50 years of Singapore.
But will our country have another 50 years.
When Singapore was Temasek in the 14th century, it came to prominence and then disappeared in a hundred years.
Will Singapore go the same fate that our island has, to rise to its peak in the 20th century and disappear before the 21st century is out?
Will Singaporeans Stand and Fight?
What makes a country? A country is not made by its government.
A country is made by its people. And the quality of its people.
How strong Singapore can be does not depend on the government. It depends on what Singaporeans can give, what we stand for and who we are.
But who are we?
Singaporeans are a hardworking people and we are proud of it.
We are kiasu, we speak Singlish and we are proud of it.
It is good to be proud.
But sometimes, has being proud also makes us too proud to admit the truth? Too proud to admit that things need to change? Too proud to admit that we are scared? That we fear what will happen when things change?
Do Singaporeans have what it takes for Singapore to make it? For not just another 50 years, but the next 100, 200 or 500. Do Singaporeans have the grit, the willpower, the courage and the fierceness to do so?
Will Singaporeans fight? For ourselves, for our families and for our country?
Or are we too scared to lose what we have?
And even when we know that if we do not fight, that we will lose even more, will we remain scared and choose not to fight.
Must we wait for the land to be gone, and what we have to be gone, before we decide to do something?
But when things finally break apart and not just the trains break down, but Singapore breaks down, then who can we blame?
The government? PAP?
Or should we blame ourselves for not having risen up, to fight? To fight for our lives, for our freedom, for the truth. For justice, for morality. For ourselves. For our people.
I thank the few thousands of you who are here today and the many who had joined us. You took that step. You are here today, to stand up, to fight. For yourselves. For your families. For your future.
But there are tens and thousands more of Singaporeans who are not here today. Who might be watching the video of this protest in the comfort of your homes. Praying and hoping that things will change.
But things will not change when we do not stand up. When we not speak up. When we are always hoping that someone else can do it. And hope that a hero will help us fight and change things.
There are No Heroes Who Stands Alone
But heroes come and heroes go. They put a face to the fight. But they can only fight for as long as there are fighters among us. They can only fight when there is an army that is willing to charge and take back what is ours, so that we can get our lives back on track.
But when the hero stands alone, when the fight is over, he dies. Everything goes back to normal. Life goes on. We get angrier. Another hero comes. He dies. We get even angrier. And heroes will keep coming and going. Until your country collapses and the heroes could never have done anything, because they were never strong enough. Not by themselves.
He was only one person who took on the fight. Some might call him stupid. Some might say he is naive. Some might say he knows better, and why would he want to play with fire.
But he has a dream. He has a hope. He wants a better future for the people. He wants happiness, justice and compassion. He wants people to be treated right.
I stand here, like many of you here, because I believe that we can change things. I believe that we can make things happen, when we stand up, when we fight and we fight to put things right.
But will things change? This is something I ask myself all the time.
Will things change?
When everything is gone and done, I lose everything but at least I stood for one thing. At least we stood for something.
At least we did what we could.
PAP Took Our CPF as Cheap Money to Use and Got Hooked On It
The CPF is only one issue. But it is a big issue.
For many Singaporeans, they do not care about the CPF system, what happened to it, what PAP did to it.
All we want is to have our money back. All we want is to ask the government to Return Our CPF.
Maybe that is the folly of the title of our protest – #ReturnOurCPF. Maybe that is our mistake. For we created a protest to demand for our CPF to be returned. But it is not just that. It should not be just that.
Many Singaporeans do not care what PAP has done and will continue to do to our CPF. All we want is to have our CPF, so that we can retire.
So that we can continue to go shopping, to go on our holidays, and maybe some, to set up businesses.
But the CPF is more than that.
In 1968, PAP took our CPF as money of their own for social and economic development. They took our CPF to build the port, the airport, roads and other infrastructure.
But most importantly, they took our CPF to build HDB flats.
At that time, Singapore did not have enough money. So the government took our CPF. Maybe it was OK. It helped Singapore to build things up, so that at least we could start somewhere, to start developing and earning the money back.
So that our country could get richer and our people could also get richer.
Since 1964, PAP wanted Singaporeans to “own” homes. If you own your “home”, they believed that you would fight for your country, that you would want to protect your “home”, and you would not do anything to change things.
