Friday, April 12, 2019

TOTD: The Final POISONOUS Death Dagger stabbed into Alternative Media.

Thought of the Day - The Final POISONOUS Death Dagger stabbed into Alternative Media.

Most people like me, would look at the Fake News Law at superficial level on first sight. This is always the tactic used by PAP controlled Mainstream Media to mislead and misguide people into looking at the big punch while avoiding the poison darts and daggers hidden in that thick legislation.

While we are busy criticising why political appointees like Ministers were given such huge power to decide what's true and what's false, we miss the whole poisonous intent of this law.

Hidden within this legislation is the vicious intent to force the closure of all alternative media by taking aim at advertisers and sponsors of alternative media, instill FEAR into them while putting an "exemption clause" so that it could be used to exempt PAP's Mainstream media.

The reason why Facebook and other international internet media platform are so against this law is basically because not only the owners of these platforms would be criminally liable but advertisers on their platforms as well as sponsors will be criminalized by PAP government as "supporting fake news"!

The proposed law and with no single doubt, would be passed, says that if a website or internet platform has been found guilty of DELIBERATE spreading "fake news" or information (for 3 times within 6 months), those who donated or sponsored these sites, or advertise on these sites, will be charged in Singapore court as well!

Now you know why there is an "exemption" clause which gives PAP great power to exempt SPH, Mediacorp and media under its control from this law because, even these media outlet could not be sure that each and every news they broadcast could only be True but not Fake!

On the other hand, who would dare to advertise on alternative media like TOC or Independent SG if this law is passed? Who would dare to donate to these entities to face the risk of being prosecuted by PAP government if these media get into trouble with Fake News legislation?

This law is a total Farce. It is making use of the excuse of curbing "Fake News" to empower PAP Ministers with enormous Judiciary and Executive power to thumb down internet media which they don't like!

It goes against the spirit of Rule of Law whereby the Judiciary will be totally by-passed and smack of Rule by Law of a dictatorial power which will decide who will be exempted while who will be persecuted!

The potent poison actually lies within the details. If Singaporeans do not wake up to such blatant facts but chose to believe in PAP's sweet talk of its weak justification to empower themselves with such dictatorial powers, I fear Democracy will leave us eventually one day.

Goh Meng Seng

Tuesday, April 09, 2019

TOTD: What matters most in Politics?

Thought of the Day - What matters most in Politics?

I have put up a teaser just not too long ago, asking my FB friends to guess what I had replied a reporter's query on "when are you going to do ground work?".

My answer shocked him. I said, I am not going to "walk the ground", so to speak. Not going to knock on doors, shake hands and kiss babies.

His reaction is quite "normal" as this is the "default thinking" that politicians, be it PAP or opposition, should "walk the ground" in order to "win votes".

I explain to him clearly, I am not going to play the games according to the "indoctrinated rules" set by PAP.

PAP has not only drawn the electoral boundaries but also the "invisible political boundaries" for Opposition, to its own advantage, of course. PAP has always been trying to "mislead" and "misguide" political engagement via subtle "brain washing".

It all started way back in 1981, right after JBJ won the Anson by-election. The almighty PAP has lost its very first seat in one and a half decade. Naturally, the late LKY jumped with anger.

The often DULL parliament sittings had suddenly become all fiery with exchanges of missiles and dramas. It was apparent that the total dominance of PAP in the past immediate decade had made it complacent and lost the art of debate in the face of a strong and fiery opponent, JBJ. Parliament in the past could be an "empty rubber stamp" without the need of any real debates or even the need of attendance of MPs and Ministers. JBJ had changed all that. Even LKY himself had to make it a point to attend parliament whenever JBJ was making his speeches of criticisms.

In 1984, PAP lost another seat in Potong Pasir and this led to a serious rethinking of political strategy. Town Council Management entrusted to MPs was the solution.

It was an attempt to divert voters and politicians attention from the REAL CORE RESPONSIBILITY of an MP in parliament to drain their energy and attention into municipal issues.

In the Westminster system, municipal issues are taken care by District Councillors, who are also voted in by residents. An MP is never expected to manage the estate or be bothered by municipal issues because they are voted in to speak up on policy matters in parliament.

But PAP, knowing that they do not have strong MPs in parliament while having all the resources to take care of municipal issues by subcontracting out to professional estate management companies, tried to change the focus and direction of political engagement towards municipal matters instead of policy debates and law making in parliament.

PAP has successfully to mislead and brainwash both voters as well as opposition politicians to think that they should put most of their energy in knocking doors, convincing voters they can run town councils instead of putting up strong debates, policy ideas and scrutiny in parliament. After opposition won some seats, they will compete with PAP which has the whole machinery of People's Association (PA), in conducting durian tours, temple tours, organizing events etc... instead of spending most of their time in policy research and debates.

In the end, we have political parties doing Charity Work, giving out goodies, organizing events .... instead of doing the REAL political work of analysing, researching and commenting on Real political issues. Political parties are more like Charity Organization or Event Organizing companies or simply Social Clubs nowadays.

Voters are judging the "quality" of candidates by looking at whether they "serve" them by "knocking doors" or "visit" them. Or whether they attend wakes or temple dinners and such. Or organize any events for them...etc. The most illogical thing is, they even expect opposition who have not won any seat to do all these!

Instead of looking at the political views, ideologies or ideals of political candidates, we have voters basically "voting blindly" according to "party branding" or whether candidates "walk the ground"! These totally misguided perception and concept of politics is the direct result of PAP's subtle brain washing.

It always irks me when people start talking about "I only vote XXX party and not small parties" or "if you are contesting under XXX party, I will vote for you". I consider that as an expression of political immaturity. One who cannot discern good candidates from bad but resort to some "fuzzy branding", he must be too lazy to really study and understand each and every choices presented to him.

This is the reason why we ended up with lots of empty chairs and empty tables in Parliamentary sittings most of the time. When voters and politicians have WRONG and misguided priorities in politics, that's the end result we will get.

I will vote or support a person or a team for only two reasons:

1) Not PAP because I do not want them to be complacent when they get too high votes.

2) In the event of multi-corner fight, I will support the candidates who make good sense and have good political ideals or ideology which resonate with my belief, regardless of which party he or she is from.

