William Tay
'National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan's remarkable story about his childhood years is a lesson for the younger generation. Despite his humble beginnings, he was able to uplift himself to become a government minister. This is testimony to our system of meritocracy which has enabled talented young people from humble backgrounds to rise up and serve the nation.'
'National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan's remarkable story about his childhood years is a lesson for the younger generation. Despite his humble beginnings, he was able to uplift himself to become a government minister. This is testimony to our system of meritocracy which has enabled talented young people from humble backgrounds to rise up and serve the nation.'
Low Lee Siang
I AM a 58-year-old Singaporean who shed tears on reading last Saturday's article, 'Mah's own upgrading story', in which National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan recounted his difficult childhood years growing up in various housing types. Today, I live in an HDB maisonette. Thank you, Singapore.
25 comments:
I bet they are all fake ghost writers or some SPH interns tasked with exalting our short and ugly MBT. Cheap tricks by our government-controlled radio.
Mah Bow Tan did the politically right thing by publicly recounting his difficult childhood days. To get some empathy for votes?
If only he had or will also do the right thing for Singaporeans faced with difficulty due to sky high HDB prices.
If not, doesn't matter whether he got difficult childhood or was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. That was the past. It is the present and future that matters.
If Mah Bow Tan or his mother were living in current times, they would not be able to upgrade like they did 20-30 yrs ago.
Ask Mah Bow Tan if his childern will go through the HDB system and apply and queue for flats like us regular citizens and if they will not cherry pick the flats and accept the not so good units.
No wonder he is comfortable that Singaporeans should live in smaller flats as he is instrumental in bringing HDB design down to earth after his earth shaking visit to Hong Kong to view the mickey mouse flats over there and together with his own experience, decided unilaterally that Singaporeans deserve to live in smaller flats.
REX comments as follows,
Whilst I have nothing against the honourable Minister, I would just like to mention that in fact there are numerous people born in the turbulent years of the '50's '60s and '70's decades who are typical "rags to riches" life examples. Mr Goh chok tong is also another noteworthy case and so too are numerous other civil servants as well as prominent businessmen in Singapore. It was truly a remarkable period in Singapore's history, in which an excellent government existed, a people's Action party, which really did many things correctly and created opportunities allowing anyone to work hard to succeed in life, and "guanxi" was never a pre-requisite.
What is more important is whether rags to riches stories are repeatable at any time in Singapore's destiny?
I sincerely hope that in every generation, rags-to-riches stories abound; this would be the best testiomony to the success of any government executing its policies fairly and efficiently - rather than cold statistics like GDP, Productivity, and other abstract targets.
REX
Over lunch, my two friends said that they also came from a kampong. They pointed out that most people of the older generation lived in kampongs.
Actually, life in the kampong house was better in the old days, as the cost of living was low and affordable. Today, most people are financially stressed with the large mortgage payment for the expensive HDB flat or maisonnette.
Does anybody smell a rat here? MBT has been in the spotlight recently for high HDB prices. An opposition party plans to oust his GRC at next election. Old Man warned MBT to defend his HDB policies, or MBT desrves to lose his seat. If that happens all property prices will break loose, so we better sell our flats before that happens.
Now out of the blue MBT is portrayed as a hero and a Godsend. He is the Chosen One who will lead us to our housing destiny.
Is the press and gahmen trying to pull wool over our eyes or what? This stinks of gahmen propaganda of the highest order.
Giving the letter writer the benefit of the doubt, this letter highlights the key generational difference in Singapore.
In general, Singaporeans born before 1965 are very strong PAP supporters. These is because they were the benficaries of the PAP's early successes.
Singaporeans born after 1965 tend to be against the PAP. Coming of age in 1985/86 and after, they had to endure the numerous policy failures that occured after the inital period of success.
Fast forward to 2010 and we find Singapore at a tipping point. Approximatelty 50% of the voters are born before 1965. The other 50% are born after 1965.
If we move forward to the next election, the demographics change to somewhere in the region of 70% born after 1965 and only 30% born before 1965.
The time of the generation of die hard PAP supporters like Mr Low Lee Siang is fast fading. The generation which follows them have endured all manner of hardships brought about by policy failures and other "honest mistakes".
Change is inevitable.
MBT definietly has his share of mistakes in the current housing policies that led to current high HDB prices but one big factor that was not his fault is the low interest rate set by MAS. Such low interest rate will surely lead to rampant speculation in housing since the cost of financing is low and the public get so low return in FD and also not want to expose to the high risk in equities.
Some people have the impression that the older generation supports the PAP and the younger generation is likely to vote differently.
From the results of many surveys carried out in my blog, I come to a different conclusion. There is a higher percentage of older people who felt betrayed by the PAP and are likely to vote against the PAP.
Many of the younger people are educated under the PAP education system and are able to get jobs, so they are likely to support the incumbent government.
Although they pay high prices for HDB flats, they may still believe that it is a good investment. They will only realise the burden when they lose their jobs and cannot service their monthly payments.
The FM Radio tv advertisement about listening only to the best seems to describe our local media..
Mr Tan
If that survey finding is accurate, then there could be 2 possible explainations.
1) The PAP's attempts to bond with the P65 have succeeded and there is strong support among the P65 generation.
2) The PAP has lost support among what was widely perceived to be the foundation of their political power.
If the first hypothesis is correct, then we are likely to see continued dominance of the PAP possibly for another 10 to 20 years.
