Retiring Retirement - A New Way of Life

Before the invention of the retirement age, people did not think of retiring from work. They would just carry on working until they could no longer do so. Then in 1881, Otto von Bismarck presented the idea of a pension scheme to a newly formed Germany that was premised upon a retirement age when people could choose not to work anymore and be financially taken care of by the state. It was a brilliant political move and soon Britain and Europe were buying into the idea of Bismarck's pension scheme [Read More].

During our colonial times, the British implemented a pension scheme in Singapore and civil servants could comfortably retire at the withdrawal age of 55 and enjoy social security when they no longer have to work. Back then, life was a lot simpler and the cost of living and healthcare was more manageable. With the rapid advances in modern medicine and technology over the last few decades, people are living longer and healthier lives. But, with escalating prices from food to transport, those on pension schemes are finding it harder to cope financially. Today, aged poverty stares in the face of millions of retirees living in rich countries. In the United States, more people are working past the age of 65 [Read More]. 

Pension schemes are turning into fiscal hot potatoes for governments with an ever-growing silver population. The cost of funding state pension schemes is taking its toll on government coffers. In 2013, it was announced that our civil servants will no longer receive pensions [Read More]. While pensions have been removed, the retirement age was not. There is a statutory retirement age that was previously set at 60 and our laws have since moved to provide for a "minimum retirement age" of 62 [Read More]. In other countries, legislations on retirement have either been abolished or amended to  push up the retirement age [Read More]. The writings are on the wall. Retirement has to be retired.

The current working generation has to learn to face up to a future without retirement. In the context of today's high costs of living and healthcare, it is no longer glamorous nor affordable to retire and it is certainly better to be ready to keep working than being sorry about it. Not retiring from work 6seems to have its advantages. Modern scientific research has shown that retirement may in fact be bad for your mental health [Read More]. 

Without retirement, work and leisure will take on new meanings. For the employee, they will learn to take pride in being economically productive despite their age [Read More]. For employers, they will recognise the value of the silver workforce and its capacity to enhance productivity and to meet any labour shortage The responsibility of creating job opportunities for the silver workforce eventually falls on the government's shoulders. Our public sector could take the lead by employing more older workers on fixed or flexible hours and without discounting their wages or CPF contributions because of their age.

As working becomes a long-lasting commitment, attitudes towards planning for regular leisure activities and holidays will change. That long holiday in a dream destination which would have been put off until retirement need no longer be delayed that long. Living the moment will no longer be seen to be just be a mantra. It will be the way of life. For everyone.

Social Conscience - Unlocking Our Positive Energy

These days, there isn't a day that passes without some tragic news. Terrorist attacks, mass killings and homicidal "lone wolves" are making newspaper headlines and every government is beefing up security measures to avert another tragedy. However, even the best security system cannot guarantee absolute protection against the fanatical forces that wreak havoc in the lives of ordinary folks and cause mayhem in peaceful societies around the world. Only recently, we were told to brace ourselves for the day when our security net may be breached (Read HERE). Besides concentrating our efforts on security measures and enhancing civil, police and military vigilance, we need to ask what else we can do in our struggle against the impact of ideological radicalisation and extremism.

In the deep recesses of our subconscious minds lie a powerful inhibitor of wrong-doings. Each time we are about to do something that we shouldn't be doing or hold back from doing something that we should, it makes us feel queasy. When this queasy feeling intensifies, we feel a prevailing sense of guilt or regret and then promise ourselves not to let it happen again. That natural inhibitory reflex inside us is our "conscience" and it also has the power to make us do good. In psychoanalytic theory, our conscience is identified as our "super-ego", that part of our subconsciousness that aims for human perfection.

As people live in communities sharing common values and aspirations, those innate feelings that restrain us from doing harm and spur positive behaviours in troubling situations, develop into a sort of social conscience. A moral compass that we rely upon to navigate through many moral dilemmas in our lives. This social conscience encapsulates social consciousness, the latter being a form of conscious awareness of our society's well-being that is merely knowledge devoid of the energising force of social conscience.

A strong social conscience will move us to respond to our sense of right and wrong. It makes us display our best human values, those that build the best traditions of a mature, peace-loving society. In one online dictionary definition, it is said that if you have a social conscience, you worry about people who are poor, ill, old, etc. and try to help them (Read More). It is more than that. Social conscience can be perceived as a form of positive energy that is sadly diminished in those of us who pursue selfish gains and fanatical idealism. The negative forces of greed, jealousy and hatred can only be subdued through unlocking that positive energy in each of us. In order to do so, we need to develop a strong social conscience that forces our humanitarianism to the surface. And the way to go about is to constantly learn and understand our own humanity and how decent human beings ought to treat each other.