I have gone through 3 General Elections. GE 2006 WP made great progress up from the devastating state of 2001 GE. This is partly because we played according to the brainwashed setting of PAP configurations, doing house visits, shaking hands and kissing babies.

In GE 2011, I changed the methodology subtly. I didn't knock on all the doors in Tampines but decided to ignite the fire on policy issues, mainly HDB issues. It set on a fire which ran wild and benefited all opposition.

I thought Singaporeans have evolved and matured politically. Finally they understood the importance of checks and balances, with a desire to vote in more opposition MPs. The path of Democratic Development should be on the right track of no return.

I was proven totally wrong in GE 2015. Voters are basically more Emotional rather than politically matured with the determination of making progress for Democratic Development.

I decided to stop all "political wayang" which is totally misleading, misguided and even detrimental towards REAL political Democratic progress for Singapore.

What we need is more public political discourse and education, not more door knocking saying Hi and Bye, shaking hands, kissing babies and making people "feel good" so that they will vote for you.

I decided to spend most of my time writing on my FB and copy some of the postings to my blog as an archive. I hope more people will be enlightened and provided with better reasoned ideas for them to talk about in their daily lives so that they could convince more people in their real life circles. Share the public discourse, ideas and ideals through FB or real life chats with friends and strangers.

This is a slow and painful process. It needs consistent commitment, nothing less than sweating out in knocking doors.

All political movements always start with evangelism of alternative ideas and ideals, not with knocking doors and kissing babies. When the seeding of ideas and ideals take root in the minds and hearts of voters, their emotional sway will be dampen and hopefully, what happened in 2015 GE will not repeat again.

Dr Sun Yat Sen had done that all his life, in order to convince people that a change of regime from Monarchy to Republic was a necessity. He changed China, not by knocking doors, kissing babies or doing charity work or organizing tours. He did it through endless and continuous evangelism of his political ideas and ideology, which were so alien to his people of his time.

Thus, I decided to break through the walls and boundaries set by PAP's political brainwashing. I will not play into their game of political patronage and wayangism. I will do what is MOST important in politics, the evangelism of political ideas, ideals and discourse.

If you expect me to knock doors, kiss babies, do charity work or organize events, then don't vote for me. If you only want to vote for some "big party with big brand", then I am not for you.

But if you want an MP who will put 101% in parliamentary work, scrutinize each and every policy and laws which PAP wants to pass, then I will be an extremely good choice for you.

My "Track Record" has nothing to do about how many blocks of flats I have "walk and knock", has nothing to do about whether I have run a town council before, definitely nothing about whether I am a good organizer of events or involve in giving out goodies as charity.

My "Track Record" is my consistency in providing my political views, ideas and ideals. Ideas and views which PAP would even adapt quietly without giving due credits, even million dollar "elite" ministers would read and adapt in their policies.

So next time, anyone of you start to talk about "walk the ground", "start campaigning" or "track record", think again.

I have never stopped "campaigning" since I graduated from university, against bad PAP policies. I "walk the hearts and minds" and my "Track Record" of policy ideas and ideals are thick.

Anyone who wants to be in politics, must have some policy views or policy ideas to start with. If you have none, sorry, I won't even bother.

Goh Meng Seng

Monday, April 08, 2019

Solutions to Solve Hyflux Saga

Solutions to Solve Hyflux Saga

There are a couple of ways to solve the Hyflux saga but the PUB getting FREE water plant is definitely NOT one of them.

As I have put it, PAP government has played a big role in manipulating the market which eventually result in the Hyflux crisis. Hyflux also tried to be Smart Alec, thinking they could undercut others in pricing their water by cross subsidies from selling electricity.

Whoever takes over the integrated plant will face the same problem because the contracts have been fixed while the oversupply of electricity due to EMA’s irresponsible manipulation is here to stay.

The only way to get out of this situation is to change the terms of the contracts. PUB should not fix water price for 25 years because this is totally unreasonable terms as energy price is volatile and nobody could possibly hedge it without incurring huge cost over 25 years.

A new pricing formula which will allow Hyflux to earn a reasonable profit should be renegotiated.

On the other hand, the Vesting Contract which EMA gave other power plants should be made available to Hyflux. Or that, Hyflux will have to renegotiate it’s contract on gas purchase.

The only way for Hyflux to stay afloat is to have consistency in all the pricing... from water, gas to electricity pricing. To have a mix of fixed and high volatility in some pricing will be a perfect formula for disaster. Worse, thinking that one could fixed a lower than cost water price while betting on cross subsidizing it via a volatile energy market.

By reconstruction or renegotiating water and gas contracts, government do not need to come up with huge amount of money to buy over the plant. It will just have to settle with a lower profit from dealing with Hyflux.

Hyflux will earn a reasonable profit (covering depreciation for 25 years) from this new arrangement but its profitability may be fixed within a range.

This is the viable option available but need political will to execute it.

Retail investors will not lose all or most of their investment. They could even continue to get their yearly interest when the new formula of contracts allow Hyflux to earn profits from its Tuaspring.

Goh Meng Seng

Trespasses of Judiciary

Trespasses of Judiciary

When PAP enacts a law to give its own Ministers the power to Judge, Decide and give out punishment to "fake news" publishers or propagators, it is a serious trespass of Judiciary power by the Executive!

This is a serious attempt to destroy the fundamentals of Democracy in Separation of Powers.

Judgement on "falsehood" is definitely not the same as a straight forward breach of rules like parking offences or speeding. It requires an objective and independent entity like the court to make judgements.

I would think that such law is totally unconstitutional as it basically made political appointees like Ministers empowered with judiciary powers! Ministers will have great potential conflicts of interests involved when they are making such judgement call.

To say that people could go to court and challenge the Ministerial decisions doesn't erase the fact that Ministers have been given powers that trespass and undermine the judiciary system.

Goh Meng Seng

Friday, March 29, 2019

Hyflux Saga - Role & Responsibility of PUB, EMA, SP and MAS


First of all, the board of management of Hyflux has to bear the most responsibility in creating such a big mess.They have made a lot of assumptions when they bid for the tender to build and operate the desalination plant.

For every assumptions made, there will always be risk involved that such assumptions may not hold at all. And with numerous assumptions made, the risk will be compounded exponentially.

