From our correspondent
Singapore’s Manpower Minister Mr Gan Kim Yong has rejected calls to restore the CPF for older workers after the age of 50 “in order not to disadvantage these workers in the competition for jobs.”
“If we were to raise the CPF now or restore the CPF for older workers, it may adversely affect the competitiveness of the workers and the competitiveness of companies,” Mr Gan said.
Currently, Singaporeans above the age of 50 have their employers’ CPF contributions cut from 14.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent.
A disgruntled Singaporean by the name of Kumar wrote in to the ST Forum lately expressing dismay at the cut:
“The cut is steep – from 14.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent – and affects older Singaporeans like me drastically.
Not only must I still pay off my debt to the Housing Board for my mortgaged flat on diminished income, but the price hikes are also eating into the rest of my salary,” he wrote.
Mr Kumar’s plight is shared by many Singaporeans in his age group. Many are struggling to pay off their housing mortages and support their families at the same time, leaving them with little savings in their CPF for retirement.
Unfortunately, the plight of these elderly workers are oblivious to multi-millionaire ministers like Mr Gan who continues to stress that adjusting CPF rates would be “counterproductive” as it would create more “rigidity”.
His views were echoed by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew who dismissed Singapore’s worsening income gap between the rich and the poor. Mr Lee claimed that it is more important to create jobs for Singaporeans with labor policies which will encourage companies to hire.
Though Singapore’s unemployment rates remain low, many workers, especially those from the lower income group, are struggling to get by with their meager wages in the face of rising costs of living.
This leads to some “abandoning” their parents as they cannot even earn enough to support their own families to which the government has implemented a law to criminalize those who do not support their parents financially, never mind if they have the means to do so.
There is also a dearth of social welfare benefits for elderly Singaporeans whose bulk of their savings are used up in paying the mortage loans of over-priced public housing.
As such, many have no choice but to continue working beyond their retirement ages. Some of them end up scavenging for cardboards in the street or as toilet attendants in order to feed themselves.
Singapore has a public assistance scheme which gives a $330 monthly allowance to the destitute, but one has to have no living kin and medically certified to be permanently unfit to work in order to qualify for the scheme.
While elderly workers are subjected to CPF cuts after the age of 50, Singapore ministers will get a pension on top of their monthly salaries which remain unadjusted when they reach 55 years of age.
Singapore workers are at the losing end at the mercy of big businesses and the government because there are no independent trade unions to represent their interests and they are robbed of their political rights by a series of draconian laws put in place by the ruling party.
The biggest trade union in Singapore – NTUC, is a quasi-government organization headed by a minister. Unlike Hong Kong where workers can gather and protest against their maltreatment easily, a solo protest anywhere in Singapore (except Hong Lim Park) is now considered illegal under a new law passed this year.
With no opposition in parliament to check on the ruling party, Singaporeans will have little choice but to look up to ministers like Gan Kim Yong for “salvation”.
http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/10/25/gan-kim-yong-says-no-to-restoring-cpf-for-older-workers/
If he stand firm on his speech, the pension system for the MP$ and mini$ter$ should be abolished as they are already highly paid and they have no contributions after they retired.
At the same time, those mini$ter$ that are not involved in the nation building and policy making and are travelling around the globe playing golf and speech should be removed immediately as they are making no contributions and imposing heavy expenses on the national budget contributed by the people.
The mini$ter$ must be able to stand by their speech or else they should be removed from office immediately.
Cost cutting measures must be implemented immediately so as to achieve the CBF policy preached by his fellow mini$ter$.
Ya , only pay and pay and the rich in sg are deem fit to be highly paid.
Oppression. Heartless bunch of sickening ministers we do not need!
What this minister doesn't know that people are suffering nearing to to blink of hell.
$330? pay off Bills left less then $100
and because of the company bidding for the stall in hawker, even now in schools. Price is ridiculous...especially the rental. Those poor ppl paid like $1k for the renovation, and what you know it, unable to do business due to renovation. come back. and to know your rental has been doubled.
how u expect a kid like 13-16 who are not working to eat at school with your chicken rice price like those outside the school? what worst is outside of school the food is even more ridiculous?
i spend my money mostly to visit restaurant. and i decided to eat hawker to find that the price is almost the same..
this mean that the rental of the poor fellow singaporean ppl that is bring in good food into our life have to suffer more then any of us that is paying.
end up is a lose lose situation, for both the ppl selling the food, and to the consumers.
CPF is consider as peanut to them ok
they dont eat peanut 1. to them if ppl like us cant afford to gave a peanut into their fund to use to let them earn. how can they eat shark fin later ..?????
they need our peanut to earn interest so that they can eat the shark fin.
Originally posted by CannyOng:When u decide to mortage yr home or decide to buy a new flat.
Do it with yr minimal mean. If u can’t afford a 4 rm flat, get a 3 rm.
but some of them can't even afford a 3 room now adays cos of the WOW property prices..
and to trust PM lee asking employer not to increase pay. how can they due with it?
Do you know why or not ? Cos our govt also have and run big companies . Any changes to the CPF or whatsoever money matter grant will affect themself directly also . Will you kill your goose that lays golden eggs or malnourish them so that the egg they lay will reduce in size and amount ?
Nowadays they even have an advertisement saying that " be contented that you have peanuts to eat , since you always like to eat peanuts also mah " . Its already hinting that we have rice to eat can liao you should be contented liao cos we like to eat rice mah then why so unhappy .
I don't want to say much but such things are not going to end lor . Just wait and see .
