Tag Archives: government

The recent online debate about how foreign students are perceived to receive much more aid in terms of their education in Singapore than Singaporeans themselves had the government scrambling with their PR machinery, first inducing the POFMA to Lim Tean who first made the claim, and then the government acting by announcing more bursary and aid to local students from next year onwards. It is clear that such issues resonates with Singaporeans, and thus, the government had to act fast.

But what about the Government themselves? Can they ever be issued with POFMA? After all, telling half truths and not the full facts is a common tactic used by governments the world over. So, to be better than the rest, why not the Singapore government come out with actual facts, with stats and reports to back up what they want to disprove, instead of just issuing Correction Orders?

The government’s response to the Bukit Batok fire has been deafeningly silent, despite clear evidence of gross negligence on the part of the town council in failing to ensure fire safety regulations were followed. Attempting to shift responsibility to the contractor does not diminish the town council’s culpability. One can only imagine the ruling party’s reaction had the fire taken place in Aljunied-Hougang Town Council.

That every time a mistake is made, it is the lower ranked staff that gets the blame, while the leaders, normally PAP Ministers and MPs, say sorry and moved on with their cushy pay secured a long time ago. It’s appalling that the buck stops with the men at the bottom, while the men at the top receives not even a reprimand.

I am concerned that there have been 3 instances of Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) being invoked - all against articles critical of the government. My view is that POFMA was indeed passed ahead of a General Election which is looming. The Government has a track-record of enacting laws targeting online criticisms and ahead of elections for the last 10 years.

This clearly showed that the policy was not overly thought through, because if they were, then the funding would have been announced together with the policy. Jose Raymond opined that the realisation from the government that they had created a bigger problem after they banned the PMDs only came after the delivery riders came out and stated their rice bowls were gone overnight.

The fact that GST is going to be raised sooner or later now does not even surprise Singaporeans anymore. So, is integrity really about telling Singaporeans in advance about the expected hike, or actually apologising to Singaporeans that all those noise about GST not being raised were in the end not true? Shouldn't DPM Heng, who is also the Finance Minister, show more integrity to Singaporeans by saying that the government could not fulfill its promise of just four years before, and thus apologise for this breaking of promise? That is integrity.

His statement smacks of him praising his party to high heavens. He might have forgotten PM Lee's promise during the last election campaign that GST would not go up, quashing WP's claims that it would. No matter, because according to Heng, just because you are upfront about the raising of GST it means you have integrity, past promises be damned.

Trade and Industry Minister and one of the future leaders of the 4G government, Chan Chun Sing, says that the government realises the cost pressure the government themselves are putting on businesses, with the planned increases in the ages for re-employment and retirement, as well as Central Provident Fund (CPF) contribution rates for older workers.

So, what he is basically saying is that voting requires maturity, and those below 21 years old are not matured enough to decide on their future. He did not, however, explain why Singapore's young men are required to serve NS when they turn 18. For context, these immature young men are required to handle weapons and grenade during their NS obligations. So they are not mature to vote, but mature enough to handle dangerous weapons that can really kill.