Even with some minor policy changes in recent days, one only need to look deep within these changes to realize that the PAP is woefully out of touch with the aspirations of its citizens and the reality on the ground. Not only has it proposed policy changes which have little real effect, some of these actually make a mockery to our intelligence.
One of the changes implemented yesterday was to give NSmen the option to take advanced modular credits before they matriculate. While this may seem like a platform to enable males to catch up with their female counterparts, this has little real impact. Consider that an existing system (commonly known as "special term") already exists. What this does is to re-introduced the wheel and call itself the wheel.
To graduate with a basic degree from NUS, one needs to do 30 academic modules over 6 academic terms. This would include several breadths as well as modules relating to Singapore (known as "Singapore Studies"). By allowing the option to do merely 2 modules, the NSman would have 28 more modules which does not allow him to graduate earlier except have a lighter, 4-module workload over 2 semesters. This is not practical given that taking 2 modules would cost $1500 and not accelerate his graduation.
In case those daft ministers do not know the ground reality, what NSmen truly want is for there to be cheaper school fees given their sacrifices and not for these monies to go to foreign students. What they want is the for their contributions to be taken into account when allocating university places and not for all these superficial bullshit.
Another issue which is quite laughable is the fact that they have decided to re-classify any car which produces over 130BHP to require a Cat B COE regardless of its engine capacity. On the surface, this may seem like transferring more cars to require a Cat B COE, making a Cat A COE more affordable to the masses. This is a joke because it negates calls to make COEs more expensive for households with more than 1 car and foreigners (I'm sure all ministers have more than one car in their driveways).
How exactly is the 130BHP figure derived? These unsubstantiated measures only seek to add more confusion without adding any value and may even backfire. By pushing more cars to use a Cat B COE, this not only increases the price of luxury cars and destroy the dreams of Singaporeans, but also results in increased demand for for mass-market models given the temporary drop in prices. The end result? A society where cars are still expensive but higher-end cars are more expensive making society more elitist and fragmented.
Given that there are so many models of cars available, wouldn't it be better to introduce more classes of COEs if you would like to distinguish them instead? We could have ultra-luxury as well as budget cars so that COE prices are based on market equilibrium instead of some warped systems based on arbitrary allocation. Also, I have to reiterate that foreigners should have to pay a premium for COEs.
Clearly, these millionaire ministers have little understanding of what is required to run a country. Come 2015/6, there is little option but to vote these incompetent morons out.
Joseph Kheng-Liang Tan
*Article first appeared on http://www.facebook.com/tan.kheng.liang/posts/162189513974441?comment_id=228962&offset=0&total_comments=1¬if_t=feed_comment