Basically, the problem of the whole Hyflux saga is due to the system of pricing. Hyflux is trying to juggle around a few important variables. A fixed water price given by PUB for 25 years, a variable fuel price (gas in this case), variable labor and material cost, a variable electricity price, a required fixed output of electricity with variable demand and uncontrollable number of electricity producers, a Monopoly buyer for water PUB, a Monopoly buyer for electricity Singapore Power... etc. In economics terms, this is a formula for disaster.

We must recognize PUB, EMA , SP and MAS as government entities. They are not private companies. They have public administration roles and responsibilities.

MAS should not even allow retail investors to invest in perpetual bonds at all as the risk is higher with higher complexity of the structure. MAS should not even allow CPF to be used for such investment at all. Here again, like Minibond saga which happened 10 years ago, MAS must be sleeping on the job.

EMA allowed too many electricity producers to exist in Singapore, so much so that there is 80% overcapacity! Did they even plan and forecast properly? The rigidity in the rules and regulation coupled with a complex pricing mechanism has resulted in electricity producers losing big money. This is not sustainable at all.

One may be puzzled why our electricity tariffs over the few years were so high despite the fact that there is great overcapacity and wholesale pricing given to these producers are too low and breeding them badly! The result is obvious. SP, as the sole owner of the power grid and sole distributor of electricity to household (it is only now it was opened up), is the one which gained the most from such arrangement.

However, we must remember that SP, as a government agency, should not only look at profit maximization at the expense of all other electricity producers. The system is unsustainable and eventually, these producers may go bust. It will cost great disruption to our electricity supply if that happens.

Similarly for PUB. It should not always look at profit maximization at all cost. Water is even more strategic than electricity and it must make sure that any system of supply within its supply chain, must be sustainable.

Furthermore, PUB should not cannibalize on Hyflux when it is down and out. The logic of commercial valuation of Hyflux's desalination plant as "negative asset" is totally flawed.

First of all, there is a conflict of interests here. The desalination plant is considered as "negative asset" is due to the fact that the contractual price which PUB paid to Hyflux for the water is under cost and unsustainable.

While I do not agree for PUB to use taxpayer's money to bail out Hyflux, but neither do I agree for PUB to cannibalize on Hyflux either. The Fair Price for PUB to pay for the desalination plant should be the opportunity cost of building a brand new one by PUB itself to supply the same amount of portable water, plus the opportunity cost of waiting for another few years for the new plant to be completed.

It doesn't make sense for Hyflux to basically give PUB its plant FREE for PUB to continue produce water and make money by selling water to consumers!

Hyflux could have dismantle the whole plan and sell the parts to other people, sell the land .... etc so to repay its debts. Why would it just give away to PUB FREE to make money?

The logic of commercial valuation of Hyflux's plant may base on commercial terms but it is morally flawed and unethical for PUB to take full advantage of Hyflux.

Paying a Fair Price for Hyflux's plant, the intrinsic value of the plant, does not mean PUB is losing any money at all because the plant could well provide earnings for PUB in the long run.

The proper thing to do is either for PUB to renegotiate with Hyflux on the pricing mechanism or simply pay a fair price for the whole plant.

The primary aim and objective of PUB should focus on maintaining adequate supply of water instead of maximization of profit by cannibalizing Hyflux while it is in trouble. Paying a Fair Price instead of getting the plant free may cause the cost price of this 70 million gallons of water per day slightly more expensive but I believe PUB will still be earning a hefty profit because the water tariff is really high in Singapore with PUB as the sole monopoly of water supply.

PUB, EMA along with SP have been maximizing their profits acting as powerful monopolies. They are Monopolies as buyers as well as sellers of water and electricity. It is time to redefine the roles and responsibilities of these entities.

This Hyflux saga has exposed not only the incompetency of Hyflux board of directors but also the terrible greed and cannibalism tendency of PAP government agencies. They will do everything to squeeze the suppliers of water and electricity while on the other hand, instead of passing the savings, they maintain extraordinary high tariffs of water and electricity to us.

Some may think this Hyflux only affects those perpetual bonds investors but the implications are far more complex. It basically reflects on the kind of government Singaporeans have voted in. If they can do this to Hyflux, in such unethical manner, they can do it to any Singaporeans out there. The unfair bullying tactic of cannibalism is really disgusting.

Goh Meng Seng

Thursday, March 14, 2019

TOTD: PAP's Irresponsible Embarrassment

Thought of the Day - PAP's Irresponsible Embarrassment

When the Maritime Dispute was flared up back in late 2018, PAP Ministers, MPs and even IBs were making war cries all over.

PAP government even went to the extend of "demonstration of war preparation" by inviting the Main Stream Media to do the First of the kind of report on the Open Mobilization of the Airforce.

Live Firing exercises were carried out subsequently.

Along with the Main Stream Media and its IBs, PAP went on whipping up Nationalistic sentiments against Malaysian's "Intrusion of Singapore's Water".

PAP government has put it in no uncertain terms that the area in dispute is within our maritime boundary.

I was curious about that and did a series of research which I have posted on my Facebook here. It turns out that there is no Internationally recognized Maritime Boundary in that area of dispute!

In fact, the delimitation negotiation which Singapore held with Indonesia has stated very clearly that they could not confirm the maritime boundary which borders Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore basically because Singapore has yet to negotiate and confirm with Malaysia government the exact maritime boundary between the two countries. Thus, the maritime boundary between Singapore and Indonesia stopped short at the western part of Singapore.

It basically means that PAP government actually KNEW that we do not have an official boundary drawn and confirmed with Malaysia in that area of dispute.

I would regret to say that Malaysia was right to say that the disputed waters should be considered as "International Waters" as there isn't any recognized boundary confirmed by any party.

Due to some strange unknown reasons, after more than 50 years of independence, PAP government did not initiate any formal negotiations with Malaysia on delimitation of the maritime boundary in that area.

If PAP knew these facts but yet, went on a series of actions to make war cries, then I have to ask, is that what a responsible ruling party should do?

Many people attacked me for "siding with Malaysia" but the truth is, it is always easier to be populist by hitting the Nationalistic drums rather than looking at the issues objectively and do our own research on these issues to come to a sensible conclusion.

