman further added that GST exemption would benefit the well-off who spend more on basic goods than the poor. This again was an exercise in perversion to argue the government’s case without stating the obvious truth – The poor spend a higher proportion of their income on basic goods than the rich.

Point-by-Point rebuttal to Ministry of Home Affairs’ statement

By the Singapore Democratic Party

Below is a reply by Dr Chee Soon Juan to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ statement dated 20 December 2006.

Point 1: Marking of food trays.

MHA: It is normal Prisons procedure to record the food consumption of inmates under close watch. This procedure applies not just to Chee Soon Juan but to all such inmates.

CSJ: When the question of the marking was first raised by my wife, Ms Huang Chih Mei, and sister, Ms Chee Siok Chin, on 4/12/2006, Monday, both Mr Chandra Kumar (MHA official) and Queenstown Remand Prison (QRP) Superintendent Hoon categorically denied that prisoners’ trays were marked, unless it’s for vegetarian food. I am not a vegetarian. If it is the “normal” practice to mark the food trays of inmates under close watch, why did Mr Chandra Kumar and Mr Hoon say they had no knowledge of the marking?

My first 100 days in office

By Mr Zaqy Mohamad

POLITICS has not only changed my life, it has also changed my perspectives and created lasting impressions. They say first impressions last and I share mine through my first 100 days in office – Mr Zaqy Mohamad

THE CONSTITUENCY

I was in a business meeting overseas. My mobile phone buzzed : a phone call that I hoped I’d never receive. A resident, his spouse and four children were stranded outside of their flat. Their HDB flat had been repossessed by a commercial bank. They were now homeless, with only five hours left to nightfall. The family was in distress.

Immediate calls were made to my parliamentary colleagues, Mohamad Maliki Osman and Teo Ser Luck, from the Ministry of National Development and Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports respectively to inform them we needed immediate attention from their agencies.

Coordinated out of our PAP branch, we had the Residents’ Committee on the ground within the hour, together with government officials, to work out various options. By nightfall, we had a resolution: the family had a place to stay and a long-term housing solution was in the works. This experience manifested a fear I had for residents in the constituency.On the surface, we had new estates that were eight to 16 years old. Most residents were in the middle income group, residing in 4-room, 5-room, executive flats and condominiums. The ward seemed “peaceful” for a new MP to learn the ropes.

Singapore flames ‘uncaring elite’ – really ar? But 66% says otherwise methinks ….

By Perry Tong

{me in blue}

SINGAPORE (Reuters) — When Wee Shu Min, the teenage daughter of a Singapore member of parliament stumbled across the blog of a Singaporean who wrote that he was worried about losing his job, she thought she’d give him a piece of her mind.

She called him “one of many wretched, undermotivated, overassuming leeches in our country” on her own blog and signed off with “please, get out of my elite uncaring face”.

Wee was flamed by hundreds of fellow bloggers, but when her father Wee Siew Kim — an MP in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s constituency — told a Singapore newspaper that “her basic point is reasonable”, the row moved well beyond the blogosphere.

The episode highlighted a deep rift in Singapore society and was an embarrassment for the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) and prime minister Lee, who has made the reduction of the income gap one of the priorities of his new government.

“Coming from an MP in the prime minister’s constituency, these comments really were political dynamite,” political commentator Seah Chiang Nee told Reuters. “If the political arrogance and elitism get any worse, the PAP will lose more electoral ground,” he added.

[A Bhora Wedding] 1. My wife and kids accompani…

By George Yeo

[A Bhora Wedding]
1. My wife and kids accompanied me for the wedding celebration of a Dawoodi Bhora couple at the Bhora Mosque at Hill Street. The bride is the daughter of Mrs Basrai, an RC member from Lengkong Tiga, Kampong Kembangan. My wife and I knew the bride since she was a little girl. For dinner, the men and women ate separately. For all of us, eating from a communal dish with our fingers while sitting with knees bent was a very interesting experience. The food was yummy. I and my sons put on the Bhora cap while my wife and daughter wore shawls.

2. The Bhoras are a particularly talented community. The great majority are engaged in business. The community in Singapore numbers less than a thousand but many of its members are very successful. They are Shiites but different from the twelfers of Iran and Lebanon. They are in fact twenty-firsters, meaning that there were 21 Imams, ending with the last one going into hiding. Their headquarters is in Surat in the state of Gujerat. They were originally from Yemen with links going back to the Fatimids who established Al Azhar University in Cairo a thousand years ago.