They were right. How smart they are. How many Singaporeans would protest today? Too scared to lose our homes? Too scared to lose our jobs?
And so, we get to keep our jobs, well most of us anyway. And the PAP gets to keep their jobs.
In 1968, PAP allowed us to use CPF to “buy” their homes. They then increased the CPF contribution rate from 10% to 13%, and then kept increasing it all the way to 50% in 1984.
PAP needed more and more money to use, because they can then build more flats, and earn more money to use.
In 1985, when the recession came, Professor Lim Chong Yah, who headed the CPF Study Group, told the PAP to stop using our CPF for HDB.
Because PAP trapped so much of our CPF inside, there was nothing we could do with our CPF except to buy HDB flats. This created artificial demand and drove prices up.
By the time the recession came, PAP built too many flats that that it also caused the recession to happen in 1985.
Our CPF is such cheap money for the PAP. They took so much of our CPF money and they got addicted to it.
Professor Lim Chong Yah warned the PAP. But did the PAP listen to him?
They did not. By 1994, HDB flat prices started spiralling upwards once again.
In 1997, another recession happened.
This time, Mah Bow Tan said that the PAP built too many flats again and there were more than 30,000 flats that they could not sell.
Today, Singapore Has Become Richer but Singaporeans Have Become Poorer
In 1984, the PAP wanted Singaporeans to “own” our homes because it was the 25th year that Singapore would be independent. And because PAP was going to hold elections.
They wanted Singaporeans to feel good.
Today, Singapore is into the 50th year of independence. Once again, PAP wants Singaporeans to feel good. Once again, PAP will hold elections soon.
Time and again, the PAP gives us a carrot and we take it like a hungry rabbit in a cage.
But why? Because they made us hungry. They pay us low wages, they give us low returns on our CPF and they pay so little for healthcare. And many Singaporeans choose to die instead of go to a hospital.
But the PAP lets themselves get richer and richer. Today, they earn the highest salaries in the world and GIC and Temasek Holdings are also one of the richest sovereign wealth funds in the world.
We have so many millionaires and billionaires in Singapore but we also have so many Singaporean who cannot earn enough to survive!
Are we really a First World Country? Are have we gone back to being a Third World Country?
In the 1950s, poverty rate in Singapore was 20%. Today, it might be even 30%. Singapore has grown richer. But our people have grown poorer. How did this even happen?
After nearly 50 years, is this what the PAP wants Singaporeans to be proud of? That we have to struggle everyday and be so scared that we do not have enough to use?
But the ministers can go on a $8 heart bypass surgery on their million dollar salaries?
PAP Makes Singaporeans Pay for Expensive Flats, Then Sell the Leases Back to Them
In the 1980s, PAP started increasing the prices of flats. They said if you want a good location, a high floor, a good view, you have to pay more for it. Then they said they will start including land costs in the flat prices.
But in 1966, PAP created the Land Acquisition Act so that they can buy our land very cheaply. And then build the flats very cheaply. The land costs next to nothing for them.
Then why do they want us to pay more for the flats? Why do they want us to pay for the land?
Today, land costs take up 60% of flat prices. Singaporeans are paying between $100,000 to $300,000 to the PAP for free money for them to use.
Meanwhile, what happens to our CPF? We cannot save enough, because we spend our life savings to give to the PAP free money.
Then they created the Lease Buyback Scheme.
After making Singaporeans pay so much to so-called “own” our homes, they then tell us maybe our “homes” are not so important afterall.
What is the PAP thinking?
Do they even understand what “homes” mean? Would Lee Hsien Loong sell his own house, so that he can get money just so he could retire?
From 2008, land costs rose by 18.2%. Resale flat prices increased by 9.1%. But our incomes only increased by 5.3%.
If land is so cheap for the government, why is the PAP making Singaporeans pay so much to them for something which is so cheap for them?
Why do they want to earn so much from us, when we are not even able to save enough in our CPF?
Today, we know that after 99 years, the flats we buy will have no value.
In fact, after 60 years, the value will start going down.
Then why does the PAP want to make Singaporeans pay so much for flats which will become worthless?
In another 5 to 10 years, the flats in the old towns will start losing their value. Then what will happen to our CPF? Will we also start losing our CPF?