Unlock that positive energy in you and help change the world for the better.

God Save Our President

A recent opinion expressed by the Straits Times (in ST, Tues, May 17, 2016) on “Understanding the President's role” spoke about the review of aspects of the Elected Presidency and the traditional role of our President and. It struck a cord with the following comment:

"The main tension arises from the grafting of a custodial role to the traditional unifying role in a Westminster system of parliamentary government. The latter is arguable the predominance for the Head of State in a participative democracy as he or she would stand above the fray and be a symbol of the dignity and continuity of the nation - an authoritative upholder of the aspirations within the National Pledge. The President represents all of the people, including those who are disadvantaged or lack a voice, and not just those who voted for thin. That is what lends moral authority to the office."

Indeed, our President has always been a symbol of national unity and political neutrality. He represented the ideals of ordinary Singaporeans and the belief that it was possible for an ordinary Singapore to rise to the highest office in the land. The country’s first four presidents, who held office between 1965 and 1993, were appointed by parliament. Yusof Ishak, Benjamin Sheares, Devan Nair and Wee Kim Wee were largely ceremonial heads of state with limited powers who acted mainly on the advice of the cabinet. Our President speaks at the opening of parliamentary sessions, attends state functions and receives foreign dignitaries. And on National Day, every citizen waits patiently to see the arrival of our President at the parade to recite the national pledge together. Sadly, this symbolic role of our President in a young republic like ours, was made to stand on its head following amendments to our constitution in 1991 to provide for the election of our President.

The Elected President's key role is to act as a guardian of our past national reserves. The Elected President is endowed with oversight powers on government expenditure using such reserves. Many have criticised the changes as politically motivated and this is criticism does not seem to be entirely without basis. Only a select few qualify to be candidates under the changes which are more stringent than those who wish to be elected as Members of Parliament. The candidate must be a former senior political appointee, high-ranking civil servant or someone with strong financial management experience. These changes did not merely graft a custodial role to the traditional role of the President. In fact, it subverted our President's traditional role and politicised his office.

Every presidential election puts the candidates under the spotlight of political parties who have come to view these elections as another political contest for them besides the general elections. The impact resulted in the incumbent having won the 2011 presidential elections with 35.20% of the votes, with a narrow margin of only 0.34% over the second-placed candidate. Consequently, not only has the traditional role of the President been substantially diminished, the standing of the office of the President has also been lowered in the eyes of the general public after the political mud-slinging that has become commonplace during elections. One wonders why the Auditor General was not considered for that custodian role. Alternatively, it would have been more feasible to set up a new administrative office equipped with a strong secretariat to undertake the demanding task.

The expansion of the role of our President to include the protection of our nation's reserves is as undesirable as the expansion of the role of our Members of Parliament to manage town councils. The additonal responsibilities undermine the more important traditonal roles and the task of ensuring that our national reserves are not misused should have been assigned to someone else. As Head of State, our President must continue to be a symbol of unity and to undertake the tall order of keeping the financial expenditure of an elected government in check will compromise his symbolic status. Elected or not.

CMIO- For Better or Worse

Singapore's cultural identity is a unique composition of the different beliefs and practices of our major ethnic groups, classified under the Chinese, Malays, Indians and Others ("CMIO") model.

From our food, costumes, music, art, festivals, etc., including our pidgin Singlish, our cultural identity binds us together as one people in a multi-racial, multi-religious society. Wherever we may be, we can easily identify another Singaporean.

However, with the rapid increase in the number of new citizens each year, we are beginning to see a potential cultural crisis looming, with the rising influence of new cultures. There are already calls for the CMIO model to be abolished and the argument is that it fails to encompass the increasing cultural diversity in Singapore.

Our intake of new citizens has reportedly increased from an average of 8,200 per year between 1987 and 2006, to about 18,500 per year in the last 5 years (Read More). Going by these numbers, it is not surprising to see the CMIO model already coming under threat.

It is said that the CMIO model does not capture the numerous heterogenous sub-communities in Singapore and the diversity that resulted from immigration and inter-community marriages (Read More). Some have proposed that Singapore should emulate New York City, for example, where there is no fixed preconception of people (Read More). The momentum to abolish the CMIO model seems to be accelerating.

On the other hand, opponents to the abolition argue that the CMIO categorisation sets the minority communities at ease and should not be jettisoned too quickly (Read More). Their worries are that without the CMIO model, not only will the culture of the majority ethnic group dominate, the culture of the minority ethnic group will lose protection. These worries are not completely unfounded but there is a greater worry.

