To heal the social divide
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There are so much hullabaloo about the coming Presidential Election.
Even after the GE, why some people are still resenting the ruling party. As long as their basic fundamental needs such as education, housing, transportation and medical cost are not satisfactorily met, these people ,especially the middle income and low income group, will not listen to the anybody including the presidential hopefuls affiliated to the ruling party. As such, all the presidential hopefuls tried to distant themselves from the ruling party. How successful in their shaking off the PAP image remains to be seen.
Before GE 2011, many people were asked to take CPF cut and bite the bullet during economic downturn. When times were better, prices kept rising while their pay remained stagnant. Foreigners were welcomed with open arms. All their dreams of having affordable basic needs were shattered. The situation was aggravated when the parliament announced astronomical pay and bonuses for their ministers and president. That was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Until now, this has been and will still be an issue even after the presidential election. The government tried to appease the people rage with workfare package just before the GE but the people were not persuaded. So who else did the people turn to for their plight: the opposition.
These people started to depend on the opposition to speak up for their grievances. During the GE, upgrading of HDB flats was used as carrot and stick to the chagrin of the people. The ruling party even redrew the boundaries of the GRC hoping to beat the opposition which the people deemed was their only hope and voice. By hook or by crook they must have the opposition to look into their welfare. Anybody that tries to stifle the opposition will be vehemently met with criticism as seen very recently between the clash of Paya Lebar CCC and Mr Chen Show Mao. They just want a level playing field in politics.
To heal the social divide would take an enormous task. It is not as simple as overnight reverse engineering as most problems are deep seated. Like it or not, the opposition is here to stay.
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there must always be a balance of one voice and the other...social harmony is to seek balance for all voices, and not just solely dependent on any one voice...
the path of life is similar...there is not just one path ...but because our paths are crossed with different perspectives and across borders, that enrich us with more possibilities for the future...
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Social divide is inevitable in any society. If not why alot of countries have so many political parties in parliament.
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the essence of social harmony is in the embracement of different views...
thus, the first basic step is to assure one who speaks..
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Different political parties catter to different people. Like maybe defense budget cut, some party oppose some agree.
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the art of speaking is tricky..
speak without fear but yet responsibly...
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social and emotional baggage is too hard for humans to put down...
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No humans are equal, equality is just part of human lying to another human. We are equal, but equal differently, the super rich are equal within themselves, the mid class and the poor are also equal within their own group, and that so call different in aspect.
The ability of any govt who knows how to strike a good balance in social inequality is a smart one, but not necessary a good one. Like singapore, whereby the rich get rich and the poor either remain status quo or become poorer is an inequality in the distribution of wealth, this unequality is explained by meritocracy. Meeritocrcay in a way also give in to nepotism, favoritism and stagnation of believing that good education is the way to get rich and powerful. Amid that, people start to push for education and end up wearing the strait jacket kind of mentality that give way to a forever working class condition, and within the best of this working class, one become rich and powerful thru both ethical and unethical ways.
There is no way to heal social divide, as there is no way to please everyone.
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Extracted from Stomp : Foreigners shoo family away from Botanic Gardens landmarks because they "booked it"
Comments by one person I found require attention.
By SophiaRosieHart
1. if Foreigners weren't in singapore singapore would have heaps of poor people or heaps of people in jail
2. if we werent here singapore would of been run to the ground singapore cant live without Foreigners because they the ones who are bringing all the money in and they the ones who are building all your malls like if i wasn't here also mbs wouldn't be up and running like it is now
3. singaporeans race is mostly chinese and malay mixed
4.everyone is a Foreigner to singapore because singapore doesnt even have its own real race
5.my own real race is maori and english
and mbs is the only good looking building in singapore but crap inside sadly hahahaha i got here to late when it started flooding because these dumb *****s dont know anything about building6.@Darn walk out on a job i get paid 30 grand a month for mate you must be joking,found a job like that in new zealand nope because they all taken and i would rather travel the world i've been to most of asia i must say singapore was the worse place i ever landed in and i cant wait in till i get to move
7.and u see i already have another job lined up thats mine if i want it and most of the new zealanders here get moved around by the same company they dont keep them here because they know they dont like it just like my boss knows i hate singapore thats why next is Bangkok or Dubai or Aussie.
he probably worked his ass of an lied to get the job thats why he cant move anywhere because he sucks and no one wants him ouch that must hurt hahahahahahahahahaa like no one wants youI guess our Governement is not aware of all these. Keep talking about about "talent". The Government need to have a system to weed out such Foreigner.
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STOMPer Jean, who came across the postings online, was enraged by the foreigner's comments.
She wrote to STOMP:
"I chanced upon some outrageous comments made by Ms Rachelle Ann Beguia who is one of the many netizens who commented on Ms Penny Low's Facebook.
"The discussion took off when MP Ms Low was apologising for being caught using her iPhone when the National Anthem was being played at the recent NDP. In the midst of heated discussion, Ms Beguia made a few insulting and hurtful remarks about Singaporeans.
"She said: 'These moronic 'Singaporeans', their code, their morals, their 'loyalty' and 'patriotism'... all dropped at the first sign of trouble... just ask any of them if they want to be excused from serving NS and they will be the first to raise their hands... Require any of them to serve an extra month of NS and they will riot in Singapore... Ask them to fight a war, almost all will declare they are ready to pack up and run.'