PAP Gives Singaporeans Lesser CPF Returns but Makes Flats More Expensive
From 1974 to 1986, Singaporeans were earning 6.5% on our CPF. In 1986, PAP said they will peg the CPF interest rates to market rates, so that they can give us better returns.
But from 1986, the CPF interest rates never got better. It kept doing down and down. It kept getting worse. Today, Singaporeans earn only 2.5% on our CPF Ordinary Account.
This is as little as the 2.5% that the British gave when they set up the CPF in 1955.
PAP said if the CPF interest rates drop, HDB flat prices will drop too.
But the interest rates kept dropping, but the flat prices kept going higher.
Why did the PAP make us earn lesser and lesser inside our CPF, but make us pay more and more into their HDB?
And today, how come Singaporeans cannot retire?
Because the PAP took our money, gave us little back and sit on it like they own our money. Then they get richer and richer and Singaporeans become poorer and poorer!
The PAP takes our CPF and give too little back.
Then make us pay too much for the HDB flats!
But who gets to earn? The PAP.
They are very smart. Since 1968, when the PAP could get their hands on our CPF, money got into their heads. It was very easy money, cheap money.
And they could use our CPF to drive prices up for the HDB flats. Then earn from the flats too.
Since 1968, the PAP has been earning from our CPF and HDB.
CPF and Singaporeans are Very Cheap for the PAP
Today, Singaporeans only have two major assets. We think have two major assets – CPF and HDB.
But these two are cash-cows for PAP.
You think the CPF is your retirement fund. You think HDB is your home.
The PAP doesn’t think that way. Your CPF is their money. Your HDB is their money too.
We have no asset. We have no homes. At the end of the 99-year lease, your HDB has no value. The land goes back to PAP. All the money that you had paid will go down the drain.
Meanwhile, the PAP still remains very rich.
This is why I say the CPF is more than that. The CPF is not your money. PAP never looked at it that way.
Your CPF is their money. Very easy, very cheap.
Where else can you get anything so easy and cheap? Does the PAP think Singapore is like Geylang? Does the PAP treat Singaporeans like Geylang?
Why do you think they keep telling you that 2.5% is safe and secure? If they give you a higher interest rate, how can GIC and Temasek Holdings earn for themselves?
If the PAP thinks 2.5% is so good, why don’t we let GIC and Temasek Holdings earn 2.5%? We can let our CPF earn 6% to 16% – what GIC and Temasek is earning now. Let us take on the risks for ourselves. We don’t need the PAP to pretend to take care of us. We can take care of ourselves!
The PAP wants Singaporeans to be self-reliant. Then we show them how self-reliant we can be.
The PAP wants Singaporeans to be self-reliant. Then let’s see how self-reliant the PAP can be! Without our CPF, will GIC and Temasek Holdings be so rich? Without Singaporeans, will the PAP still be so rich?
The PAP wants everything cheap. Cheaper, Better, Faster.
The PAP is so cheapskate. They make Singaporeans cheap. But will the PAP make themselves so cheap. Why do they pretend to be so high-class?
We are paying PAP for a service but we get so little in return. The PAP is supposed to serve us, but instead they make us pay them to serve them.
We are asking for a government to do its job. It’s very simple. Do their job and take care of Singaporeans. Then the PAP says, pay us millions and we will do the job. And so, we paid them millions. But is the job done?
They want Singaporeans to be Cheaper, Better, Faster.
But the PAP becomes More Expensive, Even Worse and Slower! Are we getting value for money? If the value of PAP is going down, we should pay them cheaper! If they don’t know how to be cheaper, then we will get someone else cheaper!
Singaporeans, we are cheaper than Geylang. But has the PAP ever made themselves cheap for us?
If they think they are too good for Singaporeans, then we are too good for them too. We can find a better government which will at least serve us with respect and make us feel good. We do not need a government which only knows how to make themselves feel good.
PAP Controls Singaporeans with Our CPF
For the past 50 years, PAP has taken your CPF to make money for themselves, and has tied it to every part of the Singapore economy, to HDB, to GIC, to Temasek and all the government-linked companies owned by them.
PAP has used our CPF to prop up their own system.
Without your CPF, PAP is nothing. Without your money, PAP is nothing.