3. Not many Singaporeans are familiar with the Bhoras but they are one of a number of small communities in Singapore who contribute greatly to our country particularly in the economic field including the Jews, Parsees, Sindhis, Chettiars, Jains, Khojas and Marwaris. Because each of these communities has a thriving international diaspora, they source their brides and groom worldwide. In Mrs Bhasrai’s case, the groom is from Sri Lanka where there is a sizeable Bhora community. They were the original worldwide web.

4. The Singapore fabric is strong and valuable precisely because there are many threads woven into it which are unique and special. The important thing is to ensure that they are well knotted here so that we stay together despite the occasional stresses pulling the fabric in different directions. Like a good Persian carpet, the more knots per inch, the better.

[Christmas] 1. It is interesting how Christmas …

By George Yeo

1. It is interesting how Christmas has become a festive occasion for everyone, not just Christians. Whether it is China, Vietnam or Indonesia, Christmas is being celebrated on a growing scale. An important reason is commercial of course. Some Christians object to Christmas being commercialised but I think this is too narrow a view.

2. There is a parallel with Chinese New Year and Deepavali. For many Chinese, there is a religious aspect to Chinese New Year which calls for burning of joss and visits to the temple. But there is a cultural aspect which is not religious at all. It is the same with Deepavali, the festival of light, which is both a religious and a cultural celebration. I believe Christmas is becoming the same. Still, it seems odd that Christmas decorations should become increasingly commonplace in Chinese cities. But then China has become a major supplier of the objects and decorations used during Deepavali (like the oil lamps) and the Muslim Id (like twinkling lights and lanterns).

3. I attended Christmas Midnight Mass at the Carmelite Monastery with my family. This is a family tradition. This year, the Risen Christ Choir sang the hymns and carols. The Carmelite nuns dedicate themselves to a life of prayer. They are a contemplative order and do not leave the monastery except when they need to see a doctor or vote at elections. There is always some disappointment when the constituency is uncontested because they don’t get to come out to vote. (Opposition: please note.) They see visitors only on special occasions (like Christmas Eve) but separated by bars.

4. To all readers of Ephraim’s and Harold’s blogsites: Merry Christmas!

Something Seriously Wrong with Singapore

By Chia Ti Lik

Dear All

As of this afternoon. Another letter to the straits times forum page. he he

Don’t think they will publish this though. It is far too hard hitting.

Happy reading! PAPpies and its supporters are invited to attack this posting with unrestrained fervour.

Regards

Ti Lik

 

What do we make out of this? 

We have a Government who promised the people immediately after the election that they will implement policies to stay together and move ahead with the people.

 

Shortly thereafter we had a Minister Mr. Mah Bow Tan deciding to keep opposition wards out of the upgrading queue because “the people had rejected the upgrading program”.

 

We have seen ERP charges increased, utility charges increased, public transport fare increased to silence from the 82 PAP MPs who claim to speak for the people.

 

We had a dozen post 65 PAP MPs who were happy to spend time training for a few months to dance hip hop at the coming Chingay procession.

 

We also have a Government telling us just days ago (with the accompanying articles of support from ST) that the GST needs to be increased to 7% because there is Government expenditure that needs to be financed.

 

Today, we have the ST attempting to explain that 40% of our bursaries go to foreign students is a justifiable policy which we should accept.

 

Today, we have the Government announcing a bigger bonus for the civil service of a total of 2.7 months for the entire year.

 

Given this little summary, we don’t need even a primary six education to tell us that there is something seriously wrong with this country is it not? Time to think.

 

Chia Ti Lik

GST Hike Propaganda (Letter to ST Forum Page)

By Chia Ti Lik

The Saga of the GST Hike continues. The press is unrelentingly offering support to the PAP Government’s initiative. Over here, i wage a war against one sided information and skewed perspectives. This is my letter in response to Article at Page 6 Sunday Times yesterday 19th November 2006.

 

GST Hike Propaganda (Letter to ST Forum Page on 20th November 2006)

The article at page 6 of Sunday Times 19^th November 2006 by Ken Kwek is referred to.