Over the last 50 years, the CMIO has been the invisible scaffolding that has shaped the cultural identity of our nation. Although it started out as a simplistic and racist way of managing the interests of the different ethnic groups in Singapore, which is not much different from the way the British colonialists did it, the CMIO model has become so structurally entrenched in our social make-up that to abolish it now is to uproot the racial markers that has made Singapore unique in the eyes of the world. Its abolition will be followed by a potentially virulent clash of all the cultures that are found in our land today and which will lead to a major transformation not only in our nation's 50 year-old cultural identity but in our socio-political structures as well.

It bears reminder that in a global city, the inhabitants come and go and their interests are purely economic. For a nation to be truly able to hold on to its people's hearts and minds, the people need to feel a strong sense of belonging beyond their economic interests. Their strong cultural identity as a nation of people is what holds them together in one place. Despite its racial overtures and inadequacies, the CMIO has been a necessary evil that has worked so far to maintain the peace and stability in our tiny island nation. Before we tear it down, we should ask ourselves if we are ready for what comes next.

THEME: Medical - Healthcare Matters

Medicine is a subject that requires the practitioner to have a passion to heal the sick and save lives. Historically, doctors take the Hippocratic oath to uphold their calling and high ethical standards.

Many of our local students aspire to study medicine because of its noble calling but there are very high bars for entry into our local medical schools and medical schools admit students based on their stellar academic results and not so much on their disposition to practice medicine. 

Each year, our intake of medical students is less than 300 and this is hardly enough to meet increasing demands. A great number of our students with the right aptitude for medicine are forced to leave for overseas medical schools, spending huge sums of money to earn their medical degrees. Yet, instead of expanding the local intake, foreigners are recruited to make up the numbers. This scene is repeated in the nursing line which has become heavily reliant on foreign nurses (Click HERE).

There is a need to seriously review our policies and to expand our intake of medical students to allow more of our own students with the right aptitude but less stellar academic results to train and become medical practitioners. From a social perspective, the more doctors and nurses there are, the more our aged and sick will have ready access to medical attention. An increase in the supply of doctors and nurses, and medical practitioners in specialisations that are in growing demand, will go towards lowering overall medical costs and waiting time.

Government polyclinics in Singapore fulfill the primary healthcare role. These are managed by the National Healthcare Group and Singapore Healthcare Services which were formed in 2000 (Click HERE). They provide subsidised outpatient medical care, health screening and pharmacy services. However, the percentage of government polyclinics vis-a-vis private clinics stands at only 20%. This is certainly less than ideal.

Currently, government polyclinics open only from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and are closed on Sundays and Public Holidays. It is perhaps time to look at operating government polyclinics on a 24/7 basis to cater to the needs of an expanding ageing population to help bring down the costs of healthcare. Consultations at polyclinics should be free for all elderly citizens above 65 years old and for those younger, the consultation fee could be fixed as low as possible. Drugs for coughs and colds and other common ailments should be provided free.

Prevention is better than cure and steps should be taken to provide early detection and treatment of diseases. However, breast screenings, pap smears and other health screenings are getting more and more costly and they deter people from going for their yearly check-ups. There can be a national health screening programme which charges a nominal fee for our citizens to encourage them to take care of their own health. Early treatments will also be less costly and increase the chances of full recovery. As it is often said that our people are the only natural resource that we have, it is surely worth the investment to ensure that they are healthy and strong.

The Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) provides subsidies for citizens from lower- and middle-income households for medical and dental care in participating clinics. Presently, applicants are means-tested by taking their total household income divided by the total number of family members living together. The calculated income must not exceed $1,800. This income ceiling should be raised to reflect the rising costs of living. Further, the criteria for those without income to not possess a home with an annual value of not more than $21,000 should be reviewed along with any increase in annual values.

There are also caps on the subsidies for Blue, Orange and Pioneer Generation CHAS cardholders pertaining to chronic conditions. Whilst the caps ($360 and $540 for simple and complex conditions as defined) are published, it would be useful if the balance of the cap remaining provided to the cardholder after every deduction. These cards are currently valid for one year periods and cardholders must apply for renewal. One suggestion is to provide for automatic renewal to save trouble for these cardholders who are generally old and illiterate. 

Rising medical costs have led to various healthcare policies like the Pioneer Generation Package ("PGP") for elderly folks, whose need for financial assistance to reduce their medical costs was neglected for quite a long time. It is estimated that 450,000 Singaporeans, whom the government identifies as the pioneer generation, will benefit. 