And that is why they are so scared. All that the PAP has created for themselves, they could do it, because of your CPF. They can get rich because of your CPF, and your HDB.
Without your CPF, the PAP will have to listen to you. But when you do not have your CPF, you have to listen to the PAP.
That is why I say the CPF is more than that. It is not just about wanting your CPF money back, then everything will be OK, you can go back to doing your own thing and pretend nothing ever happened.
As long as the PAP can control your CPF, as long as they can use your CPF to fund HDB, as long as they can take your CPF to give to GIC and Temasek Holdings, you can dream about taking your CPF back because the PAP will need it to control you.
Because the PAP will need to earn your CPF from you.
As long as the system that the PAP has created to trap all the wealth in Singapore for themselves is still in place, you can forget about your rights. The PAP can control you.
Why Does the PAP Increase the CPF Minimum Sum to $161,000 when Most Singaporeans Cannot Meet It?
On the National Day Rally last week, Lee Hsien Loong said that the CPF Minimum Sum is “not too much”. So, he increased is to $161,000 next year.
Already, 90% of Singaporeans cannot meet the CPF Minimum Sum, then why did Lee Hsien Loong increase the CPF Minimum Sum again?
If 90% of Singaporeans do not even have enough cash to meet the CPF Minimum Sum, doesn’t it mean the CPF Minimum Sum is too much?
What kind of prime minister is this to tell 90% of Singaporeans that even though you cannot meet your CPF Minimum Sum, it is “not too much”?
In any other country, the citizens would have thrown the government out by now!
Why do you think PAP threatens you that if you want to renounce your citizenship, they will make it difficult for you to become Singaporean again? They threaten you so that you won’t dare to take your CPF out!
In any other country, the citizens would have chased their government out! Which country would treat its citizens with so little respect?
If the PAP knows that most Singaporeans do not even have enough inside our CPF to meet the CPF Minimum Sum, what has the PAP done to make sure our CPF can meet the CPF Minimum Sum? Has the PAP grown our wages? Has the PAP increase the CPF interest rates?
Why do they still think $1,000 is enough for Singaporeans to survive on? Why do they still give us only 2.5% on our CPF when they can earn 16% in their Temasek Holdings?
Does the PAP even care about Singaporeans or have they always cared about their own money?
Why Should We Let the Government Threaten Us with Our Homes and Jobs?
If the PAP wants to make money, then get out of government. Go set up their own business. Don’t turn Singapore into your company and make Singaporeans work for you.
We are Singaporeans. We have our rights. Remember that! We are the rightful owners of this country. If the PAP wants to steal our country to make money for themselves, then we will fight them back and kick them out!
But why do Singaporeans still keep quiet?
Are we scared? Or we don’t care?
Are we too scared to lose our jobs? Our homes?
But why should the government holds our jobs ransom? Why should we allow the government to own 60% of the economy so that they can use our jobs to threaten us?
Are they the government or are they a company?
Should the government be the main business player in the whole country?
No, they do not decide what Singapore should be and can be. We are Singaporeans. It is us who will decide.
It is us, Singaporeans, who will decide what Singapore should be!
PAP wants to use our “homes” to control us. Today, they make us too scared to lose the “homes” so we will not speak up, for fear of losing our “homes”.
But why should we let the government threaten us? Why should Singaporeans allow the government to hold us ransom?
It is the PAP who should be scared!
Without our CPF, the PAP would be nothing. Without Singaporeans, PAP would have no country to run.
PAP is Addicted to Our CPF to Use It to Control Singaporeans
A country is not made up of the government. A country is made of its people. And the quality of its people.
So, what will we do! And for those of you sitting at homes reading this or watching this video, what will you do?
This is not just about the CPF. The CPF is more than that.
It is about power and control.
We have let PAP be in government for far too long. Is 50 years too long for the PAP to be in government?
When you let a CEO run a company for 50 years and pay the CEO too much money, will the company still be around today?
Or will the company start failing? It is not a coincidence that our trains are starting to fail. This is just the start.
But are Singaporeans ready to admit that our country is starting to break down? Or would we choose to pretend, because we fear? Because we fear change? And getting our hands dirty?
PAP has been using our CPF as their own money for nearly 50 years now. This is cheap money for them. They could take it to build HDB, make you use your CPF to pay for HDB flats and earn profits.