 

Lending support to the Government’s GST hike gig, the article reveals that Mika Sampovaara, a Scandinavian quitter is able to – earn the same and have more time for a better life in Singapore by fleeing from the heavy taxation levied by a welfare state. These are some points to put the article in proper perspective.

PRESS STATEMENT

Is the Prime Minister play-acting when he calls upon the Opposition to stop evading serious issues (ST 29 April)?

The most compelling question facing our people in Singapore today is whether the present system of government, which has been in place for 47 years, is capable of producing a dynamic and progressive society, promoting the happiness of ALL its people. The present system now brought to light by the disclosure of the system which ran the NKF (the NKF system) has divided Singapore into a country of two nations – one a nation of the rich and the other a nation of the poor – something which Disraeli said of Britain at the beginning of the 20th century. The gap between the rich and the poor has continued to widen and is now reaching alarming proportions.

Under the system our workers are no better than the serfs in the middle ages. We have become a beggar society – a people without any rights. The Rule of Law does not run in Singapore. Elections are programmed by the ruling party to produce determined results. The civil service and the police are subject to political control. The system has spurned falsehoods about Singapore. Truth and justice do not matter in the system. How is this country any better than Belarus or North Korea? The people of Nepal have rejected one-man rule after four (4) years. In Singapore the one-man rule still prevails after 47 years.

Both the PAP, who have put in place this system, and the Opposition Parties, the Workers’ Party now under its present leaders, and the SDA accept the system. Is it any wonder that the Prime Minister taunts Chiam and Low that they have had nothing to offer despite having been in Parliament for well over 15 years except to raise trivialities?

I have said from the time I entered Parliament in 1981 that the system under which Singapore is governed is bad for Singapore and has to go if our people’s lives are to improve. It is for this reason that the PAP have gone all out to keep me out of Parliament, removing me from Parliament in 1986 on false convictions, bringing forward elections in 1991 to two months before I became eligible again to stand for Parliament and now keeping me a bankrupt to prevent me from challenging them in this election. The Inter-Parliamentary Union has said my bankruptcy is politically motivated.

If the Prime Minister is really in earnest when he laments the lack of debate on the issues facing our people, he knows what he can do. I have in my statement released on 12th April 2006 invited him to debate with me. It is no good calling on the WP and SDA because as I said both parties accept the system – the NKF system.

It is still not too late, Mr Lee, for a public debate that is if you sincerely want to know what issues are uppermost in our people’s minds.

Do not dismiss my call as a publicity stunt which I am sure your obedient press will make it out to be. I am deadly serious for the future of our people. If you feel you cannot debate what system is best for Singapore, ask your father. It is he who after all put the system in place.

J B Jeyaretnam

1st May 2006

GE2006 Statement

I see the Prime Minister was rubbing his hands in glee at his press conference on Sunday that his henchmen had succeeded in keeping me out of the elections (Sunday Times 7th May).

He is, without any questionm right when he says that it is better for his government to have Chiam and Low as the Opposition in Parliament because, in his own words (ST 29th April), Chiam and Low have had nothing to offer for their fifteen years (more inChiam’s case) in Parliament. And he said it again in the elections that he would like an Opposition on whom he did not have to spend any time but get on with whatever he wanted to do. So it is understandable that he should shout for joy for having got what he wanted.

As for his snipping at me from his protected position, let it be said that when I led the Party in the 1997 elections, my first return to the hustings after I was falsely removed from Parliament in 1986, my team in Cheng San was only kept out of Parliament by the then Prime Minister nakedly threatening the voters with dire consequences if they voted for the WOrkers’ Party and following up on the threats with him and the present Prime Minister unlawfully invading the voting centres and even booths to remind the voters of the threats. This is something that only happens in mafia-run countries. And in spite of their blatant intimidation (an offence under the Parliamentary Elections Act) we only narrowly missed being elected.

How are the present results of the Workers’ Party an improvement brought about after I stepped down from the Party?

The Prime Minister talks as though it was an achievement for the Workers’ Party to capture Hougang. Hougang was won for the Workers’ Party in 1991 when I was leading the Party. In every election after the 1972 elections, when I first led the Party, the Workers’ Party has done better than the others.

What I have said are not surmises and guesses but true facts.

Finally, unless the Prime Minister displays that he has a sense of fairness and tells his press to give me my right of reply, this release will never be published in the Singapore press, Will he?

Signed,
J B Jeyaretnam
8th May 2006