I have stated very clearly in my previous FB posts, the only rational thing to do is to start negotiation with Malaysia to determine and finalize the maritime boundary in that disputed waters, instead of doing war cries which will result in irreparable damage to bilateral ties between the two people across the causeway.

Well, finally PAP comes to their senses and stop their irresponsible nonsense of Nationalistic adventure.

But I have this to say, PAP always tries to portray Opposition parties as "populist", "extremist" or even "irresponsible" but it seems that PAP is guilty of all these traits and Singaporeans should remember this, without a strong, rational, reasonable and critical opposition in parliament, any ruling party like PAP might just goes rogue and become irresponsible, endangering the safety of this nation with their nonsensical self-serving stunts.

Goh Meng Seng

PUTRAJAYA — Within a month from Thursday (March 14), Malaysia and Singapore will revert to their original port limits after both governments agreed to suspend the previous extensions of their port limits.

They also agreed not to authorise and to suspend all commercial activities in the area as well as not to anchor any government vessels in the area.

These were among the five recommendations by a bilateral working group that both countries will implement with effect from Thursday, announced Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Malaysia's Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah in a joint press statement on the same day.

The other two recommendations are: Vessels of both countries will operate in the area based on international law including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Relevant government agencies on both sides will "work out practical modalities to avoid untoward incidents in the area", said both ministers.

In the last of the five recommendations, both sides will set up a joint committee chaired by the permanent secretary of Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Chee Wee Kiong and Malaysia’s foreign ministry secretary-general Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob.

This committee will look at the "boundary delimitation", which will ensure that the other recommendations be implemented within one month. Once that has been done, negotiations for maritime boundary delimitation in the area will commence within the following month.

“These measures taken by both countries shall be without prejudice to Malaysia's and Singapore's respective maritime boundary claims in the area,” said the joint press statement.

In the event that the committee is unable to reach an amicable solution on delimitation, the ministers added that both countries “may mutually agree to resort to an appropriate international third-party dispute settlement procedure on terms to be mutually agreed by the parties”.

“Both Foreign Ministers agreed that these measures were vital to de-escalate the situation on the ground and pave the way for maritime boundary delimitation of the area,” the statement said.

“These measures also demonstrate the commitment of both countries to work together to preserve a strong and positive bilateral relationship on the basis of equality and mutual respect, and to resolve bilateral issues amicably in accordance with international law.”

Sunday, February 24, 2019

We have successfully conducted our Singapore Budget 2019 Forum today.

We thank all who have attended and also great appreciation to those who have helped to make this possible.

The following is our official statement on PAP government's Budget this year:

Budget 2019: Political Gimmicks without Bold Vision

Expansionary Budget with Money locked up in CPF and Medisave?

1. Finance Minister Heng Swee Kiat has declared that his Budget 2019 for Singapore government is an “Expansionary” budget and he cited the projected budget deficit of $3.5 Billion after taking into account of the net effect NIRC and Special Transfers of $3.6 Billion as supporting fact. However when we put the details of the Budget at closer examination, we have come to the conclusion that this Budget is NOT the usual “Expansionary” budget but just full of political gimmicks without bold vision.

2. A government Budget is an important tool of fiscal policy that is used to manage the economy. An Expansionary Budget would result in fiscal stimulations of the Nation’s economy in anticipation or direct mitigation of any potential economic slowdown or recession. But in Minister Heng’s Budget 2019, there is no mention of any job creation initiative nor bold vision for Singapore’s Future Economic development direction.
3. Most of the “additional spending” announced for the populistic Merdeka package ($6.1B), Long Term Care ($5.1B) and other the various injections of money into healthcare, workfare, schemes for SMEs ($4.6B) and education (Total of $15.3B of Special Transfers) are either just money transfers credited into CPF or Medisave accounts or deferred expenditure across a few years which do not have an immediate direct impact on overall spending in the economy.

4. It basically means that these money are effectively an “expected surplus” (over the announced $3.5B deficit) ultimately stashed away into the reserves via such Special Transfers arrangement.

5. Thus we do not really see this year’s Budget as “Expansionary” but rather a pack of Budgeting Acrobatic Gimmicks which channeled money back into the reserves masqueraded as “Goodies” for Singaporeans without real positive impact on the Economy.

Cost of Living

6. In a normal free market economy, inflation is normally caused by an excess demand on goods and services. This will drive up the cost of living for everyone.

7. However, in Singapore, inflation is mostly caused by the PAP government and its Government Linked Companies. The rise in water tax, electricity tariffs, public transport fares, healthcare cost, the rapid increase in rentals by GLC REITS, petrol and diesel prices etc. are the direct results of PAP governance.

8. How could the derisory $300 GST voucher cover the inflation caused by all these increases?

9. The BEST gift to ALL Singaporeans is NO GST instead of GST vouchers!

Cost of Healthcare

10. Any increase in healthcare subsidies for Merdeka generation could easily be offset by another round of increase fees in polyclinics and public hospitals.

11. We have witnessed how fees at public polyclinics and hospitals increased right after the last Pioneer Generation Package was announced in 2015.

12. At many instances, the fees at these public “restructured” healthcare entities are even higher than private clinics or hospitals before subsidies were taken into account.

13. There is a need to rethink whether the current model of “Restructured Hospitals” really serve Singaporeans’ interests at all.

Adverse Impact on SME

14. There are a couple of new but insignificant programs initiated in this year’s budget to help SME and workers to cope with changing dynamics of the economics.

15. However, out of the $4.6B slated to help both SMEs and workers over next three years, only $100million was put into funds for helping SMEs to upscale.

16. Although we agree to the overall strategy of reducing dependency of Foreign Workers in the long run, but we do not think it is a good move at all to apply such one-size-fit-all policy of reducing the Dependency Ratio Ceiling to cut across the board for the whole Service Sector.

17. Local SMEs are always grossly disadvantaged by the foreign workers policy whereby larger foreign companies enjoy concessions through government special incentives or technical advantage in sourcing their foreign labor via internal transfers from foreign bases.

Where are the Good Jobs?

18. Within the Service Sector, there are many sub-sectors which have very different labor situations. Singaporeans generally shy from certain industry or service sectors like hospitality, Food and Beverage sectors while there is a great underemployment for Singapore PMETs who cannot find jobs in other service sectors like banking, finance or IT etc.

