By WS
I’m not someone who’s into writing. What motivated me to waste, I mean spend my time writing this article out is the frustration lay deep inside me.
Just a short introduction of myself – I’m your average working class Singaporean, in my early 30s. I went to a polytechnic, completed my diploma and started my working life soon after. Then I joined the civil service and stayed there for a few years before joining another subsidiary board. I also completed my private university degree in between.
I am proud that I’m a Singaporean because we know we are so better off than many other countries. Our country is safe, and currency is strong, hygiene standards are high, everything is in place. I feel the past governments have done a great job to put us in our present situation.
But it seems that not all of us are appreciative of the work that the present government is doing. And I can safely say a lot of us are not supporting the present government, judging by the amount of votes that People’s Action Party (PAP) have achieved in the last General Election.
Of every 10 Singaporeans, 4 voted for the opposition.
I remember how the Prime Minister promised to bring changes to the new cabinet after the election, declaring that PAP will win back our support in the next election. I am so pleased to hear that then.
Let’s say tomorrow the PM declared that we would be having our next election in the coming few months, how well do you think PAP will perform? For me, I feel PAP will perform worse than the last one.
The government just don’t get it.
Recently I saw in the newspaper that various MPs have been attacking the Worker’s Party (WP) for all sorts of issues. The cases are all over the news, and it pictures the WP like they lack honesty, useless, like criminals. Many of us in the society have not spoken out because we are not used to. But we can see that the PAP is a bully. They are fearful that WP will gain more ground in the next election, so they started the war early on the WP. But frankly the PAP’s EQ and even IQ is equivalent to zero. They have not realized that we did not vote for oppositions because they are better, but is because we dislike what PAP is doing.
First thing first, the ministers are paid so well, our salaries are peanuts in comparison. Okay, if they are managing fine, I’m okay with it. But in reality, it isn’t. I remember around 2008, and I was thinking of buying a saloon car with a Certificate of Entitlement (COE) of few dollars. Then suddenly my dream went up in bubbles because the Land Transport Authority (LTA) had allowed too many cars in the road. Soon, COEs were tightened and as of now, this piece of paper is still more expensive than a car. How can the Transport Ministry not realized this in the first place? Are the people in LTA been all along sleeping? We saw that even businesses were hit by the limitation of the COEs. If, in the first place, the Transport authority has been regulating the COEs, these problems would not have happened. We paid millions to the minister and he flopped.
I’m not against foreigners frankly. These anti-foreigner sentiments started from the policies of the government. Our system wasn’t ready to cope with the amount of newcomers. The houses and the transportation were badly affected. The government only realized this after the last election. The solution? To improve transportation for all…. By 2016 or 2017 (I can’t remember exactly) and to increase the number of Built-to-Order flats (BTOs). So these ministers are paid handsomely to fight fire instead of anticipating future problems.
I have close relatives who had died though sickness, so I know about the cost of medical expenses. I was told don’t worry, can use the Central Provident Funds money (CPF), and after CPF dried up, what can we do? We use the children’s CPF. And these children, they will use their children’s CPF. I mean if we are talking about basic needs like medical, shouldn’t our beloved government provide better policies as it isn’t ourselves who want to be sick, it’s nature’s will. As a prosperous country like Singapore, shouldn’t we provide some necessities for our own citizens so that at least we can be proud and secure to call this place our home? So after so many years and after so many people KPKB, at last the government now is coming out with some plans, and as usual, the PAP tells the world how holy they are and give the WP a kick along the way. We paid the minister millions of dollars, but he slowly took his time to react to something that he should have fought for us long ago.
I do not want to go further. In short, as a normal Singaporean staying in Singapore, what I have to say is I don’t mind working hard here for some peanuts, but I want to be happy and secure. Basic needs should be provided, and personal transportation is a plus, but without it, public transport should be comfortable and reliable. The foreigner issue has its adverse effect but has also pushed our different races among Singaporeans closer.
I think Singaporeans should be much more prioritised over foreigners. No matter how the government smooth-talks that we should be nice to foreigners, this problem that the government caused by themselves will not be easily resolved. To justify the sky-high salaries that the ministers take home, it should be time they prove they can plan, rather than fighting fire every day. The oppositions are learning to manage a GRC, and we understand it takes time, so the big daddy should stop their nonsense of harassing them, as we do not judge PAP by how lousy the oppositions are, but how well mighty rich PAP can do for Singaporeans.
This letter was sent in via Readers’ Contribution
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