"Is she trying to say all our NSMEN are cowards? On what grounds was she making such accusations?
"She further explained the followings to one of the Facebook users: 'But when foreigners like Bangladeshi, Thais and Indians come and provide labour for building flats and roads, you didn't seem to have complained about it...if tomorrow the government decides to hire foreigners to become soldiers and no more serving of NS for all men let's see if you will make the same comment...By the way, if foreigners can come and snatch your jobs and flats it only shows one thing.... how incompetent you are.' -
there is no point to urge for a kinder society if reality is what it is and not what it ought to be..
the reasons for social causes are to narrow the human divisions so much that everyone could share and fight for greater benefits for all human kind...
and it is more so with people who are elected leaders...leaders are not just coordinators or facilitators...they are empowered with responsibilities to uplift the human conditions to the inexhaustible ends....and honoured for being so...
with great power comes great responsibilities ....
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and not....
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leaders cannot just shun the micros for the macros...to rub shoulders only with the rich, elites and powerful, but forget the support of the masses comprising of micro individuals...
leaders are to help and protect the weak.... it is disturbing to hear any candidate or the highest leader of the people that he aspires great leadership only to rub shoulders with the US president and the rest is mundane to his sovereignty
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Arrogancy is one image that our PAP govt cannot live without it, and therefore never fail to show
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Originally posted by angel7030:
Arrogancy is one image that our PAP govt cannot live without it, and therefore never fail to show
Ruling party for so many years, surely arrogant mah. PAP is like a Tree deeply rooted in Singapore. You study in PAP kindergraden from young. -
No, I studied in Taiwan under the kuo ming tan, they cannot afford to be arrogant, once a mayor's son in our town act very arrogant, peoples whack his driver and cars, in the end the mayor ask the town peoples to cool down and apologise on behalf of his son, who had run away. In return, the people tell the mayor, the driver is what we the people employed for you, the car is what the town people buy for you, so we are just destroying our own things which you do not know how to take care while under your care. Next year, the mayor could not even stand for election.
Our PAP govt must understand that whatever you have today, high paid, nice mercede cars, good foods and so on are what the peoples give to you, in return, the peoples wish that you can bring peace, healthy and prosperity to the peoples of this country. Peace meaning harmony and able to settle issue amicably thru consultative approach from all walks of life. Prosperity meaning, good paying jobs for everyone, increase productivity and live happily. But seem like they take your money and live arrogantly without consultating or check back with you on their policies, especially the foreign policy that end up low paid and poor get poorers, middle class get low pay and rich class hv to live with foreign indian workers
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Vote TAN JEE SAY if you do not want another puppet President! Vote TAN JEE SAY if you want another President Ong Teng Cheong!
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singapore divide is cause by the ruling party themselves.
I had friends who are PAP supporters in the past but defect to opposition camps during the recent GE.
some issue me and my friends are concern about are not for ourselves but for the generally fairness in singapore.
1. Pension. most singaporeans even civil service had done away with pension scheme about 20 years ago and replace it with full CPF scheme. while our very leaders who persuade us to take the pain, credited themselves with pension scheme.
2. govt continue denial that foreigners are not the cause of raising housing prices. we are OK if govt can come clean and admit the true fact. as basic economic dont lies. the influx of foreigners need a place to stay. if such politicans can lie thru when facts are obvious, can we still trust them?
3. good opposition candidates. the main reason i would say is most are impress by the quality of candidates opposition can bring during the 2011 election. these candidates has big courage to stand out and give singaporeans a choice. we admire them and give them the endorsement.
4. Gerrymander. we stay in the same flats but keep changing the boundaries. this is not what a gentlemen conduct and we dont see how ppl who condone to such practices can be a truthful to serve the ppl of singaporeans instead of own party interest.
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Originally posted by reyes:
singapore divide is cause by the ruling party themselves.
I had friends who are PAP supporters in the past but defect to opposition camps during the recent GE.
some issue me and my friends are concern about are not for ourselves but for the generally fairness in singapore.
1. Pension. most singaporeans even civil service had done away with pension scheme about 20 years ago and replace it with full CPF scheme. while our very leaders who persuade us to take the pain, credited themselves with pension scheme.
2. govt continue denial that foreigners are not the cause of raising housing prices. we are OK if govt can come clean and admit the true fact. as basic economic dont lies. the influx of foreigners need a place to stay. if such politicans can lie thru when facts are obvious, can we still trust them?
3. good opposition candidates. the main reason i would say is most are impress by the quality of candidates opposition can bring during the 2011 election. these candidates has big courage to stand out and give singaporeans a choice. we admire them and give them the endorsement.
4. Gerrymander. we stay in the same flats but keep changing the boundaries. this is not what a gentlemen conduct and we dont see how ppl who condone to such practices can be a truthful to serve the ppl of singaporeans instead of own party interest.
That's painful indeed! Hope that it does not worsen. The government has to see long term survival of true peace and joys. Policy should never be overly market domiance as it is always within control - man-made policy need to enforce control to cushion one-sided interests, while transferring much more cash flow for the low-middle income people, though the rich still get richer, in real income policy.