Although this is a rather artificial categorization and has led to unhappiness from those who miss the cut-off age, the PGP package serves to help a group of elderly Singaporeans who are 65 and above w.e.f. 31 December 2014. Since the idea behind this package is to show appreciation for their contributions, the PGP ought to cover all their medical costs of the "pioneers" without requiring any of them to make any balance payment.

Improvement Projects in NRP Constituencies - The use of CIPC funding

The idea of forming grassroots organisations like Residents' Committees (RCs) and Citizens' Consultative Committees (CCCs) was to enable volunteers in the community to help the government in implementing its policies and reaching out to residents. Those who manage RCs and CCCs are invariably identified as supporters of the ruling party though many may be motivated to volunteer by a desire to serve the people in their community.

It is often lamented that an MP from a non-ruling party (NRP) taking over the running of a constituency from a ruling party MP has to countenance difficulties from RCs and CCS in the implementation of their programmes. Both MPs and NCMPs have expressed that major obstacles still remain for opposition parliamentarians (Click HERE). One of these obstacles is in tapping on state funds which are set aside for improving infrastructural and recreational facilities for the benefit of residents in their constituencies which include covered walkways, footpaths, cycling tracks and playgrounds.

In one parliamentary session, the Minister for National Development ("MND") was asked for the guidelines for the utilisation of the Community Improvement Projects Committee (CIPC) funding (Click HERE). In his reply, the Minister answered that "CIPC funds are disbursed through the CCCs as they are close to the ground and will be better able to decide on the projects which will be most useful for the local residents. The CCCs are given flexibility to assess the relevance of any proposal and to prioritise them for implementation so that the CIPC funds are optimally utilised. The operating principle for the CCCs is to ensure that the approved CIPC projects are useful, functional, represent value for money, freely accessible to the community and properly planned." 

In short, CCCs have the power to decide if an elected MP may go ahead with his plans to improve infrastructural and recreational facilities for his residents. Given that CCCs are not apolitical in character,  this arrangement poses a serious obstacle to an elected NRP MP's programmes to benefit his constituents. The question that arises is whether funds meant for community improvements should be disbursed to CCSs if the CCC and the MP do not share the same political affiliation. Obviously, if all political contests are confined only to the election period and are not carried over into the term of whoever may be elected as MP to the detriment of the constituents, there will be no necessity for us to review the present arrangement. 

However, as we all know, political contests tend to spill into even the most mundane things that CCCs do for their residents. Until grassroots leaders learn to rise over politics and are no longer seen to be taking sides with the ruling party, there is a need to ensure that these community improvement funds do not become an instrument of politics. As a step towards developing a more positive political culture, why not let the MND decide on the applications to use such funds by all MPs?

THEME: Public Housing - A Home for Every Singaporean

HDB's housing mission was originally premised on nation-building. Public flats were initially sold on a "construction cost-based" pricing policy to enable every citizen to own a HDB flat. Later, "land-cost" pricing was added and this eventually changed to "market pricing" which is based on resale prices. This last pricing policy has led to prices spiraling higher and higher, making owning a HDB flat out of reach for many young citizens today. 

These pricing changes ride on the back of promises to enhance assets and HDB's rigorous innovations to create public flats that are more like private apartments. These innovations moved HDB into the realm of real estate business, selling land to private developers. Consequently, a HDB flat can now cost more than a private apartment.

If nation-building is still HDB's sacred mission, then HDB has a duty to ensure that Singaporeans are the only ones who are eligible to buy HDB flats. If this is no longer its mission, then it should no longer be called the Housing Development Board.

As a public housing agency, HDB need not be concerned at all with the housing needs of foreigners and permanent residents. If foreigners and permanent residents choose to own their flat, they should look at private flats and not compete with Singaporeans for public flats which are built with taxpayers money.

HDB flats should also not be approved for use as dormitories for foreign workers or leased by HDB directly to foreigners or permanent residents.

HDB flats should not be acquired or rented to any public or private corporation, even if there are excess public flats. Excess flats ought to be rented out to meet the needs of Singaporeans who do not have the means to pay for a flat or are not yet ready to do so. In particular, 3- and 4-room rental flats should be made available to young couples, including single parents, who need a place with adequate living space to start a family and to raise children . 

If these measures are kept in place, there will be no need for HDB to keep building new flats. There will be more than enough flats if permanent residents are no longer allowed to own any public flat. HDB could revert to construction-cost pricing for new flats. In order not to impact upon the prices of existing flats which were bought based on market-pricing, these new flats that are sold more cheaply should not be re-saleable in the secondary market and must be re-sold to HDB when they are no longer needed.