19. A more calibrated approach should be implemented to focus more on reclaiming PMET jobs for Singaporeans in service sector instead.

Tax Cut for Taxi Companies while Higher Tax on Taxi Drivers?

20. The increase of diesel tax will affect SMEs greatly with an increase in business cost despite of the cut in road tax for diesel vehicles.

21. We are particular concerned on the impact on taxi drivers. While the PAP government gave a generous reduction in Special Tax on Diesel Taxi by $850, but this may only benefit taxi companies while taxi drivers suffer higher diesel price due to the double of diesel tax.

The Real Vision and Plan to Cut Pollution

22. A great percentage of commercial vehicles used in Singapore runs on diesel engines. The increase of Diesel Tax will not have significant effect on lowering the consumption of diesel for these commercial vehicles because the demand is totally inelastic.

23. Raising Diesel Tax now without providing a viable alternative to businesses will only result in a drastic rise in business cost. This may affect our leading position as logistic hub in Southeast Asia.

24. PAP government lacks the bold vision to explore clean alternatives for commercial vehicles running on diesel.

25. The key problem with diesel engines lies with the toxic cancer-causing nitrogen oxide emission. Thus we should phase out diesel vehicles from our roads totally instead of just raising diesel tax.

26. In fact, our long term plan should aim to reduce air pollution on the roads by phasing out both petrol and diesel vehicles totally by replacing them with electric vehicles.

27. Instead of harming our SMEs and economy by raising diesel tax now, we should be putting more investment and focus efforts to implement a comprehensive plan to promote electric vehicles by building relevant infrastructures and battery waste management system.

28. Singapore is lagging behind countries like China and Norway when it comes to implementation of a systematic plan of replacing diesel and petrol vehicles by electric vehicles to cut down harmful air pollution. This is due to the lack of bold vision and political will of PAP leadership.

CPF Inadequacy

29. About 75% of retirees are getting less than $500 from CPF payout. This is totally inadequate which resulted in many retirees living in absolute poverty.

30. It is an irony that Singaporeans had paid 37% of their monthly salary into CPF but yet they could not retire comfortably with a good payout from CPF.

31. It basically means that the CPF system along with the HDB and Medisave policies had failed to secure a decent retirement for most Singaporeans.

32. This will have to be looked into and only with Bold Vision could a government come up with bold plans to revamp the whole structure.

Long Term Care for Ageing Population

33. We will be facing the Silver Tsunami very soon when the baby boomers from 1950s to 1970s start to reach retirement age.

34. Putting billions into funds as future subsidies is a passive act which lack forward looking planning vision.

35. We would rather spend these billions now to build up both infrastructure and human resource capacity for long term care to prepare for the inevitable Silver Tsunami in the coming decade.

Pre-School Childcare and Education vs Fertility

36. The cost of Pre-school education is extremely high even after subsidies.

37. This is one important factor among the many issues that cause low fertility rate in Singapore.

38. Instead of putting more money in Edusave, it is time to focus to solve this pertaining issue of Pre-school education.

39. A cheap or even free Pre-school education system for all will also level up for children from poor families which will improve future potential social mobility.

Our Concerns:


40. There is no mention on any plan for PAP to resolve the huge problems which they have created in the past via Asset Enhancement Scheme.

41. No funds is allocated for any initiative on solving the time bomb of a huge stock of ageing HDB flats in the coming decades.

42. On the contrary, the Ministry of National Development has the biggest cut in its budget by 19.3%!

Financing Huge Infrastructure Spending via Borrowing

43. It is mentioned that part of the huge infrastructure spending like Changi Terminal 5 will be partially financed by borrowings.

44. It is also mentioned that Government will provide guarantee to these loans.

45. Is there a necessity for Government to finance such infrastructure spending when we have a huge National Reserve well above $500B?

46. Financing such infrastructure through borrowing would mean such spending on extremely expensive mega projects will escape rigorous scrutiny by parliament while the government has taken up huge potential liability as a guarantor.

47. The lack of accountability to parliament when the government takes up such huge liability will result in unchecked ex-Budget spending which could go wrong.

Conclusion: A Budget that Lacks Bold Vision

48. We are utterly disappointed by this year’s Budget which basically mimics the 2015 Election Budget without Bold Visions and lacks New Ideas.

49. This Budget contains a pack of gimmicks that attempt to make Singaporeans feel good and make believe that they had gained something substantial from it. However, most of these goodies are deferred goodies.

50. Unfortunately, these political gimmicks are done at the expense of the need of REAL immediate expenditures on various areas which we have listed out here.

51. Singaporeans deserve a better deal than what the current Budget could offer.
52. The reduction of GST relief and duty free alcohol concession for travelers is the best key feature to sum up this Budget 2019 – Small Mindedness without Bold Vision.

Goh Meng Seng
Secretary General
For CEC People’s Power Party Singapore

Saturday, February 23, 2019

PPP Singapore Budget 2019 Forum

Budget 2019: Political Gimmicks without Bold Vision

 The PAP Government will be announcing their Budget statement on 18 Feb 2019.

People's Power Party will issue our statement, responses and views on this Singapore Budget 2019 in this Forum.

Guest Speaker: Mr Tan Kin Lian

Agora Singapore
28 Sin Ming Lane, #03-142 Midview City
Singapore 573972, Singapore ,


As seats are limited, please RSVP.

Monday, January 28, 2019

The Cheated Generations

The "Cheated" Generations

From 1970s till early 1980s, one can buy a 4 room HDB flats for a mere $20K-$30K. They introduced the inclusion of land price some time in mid 1980s and the prices of HDB flats started to climb.

By early 1990s-1995, GCT came up with the Asset Enhancement Scheme which entice Singaporeans to spend more of their CPF to buy HDB flats. They relaxed the rules on the secondary market for HDB flats. By 1990s, some of the HDB flats were about 20 years old and they started the HDB upgrading.

Unknown to many Singaporeans, they had also started to peg the price of new HDB flats to the "market prices". It was not until a couple of years later, they made known to public that they were giving "market subsidy" for new HDB flats. There is a VAST difference between "Market Subsidy" vs "Real Subsidy". Basically it means the Government can now earn profits from the sale of HDB flats (as a whole) but at lesser amount from market rates.