This is your cheap money they are using. They make you cheap.
You give anyone this kind of money, it will also get into their heads.
Today, PAP is addicted to our CPF. Like gamblers and addicts, they keep wanting to have more.
PAP Takes Our CPF to Give GIC to Use But Pretends It Doesn’t
Singaporeans have been telling PAP to give us higher wages and higher CPF interest rates so that we can earn more on our CPF.
But have our wages increased? Have the CPF interest rates increased above 2.5%?
If they increase your wages and the CPF interest rates, they will have lesser to earn. Why would they?
Today, the poorest 30% Singaporeans cannot earn enough to use, and have to spend 105% to 151% of their incomes.
For the middle-income, two-thirds have only enough to buy what they need but not anything else.
PAP makes us use our CPF to pay for Medisave and MediShield but they earn profit from Medisave and MediShield.
PAP takes our CPF to give to GIC to use, but they did not want to let us know.
In 2001, Lee Kuan Yew denied that GIC uses our CPF.
In 2006, Lee Kuan Yew again denied that GIC uses our CPF.
When Low Thia Kiang asked Ng Eng Hen if GIC uses our CPF, Ng Eng Hen said no.
It is only in May this year that the PAP finally admits for the first time that they take our CPF to use in the GIC. Then why deny this for more than the past 10 years?
But the PAP has been taking our CPF to use since 1968!
Today, PAP says the government does not interfere in the GIC and the GIC also says the government does not interfere in their operations.
But when you look at the GIC Board of Directors, Lee Hsien Loong, Tharman, Teo Chee Hean, Lim Hng Kiang, Heng Swee Kiat, and ex-Transport Minister Raymond Lim are on the board. Lee Kuan Yew is the Senior Advisor.
If PAP does not interfere in GIC, then pigs can fly.
The PAP Will Never Change When They Control Everything
But back to the question, what will Singaporeans do?
We get angry at the PAP. We scold the PAP. And then we hope the PAP can change.
But how can a leopard change its spots?
The problem is the PAP. We know that. But yet, we hope that one day, PAP will suddenly have a change of heart, that suddenly they will want to take care of Singaporeans?
You are asking a PAP which owns 60% of the economy, which have earned from your CPF and HDB and are very comfortable with that, where Singapore is ranked by The Economist as 5th on the crony capitalism index, where cronies have been able to get rich precisely because of their connections with the PAP and will continue to work for the PAP to protect the system that helps them get rich.
And you hope that the PAP will have a change of heart?
If you control everything in Singapore, your interest is not in taking care of the people, and sharing what you have earned with them. Your interest is to keep earning all this money for yourselves to protect your power and money.
No matter how much Singaporeans beg the PAP, they will never change. You can see that for yourselves at the National Day Rally last week.
Did anything about the CPF change? Can we get higher interest rates on our CPF now?
And as if it is not enough to tear down the old National Library building, the government wants to tear down the Chinese and Japanese Gardens. And wants us to sell our “homes” back to them under the Lease Buyback Scheme.
Where is their heart?
Do they still have a heart for Singapore?
Will Singaporeans Start Taking Responsibility for Ourselves to Put Things Right?
But as humans, humans are selfish, humans are greedy. When you let anyone have too much power and too much money, this will get into their heads as well.
So, we should not fault the PAP too much. They are only being human. They are only being like us.
If we are just as selfish, can we blame them for being selfish? If we are just as ignorant, can we blame them for being ignorant?
If we have not given the PAP so much power, will they have access to so much power and let the power get into their heads?
If so, are Singaporeans not to be blamed as well for letting go of our own power, to let the PAP be able to control us?
At the end of the day, if Singaporeans are not partners in crime with the PAP, if we have not send the PAP into government elections after elections, we would not have been able to let them become addicted.
If the PAP is now addicted to our CPF, Singaporeans, it is us who caused it. We are the ones who gave them a one-way ticket to let them make use of our CPF to earn money for themselves for the past 50 years.
We are the ones we should blame. If we want to scold someone, it is us whom we should scold. If we want to complain, it is ourselves we should complain about.
Why did we allow ourselves to hope that the PAP can change for the better, even when we can see for our eyes that they won’t?
