TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent Besides generous self-praise, the PAP is also very good at "marketing" itself to gullible foreign leaders and officials who are not familiar with the situation in Singapore to dupe them into believing that it has done a remarkable job governing Singapore. The propaganda is then "fed" to an unsuspecting citizenry via the state media to justify their own mega million-dollar salaries. This time, it was the head of Shanghai Municipal Government financial services office Dr Fang Xinghai who was given a "lesson" on Singapore's public housing. Obviously being an invited guest at a welcome dinner hosted in his honor by another country, Dr Fang has little choice but to be diplomatic - he praised the "foresight" of Singapore's leaders in enabling 80 percent of the population to "benefit" from the public housing programme. "In Shanghai, we're facing this (housing) problem. The middle class are squeezed by housing prices. While we don't have plans (for public housing) yet, I think it is already a bit too late for Shanghai because most of the land has already been leased out for the next 70 years," he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times. What he did not realize is that the public housing in Singapore cost as much as the private housing in Shanghai. Instead of parceling the land out to private developers, the PAP government acquire much of the land in Singapore for little or nothing under the draconian Land Acquisition Act in 1967. The land is then sold to HDB at market prices resulting in sky-rocketing prices of HDB flats. Technically speaking, Singaporeans do not own their HDB flats but are merely leasing them from HDB for a maximum period of 99 years. As much of their savings are tied up with mortgage loans with these over-priced flats, they have few disposable income left to enjoy life. Furthermore, they are often held ransom by the repressive PAP to vote for it during elections or risk being denied critical funds to maintain and upgrade their flats which may lead to a depreciation in value. To get a more accurate picture of the reality on the ground, Dr Fang should speak to ordinary Singaporeans living in the HDB heartlands to find out for himself if Singapore's public housing programme is indeed a "success" as claimed by the PAP. It's quite pointless to have only a roof above one's head but with no other assets or spare cash to enjoy life. The Chinese in Shanghai will surely not be impressed by HDB's dismal track record of leeching on the life-savings of the people and subjecting them to a life of abject slavery.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans.  Read More →

Dear Minister Mah, I write to register my protest against the response from your HDB Resale Department in regards to my appeal for a loan direct from HDB, as well as the general policies that are preventing me from providing for my family. My grouse with you are three fold: -          Formulating policies that are making housing for  Singaporeans unaffordable and unattainable -          Adhering to those policies when confronted by genuine cases of hardship -          Failing in your stated mission   Policies, what policies?! The first policy that I call into question is the BTO scheme. The scheme has led to a failure to build enough houses to meet the increasing population, leading to an unsustainable rise in the cost of home ownership due to the supply-demand dynamic. Isn’t it true that “from 2003 to 2008, the total population of Singapore increased by 17.6%, the number of HDB flats increased by only 1.2%”. Why was supply constrained, when it was obvious that demand was far out-stripping it? The second policy that is proving to be detrimental to Singaporeans is the 35 year age barrier to buying a flat. It does not take into account the fact that there will be people like me, singles under 30 years of age, who are responsible for caring for their families. Do we not deserve the right to care for our parents, regardless of our choice to remain single? The third policy failure that is most apparent to me is the market based “subsidy”. Why is it that in the 80’s and 90’s, my parents were able to purchase their flats from HDB, and repay their mortgages within 10 years? Why did we divert from the cost-based scheme, when it proved so successful in meeting the housing needs of the citizens of this country? With housing pricing out pacing household income, isn’t it time that you reassessed this policy? There are many, many more policies that I could shoot down, but I think in the interest of brevity, the above should prove sufficient to get my point across – the very policies that were meant to meet the housing needs of Singaporeans are preventing the sons and daughters of this land from having a roof over their heads!   Appeal to nowhere The summary of my situation is as follows: As a 30 year old Singaporean (born and bred), I am ineligible to purchase a house on my own due to one of the aforementioned draconian policies. To become eligible, I have to include my parents in my application. However, since my parents have taken two loans from HDB (a decade-and-a-half ago), my entire family unit is disqualified from buying from HDB (!?!). My parents were part of the upgrade craze in the 90’s, which was actively promoted by our government. They sold their second flat to move into a landed property. However, 2 major catastrophes caused us to lose that property: 1.)    A failed business venture and 2.)    