Private developers are clearly motivated by profits. HDB should not sell land to private developers to build public flats and then disclaim any responsibility for building defects or non-compliance with building specifications. After-all, these flats are still sold with HDB's minimum occupancy requirement for resale which do not exist for private flats. If HDB chooses to disclaim such responsibility, then it should cease selling land to private developers. 

These are just some ideas. There are probably more and maybe better ideas that others may be able to come up with. Whatever it may be, we should not stop thinking of ways to improve our public housing predicament. May every citizen who needs a public flat be able to afford one without paying for it with an arm or a leg.

THEME: Employment - The White and Blue Collars

In recent years, our legal profession has seen an open-door policy that allows foreign lawyers to practise law Singapore law in transactional matters. Yet, even though the rules are relaxed to admit foreign law practices into Singapore, there is still one category of foreign lawyers who remain subject to a long-standing strict legal regime for their admission here - Queens' Counsels.

The rules permit the admission of Queen's Counsels (or "QCs") for them to represent a litigant before our courts if the QC has, inter alia, special qualifications or experience pertaining to the case. This idea in the admission of QCs ensures that a real foreign talent is being allowed to represent a litigant in place of a local counsel. This same idea of "special qualifications or experience" should be considered as part of the criteria for allowing foreigners to take up any job in the category of Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians ("PMET") in Singapore where we are not short of suitable candidates.

It is a reasonable assumption that each job taken up by a foreign PMET in our job market means that one potential Singaporean candidate is displaced. The justification for doing so must be that the applicant is a "real foreign talent" who is not paid a less favourable remuneration package than that offered to a local candidate. Where a real foreign talent is recruited, there should be a requirement that a transfer of his/her knowledge and skills should take place during the tenure so as to upgrade the quality of our own local pool of PMETs. Any extension of the foreign PMETs' eligibility to continue working here should be supported with cogent reasons and corroborated by a statement from a local apprentice.

The construction industry has traditionally relied on foreign construction workers and there are not many Singaporeans who will consider taking up construction work except as foremen and project managers. Construction workers do not seem to pose a threat to our workforce and have become more or less indispensable. However, in the F&B industry, the need for cleaners, waiters, front service and other workers has not been adequately met by our local workforce because of low wages and a lack of pride in such jobs. In order to develop our own labour force to undertake the work that is now substantially taken up by foreign labour, we need to take a hard look at the costs of living that our workers at the lowest rung of our economic ladder are facing and how to inculcate job-pride.

There is a growing need for us to seriously consider whether minimum wages should be imposed to protect the rights of the most vulnerable groups in our workforce who contribute to the massive profits that many of our local companies are generating. The Progressive Wage Model advocated by NTUC to increase the salaries of workers in the cleaning and security industries, which is enforced only through licensing requirements,is in substance a minimum wage scheme and a step in the right direction, But more can be done to match up the wages to the minimum costs of subsistence.

Wages and work morale are not unrelated. In fact, low wages lead directly to low morale. Perhaps, there are business owners who will be genuinely troubled by wage increases because of their costs of doing business such are high rental costs. But if businesses are taking care of their workers, then the state with all its resources, ought to step in to see how they could help these businesses.

THEME: Transport - Making the COE and ERP systems more equitable

The costs of owning a car in Singapore are the highest in the world because of COEs or Certificates of Entitlement. To buy a motor vehicle, including motorcycles, taxis, buses and goods vehicles, one must first bid for a COE.

The COE bidding system is the means by which the state seeks to control vehicle population and the ERP system is for controlling traffic flow. Looking at the congested roads everyday even on ERP roads, many have come to see both COEs and ERPs as revenue churners rather than truly effective vehicular control mechanisms.

Any good policy to control vehicle  population and traffic flow must be equitable both in principle and in implementation. The COE works on a bidding system that has led to spiraling COE prices. Bidders include car dealers who drive up the bids in order to clear their stocks. High COE prices increase the costs of transport and lead to higher inflation, which in turn contributes to high costs of living. The ERP charges, which are now collected at all expressways and major roads leading into and out of the central business district, have exacerbated the situation and adversely affected businesses during the ERP operating hours. Orchard Road, for instance, sees motorists paying to drive in and drive out even on Saturdays.

It is time to review the roles of the COE and ERP systems, especially when our MRT system has become more unreliable. There is a social injustice in a situation where people are left with a Hodson's choice - forking out huge sums of money to have one's own means of transport or taking public transport which are hard to get on or often disrupted.