We do we allow ourselves to be so scared that we won’t dare to do anything different but keep voting the PAP in?
If our lives get worse, we have only ourselves to blame. Not the PAP. The PAP can only do what they can because we keep letting them.
We behave like the angry victim who curse and scold at the person who poured hot water on us, only to give them more buckets of hot water to throw on us.
But will we take responsibility for ourselves? Will we decide to start owning ourselves, and our rights? They make us cheap. Doesn’t matter. We know our worth. We know how good we are. Will we take responsibility for ourselves, fight for ourselves and give ourselves another chance to put things right?
Will we start taking responsibility for ourselves?
The PAP’s Agenda is To Make Money, But This Will Cost Singapore’s Future
Now, we know the system is broken. It is not just the CPF. Wages are too low – Singaporeans earn the lowest wages among the highest-income countries even though we are now the most expensive place to live in, in the world. Our purchasing power has been decreasing and we have lesser and lesser to use. By increasing the CPF contribution rates, the PAP makes our purchasing power go down further and because PAP makes it more expensive to hire Singaporeans, so employers do not want to increase wages. PAP increases rents which increases prices. They spend so little on maintaining the MRT that it keeps breaking down.
But behind it all, the PAP’s agenda is very clear. It is to make money. Pay low wages to earn high profits. Pay low health spending to earn high profits. Make rents high to pay for profits. Pay less for train maintenance to earn high profits.
Spend less, earn more and have lower quality. Is this how you want Singapore to go down the drain?
It is clear the PAP’s way of working will no longer work for Singapore. Local businesses are not able to grow. We cannot grow our own brands to compete in the world. Singaporeans have to keep being workers but cannot become entrepreneurs to help give Singapore a new lease of life.
When we say the PAP has run out of ideas, it is not because they have no new ideas. They do, but when you know their agenda is to make money, then you will see that they do have new ideas – the ERP, COE. But these new ideas are just not what is needed to improve the lives of Singaporeans.
Is The Role of The Government to Take Care of Singaporeans?
But what is the role of a government? Have we ever thought about that? Is the role of a government to protect the people?
Is the role of the government to ensure that Singaporeans can afford healthcare, so that we do not have to choose to die instead of going to the hospital? And so that we have to wait for hours in the emergency because we do not have enough money to be upgraded to a higher class ward?
Is the role of the government to encourage Singaporeans to be educated and to open enough spaces in the universities for Singaporeans to do so, instead of telling Singaporeans not to pursue a degree? Is the role of the government to provide affordable education, instead of to keep increasing childcare and university tuition fees?
Is the role of the government to spend more money to maintain the MRT tracks, so that our MRT trains can travel faster and smoother, and not spend more money decorating new buses and inviting performers to perform while we wait during train delays?
Let Us Help the PAP to Go to Create a New Singapore
Now, we have to thank the PAP of the earlier generations for taking care of Singapore and bringing Singapore to where it is today. They had the heart for Singapore. We might not agree with everything that they do, but they were at least committed towards building Singapore to where it is today.
Maybe it was become times were hard then, so the PAP worked hard to help Singapore succeed. But the PAP today, many grew up with silver spoons in their mouths, too used to the comfort that they do not know hardship. They do not know how it is like to work on $1,000 every month, or even to be unemployed and living on very little savings. The PAP today cannot understand that.
The PAP today no longer knows what it means to take care of its citizens or what it means to be government. But we should not blame them. They have lost touch.
If so, let us help them. Let us help them leave government respectably, and let us put in place a government which will have the heart and the minds to listen to Singaporeans, to take care of us and to protect us – a government which will ensure that Singaporeans will not be left out from the healthcare system, where every child truly deserves an equal opportunity to education. And where we will be able to earn enough to live respectably in Singapore.
Let us do this for ourselves.
Let us create a new beginning.
Let us put the past behind, celebrate what the old PAP had done, thank them and be grateful to them.
But let us help the new PAP leave gracefully, so that they can start a new beginning somewhere else, and so that Singaporeans can start a new beginning as well.
What we want is a country where our people will be taken care of, where our people can grow old and be treated well after years of working so hard for the country.
What we want is a country where our people are kind to one another, where I will stop and help you because it is the decent to do.
Where work hours are not so long where we have enough time for ourselves, enough time for one another, our families, our children and our friends.
