Rally
Today I read the straits times and I read a poll of why people don't want to go to rally.True, the rally is hot and crowded however what the candidates said in the rally doesn't mean EVERYTHING is reported in the news/papers. For the opposition parties, only those that are not too "important" are reported.
Yesterday I went to a rally from an opposition party. I'm amazed by the crowd that it has drawn. From what I see, easily at least 10 thousand people watching and listening. They looked happy and cheered when they see the candidates up the stage.
"You have a choice!" is their motto for this election. They mentioned about mostly on healthcare, upgrading of flats & increase of transport fees. What I'm writing is according to what I heard yesterday. Most are not reported in the papers today.
For healthcare, they said that our govt (1st world) is only spending 1% of their GDP on it. If compare with other 1st world countries, our stats is definitely way below theirs. With rising elderly in the coming few years, 1% is definitely not a very significant sum to help the people of Singapore who have contributed in some way or others.
For transport fees, they're amazed that how come transport companies are earning profits of millions of dollars, still have to increase fee. Aren't the govt doing anything to fight for the residents?
For upgrading of flats, the opposition party spent their limited budget to open up lifts on every storey of the flat so that it'll be convenient for the residents. For the first flat, it went on smoothly and not a single cent was taken from the residents. However, when they wanted to do on another one, they received a letter from HDB that when want to upgrade of flats, there is a cluase that says every resident of the flat has to pay no matter what. Why is this so? This is the first time i hear that opposition want to use their money to pay and not wanting residents to pay at all to be rejected. What logic?
Last but not least, Hougang has waited 15 years for their flats to be upgraded. There was no transparency on the queue and where exactly is Hougang flats in the queue. However, when election is coming, the govt say that vote for them and their flats will be the first to be upgraded. Hmmm... I'm abit displeased on the way they throw these carrots to the people. If they win, even though their flats are upgraded, the residents have to pay thousands of dollars each. It seems that the residents in this way will become the "carrot".
Oh yar, one last final thing that they mentioned was that for govt hospitals, they will be using means testing to see who are eligible for class C wards rebates. This means that those that "seems" to earn more have to pay more for the fees. The chairwoman said that such measures are used in rehabiliation centres already. This made me think of my little sister in girls' home. Having to pay 1k per month is absurb. Imagine my dad, my mum, my sis and I's combined progress packages are not enough to pay her 1 month maintainese fee. Hmmmm.........
You have a choice this saturday! =)
posted by tornado @ 12:19 AM
7 Comments:
Mean testing is a way to tackle income disparity and that is exactly the issue that the chairwomen of WP wants to tackle. WP is actually for mean testing!!! (LOW TK mentioned in parliament before)
Anonymous, you're getting me confused. Since mean testing was mentioned by WP that PAP wants to implement it. You said WP wanna tackle it. Then you said WP is for mean testing.
Mean testing will result in people who earn more paying more to govt hospital compared to if they went to a private hospital (that would be so ironic, isn't it?)
I meant to say that the chairwomen is contradicting herself. She said that she wanna tackle the problem of income widening problems. Mean testing is a solution to income widening problems. The principle of mean testing is to ensure that more help is given to the poorer. Income Tax also work this way, the more you earn, the more you pay income tax. WP is generally supportive of mean testing if you had follow the reports.
What i heard from the rally is that they are asking PAP on what grounds are they focused upon deciding who to pay how much.
Eg, if by the house one live in. Not necessary, a family stay in 3 room flat is poorer than a family staying in 5room one.
Eg, if goes by income, it doesn't mean a person with 2k income is poorer than a person with 5k income. coz the person with 5k income may need to feed a family of 6 (2 parents, wife and 3 kids?) while the person with 2k income only feed himself (maybe live by himself and wanna be bachelor)
And if one has to go thru all the investigations, alot of paper work has to be done before deciding how much one has to pay. By that time, alot of precious time is delayed. And in the end, it may be cheaper to go to a private hospital compared to a govt one.
You understand what I'm trying to say? Unless one factor in all these factors, it's very difficult to find a fair mean. And since the rich has paid more income tax, still have to punish them with paying more for other stuff. Who not angry? If you read my previous few posts on girls home you will get what i mean on means testing in rehabilitation centres (which has been tried out by the govt).
I think my point is just to say that the chairwomen is not making a good point and that she do not really have the substance. If she wants to tackle the problems, she has to come up with the solutions. I am not going to argue about the mean testing issue.
What the chairwoman is tackling is the transparency of the testing. So what if everyone knows that means testing tackle income disparity? How it is ACTUALLY done is another issue. She's not talking about solutions but just want to find out how it is done. Don't you feel sian when they say they cannot reveal the actual amount/way they do things.
Alot of things which were revealed in the rally were not reported both in papers and news (coz you know who owns them). One has to be physically there to know what's happening. If you visit sgrally blog. You can see the difference between a PAP rally and a WP rally at a same location (hougang) but on a different night. Why? Because PAP rally you can get the exact info from the papers and news. However, you will not get EVERYTHING if you try to read the papers and news for opposition party rallies.
The opposition party DID reveal solutions on helping the people during the rally. They are proposing ideas that are feasible (coz in the party got law lecturer la, graduate of economics la, etc) and beneficial to the people in terms of upgrading of flats, healthcare and transport cost.
Yesterday from TV, Mr Lee questioned the opposition party whether can they lower the coffee price, bread price, petrol price? In my mind, I think the opposition party will be saying sorry we can't but we'll try our best. But it seems that the govt also didn't manage to lower those prices too.
This will be my last posting. I think you are missing my point. I am not going to argue with you about the parties. I just said that she do not have substance and that does not means that the PAP is doing well. If you realise I did not mention PAP at all in my comments.
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