Until a better system is devised, the current systems can be improved upon to be more equitable. Instead of being conducted monthly, COE biddings can be carried out quarterly and the COE premium should be fixed for every quarter. This fixed quarterly COE premium will provide some certainty for prospective buyers working on their budgets and to plan their expenditure accordingly. 

Only car buyers should be allowed to bid for COEs and they should pay for what they bid subject to a non-transfer-ability period to prevent profiteering. The there could be a restriction on number of times that a person may bid within a fixed period so as to allow others a chance to bid, COEs should also last longer instead of the current 10 year period as cars are made to last much longer. This is also more ecologically friendly and helps reduce wastage of limited resources.

Motorcycles, or at least those of lower capacities, should be exempted from the COE system. They are the means of transport for many dispatch riders and lower income workers. Taxis and buses, which are a means of public transport, should also be considered for exemption from the COE system. Commercial vehicles should also be considered for exemption in the interest of lowering transport costs for businesses, thereby reducing the prices of goods and services.

ERPs should operate only on major roads leading into the central business districts and only during the peak office hours. Saturdays should be free from ERP and the collection of ERP for vehicles leaving Orchard Road should stop. Whilst there may be a case to collect an administrative fee non-payment of ERP charges and a penalty for further default despite reminders, inadequate payment due to insufficient stored value in cash cards should not attract any such fees or penalty. The ERP system should deduct whatever is available in the card and allow the motorist to pay the shortfall within a prescribed period.

Traffic congestion can be substantially reduced construction works are not carried out so intensively.  Heavy trucks and construction vehicles add to the traffic volume and and certain arterial roads could be designated off-limits to construction vehicles during peak hours. More traffic policeman should be deployed on patrols and traffic lights could be better synchronized to smoothen traffic flow. 

State policies should be imbued with pro-people sensitivities to promote trust and respect for the systems that are suppose to operate for their benefit. We can certainly do more in this respect.

THEME: Employment

One of the biggest bugbears for Singaporeans has been the growing competition for jobs as a result of the long-standing "foreign talent" policy. 

The policy was intended to supplement our local workforce with expatriate talents to sharpen and maintain Singapore's competitiveness in the new global economy. This policy initially saw an influx of British and European expatriates into our banking, financial and advertising sectors who had the relevant skills, expertise and network that made a real difference. Later, it developed into a fashion statement to have these expatriates working in the company, a reminder of our colonial mentality.

With an aging population and falling birth rate, the "foreign talent" policy took a twist and denigrated into what is generally perceived as "cheaper foreign talent" policy. Combined with the open door policy on immigration based on the white paper to expand our population to 6.9 million by year 2030, Singapore became the hot destination for PMTs (professionals, managers, executives and managers) coming from Europe, China, India, Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand. 

These foreign job-seekers were attracted by the strong Sing dollar and our favourable job climate for foreigners, fostered by constant refrains from the policy-makers that gave these PMETS the mistaken belief that we needed them more than they needed us. Whilst Singaporeans were answering to the calls to re-skill or upgrade their skills to improve their productivity, PMETs were recruited to fill job vacancies to avoid down-time. Contract appointments soon became more permanent appointments and younger PMETs with greater work-commitment were seen to be favoured over aging local PMETs.

The lower remuneration packages for foreign PMETs, as compared to Singaporeans, are attractive enough to make them leave their families and home countries and to work and live in Singapore. Apart from better pay packages and working conditions, housing schemes were introduced to provide them with affordable and comfortable accommodations. These schemes paved the way for permanent residents ("PR") to own HDB flats and to bring their families here to be with them. The number of PRs owning HDB flats run into the tens of thousands (Read HERE). Amongst these PR-owned flats, thousands are rented out by PRs who spend most of their time outside Singapore and there are also PRs who own also own private property at the same time. A diaspora of foreign communities quickly emerged in our local housing estates, giving rise to communal tensions due to cultural differences.

According to the statistics in 2014 (Read HERE), there are now 3.343 million Singapore citizens and more than 527,000 permanent residents living in Singapore. An average of 18,500 foreigners are granted citizenship each year with 30,000 new permanent residency given out (Read HERE). Singaporeans are getting hot under their collars and many are feeling immense pressure competing for work, accommodation and transport in their own land from these new citizens and permanent residents. Singapore-born PMETs who have lost their jobs are attributing their unemployment to cheaper foreign and many are unable to find re-employment in the same line. PMETs. 

From a warm and hospitable people that was always ready to embrace new arrivals onto our shores, Singaporeans are now generally perceived as being nationalistic and less tolerant of foreigners who live and work here. What can we do to help assuage the feelings of a people that has been hurt by a long period of "hands-off" approach in job competition without hurting the economic progress and stability of our nation?