The impact of such Asset Enhancement Scheme has multiple dimensions.

1) From cashflow perspective, it reduces or even eradicate the burden of the government in providing the return for CPF.

2) If Singaporeans used up half of their CPF to buy their HDB flats taking a loan from HDB, it means they will have to pay 2.6% interests to HDB. To the government, this can be transferred to pay for the interests accrued to the other half of the CPF money which was deposited in CPF.

3) When Singaporeans sell their HDB flats, they have to pay back the amount of CPF money they have spent in paying their mortgages PLUS the accrued CPF compounded rate of 2.5% as return for these CPF money they had used. In effect, Singaporeans are paying 2.6% Plus 2.5% in total interests if they sell their HDB flat. If they only use half of their CPF money to pay their mortgage. it means that Singaporeans are actually paying for ALL the returns of their CPF money and Government didn't need to pay a single cent for their retirement financing. Mortgage rate from HDB is always pegged 0.1% above CPF rate.

4) It means that in reality, Singapore Government basically do not need to pay any Interest to most of our CPF money and in fact, had earned quite a substantial amount of money via land sales and price above the cost of building the flats. These are thrown into Temasek Holdings and GIC. These are basically "Interest Free" money right from our CPF! The buying of government bonds from government by CPF is just a formality.

It was only later that Singaporeans were allowed to take mortgage from private banks for their HDB purchases. On the other hand, CPF was allowed for the purchase of private properties. These policies were made to help boost the banking and private property market.

5) For my generation, we were sold the dream of 5 C and HDB as a "valuable asset" which we could depend for retirement financing. The whole plan is basically flawed.

6) MAS has already fix the rule for the limited loan that financial institutions could make to anybody who is buying a flat which is more than 40 years old.

7) All lawyers know what the 99 year lease means. The value of the property which reached 99 years will become ZERO. How could our HDB flats be growing in value forever?

8) HDB is the only asset most Singaporeans will have. The only way for us to "monetize" HDB for retirement is to either rent it out or downgrade. However, selling an asset which is reaching 40 years old will be challenging unless rules are changed.

9) PAP government has not changed the rules but misled my whole generation and the future generations of Singaporeans after us that HDB could really be a good "investment" asset.

10) In the end, we were made to pay almost 10 times of the price which older generations in 1960s and 1970s had paid, without any promising "investment value" for retirement financing.

11) Singaporeans who bought their flats in 1960s and 1970s, or even 1980s won't understand my generation's anger. We have been misled and felt cheated, suffered high HDB prices and in the end, many of us left very little for our retirement.

12) Asset inflation doesn't really create value but in fact, only create Rent Seeking Economy which only kick the problems down the road. It is basically transferring the problems of retirement financing to the future generations in terms of extraordinary high property or HDB prices.

13) HDB prices for a 4 room flat rises from $20K to $200K in 1990s and continue to rise. Who suffers? Only those who bought early in 1970s and 1980s "enjoy" such wealth effect (most of them cannot just sell their HDB flats off) while their children, grandchildren and future generations suffer.

14) The inflation of HDB prices have outstripped salary increase over the last few decades. This could only mean that we are paying more, maybe not in cash but eating into our CPF savings.

15) If you take any average guy from my generation, those who are late 40s to 50s who are staying in HDB flats, ask them whether they could make money out from their HDB to finance their retirement in 15 years time, the answer is definitely a NO. on average, if they bought their flats when they were 27 years old, by 62 years old official retirement age, their flats would reach 35 years old. They couldn't possibly sell their flats for a profit or with any cash left after repaying the 2.5% CPF compounded interests over 35 years.

16) It would be even worse if they bought their flats from the secondary market.

17) Thus, has the so call Asset Enhancement Scheme helped them?

18) It doesn't need a super Mathematician to calculated in advance how much one would need to sell their aging HDB flats in order to have any cash available for them to retire after 35 years. Was it a deliberate plan to mislead or just a deliberate negligence?

19) As far as I know, we have been misled and cheated by PAP government because the results are obvious. What has been promised, claimed and sold to us, will collapse in time to come.

Goh Meng Seng

Monday, December 31, 2018

People's Power Party New Year Message 2019

People's Power Party New Year Message 2019

2018 is a terribly challenging year for Singapore’s Democratic development. Although 2018 is coming to an end but we believe the Democratic situation will further worsen in 2019.

The Online Citizen and The Independent have been targeted by the PAP Administration and its proxy, NTUC, which has claimed to have “symbiotic relationship” with PAP. On the other hand, while we would support the Prime Minister to sue States Time Review (STR) and its editor for the criminal defamatory report which it has put up, we have reservations over the use of the Administrative power to geo-block the site altogether. This has created a precedent for PAP to geo-block any site which is critical of it. We also have great reservation over the Prime Minister’s decision to sue someone who has been misled by the report and had mistakenly shared it. The Prime Minister should take legal actions against STR and its editor instead.

We believe that the various acts are aimed to send chilling fear to Singapore dissidents and opposition supporters to curb their sharing of legitimate criticisms and anti-PAP commentaries. PAP’s intention to pass the “Fake News” law in 2019 is also an attempt to curb freedom of speech and expression. Any narrative that is contrary to PAP’s version could well be classified as “Fake News” and this law will give PAP the power to charge anyone who dare to put up such narratives!

On the other hand, we are also extremely concerned of the competency of the 4G leaders of PAP in dealing with important and sensitive diplomatic issues with our neighbouring countries. The recent unnecessary over-reaction to the sea boundary dispute as well as the dispute over airspace control has exposed the pure diplomatic incompetency and potentially dangerous political posturing of PAP’s 4G leaders. While Singaporeans understand the need to close rank and stand united when we face external threats but we will always want to stand on the higher moral grounds. There is absolutely no necessity to fan frenzy Nationalistic feelings when such fire may get out of control and translate into mindless agitations on the ground which in turn result in irreparable damage on bilateral relationship.

It is well known to the world that Singapore has the strongest arm forces in this region and there is absolutely no necessity to flex our muscle in demonstration of protest towards any surrounding country over any issues. Diplomacy has always been the pillar of our success as a small Nation in establishing a network of strength and support in both mutually beneficial economic and political development with other countries in the world. The 4G leaders of PAP must be reminded that our military might is established to prevent war and provide stability instead of starting any war or for bullying others into submission.

