What is a General Election about?
01 Feb 2010 sgpolitics.net
Mr Mah Bow Tan, the Minster for National Development, certainly confuses me. All along I thought a general election is the time when the country and its people take stock of the past and signal what they want of the future. It is also the time when the voters of a constituency assess the candidates offered to them and give their verdict. If there is an incumbent, it is also a report card on their past performance.
It is, therefore, very strange that Mr Mah should come out and declare that a general election is “not about me, an individual minister or an individual MP. It’s really about the residents themselves …”
Where in the world has an election been about the residents and not the candidates?
I believe this slip from the Minster of National Development is the result of undue pressure since it has been reported that his constituency is the target of a few opposition parties, including the National Solidarity Party, the Worker’s Party, the Singapore Democratic Party and the Reform Party. With such huge interest in Tampines, Mr Mah cannot be faulted if he should suddenly feel vulnerable.
However, whatever he says about elections being about residents themselves, the National Development Minister will be judged for his work as a Member of Parliament and a Minister. The Minister Mentor understands this. That is why he said, “If Mr Mah is unable to defend himself, he deserves to lose.”
So a General Election is not about the residents. It is about the candidates. Mr. Mah should know this. When he contested his first General Election in Potong Pasir, his excellent Senior Cambridge examinations results were compared to that of Mr Chiam See Tong’s relatively mediocre results. This was to try and show he was the more qualified candidate.
Similarly, in a recent Singapore Perspective Forum, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also touched on the importance of judging a candidate in a General Election. Referring to the trend of scholars joining the opposition parties, he said that “we hope Singaporeans will judge individuals like that as rigorously as they would judge individuals who join the PAP side.”
“Let’s look at the person, not what degrees he has, but what he is able to do for Singapore.”
All said, a General Election is about the candidate and not about the residents themselves.
Thus, in the coming General Election, the voters of Tampines will judge Mr. Mah for what he has done for them as a Member of Parliament. It is also natural that the opposing candidates will also want the voters to give their verdict on what he has done as the Minister for National Development.
When the Housing and Development Board was formed in 1960, its task was to tackle the acute housing shortage problem in Singapore as well as to get rid of its slums. It was meant to provide affordable housing to the citizens. It has done so admirably until recently when prices of HDB flats sky-rocketed.
The Minister should know that if ever the prices of property go beyond the reach of the average worker and the asset inflation pushes up the costs of living for the low income group, there will be unwanted social consequences. An underclass will be formed and the poor, the destitute and the very low income groups will be slowly pushed out of the mainstream of social and economic life. As we have no countryside where the poor and destitute can go to, this underclass will have to form slums to manage their lives of despair.
At the moment, the prices of flats are slowly going beyond the reach of many young Singaporeans. This is not because these Singaporean have become lazy and not competitive. In truth, most workers still work beyond their normal office hours. Many do make frequent trips abroad, separated from their loved ones, to earn their keep. Some even stay overseas for a lengthy posting when their duty demands. Our students are still scoring the As in examinations and many are still sacrificing their youthful adult lives doing night courses to better themselves.
The reason why houses are slowly going beyond the reach of young working Singaporeans is that the wages they are getting are not keeping up with the escalating price of housing.
When property prices are high and our workers are paid reasonably, they can still manage to pay their mortgages and own a home. However when the prices of flats are high, pushed up by the demands of a sudden increase in population, and the workers’ wages are depressed because of the great influx of cheaper foreign labour, the dreams of the young in wanting to own a home must be shattered.
30 years ago, the moment a young person comes out to work; he can confidently start looking for a flat even on one income and a loan for fifteen years. Nowadays, a young couple would need a dual income and a loan of thirty years and a very tight belt to just barely make it.
The PAP government has always used asset-enhancement as a way of making Singaporeans feel rich. Since 80% of Singaporeans live in HDB flats, enhancing the price of HDB flats serves this policy. However, this only makes Singaporeans rich on paper and poor in cash, a situation they have to pay for because high property prices also make life more expensive for everyone.
No, Singaporeans have not yet become lazy. However, they will, when the prices of flats go beyond their reach. What’s the point of hard work if your dream is beyond your reach? Why care about family, friends and community when it is better to grab everything when you can? Why bother to help the poor? Better to use the time and effort to make your buck as soon as you can.
There is a real problem. If this problem is not solved, the next generation of Singaporeans and their children are the people who are going to suffer for it.
The opposition is, therefore, right in wanting to Mr. Mah, as Minister of National Development, to defend his policy in the coming General Election. If he cannot defend his position in a constituency that he has nursed for 22 years and whose residents have already bought flats at an affordable rate long time ago, then his opponents deserve to be congratulated.
That's why he is there for, to confuse people like you...i heard some uncles said, that during election day, they also spike our water to make us confuse and vote for PAP.