THEME: Education - Building a Nation on Values

Every educational system must be grounded on a strong educational philosophy. What is our educational philosophy?

It may be important for schools to teach our students the job-skills and to train them to be ready for the workforce but without an early grounding in moral values that bind our families and community together, the knowledge and skill-sets that the students acquire will serve only to meet the demands of building an economy but not the building of a nation. Think of the difference between chemical farming and organic farming.

The early educational system that we had after independence was like organic farming. A great deal of emphasis was placed on teaching civics and students were inculcated with a love of learning for the sake of acquiring knowledge to become a useful person in society. They received instructions on important virtues such as filial piety, patriotism, parental obedience, respect for elders and teachers and consideration for others. Lessons on these values were drawn from historical persons and from literature. Until today, many older generation Singaporeans who have been through the early educational system continue to hold these values dearly and they have a strong community spirit.

However, with the passage of time and the short stints of subsequent education ministers, our school curriculum was repeatedly revised and some important subjects that contained elements of human values and relationships fell out of favour. Our educational system began to function like the rigours of chemical farming. There was strong emphasis on school rankings, high scores and competing for places in top schools. Principals termed themselves CEOs and parents were regarded as customers encouraging parents to behave without respect for teachers' authority over their students. Students were fed a heavy dosage of subject-based knowledge with little or negligible focus on strengthening their value systems. With the social problems that now threaten to weaken family and commune bonds, there is a pressing need for schools to reintroduce and re-focus on subjects that enable students to appreciate human values and relationships, such as history and literature.

Parents should also learn to appreciate that educating their children is for the sake of enabling them to become useful citizens and not for the selfish goal of attaining monetary rewards. This parenting education will impart good parenting skills that will reinforce the values that their children will be taught in school. Leaders should set examples by demonstrating the values that are being taught to our children. Wisdom, humility and benevolence are all the hallmarks a great leadership. Leaders should demonstrate that they are able to make self-sacrifices for the good of he people and nation. They lose moral authority and respect when they are perceived as over-paying themselves when serving the nation..

Communal education is just as important. A community that learns to accept that the most important aspect of receiving an education lies in the children learning self-discipline and self-sacrifice. Free talks and seminars by learned scholars in the field of morality and ethics should be promoted to become a regular feature in our community clubs so that people can constantly seek advice and clarifications on how to effectively communicate with each other and to amicably resolve interpersonal and communal issues.

In the heart of education are our teachers. We need to give them respect and authority to discipline students. We need teachers who are not only good at teaching subjects but are able to help our students construct a value system that will strengthen relationships within families and communities. Teachers should adopt a value-based educational philosophy and those who have demonstrated high moral values should be appointed to lead.

Let's move to become a nation of values by building a strong value-based educational system. Only by doing so can we hope to achieve greater progress as a people and a great nation.

THEME: Thinking about Education

Singapore has repeatedly won wide acclaim in international maths and science competitions but yet in the last 50 years, we have not produced a single Nobel prize winner or a great mathematical formula or scientific invention. Is there something amiss in our educational system?

Education is the key that helps us unlock the intellectual resources that reside in our people and it seems that our key has not been able to adequately unlock the minds of our industrious students to help us achieve the makings of a great nation. Although creativity and innovation have been the declared goals of every education minister appointed in the last 20 years, they remain elusive. There is an urgent need to look deeper not only into our pedagogy but the values that are being imbued in our students who spend most of their time in school.

Our teachers are trained to help our students learn but unfortunately our students learn that their utmost priority is to do well in examinations is all that matters. We cannot put all the blame on their teachers because they are themselves the product of the same educational system. Such an attitude in learning is reinforced by the schools' teaching curricula which emphasises being exam-smart. This has nurtured a whole generation of parents who base their parenting success on producing exam-smart children, learning them to cramp their children's timetables with tuition classes before and after school. Consequently, a tuition industry has blossomed with good subject teachers preferring to be run tuition classes than teaching in schools. An academic rat-race to obtain degrees and higher qualifications has been around for a long time now, encouraged by a government that is made up of scholars. Hence, a recent change of tone by the government suggesting that a university degree is "not vital for success", did not go down well with the people.

For most students, studying is not about acquiring knowledge to become a better person and to add value to society. it is about passing examinations with flying colours and getting into top schools and landing a job in their choice professions. As for most teachers, teaching is not about imparting knowledge, values and discipline. It is about getting recognition for producing top students in every national examination and meeting their key performance indexes for promotion and salary increments which are based on their students' academic performances. 