Looking forward into 2019, we hope that PAP will garner the wisdom and help from people with more experience in diplomacy to deal with bilateral disputes with Malaysia.

We do not expect PAP to change its strategic attempt to curb Freedom of Expression on the New media but we believe that only a good beating of PAP in the coming General Elections in 2019 or 2020 will send a strong message to PAP that it doesn’t pay to do more harm to the Nation’s Democratic development. PAP’s broken promise of “Light Touch” on internet chatters has turned into “Deadly Touch”.

We also foresee a dark economic cloud over the horizon for 2019 but under PAP’s rule, cost of living and business cost have increased tremendously over the past few years. They have just increased public transport fares despite of lower fuel price and the millions of indirect subsidies given to public transport companies! Singapore has remained as the most expensive city in the world for a few years now. This is the result when Singaporeans gave PAP too much of a mandate in GE 2015.

We believe that a combination of High Cost and Economic Downturn will hit Singaporeans very hard if PAP doesn’t change its High Cost policies soon.

Singapore is going to face a very challenging time ahead in 2019. We hope that Singaporeans will stand united and keep PAP in checks in order to get it on to the right path of Democratic and Economic development for Singapore.

Wishing Every Singaporean a Happy New Year 2019

Goh Meng Seng
Secretary General
People’s Power Party

Monday, September 03, 2018

TOTD: HDB Issue - Never Populist, No Longer Lone Voice Again

Thought of the Day - Never Populist, No Longer Lone Voice Again

I was having a discussion over the Asset Enhancement Scam and all the issues involving HDB in my High School Whatsapp group and one of my friends wrote that I should not harp on the truth of HDB lease ownership and by reading the comments on social media, see what they want and sing their tune to get their support.

I paused for a while and I replied, I have NEVER been populist in my approach and most of the time, I turn people living in fantasies and myths into reality.

Unlike some politicians who would be that opportunistic and even agree with a BAD policy like Asset Enhancement Scam just because popular opinion of GREED was in support of it due to short sightedness, I chose to walk the less chosen path of going against the grains of popular opinion.

I would call a spade a spade, nothing else.

Asset Enhancement Scheme is a scam and it is important to make the point that you don't own any asset when you buy HDB LONG TERM TENANCY agreement because...

1) You don't even own the HDB flat as a property nor the land, what "assets" are you talking about?

2) In all normal TENANCY agreement, it is the responsibility of Landlord to do major maintenance and upgrading, so why are Singaporeans asked to pay for upgrading?

3) It is total Bullshit to say "GOV subsidize" your upgrading but the reverse is true, Singaporeans are subsidizing the GOV in upgrading!

4) You may think you would gain great "profits" when HDB prices are pushed up but at whose cost? At the cost of the buyer of your HDB PLUS the cost of higher HDB prices for your children and grandchildren!

5) Who are the ultimate Gainers from high HDB prices? SLA via higher land sales, HDB via more interests earned from loans and as the monopoly supplier of HDB flats and banks that make mortgage loans!

That's the reality of Asset Enhancement Scam.

I was the lone voice in the past fighting against HDB policy but not anymore. Glad that many have awaken.

I am so happy to read many other Singaporeans are speaking up about the Truth of HDB “Ownership”, against the PAP’s misleading narrative which is built on a total lie.

All scams are built upon ignorance and GREED of the victims, that’s why scamming lies could become some sweet tunes to these unsuspecting people.

It is my mission to exposed the bad scam of Asset Enhancement Scheme because it would be disastrous to our future generations for it to continue.

I am not against HDB as a PUBLIC HOUSING and I am even okay with the fact that there is no REAL OWNERSHIP of assets but just a prepaid long term lease of tenancy.

But I am against PAP political sophistry to turn HDB into an evil weapon of mass destruction of Singaporeans CPF retirement financing plan just for its own political self interests.

It is a total oxymoron idea to pursue a policy that will inflat HDB prices forever when the main aim of Public Housing is affordable housing for all Singaporeans!

The reason why I was so pissed off with MBT back in GE2011 was that he kept claiming HDB is “affordable” despite the fact that majority of new generation Singaporeans were made to pay more than 25% of their salaries for 30 years mortgage and yet he still claimed it is affordable! The direct consequence is, they will have less than 11% of savings in CPF for retirement funding! Any financial planner would tell you that this is definitely not enough for middle lower income earners!

Moreover, after paying their 30 years mortgage, they will find themselves stuck with a depreciating HDB value with totally insufficient CPF for retirement!

It is a huge time bomb of massive destruction in the making, all because of PAP’s manipulative moves in hoodwinking Singaporeans into believing this Asset Enhancement scam.

It always pains me when I read ignorant young couples forking out huge amount of money up to a million to buy a HDB lease of tenancy which s less than 80 years! We have to continue fight the PAP evil propaganda of HDB flats is an asset that will appreciate forever in order to drill it down to Singaporeans, it is nothing more than a paper that let you live in that flat for a time frame.

Singaporeans should change their mindset about HDB as investment. It is just public housing. All public housing are literally OWNED BY GOVERNMENT and they should be misguided and misled by PAP that they could use it to earn huge profits. It is your home, not an investment.

And as public housing, it should priced as such, Cost Plus, instead of “market price”. Only then, we could normalize and stabilize housing cost to all Singaporeans.

I hope that more and more people will have solid grasp of these HDB issues and help to spread the words so that we could build the Right social cultural mindset towards HDB as public housing.

Goh Meng Seng

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Truth of HDB Ownership - 99 Year Leasehold Tenancy

HDB 99 Years Leasehold Tenancy Purchase

The Prime Minister has tried to confuse or sidestep the FUNDAMENTAL Question of "HDB OWNERSHIP". What types of Ownership are we having when we buy a HDB flat?

Many people have correctly pointed out with FACTUAL illustration of that little paper you sign when you purchase your HDB flat, regardless whether it is new BTO or resale HDB flats.

It is a purchase of HDB 99 year TENANCY OR WHATEVER is left of the tenancy agreement. This is NOT the usual property sake and purchase agreement.

