Will there be a transformation?

I think it'll be difficult to change cause the problem lays deep. When the ministers think it's perfectly fine to tell the Citizens to tighten their belts and sacrifice to contribute to GDP growth, then reward themselves for this growth, the problem is deeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

When these ministers think welfare is a dirty word, yet see no harm in keeping their pensions of 2/3s their highest drawn salary even after raising their pay to the multi-millions and taking large bonuses, mooting the whole arguement that "we sacrifice for the country, so the country looks after us" (side note: isn't that true for us all too?).

Now lets just look at this simple example here - pensions. For the rest of us, pensions gave way to CPF. This CPF payout date too has been raised how many times now? From 55 to what is it now? 65?

Yet do you know our dear ministers still get their pensions from 55 onwards, on TOP of their pay?

They see no harm nor wrong in this now do they?

They see no wrong in holding back our CPF, giving us a lower interest rate than inflation. They see no wrong wiping out this CPF too with over priced government housing. They will argue "market prices" ignoring the fact that they control the influx of people here, control legistlation for foreign ownership, own more than 80% of the land and therefore ARE the market.

They see no wrong that HDB is government housing built on stateland that they acquired, using the land acquisition act, cheaply (I read $1.00 per square foot in some cases) for the purpose of housing the Citizens. Now they lease it back to us at hundreds per sqft x 20 (for a twenty storey block)... yet the title deed never changes hands. It's a lease, on we also have to pay property tax on.

They see no problem that our retirement fund is being funneled into their reserves and we can't even dream of retiring.

See my point yet? The government sees no wrong turning the Citizens into cash cows for their "reserves", which they also tell us is huge, therefore they are a great government worth more than the millions they take for themselves.

The problem is so extremely deep when a government sees no problem using the blood and lives of it's Citizens to paint a beautiful picture which they will then use to improve their own bank balances with.

How do you make changes to that, except to remove them all and replace them?

It is very difficult to justify the ministers' pay of over $2m a year plus pension for life. By any standard, its very difficult to justify. No country has done so and no country dares to pay the ministers such a high salary and pension. Except Singapore.
So, being the most expensive govt in the world, we do expect the govt to perform extremely well , regardless of external factors. if they cant perform, just get out. Its fair. But if they perform well and look after the citizens in healthcare, keeping cost of living affordable and ensuring that citizens dont have to worry when they retire/retrench, they by all means pay them well.
If they dont "transform", using ----'s words, then, expect the vote to go below 60% in the next GE.

Repost=

First things First

The following comments by Cubicle appeared to have been removed:

I think it'll be difficult to change cause the problem lays deep. When the ministers think it's perfectly fine to tell the Citizens to tighten their belts and sacrifice to contribute to GDP growth, then reward themselves for this growth, the problem is deeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

When these ministers think welfare is a dirty word, yet see no harm in keeping their pensions of 2/3s their highest drawn salary even after raising their pay to the multi-millions and taking large bonuses, mooting the whole arguement that "we sacrifice for the country, so the country looks after us" (side note: isn't that true for us all too?).

Now lets just look at this simple example here - pensions. For the rest of us, pensions gave way to CPF. This CPF payout date too has been raised how many times now? From 55 to what is it now? 65?

Yet do you know our dear ministers still get their pensions from 55 onwards, on TOP of their pay?

They see no harm nor wrong in this now do they?

They see no wrong in holding back our CPF, giving us a lower interest rate than inflation. They see no wrong wiping out this CPF too with over priced government housing. They will argue "market prices" ignoring the fact that they control the influx of people here, control legistlation for foreign ownership, own more than 80% of the land and therefore ARE the market.

They see no wrong that HDB is government housing built on stateland that they acquired, using the land acquisition act, cheaply (I read $1.00 per square foot in some cases) for the purpose of housing the Citizens. Now they lease it back to us at hundreds per sqft x 20 (for a twenty storey block)... yet the title deed never changes hands. It's a lease, on we also have to pay property tax on.

They see no problem that our retirement fund is being funneled into their reserves and we can't even dream of retiring.

See my point yet? The government sees no wrong turning the Citizens into cash cows for their "reserves", which they also tell us is huge, therefore they are a great government worth more than the millions they take for themselves.

The problem is so extremely deep when a government sees no problem using the blood and lives of it's Citizens to paint a beautiful picture which they will then use to improve their own bank balances with.

How do you make changes to that, except to remove them all and replace them?

This current government does everything they can to ensure this system of checks and balances isn't there, they have no transparency nor accountability, they build the corruption into their system and keep harping about how good and clean they are.