What we want is a place to live in, where we will be respected, happy, and fulfilled, not because we have so much money or are able to buy the next branded thing, but because our lives are good enough, that we can live our lives free, happy and with dignity.
Now, that is all we want. And that is Singaporeans ask for.
We Are Our Heroes, Let Us Be the Change We Want To See
But my friends, if we want to see this happen, we cannot sit and wait for someone else to stand up and do it for us.
We cannot hope that a hero will rise and save us. Your hero is the enemy of the PAP. And the PAP will go out at all costs to terminate your hero.
There is no hero. There are only heroes. And each of these heroes lie within us, within our strength.
All of us are capable of change.
Perhaps we do not know our power and our abilities because we are not able to see beyond ourselves yet. But it is time for us to see beyond our own wants. It is not just about CPF. It is not just about wanting our CPF back.
It is about knowing how the PAP takes our CPF to earn money for themselves, how they can use it to control the economy and our “homes” and how they can use our CPF to control our lives. It is about knowing how the PAP has used their system to make money for themselves, while letting the rest of Singaporeans earn low wages and low retirement funds, so that we will have to keep working to produce money for them.
Once you understand this, you understand that you cannot wait and hope that the PAP will change. Help them go out, and help yourselves, because that is the very least you can do for yourselves and your families.
The government is not the be all and the end all.
The government is only human. The government is just like us. And it is us.
Let us put in a government which has the heart and which will listen. Let us put in a government which will do things to improve the lives of the people. Let us give ourselves a chance.
We do not want to wait until it is too late, when things really start falling apart before we do something about it. Things can look very good today, but we know of many other places which have unravelled overnight. And if we truly care for our homes and our lives, then we will do what we need to, to protect our country and our homes.
Stop waiting. You are the hero you have been waiting for. You are the change you have always wanted. Be the change you want to see.
There are many good people with good ideas and solutions of what needs to be done in Singapore. Professor Lim Chong Yah warned the PAP to not use our CPF excessively. PAP did not listen. Many others have also warned the PAP in the 1990s and 2000s.
Associate Professor Hui Went Tat also criticised that the CPF changes announced by Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally did not go far enough.
Many Singaporeans and patriots spoke up because we want to protect Singapore. But the PAP never changed its spots.
Let the Heroes among Ourselves Rise and Let Us Start Believing In a New Hope
It is time, my friends. It is time we look beyond our lives and ourselves and do this for our country. Singapore might never have fought a war since 1965. But we face in front of ourselves a battle for the future of our country.
We can no longer sit and wait, while we see our country unravel in front of our very own eyes and just hope that things will change.
Stop hoping. Start believing. Start taking action.
And let’s start doing something.
Let’s put our fears aside. Let’s put our heads together. Let’s work in unity. Let’s be united.
For if we want our country to succeed and for ourselves to have a future, then it is really up to us to believe that our country is important enough for us to fight for it.
Then it is up to us to believe that we are strong enough to fight for our country and our fellow men.
Heroes are not made by one or two. But the heroes of a nation are the brave men and women who decide to stop what is not right, and decide that for the greater good, we will emerge and we will regain our confidence, our belief and work to make it happen, to give ourselves that chance.
We have one chance. Now, are we going to take it?
Are we going to help ourselves?
Can we be the heroes that our country needs?
When the time comes, I hope that we would have thought through things enough, and no matter how many carrots we are given, we will no longer be that rabbit stuck in the cage, but we will be the Singaporean who will break out of the cage, to find our own carrots, to take responsibility for ourselves, to own our lives, to live our own lives, and to fight, to do what is right for ourselves, our country, our people, and our future.
The PAP of the past has done good, but they are no longer what Singapore needs. The time has come for a new dawn and a new beginning.
The PAP needs us to survive. They need our CPF. But we cannot let their addiction go on.
We need to let the PAP go, so that Singaporeans will have a chance. So that and Singapore will have a chance.
Let us help the PAP go, and let us help ourselves.
If Singapore is to remain our home, we have to give it a new lease of life.
Let us join hands and do this.
Let us give our country a new hope.
Let us give ourselves this one chance.
For ourselves, let’s do this.
Roy Ngerng
*The writer blogs at http://thehearttruths.com/