When learning is exam-driven and when not everyone is gifted to excel in examinations but could be talented in non-academic ways, juvenile delinquency becomes an issue in schools, at home and in the community at large. Discriminatory educational practices, like class streaming which puts all the "bright" students on one side and the "not-so-bright" students on the other side, have stigmatised students with poor academic results, leading to the development of inferiority complexes and disciplinary problems . Stories of how teachers are abused by rebellious students emerge day after day. And parents run to seek help from the courts when their children are beyond parental control. Even principals, teachers and tutors get into trouble with the law for their indiscretions. Students who successfully sail through our educational system, especially those from the gifted stream, are often said to have high IQ but low EQ. And many of them have ascended high positions in government service because of their academic excellence and devising national policies.

What can we do about our education system? I will share some of my thoughts in my next blog.

THEME: Housing: My Flat, My Home

In the 1970s', a 3-room HDB flat in Singapore costs much less than $20,000 and buyers could pay up their mortgage in 10 years. They could also afford to buy a car. 

Today, depending on location, a 3-room flat costs more than S$ 300,000. That is a whopping 15 times more and buyers are paying off their mortgages over 25-30 years because their incomes have not risen that dramatically. And with COE prices in the tens of thousands of dollars, owning a car may mean struggling to pay for it over 10 years.

There are re-sale HDB flats that have crossed the million dollar mark. Owners of public flats which they bought in the 1970s' may rejoice over the fact that the prices of their flats have appreciated astronomically in value, especially during the era of the state's "asset enhancement" policy in the 1990s. However, if they wish to realise their capital gains by selling their flats, they may have difficulty even buying a smaller flat because the prices of all other flats, big and small, have also appreciated astronomically.

It is a sad state of affairs that the prices of public flats can go beyond the reach of many first-time flat owners. Many of them are young couples waiting to settle down. They have inherited the tradition set by our first generation HDB flat owners of getting a flat first before getting married. Without a flat, their plans to have children are also delayed. And those who bought their highly priced flats are facing a lifetime of mortgage repayments with two sets of income.

The costs of public housing has become a hot button issue for a country that began independence 50 years ago with a sacred mission by the leaders to build as many low-cost housing units as possible. Nowadays, HDB's housing policy seems no longer targeted at providing home ownership to low income families. Although public housing still falls within the purview of HDB, there are specially built flats and executive flats. And private developers are tendering land from HDB to build flats which are priced commercially.

How should we be looking at our public housing problems and what can be done about them? I will discuss this in my next blog.

Whampoa SMC No More and Moulmein-Kallang GRC Gone

On 14 July 2015, I announced my intention to contest in Whampoa SMC. Ten days later, it was announced that Whampoa SMC will not exist in the next GE. Needless to say, I am disappointed.

The Electoral Boundaries Review Committee report was released on 24 July 2015. Together with Whampoa SMC, both Joo Chiat SMC and Moulmein-Kallang GRC ("MK GRC") will also be dissolved in the next GE. Amidst all the instant cries of gerry-meandering about Joo Chiat SMC, I can only ask: Why Whampoa SMC? Why MK GRC?

I have always considered Whampoa SMC and MK GRC as deserving attention, amongst others, because I have visited many troubled places that fall within this SMC and GRC. Suddenly, they will no longer be around for political contest in the coming GE. Is there a good explanation for this sudden change?

When I first began studying the political demography in Singapore in consultation with some political observers, we saw something that was happening here that was akin to a development in ancient China close to 2,000 years ago. If you are familiar with the story of the Three Kingdoms 三国演义 (AD 220–280), it was a time when China was divided into the states of Wei (魏), Shu (蜀), and Wu (吳). 

The political struggle between People's Action Party (PAP) and the Workers' Party (WP) is reaching a point when a 3rd force is set to arise to serve as a counterbalance. This 3rd force is anticipated to come from the constituencies in the south. MK GRC, Potong Pasir SMC, Mountbatten SMC and Whampoa SMC are the potential springboards for the rise of the 3rd force but now only Potong Pasir SMC and Mountbatten SMC are left on the slate. It was as if someone saw the same thing that we had seen and was trying to prevent it from happening.

The Chinese believe that a tripod represents firmness and stability. I entertain the notion that our political arena cannot continue to see a contest between two forces as this will only lead to more instability and disruption. A 3rd mediatory force in our political arena is necessary to assuage and balance the diversity in opinions and to secure the future success of Singapore. I am now left to think about where I could go as an independent candidate now that Whampoa is no more.