Honestly though, I think on many levels, they actually believe that they are clean and good and honest. That they are making us sacrifice, made themselves multi-millionaires and are working towards making themselves billionaires "for our good"... Maybe they do believe that on many levels. That in fact though is the danger with the current government and why they can not change.

They do not see anything wrong with what they are doing, they just need to, "Communicate it better to us".

The PAP will never transform or change if they depend on the current feedback system such as meet the people session, forum and the current media. This is so because only "good news" are being filtered up to above superior and there are a few layers of superior before it actually reach the minister or PM.
If the govt truly want to know the people, then they must have
a. independent feedback audit check on the feedback units, especially on cases they could not help. Saying we can't help everyone is not good enough because for the one you can't help, there are hundreds of them with similar problem that did not voice out to the MP.
b. A truly independent press who is not just a mouth piece for PAP but actually give space to good articles and negative feedback. It is through such negative feedback that one can feel the ground and act.
c. Reduce the salary of minister and others so that only those who feel for Singapore and have the right objectives will join. Forget those who are highly qualified but without passion for Singapore but for the money only. If we offer high salary, we do not know their loyalty until they are tested. This loyalty is to the people not the party.
d. Think longterm and subject such thinking to public and intellectual debates and do not just take the "pro" and neglect the "con". The casino is one such example. The nuclear option will be the up and coming one.
e. Change the legal system where minister can sue anyone who say anything nasty about them as once you become minister you are "public property" and is subject to review at all times. If you are worried about your image then do not join politic. But once you join, you must subject yourself to this test. The public will know what is rubbish and what is true.

This is only the first step. So if you truly want to change, change the above first, then you will know where you stand. Only then can you change.

No, few would believe that PAP will change. Ever.

Do you think old foxes like wong ks, khaw bw, mah bt, lee ky, lim ss will change?
People always advice us to 'never say never', but in PAP case, it's NEVER.

Do you think with yes-sir ministers like raymond lim, gan ky, vivian, yaacob, we'll hear discerning voices in cabinet meetings?
Just have to look at what these ministers stand to lose if they fall out of favour with PM Lee.
It's S$millions salaries & career advancement. Who can afford such costs?

After the GE2011, we can always confirmed that most in civil service voted for PAP so as to ensure their good paying jobs.

PM Lee recently justified the big increment for the president - he say this is so that all of them below will also have a good adjustment. If the salary at the top is stagnant, those below will suffer with just a mere 10-15% increase.

Do you think anyone in the cabinet will object to this salary increment proposal?
Only fools will disagreed. And only fools like us who continue to keep them in power.

correct me if I am wrong I heard that President's remuneration is TAX FREE? and once he steps down he will receive 2/3 of his last drawn salary for life.....we need to forum/debate on his matter. The current remuneration is 3.6 million which is expected to be adjusted to 4.2 mill for the next President. This is prepostorus....it is way way too much for ceremonial functions only.

Pls justify.

PN BALJI
with the utmost honesty with my personal take and observations on these issues and what really brought about the comment by MFA George Yeo on the need for PAP to be transformed.

half a century is not a short span of time, many Singaporeans have contributed to this nation building and not just through the great leadership of the PAP

one must recognize that the people of Singapore played a very important role in bring forth the remarkable achievements of this island called Singapore and many of Malays, Indians, Chinese, other - the original mix of inhabitants who worked tirelessly with the incumbent government.

that said, and the span of elapsed time -- many have also witness to continue erosion of the incumbent government fundamentals existence in politics and the rule of this island

everyone knows the meaning of transformed and many also knows that politics is about the business of people livelihood -- you are in it to bring about better living standards to your people and to ensure that they are able to make decent living and their interests as citizens are protected.

with the decline in popular votes for the PAP that threatened to breached below the 60% mark - the question is how can this transformation be carried out? What is at stake? What needs to be done? Who will carry this burden of transforming? BUT the key question is WHAT CHANGE is NECESSARY?.

it all boils down to many fundamental issues that are driving the people to this point of being disenchanted with the ruling party.

issues were left to germinate and becomes a bigger concern now. issues that affects the livelihood of Singaporeans at large who are supporting families ... when issues about job security and employments affects bread winner and their ability to ensure this basic need for the family -- this will affect their children -- when this in turn will become a point of discussion between youth who will compare their parents troubles, struggles and worries - the spread will become larger when peers identify with one another -- and how this issues play out -- it has a direct impact from the policies of the government.

when Singaporeans are not protected to have a decent livelihood, this fear will turn in rebel with a cause -- and that is to protect their interest.

in doing so, the government do not connect with the people fear more but chose to create a further rift in the barrier by calling these Singaporeans who are displaced from their jobs as Choosy and Lazy. This further alienated the people from the government and their refusal to acknowledge their policy flaws or missteps that caused this situation.

it is imperative that the government bring about real change within itself to reverse the situation and bring about stability in the workforce that will protect the interest of Singaporeans, this will serve them well in the long run as Singaporeans are here to stay unless there is a different agenda on the government policy and what they seek to achieve. Singapore will be a different place for all Singaporeans.

