I've just read the our "dear" President Nathan has just rejected the appeal for clemency on young Malaysian, Yong Vui Kong's death sentence.
If as a nation, Singapore's government can work with drug producing countries like Burma and infamous drug lords such as Lo Hsing Han and Steven Law, why is it that we cannot show just a bit of clemency for their lowly runners? Why shoot the messenger?
Singapore is as pretentious as a country gets.
For more info, read this, this and this.
Below is the latest figures on the recently launched BTO flats in Punggol [taken from HDB's website], as of 30th Nov 2009, which is the last day of the application window period. While it still has 24 hours more to run, the final figures shouldn't differ from the below by too much.
Once again, the demand-supply ratio doesn't bode well for first time applicants with 5x and 8x oversubscription for 4 and 5 room flats respectively in what is very nondescript run-of-the-mill overpriced flats in Punggol estate which requires 4 years of time-to-completion (not the "water-front" variety announced with all that hoohaa). Going by this demand figure, despite the planned successive launches of BTO flats in 2010, resale flat price spike should have enough legs to run for another year by my humble estimation. Mah Bow Tan's recently declared statistics of 96% of first time applicants succeeding within 2 attempts (and 80% succeeding on the first attempt) somehow intuitively doesn't blend well with the numbers below.
As a side note, this housing inflation period timeline will most likely overlap into the impending 2010/2011 election and provide much fodder for opposition parties to deliberate upon. As such, I think that PAP will be exerting further internal pressure on Mah to solve this problem with more drastic measures albeit tempered with maxims such as "cool, not crash" aimed at a softer landing.
What will happen next in our bubbling public housing prices is going to be really anybody's guess. In a way, Adam Smith's invisible hand might soon be showing its mighty influence can seep over into political outcomes as well.
I never heard of bigger words in all my life,
But it's not true it wasn't you who cast the light,
I fell down off every wall I ever built
I gave way to every shadow shading guilt
And then I looked inside and told inside to get out
I never known or over thrown what someone had
I only saw what we all saw I never asked
I payed attention to the sutleties in space
I never mentioned all the miseries I faced
But then I looked inside and told inside to get out
How many ways are there to say that I forgot,
Figured out all the details and the things that I am not
I worked hard to break away from troubled time
I moved far in state to join the line
Because I looked inside and I told inside to get out
I never thought it would be easy to escape
But I was ready holding courage in my fate
I opened fire on all the things that scared me most
I never tired I didn't retreat from my post
I only looked inside and I told inside yes I only looked inside
And I told inside you should only look inside and tell inside to get out
Strange isn't it? Most Singaporeans seem unaware of the reasoning behind the tax hike. Officially, the reasoning given was that it will help the poor and tax the affluent more. Apart from thinking that this reasoning is rubbish as it likely does the exact opposite (see link, link and link), I think it was also an insult to the intelligence of the Singaporeans who opposed the amendment for the government to throw some one-off GST sweeteners and then forget all about it thereafter. Life goes on yeah? Well from today's news and Minister Lim Hwee Hua, it seems now this GST monies is being used to reduce the corporate tax rates so as to make Singapore an even more business-friendly country.
I don't know about you but deep down I'm sure all of you can feel that something is wrong isn't it? Many don't see the effects of this as it works slowly, and in small ways - not dissimilar to a smoker slowly but surely killing himself. I think it wouldn't be too imaginative of me to think of thieves pretending to be Robin Hood, plundering the citizenry over and over again, everytime we spend on anything, everything in Singapore.
Straits Times
Offset for corporate tax fall
A PROJECTED fall in government revenue from a corporate tax cut here will be more than offset by steps taken in recent years to raise revenue from other sources, said Second Minister for Finance and Transport Lim Hwee Hua on Monday.
Her comments coincided with the passing of the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill on Monday, which gave effect to pro-business tax measures announced during the Budget speech in January.
Among other things, the new law exempts companies from paying tax on foreign-sourced income for one year, and allows businesses to claim losses against three previous years of income instead of just one.
It also cuts the corporate tax rate from 18 per cent to 17 per cent, bringing Singapore's rate closer to that of key rival economy Hong Kong, where the rate is 16.5 per cent.
Mrs Lim, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said this reduction will cost the Government between $400 million and $500 million a year.
But she assured members of the House that earlier steps - including the raising of the goods and services tax (GST) from 5 per cent to 7 per cent in 2007 - will more than make up for this fall.
By now many of you would have read about the recent out-of-court settlement by Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) to the Lees...paying them a sum total of SGD 405,000 for allegedly defaming their reputations.
If you haven't, you can read about of it here, here and here.
Now, tell me what your subconscious mind registers the moment you read about this?
For me it went vaguely like...
Thought 1
"Oh, another one bites the dust...who dare challenge our great almighty Lees next?"
Thought 2
"Great, more people in the world will now see the way our psuedo-democratic system works in Singapore"
...
Many many more thoughts followed, but none that included "Lee" and "good reputation" in one sentence.
I think their so-called defamation suits are doing more harm than good to their reputation! So unless they really like having extra loose change of a couple of hundreds of thousand dollars in their brimming coffers, they really should just stop having journalists and publishing companies and oppositions for lunch now...
I feel very saddened that Dr Lim lost 20 years of his life to a system that most of my family and friends still believe is a good one.
If one of your own loved ones or friends (or even yourself) ever become detained by PAP under this Internal Security Act, this "rule above law", due merely to some political views or statements he or she made, what will you do? What can you do? I think I'll sign a bloody letter of repentance and run off to a more democratic country where I cannot be held as a criminal just because of my political alignments. Singapore is an absurd country filled with politically apathetic citizens for this video not to have made it to the headlines of our newspapers....oh wait, is there another reason for that? (I bet Senior Lee never thought this day will come when technology can bring about such exposure of these evil acts to the surface to be heard and judged by all that has an internet connection...and a conscience.
Calling the ST to be state-controlled media is tiring old news, but the question is, did you feel anything after seeing this video? If your answer is no not really, then you have truly become "just another digit".
