If this go viral it will be shorten to, "lean left till nothing is left"
I had warned about this in a post yesterday too.
But I fear all is lost because her in now shorthand, "CPF is not your money" will eclipse the other catch phrase.
Look, even the PM had chosen to quote her on CPF as "our money".
I don't know who advises the PM on communication. Often I found him making poor choices in timing and words.
I told myself, this is so silly. This is your left leaning budget and you seem to be coming across as reluctant. As if we had forced your hand. So you are at the end of the day only interested in being PM than doing what is good for this little country? Your PAP is more important than Singapore? This perception is very damaging to your party. People will stop trusting you and only do so because there is no choice. Given time, alternatives will appear. You must be wanted than be forced on the voters. If you do not agree with us, you must champion your views until you succeed or resign if you fail. A leader must act by his convictions not just by what the voters want. You would be reduced to a waiter in a restaurant.
Mr. PM, few people would bother to spend the 18 minutes to listen to Chia Yong Yong. You ought to know better that your message would be misunderstood. The resources needed to correct a mis-perception is simply not worth it and often unsuccessful.
Chia Yong Yong's speech.
You see, our PM always speaks the truth and speak honestly. That was why he said he wants to "buy" his votes and "fix" his opponents. Now when he says "our money" he means it. To him the CPF is "their" money, meaning it's the PAP's money. That's right, its not even the government's money because if like the a TC another opposition party forms the government all the money, including the CPF will have to transferred to a untouchable fund which the new ruling party cannot touch. That was why the "Executive President" was formed. Just like they are doing to the opposition TC, they can also "fix" the opposition ruling party too
ReplyDeleteWhether we have leaned to far left can only be meaningfully discussed when the Government discloses how much we have in the reserves. Sure, the more reserves we have, the merrier. But at what cost to Singapore?
ReplyDeleteOK, but for practical purpose we must spend within our what earn and leave the reserves for rainy days only. See earlier post
Deletehttp://blogging4myself.blogspot.com/2015/03/budget-2015-and-beyond-beyond-temasek.html
On principle, agree wholly one should live within one's means. In the case of SG budget, it is not clear if it presents a true picture...e.g revenue from sale of land not included, but capital/development budget is included and there are many transfers in the budget.
DeleteThis is a departure from commercial accounting and I believe, HK budget too.
Yep, government accounting almost everywhere is very different from commercial accounting. Very easy to monkey with government accounts. They can even print money! Then they say vote in the right persons, but history never fail to show it is only a matter of time a wrong person was put in charge.
DeleteDonald Low puts it across much better than me...
Deletehttp://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2015/03/analyzing-budget-2015-properly/
Hi Peng You, you bemoan PM's post as if surely, he can't really mean to say what he says. But what if he really does believe this? What if he really does believe that PAP is the ONLY salvation for Singapore and what's good for the PAP is good for Singapore? What if he really does believe that the Govt is "entitled" to dictate to its citizens how their own retirement savings is to be used and when to be used? What if he really does believe that fixing the opposition is a required strategy, for the good of PAP and therefore Singapore? Sometimes, when you grow up surrounded by a certain paradigm, you truly believe in the Emperor's new clothes.
ReplyDeleteHi JG, you have spoken the PM's mind. He agrees with his father who is not shy to say so.
DeleteIt is always important for parents (poor or worse, rich) to remember never shelter their offsprings or the latter will never be streetsmart and will not be able to think for themselves. And never leave the kids to those "consultants" who run the likes of child enrichment programs.
ReplyDeleteI would like to venture into the future. Like Japan, Singapore is on the way to becoming a place where it is hard to learn the global street smarts. That is why the Japanese women visiting India are at such risk of being cheated and/or sexually assaulted. The fact that some of these Indians even bother and succeeded at learning Japanese in order to prey on them shows how much that is going on which is unreported.
DeleteBut we will not be like Japan. Instead the more street smart foreigners among us could beat us to the punch even if we manage to out do them academically in school.