My father had a heart attack After we were evicted from that landed property (which was forcibly sold by the bank at a massive loss), my parents have been staying with my grandmother, while I’ve been putting up with a cousin. This is obviously not an ideal situation, and I seek to redress this situation by reuniting my parents and myself, instead of being at the mercy of our relatives. I think more than three years of putting up with relatives is long enough, don’t you? The biggest obstacle standing in my way is the archaic policies of the sole statutory board that is tasked with housing my family and me – the HDB. After my initial failed application for the Home Loan eligibility, I appealed the decision. I've tried to buy direct from HDB, but they said NO. I tried to buy resale from HDB, and they say NO. Now I've tried to get a housing loan from HDB, and they say NO again. I sense a pattern forming. The rejection of my appeal shows both a lack of empathy, an obvious lack of understanding the current situation on the ground, as well as an utter failure to carry out the duties of  a Statutory Board who’s primary mission is to provide affordable public housing for SINGAPOREANS. Note the word Singaporean in the previous sentence. Not PR’s. Not integrated New Citizens. Not other rich foreigners with money to burn. But SINGAPOREANS. It tickles me something cruel to realise that according to your policies, PR siblings are eligible to buy flats from HDB, while my  family, all born and bred citizens, is cast aside as an afterthought.   Mission Statement: FAIL I find it the height of irony that on the HDB website, there are conglatutory banners for 50 years of good work (hints of “Mission Accomplished, perchance?). I think it should be amended to” 40 odd years of sterling work, and a decade of questionable results”. On that same website, I came across HDB’s mission statement to “provide affordable homes of quality and value” and “promote the building of active and cohesive communities”. I am sorry to tell you this, but HDB is failing to fulfill its responsibility to the people of Singapore, of whom I am one (and I have the two-and-a-half of national service to prove it!) All I am asking for is the chance to provide for my family. I would like to clearly state that I am not asking for charity – I am asking to be allowed to provide a roof over my parents heads. You speak of “cohesive communities”; what community is more important than family? By forcing us to stay separated, you are contradicting your own words here. Maybe HDB should change its mission statement to : "Provide housing for the rich, as only they deserve to live happily ever after. Oh, and PRs are welcome too!" Is it too much to ask for you to relax your unnecessarily strict rules so that I can get a loan direct from HDB, instead of being at the mercy of private banks (with the lesson of the US sub-prime crisis still fresh in the memory, can you blame me?), who are only allowed to lend me 80% of the cost of the house? And can you please advise me on what I am supposed to do when the majority of flats on the resale market come with $20K COV? Where am I supposed to get the kind of cash? How is that affordable?   The situation is coming to a head soon– my grandmother is selling her flat to pay for her healthcare costs, and my parents will soon be homeless. As their only son, it is my duty to care for them. But how can I, when the cost of homeownership is so high? How can I when the cost of renting is escalating beyond my means? Should I invest in a big tent, and join the other families that are camped out at the beaches? There are so many questions in this email, and I fear that none of them will ever be answered.   Muhammad Nazeem   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent It's all good news for Singapore lately as the country's GDP figures continue to post impressive growth prompting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to exclaim that Singapore's "rebound" from the downturn has surpassed expectations. Speaking to the state media in Washington DC where he is attending a nuclear summit, PM Lee says "Singapore's economy has made a remarkable recovery from a year ago and he expects a good year going forward." "Our target is 3 to 5 per cent growth over the next 10 years. This year is off to a very good start - I expect we should have a good year......And we should make the most of these conditions this year to get momentum for our longer term plans to upgrade the productivity, transform the economy and to continue to work at our tripartite relationship between the unions, employers and the government, so that the next time something hits us, we are stronger than we were the last time," he was quoted as saying in Channel News Asia. When Singapore became the first Asian country to enter a recession in 2008, PAP leaders were quick to lay the blame on the global economy for Singapore's woes. It is not known if Singapore's "recovery" this time is due to the improvement in the global economy as well. Though Singapore's growth rates are starting to pick up, the economic gains have not yet trickled down to ordinary Singaporeans who continue to face a grim and uncertain future. The situation on the ground is not as rosy as portrayed by the state media. Many employers have not restored the wage cuts imposed on Singaporeans during the recession. Wages remain stagnant while the cost of living has sky-rocketed, including that of public housing. PM Lee claimed that he does not "expect" prices for daily necessities to increase drastically after the Trade and Industry Ministry revised Singapore's inflation rate from 2 percent to between 2.5 and 3.5 percent without substantiating it. Perhaps it is due to his "counter-intuition" or "hunch". PAP ministers stand most to gain from Singapore's economic growth as an unknown percentage of their multi-million salaries is pegged to GDP growth - the higher the figures, the more money they bring home. GDP figures can be manipulated easily by allowing the influx of cheap foreign workers thereby keeping labor costs low and inflating the output artificially at the same time. Prime Minister Lee was to receive a 8.8 percent pay hike his year. He currently earns about $3 million dollars a year or 6 times that of U.S. President Barack Obama. With the  "remarkable" recovery made by the Singapore economy, he should expect a "remarkable" increase in his take-home pay too, thanks to the generosity of Singapore taxpayers.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans.   Related article: >> Misleading ST article on "highest growth in 16 years"    Read More →