Actually wat Mr.Gan say do make sense...imagine restoring the CPF for older workers...who would want to hire them??? Aren't it better that they hold onto a job better then not having a job at all.....><"
Originally posted by maxsee:Actually wat Mr.Gan say do make sense...imagine restoring the CPF for older workers...who would want to hire them??? Aren't it better that they hold onto a job better then not having a job at all.....><"
Yes to what you said. Hopefully in your old age you will enjoy extremely low pay with not much CPF. Please thank the present govt for that.
hahaha
my dad complain to mi.... 300dollar per mth for 20yr or till his CPF is zero...enough for what???? oh ya.... actually it's 297 only.. 3dollar admin fees EVERY mth too.... dunno which elite MP come out with that
Originally posted by Hwaimeng:CPF is consider as peanut to them ok
they dont eat peanut 1. to them if ppl like us cant afford to gave a peanut into their fund to use to let them earn. how can they eat shark fin later ..?????
they need our peanut to earn interest so that they can eat the shark fin.
so that they can afford to fly the chef to Japan to buy ingredients to cook for them.
Did you all watch the channel U programme on the chef specially flew to Japan to get ingredients to cook for the lee family (showed last year)?
Ran chiao lar...whole day competitive edge competitive edge..
Who gives a flying fuck about "competitive edge" if the ministers are getting paid obscene amount considering the amount of work they do..
Sit there..shake hand.."I will feedback this to XXX"..get salary..
Whole day use "Singapore, being a globalized country must stay highly competitive" as excuse, that is absolutely no reason to marginalize your own people while welcoming any ah mao ah gao from overseas.
If Singapore is to stay afloat amidst the competition, she can only count on her people.
And yea, most of them are going overseas on YOUR money and never coming back.
So, who to blame?
Originally posted by Fantagf:
so that they can afford to fly the chef to Japan to buy ingredients to cook for them.Did you all watch the channel U programme on the chef specially flew to Japan to get ingredients to cook for the lee family (showed last year)?
Yup, I saw it.
An heartbreaking contrast when pictures of the poor and destitute are put beside in comparison to them enjoying exquisite cuisine, as I have saw as well on youtube.
Originally posted by donkhead333:Yup, I saw it.
An heartbreaking contrast when pictures of the poor and destitute are put beside in comparison to them enjoying exquisite cuisine, as I have saw as well on youtube.
Apparently, if I did not remember wrongly I read that lky said there are no destitutes in Singapore.
Originally posted by donkhead333:Ran chiao lar...whole day competitive edge competitive edge..
Who gives a flying fuck about "competitive edge" if the ministers are getting paid obscene amount considering the amount of work they do..
Sit there..shake hand.."I will feedback this to XXX"..get salary..
Whole day use "Singapore, being a globalized country must stay highly competitive" as excuse, that is absolutely no reason to marginalize your own people while welcoming any ah mao ah gao from overseas.
If Singapore is to stay afloat amidst the competition, she can only count on her people.
And yea, most of them are going overseas on YOUR money and never coming back.
So, who to blame?
Looking at it, it is as if that they are trying to tell us "if you don't like it just too bad, you can get lost and be quitters". Their arrogance knows no end. If my memory serves me well, they have never apologise to us before on mistakes they made
In a nut shell, it is Animal Farm all over again
Originally posted by Jianye:
In a nut shell, it is Animal Farm all over again
hahahah, this has been told too many times.
perhaps, I should be patient to read this book.
Originally posted by Fantagf:
hahahah, this has been told too many times.perhaps, I should be patient to read this book.
You ought to read...
it is very easy to understand....i pity the poor horse...
he got the ability to take the animals away and lead a better life
too bad his idiotic loyalty killed him
Originally posted by Jianye:
You ought to read...it is very easy to understand....i pity the poor horse...
he got the ability to take the animals away and lead a better life
too bad his idiotic loyalty killed him
How thick is the book? Is it by George Orwell?
It is by george orwell..
it is as thick as those ladybird books
Originally posted by Jianye:
It is by george orwell..
it is as thick as those ladybird books
Ladybird books are not thick.
Thanks
Originally posted by Fantagf:Apparently, if I did not remember wrongly I read that lky said there are no destitutes in Singapore.
I just feel somehow, in Singapore, the layman term of destitution refers to those that "eat not full, hungry not die" kind, but it seems to not fit into LKY's dictionary..maybe he thinks that only those living in conditions as harsh as those of the African nations would qualify.
I'm trying to find the video of the comparison, believe that it was made by SDP..hmm
Originally posted by donkhead333:I just feel somehow, in Singapore, the layman term of destitution refers to those that "eat not full, hungry not die" kind, but it seems to not fit into LKY's dictionary..maybe he thinks that only those living in conditions as harsh as those of the African nations would qualify.
I'm trying to find the video of the comparison, believe that it was made by SDP..hmm
I think lky is referring to poor people sleeping along the streets, in the public, beggars, people who collect cardboards for a living and so on.
I saw some pics of destitutes from other website
Originally posted by donkhead333:I just feel somehow, in Singapore, the layman term of destitution refers to those that "eat not full, hungry not die" kind, but it seems to not fit into LKY's dictionary..maybe he thinks that only those living in conditions as harsh as those of the African nations would qualify.
I'm trying to find the video of the comparison, believe that it was made by SDP..hmm
I'm not sure which SDP video you are referring to but you can try this link :
http://sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/379989
or find it under speakers corner topic "MM Lee: If you say that this Government is corrupt or has mi"
View the video with an open mind like I did (yesterday).
Very interesting and revealing.
May change your mind about our MIW Government.