Change or Transform must happen and if it is not going to happen internally -- it bound to happen externally.

this is my opinion

We hope the PAP will change, will learn from this experience and grow. It is clear that the PAP must learn how to re-connect with the people. MM talked about a generation that forgets .. but as I said before the PAP forgot its own roots. They came into power because the people trusted them. My grandfather often spoke about how LKY chose the poor area of Tanjong Pagar and how the PAP worked hard to create jobs and provide housing for the people. Education and health-care was taken care of too. People felt that the PAP were one with them and truly walked the talk. Only when PAP returns to its roots and focuses on the people and not on how to get bigger pay; when they drop their elite status and be one with the people, when it communicates with the people and not talk down to them, then people will trust and respect them again.

Will they change? For Singapore's sake, let's hope so.

A 'simple gesture' is worth more than thousand man talks:-

MM and SM:- To work as "Voluntary Worker", instead of "Highly Paid Minister" in PMO...

Change needs to start somewhere. IMO the feedback parameters need to be first address and one of the most critical is the media. As long as the media is not free from MDA clutches, bias reporting and selective reporting will not enable any changes. I truly believe PAP when they develop strategies are with the objectives of Singapore overall good. Unfortunately like all strategies, without a robust tactical deployment and acceptance from stakeholders will only render it ineffective when implemented or at worst sow discord due to a uni-directional approach.

The fact that PAP renewals of candidates are at best coming from army and ntuc, I seriously doubt they have practical experience in change management which requires a multi dimension approach that each out to stake holders. Hence if the entire cadre consist of bureaucrats with little enterprise experience, my take is PAP will not have the right ingredients to evolve even if the core leaders are motivated to. Hence even if it is the best policies for Singapore, it will fail. A few key examples are the investment in the various industries which we paid a high price for failures.

Looking forward, I fear only a revolution in the the voting box will shake PAP to the core, like what we had witnessed from Japan to UK. Hence I believe the demise of PAP had started since money becomes a key components for serving bureaucrats while passion and believes became secondary.

Yes, PAP got to look hard at themselves and ask why there is no trust from the 40% of voters which is growing everyday.

PAP has enjoyed power, prestige & sky-high pay for so long that it is difficult to see how it will change -- at least in ways that will benefit Singaporeans.

We are not interested in change leading to economic growth that excludes the lower-income, or in policies that encourage casinos and a flood of foreigners to the disadvantage of its own people.

But then, the PAP top dogs have never been inclined to listen to their own people, or care much about them at heart. So it's hard to see how or where they will start to do so.

The real answer is still for the Opposition to muster high-quality candidates -- put up sustained, well-organised campaigns and win even more seats in the next election.

On this, many congratulations to the Workers' Party in Aljunied, and to the fine people of Aljunied.

All the best to sterling Opposition candidates in 2016. Singaporeans await. We welcome you.

There should be LIVE coverage whenever Parliament in session.From there Hougang SMC and Aljunied GRC resident's knows how their MP's perform.

Not correct that they 'didn't listen', they refuse to listen. They turn a blind eye to what millions of us on the ground can see: - the tons of foreign dirt, the homeless on the beaches, the growing number of desperate poor. In their ivory towers, these problems do not exist.

The gahmen are just simply too focussed on their own salaries and monstrous bonuses and how to make the rich even richer. Of course, these include the 'rich new citizens' the gahmen so proudly speak of and the businessmen who benefit from exploiting cheap foreign labor. Only GDP numbers matter to them. Not our depressed wages, not our jobs lost to foreigners.

The gahmen brag about 14 percent GDP increase when the streets are littered with old folks literally fighting to pick trash cans for a living. I am also an old man, and I cry for them....I know I will be one of them one day living off the streets.....

It sickens me to see milllions squandered on YOG and now they say they will spent 1.2 billions for an artifical river in Bishan when there is so much to be done for the aged poor who have given so much for the country in their youth.
..