This is why you will NEVER be issued a strata titles because what you have bought is only a long term, paid in advanced, tenancy agreement.

This is also why when you want to SUBLET out your flat, you have to get permission from the REAL OWNER, HDB.

Thus, PM Lee is Totally wrong to say that HDB "ownership" is the same as private property ownership because they own DIFFERENT things altogether. HDB ownership refers to the long term tenancy agreement while the private property ownership refers to the ownership of property, including the land.

This is also why when Gov wants to take away your car park or any space under your block to build anything, they don't need to pay you single cent because you don't own it! But if it is from private property, they will have to pay the private owners!

Similarly, all car park revenues from your HDB car parks will go to HDB, not HDB tenants, while for condominiums which decided to collect car park fees from visitors, the revenue will go to the management committee collecting on behalf of owners which is used to supplement maintenance fees.

HDB LONG TERM TENANCY ownership is the first of its kind in the world which hoodwinked people into thinking they are really owning a property or land but the hard truth is, they own nothing but the long term tenancy agreement!

This is the REAL truth of HDB "OWNERSHIP".

Goh Meng Seng

Friday, August 24, 2018

Rebuttal to PM Lee's comment on HDB Leasehold is the same as Private Property


Our PM Lee has made the following comment during a book launch:

"I find this argument frankly amazing. Many private properties are held on 99-year leases too, and yet nobody argues that they are merely being rented," said Mr Lee. "HDB lessees have all the rights over their flats that owners of such leasehold private properties have. You can live in it, you can transact it, you can bequeath it to you children. In fact HDB owners enjoy extra privileges because HDB flats get upgraded from time to time, with generous government funding."

1) Manay Private Properties are held on 99 year leases but they do have FULL rights to their properties and LAND. Eg. they could FENCE up their properties, decide on their own landscaping, rent out their properties without much restrictions, decide on their own when and how much they could sell their properties and do Enbloc redevelopment.

2) Private Properties owners also own their land for that leasehold period with strata tittles accorded.

3) However, HDB lessees DO NOT own their land with strata titles. Could PM Lee provide the proof that HDB lessees own their land with strata titles?

4) HDB lessees DO NOT have FULL rights to their HDB flats. They only have LIMITED rights, restricted by all the HDB rules, regulations and law.

5) HDB lessees cannot decide anything about the land their HDB land sits on. They cannot fence their blocks up or employ security guards.

6) Even when it comes to Enbloc, only HDB could decide when it could be done and only HDB could buy back all the HDB flats for Enbloc.

7) HDB Lessees cannot even sell their flats FREELY to anyone, unlike Private Properties.

8) Ironically, since HDB is the LAND LORD which owns the all the land that HDB flats sit on, why should HDB lessees be asked to pay part of the upgrading fees? It is the responsible of the LAND OWNER to maintain the infrastructure built on the land, is it not? How could PM Lee turn around and said that HDB lessees are enjoying some "privilege" of "heavily subsidized" upgrading when it was the other way round, HDB lessees made to subsidize the upgrading work which is supposed to be the Land Owner's aka HDB's obligations?

9) Fundamentally, there are GREAT differences between the 99 Year leasehold between a Private Properties vs HDB flats.

Goh Meng Seng

Thursday, August 23, 2018

TOTD: PAP's Plan From First World to Third World

Thought of the Day - PAP's Plan From First World to Third World

There is a massive outcry over PM Lee's National Day Rally over his "advice" of adjustment to the rising cost of living.

The best weapon against rising cost of living is to increase our salaries. However, despite of PAP's boast about higher GDP growth, the salaries of Singaporeans have hardly catch up with the inflationary pressure. That's the crux of the matter.

Instead of solving the problem of inadequate rise in income, or for many people, a regression of income due to underemployment and job mismatch, PM Lee and his ministers tried to downgrade our living standards from First World to Third World!

We would expect the citizens to progress in life quality as the nation progress from underdeveloped country to developed country status. But what PAP is trying to do is to persuade Singaporeans to live with Third World Standard of living while continuing to give them TOP WORLD Class Million dollar annual salaries!

The truth is, while our GDP growth might have reached "First World Per Capital Income level" but in reality, Singaporeans' purchasing powers had in fact deteriorated over the years due to constant increase in prices. The artificially boosted GDP growth did not benefit Singaporeans much but in reality, it is due to the influx of cheaper foreign labour and more MNCs parking and registering their profits here in Singapore without creating substantial well paid jobs for Singaporeans.

Thus, it is really laughable for a self serving ruling party which hold the country at ransom to demand the highest salaries paid in the world for political appointments to try and lecture Singaporeans to cut down on "expectation" and "spending" by lowering quality of life!

Giving irrelevant "5 cents 10 cents tips" of "saving money" by going to hawker centres, using public Wifi to save data usage and such, which didn't really contribute to much savings at all for a household! Lamenting on how people are owning airconditioners and handphones as the source of higher cost of living without addressing the REAL cause of high cost due to the horrendous increases in tax on water, electric tariffs and eventually GST!

Most importantly, it is really unconvincing at all to lecture Singaporeans on cutting cost of living via lowering quality of life when PAP government seems to go into a spending spree in all sorts of infrastructures from HSR, Terminal 5 (yeah, we don't even know how expensive it is going to be!) and $16 million thrown into an "international party" between two leaders which yield no substantial results! Well, $16 Million could buy us a few years supply of water from Malaysia!

It is really sickening to me and reminds me about Animal Farm. The Pigs will live a luxurious lifestyle while constantly lecture the other animals to live a frugal life, over-worked till death.

If this is the First World Government Singaporeans wanted, then they really deserve the Third World quality of Life PAP wanted them to live... yeah, no handphones, no aircon, lowest quality milk powder for your baby, eat at hawker centres not restaurants (while they could play golf and drive most expensive cars in the world), work, live and sleep in humid and hot weather... no progress in life but only work to give the Ministers Top World Pay and money to splash on expensive projects of Grandiosity to glorify themselves as "great leaders".

Yes, our forefathers had worked hard to bring Singapore from Third World to First World country, but only ended up to justify the TOP pay for PAP Ministers and now, they will bring us back from First World to Third World, while maintaining their TOP salaries in the world.

Singaporeans, are you happy now?

Goh Meng Seng