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An Open Letter to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong

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Dear Lee Hsien Loong,

Your recent NDR speech has re-established the elitist entrapment everyone rumored you to be. It is very unfortunate a leader like you have chosen to take in flatteries from people with vested interests. You may have enjoyed basking in their ignorance with your controlled propaganda machinery penning fictitious "expert" opinions to support your errors. It is distasteful of course but it is my duty as a citizen to inject realism into you so long you are my Prime Minister.

 

Jurong Lake District

This proposal you made is evidently lacking in consideration of the current situation. You said you want Jurong East to be transformed into a commercial business gateway. The direction is correct but is it a priority? The current situation faced in Jurong East is overcrowding. The transport system in the area is paralyzed every peak hour - the platforms are so packed people have to queue to get into the station, and the trains are so crowded the people have to wait for the next ride. We should be addressing the issue of overcrowding in Jurong and not build more shopping malls to introduce more human traffic. It is apparent you have not done your site survey and are simply pencil pushing.

 

Minimum Sum

Over the past 10 years you have been Prime Minister since 2013, you have effectively doubled the MS. You claim we need to increase the MS so our people could retire, you expect us to work for as long as we can so we can have more for retirement, you tell us to sell our house back to HDB or downgrade so we can retire. Yet, like a hypocrite, you depress the CPF interest rate, you refuse to increase wages by cutting the number of foreigners, you deny Singapore workers basic employment rights instituted in real first world countries like Australia, and you shore up inflation by implementing indirect taxes like GST and COE. You claimed the MS increase is due to yearly inflation, yet you magically plucked the $161,000 figure for 2015 when we are still August in 2014. Craftily, you choose to be populist saying there will not be any MS increase in the election year of 2016. Singaporeans have more reasons you are more interested in your own political survival than the welfare of the people. Also, why should we lose our flats when we grow old? We worked for decades for our home and you want us to give them all back to the HDB when we die? Given that HDB flats is the only asset for most of us commoners, what is there to leave behind for our children then? Does our children have to repeat the poverty cycle we fought so hard to get out of?

 

Non-degree holders

You cherry-picked a few outstanding examples and claim that Singaporeans do not need paper qualifications to be successful. If this is the case, why are the salaries of non-degree holders so unsustainably low? An ITE graduate draws $1500 and a diploma holder draws $2000, while a degree holder draws a starting pay of $3000. For a party who prides itself for pragmatism, you are being completely unrealistic to claim that Singaporeans do not need paper qualifications. Singapore is ranked the most expensive city in the world in 2014, with such cheap salaries like $2000, how are they going to survive? You call every degree holder foreigner "Foreign Talents", give them S/E Pass and claim Singapore is a small island with not much local talents, and yet, like a hypocrite again, you tell Singaporeans there is no need to get a degree.

 

Pioneer Generation

You claimed you recognize the efforts of our pioneer generation elderly which is why you came out with the PG Package. This healthcare subsidy however do not provide free medical access to the more important outpatient costs and routine preventive checkups. It is a sorry joke to hear that Singaporean elderly can get free healthcare only when they are seriously hospitalized. Healthcare subsidies aside, what about income of these elderly? CPF have proven to be inadequate for most of them and we see many of them openly begging and touting for a living in public.

 

More pertinent issues

You have made zero addresses to overpopulation, are you insisting on a 6.9 million population? We have inadequate hospital beds and the Government is housing patients in corridors and sofas, what is your solution?

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We have a very large income gap and there are more poor people struggling for a living, why is there still not a Minimum Wage and what can you do for them? Businesses are facing absurd rental pressures and exploiting their employees to squeeze more profits, what have you done? Singapore's birth rate continue to drop further, have you given up finding a solution to low birth rate? Will Public Transport Companies like SMRT and SBS continue to make record profits out from fare raise? Will new citizens and Permanent Residents continue to be exempted from National Service while leeching the benefits of citizenship at the same time?

I cannot tell if you are being evasive or simply being incompetent.

You have been a terrible Prime Minister, please make this term your last and resign.

 

Alex Tan

 

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