The government has to know that the resentment, unhappiness and disappointment among Singaporeans are not overnight, it had been build up for years. We are being suppressed and now some of us could no longer take the anger that is multiplying inside, that's what happen to the election. I am very doubtful that PAP will change. One or two of them may acknowledge the change but majority is still holding on to obsolete ideas & views. With only 6 oppositions in the parliament (less than 7%) is not going to make much difference. I am just waiting to see how LHL addressed the problems he promised during the rally. In fact was rather disappointed when he said his plan is to retrain workers, increase productivity, upgrade productivity ... This song was sang years ago, retraining, upgrading skill etc. All these are long term, there are pockets of fire everywhere which needed attention and this wasn't addressed. Just hope that these fires will die off itself! He also said to safeguard & grow the reserves, well talking about increasing reserves, I am scared, dunno when GST, ERP will raised again. To be frank, everyone is screaming that the ministers are overpaid. If each were to take a 30% paycut (easily amounted to S$30m a year) and to put it back into Singaporeans' pocket, we are all millionaires!!!

In the 1991 GE led by PM Goh Chok Tong then, the PAP's manifesto was to deliver to Singaporeans a Swiss Standard of Living by 1999. Immediately after the election, and for more than 20 years, the PAP never said a word about this election promise.

Has the PAP lived up to its promise?
No, the election manifesto was meant for buying votes.

PAP can only transform when the following persnnel leave the gov.
1. GCT
2. MBT
3.WKS
4. GKY
5. VB
6. TSL
7. TPL
Just imagine how much money singapore can save form their salary. And the money can help how many families.

Nope. The PAP will not change. They are tone deaf.

Let's face it. Though PAP won only 60% of the votes, they took 93% of the seats. During any parliamentary debate, it is easy for PAP to be lulled into thinking that they are always right. Opps is just noise to them that they can overpower by sheer majority.

Talking about transformation sounds nice, but practically, it is impossible due to the heavyweight structure that PAP has become. To be realistic, even George Yeo will find it impossible if he had stayed in the cabinet for the next 5 years.

If today, PAP won only 60% of the seats, then a transformation will happen. Now, we can only expect any transformation to be pleasing in the eyes of the Ministers, but not necessarily for true democracy.

So, please pray for our country.

PAP to reform??? WHAT LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG...

Dear Yahoo! Singapore

PAP will NOT change. It will NOT transform or reform as Mr George Yeo wished.

NOT with the current leadership and with MM Lee still alive.

MM Lee is a powerful leader and a forceful one too. He still has his own wits about how things should be run and should develop. It is very difficult for PM Lee, even if he wanted to, to change MM Lee's mind. This he said as much.

So, PAP will not change as long as MM Lee is still on the scence. His immediate comments on the GE2011 said as much. That the young generation of voters, who presumably voted for the WP, do not know where Singapore came from!

Will WKS, MBT, VB, Raymond Lim, Lim Swee Say, etc advocate for change? Unlikely since VB has already said the most of the policieis the PAP government implemented that caused much hardship for ordinary citizens despite the 'theoritical benefits' to Singapore are RIGHT and that the government JUST need to improve on 'communicating better'!

No. Not when WKS believed that he HAD apologized 3 years ago when Mas Selamat escaped.

No. Not when MBT kept insisting the public housing is affordable to the young people and that rising public property prices are GOOD (which I agreed is GOOD for those who can cash out BUT VERY BAD for those generations after who will need to buy $320k public flat or $2.56m HDB flat in 10-20 years time assuming a 8x increase in 10-20 years as has been the case for those who bought their HDB 10-20 years ago at $40k!! i.e. 40kx8=320k and 320kx8=2560k!).

and so on and so forth.

Will BG Tan Chuan-Jin, one of the speakers at the Boat Quay PAP Lunch Time Rally, maybe. Hopefully if there are more like him.

OR more like Teo Ser Luck who's PAP Rally Speech as to be taken out as he was unashamedly shouting his GRC's anchors' names like Teo Chee Hean, so and so, so and so, and then his own name for 2-3 minutes!!

So, conclusion. To find the change from within PAP. Very very difficult.

As for outside forces. Definitely IF PAP does not, CANNOT see the need to change. Or lack the courage and foresight to change.

Another potential outside source for change for PAP, Mr George Yeo championing a National Agenda detached from party politics. He seems to have the most respect of the losing PAP candidates. Let him start the NEW National MOVEMENT since he said he STILL want to be in politics as a Concerned Citizen!!

Best regards
LU Keehong Mr.