Well it's pretty obvious that the atmosphere here in Speakers' Corner is pretty Anti-PAP. i mean anyone with a mental capacity beyond a 4 year old could tell that the majority of the people here think our (current) government sucks.
To that end, i propose a thought experiment. Since we know (or at least think) that the government is ineffective when it comes to the economy, media, etc, let's see what we would have done any different.
Say anything you think would help our current predicament. Come up with an original concept or copy one from another country. It doesn't matter, what matters is would it work in Singapore, particularly if we implemented it in this generation, with our people sufficiently "brainwashed" as some may say.
But please don't say generic things like, make the press more free, kill LKY, etc. Because that would be pointless. Instead, go a little deeper and talk about real steps that people can take, like opening up editorial powers to the younger generation, which allows more idealistic beliefs, albeit naive, and then rainbow unicorns will pop out, ok, i just made that up, i couldn't think of an idea on the fly.
And to make it more interesting, try and talk about why the method as suggested by the person above could or could not work. I mean, after all, this is all theoretical, who knows what would happen in real life.
slash 1/2 of LHL current pay.
- reason? prove that he is serving the ppl, nt the money.
and even by slashing 1/2 its still alot.
reduce HDB prices.
- HDB are for commoners to stay in. not to struggle through just to pay for a HDB. 300k for a 4 Room is really Crazy.
Remove Reservice
- Find no need for this. maybe reduce the years, or just remove it. its just too long!
Benefits for the citizen in Singapore that PR can't enjoy.
PR Must Serve.
Minimum Wages.
- People in Singapore are already struggling with the prices of their own flats.and how do they even want to compete with those ppl that are landing here from mainland China?
im not against ppl from Mainland China to work here, afterall they are just in search of a better life.
but at least keep a minimum cap to protect fellow Singaporeans.
Put ALL our ministers pay ALL into CPF till the end of elected terms. Cannot collect till then. Accumulated interests donated to charities like Community Chest, reported in the media.
This will prove that the CPF scheme can work for Singaporeans.
Why donate to charities you ask? Good what! Like that they can getter positive reviews from the people just before the next elections begin.
I disagree with youyayu that National Service must be reduced.
We live in a dangerous world. Not well trained enough, people will just eat us up!
I agree with minimal cap of new immigrants. The government obviously not putting effort to create more financial assistance for baby birth and growth. Spent billions on National Defence but not billions on baby birth?
Baby birth is social defence! It is for our future!
Why import so many immigrants when they think Singapore is just a piece of meat.
I say make more local "meat"! Make more SG babies!
if pap took over usa with this policy....america would be in chaos...civil wars.....world famine....the entire world would be in turmoil for 100 years.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
but if everyone clamed up n pretended nothing happened..........then theres no hope for the human species and the world would be wasted by pap kinda political party.there would be a world war when countries fights against another country due to policy of one country onto another.nuclear wars,great battles and eventual disintegration of the planet itself....and all the bikini clad girls would die.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
but spore has been limited just to an island so
which is worse?
While i do agree with reducing Reservice, I forsee that the only way this can be feasible (in a wartime scenario) is if we have enough full time people serving. that being said, i think that most people who go back for reservice are probably not as efficient or motivated (my assumption) as their full time counterparts, that's why reservice should effectively be reduced, or at least directed to an area where they would work well in.
However, given that we do in fact save money on scrapping reservice, the money would then still be refunneled back into the system as pay and logistics for fulltime ( as well as attracting more fulltime recruits), which (to me) is a more efficient system, since they are (expected to be) better trained and equipped to deal with stuff.
The military is something that we can't really skimp on like Eiizumi said, given our predicament, and it will always remain necessary as part of our culture.
Reducing HDB prices is also a no-brainer for any low and middle class family. But exactly how to go about it is a challenge. Right now, the population density is so saturated that we are just a few generations from Japanese and American subway trains.
This land mass that we have is only capable of serving so many people, and the fact that immigrants are coming in since we have little babies is driving demand up ridiculously. To solve the population "crisis", the local population has to either explode or we have to continue getting foreigners, either way, demand for HDB is still going up, so theres no real way to avoid that.
We could try and increase supply, use reclaimed land, but that land would still jack up prices until a point where it's no longer practical to do so. So my suggestion would be to instead offer bigger houses to families with 3 generations or those with senior citizens and hold off giant 5-rooms from rich families. That way, we can solve the budget problem for younger families who are starting off by giving them an incentive to live with their parents, saving space. Since the middle and lower class families make up the bulk of the population, the majority of the HDB flats should be reserved for them instead.
Another problem that you guys seem to be bringing up is that higher-ups are not serving the country or people. I highly doubt keeping "their" money away from them would really solve any problem that we have, they would probably just find a way to bring their money back. Instead, i think it would be better, albeit less realistic, to build up the young with the ability to speak up and think for themselves. Since education is run by the ministry, de-centralise it and allow greater flexibility when it comes to discussing sensitive topics like politics and religion and some other stuff, particularly in the higher secondary and tertiary levels. that way, when kids grow up, they will become less inclined to blindly follow. This would ultimately be a very long-term plan, which would not solve the "immediate" problems of government officials.
For the more immediate problem, i suggest a revamp of the system, where during each election, there would be a month-long or similar time period, where officials would not have any access to their political powers. Control would be given to a "monarch" which would be based on a 90% approval from the public. During which time, there would be a media blackout on any political events, leaving their only avenue of spreading information the internet. And since, it's written from a "pretty much" first person perspective (at least less so than the papers), the people would get to argue somewhat objectively on the ideas anf principles and generally what kind of person they are voting for. I think, that way, any opposition would have less handicap. I don't expect them to win, i just expect them to make progress.
my last idea was purely theoretical and i have no idea how this would pan out in real life. i'm sure people would find ways to cut corners and like disemnate information through a single source and stuff. but i doubt it would make our problems worse.
anyway, give your comments.
As politicians they owe the people who feed them to place serving the people as their top priority and not self serving.
It is pretty obvious that money to them is more important than the interest of the people.
Think we can start to print " banana notes " and let the CPF owe HDB $$$ and pay for that roof with your lives.
If it works , we become the next Dubai.
Except that that place is full of immigants with $$$, our place is full of people with no $$$ to go elsewhere.
yes it seems antipap....just like a shop at sim lim square in the past,,,overcharging foreigners and some locals as well.sooner or later no one will goto the shop n newspapers will let the whole world know.....n shop closes down naturally which it did!!
.pretty simple unless the shop has criminal activities as in extortion,counterfeiting,fake guarantees and full scale fraud.,,,then they dun need customers but a place fer their salesmen to oggle at those poor gals n foreigners only.