However if the second hypothesis is true, then change may come faster than anticipated.
I do not know which hypothesis is true. The acid test will be in the upcoming elections.
Hope there will be no walkover constituents ...........many missed the boat because of GRC tactics!
The road to Democracy in ASIA is different compared to the WEST.
I dread to live under any mortgage loans for a HDB flat in today's context.
My fear is to be caught in a Money Trap World as I sometimes wonder why a HDB flat is so highly priced without any facilities found in any Condo. Projects. Furthermore the tenants of HDB are all lessees or why must a fellow lessee sell his HDB with higher COV?.......wonder whether COV is subject to GST?...surely there are should be classified as Capital Gains & Taxable so that people may not resort to high COV route.
Perhaps the HDB valuers and Bank valuers should
give the true valuation. I have no
of how a valuation is conducted?
The apathetic situation in Singapore is that quite often, the average person will blindly support until a day they find themselves adversely affected / hit by a policy or are unfairly treated by a certain authority.
Hence for "affordability" of HDB flats issues, they can be enslaved by being stretched over a 30 year mortgage, but will only consider whether the policy is right or wrong when say employment hit them and they could not continue to service the mortgage.
Even if this happen, the herd instinct and culture is to let others fight first (or for them)for a similar cause.
MBT is not serving the country. He is milking the country by paying himself with obscene high salary.
There was a discussion between Stalin (ex-leader of Soviet Union) and Chao Eng Lai (Ex-PM of China). Stalin said he was from the peasant background and Chao admitted he was from the landlord class. But Chao then told Stalin that they both had betrayed their owned class because Stalin had became very rich and Chao had became very poor after both were appointed political leaders of their own respective countries.
MBT is therefore likes Stalin. He has betrayed the peasant Singaporeans.
No need to shed tears for MBT. He earns miullions a year. Shed tears for those that are left behind.
Mr. Tan is spot on with his analysis of the electorate profile.
I belong to the before 1950s, and
who stauntly supported the PAP Govt
right up to 2005, and even took issue with those who were against
it.
Now I seem to have woken up in a dream, and able to see the excesses
and hypocrisy and double standards
practised and arrogance of the PAP.
They have been in power far too long, and have taken the people for
granted. Yes the party has let me down, completely, and i see red whenever MM Lee travels overseas to talk nonsence, at the expenses
of the taxpayers, with his entourage of doctors, nurses and a
group of bodyguards to accompany him, and the people here are struggling with unemployment and
high living expenses. I resent my
taxes contributing to such excesses.I resent my taxes being
used for reckless investments that
took all of three days for them to
commit, and in the process lost
US5 billions on paper.
Somehow, I sense a standard format of "image recovery effort".
When SM Goh was not as reponsive as he should be on the Minibond saga as a MAS chairman, His biography came out in The Straits Times. My guess is that his image has been hit badly on the saga and the propaganda machine filled with first class honours scholars did a write up.
Seems like everytime some top guy who earned millions from tax payers has bad publicity, his life story will be publicize to regain support.
It's obvious to the most stupid person that the Govt has to paint
a more human face of Ma, as election is coming soon, and the Tampines ward of Ma is in danger of
relinguishing control to the opposition.
These two writers are only disguished spokesmen for the PAP.
No need to shed tears for our dear Mr Mah. He and his colleagues have already been very very well compensated and rewarded over the last 15 years.
In fact, Mah and gang are all going to get average of 8.8% salary increment for financial year 2010/11. Confirmed liao ... don't even need to see how they perform over the next 1 year.
Check it out.
Total pay package for ministers, ministers of state, and parliamentary secretaries is S$58.28 Million. And its not like they are hiring more headcount right?
I would feel more for Mr Mah if he were to just take US$100,000 as his annual salary, just like Warren Buffet, and donate the rest of his pay to charities.
Otherwise, the moral of that ST story should be for ordinary Singaporeans to figure out how to scheme to get into that exclusive club. After all greed is good.
Blame Nobody except for ourselves!
In Australia/Europe the average apartment size is about 2Rooms averaging 800 - 1000 sq ft. Our mindset change should be shifter to smaller affordable flats so as not to allow bigger dwellings to go to waste in land scarce Singapore.....Small is beautiful.
This way, prices of average 2-RM or at most 3-RM flats can be affordable and avoid massive mortgage payments leading to our very own Singapore style subsprime mortgage rate fiascos & Foreclosures at our own peril, knowing that Nothing is safe from another financial crisis and we cannot rely on so called "STINGY NANNY"
Trust Me.......it works if we are pragmatic and take our own responsibility by not being greedy in terms of "live within your means"
Goh Meng Seng made some remarks on the correlation between age and political bearing in his commemoration to JBJ here:
http://singaporealternatives.blogspot.com/2010/01/commemorating-jbj-icon-of-lost.html
When I look at a man, be him a minister or an ordinary citizen, I look for sincerity as the single most important factor whether he is suitable for the position. Unfortunately, I do not see that trait in Mah. I have observed him since the time when he lost the election to Mr. Chiam, then his leadership, or lack of it, as the Minister in charge. He once replied to people who call for greater use of bicycles as a form of transport for greater environmental protection and his reply was simply Singapore does not have enough land to build cycling lanes, yet now we can see them being built when Minister Khaw initiated the effort after seeing many cyclists in his wards. His legacy in LTA has resulted in many useless notice boards at every bus stops where the only notice there is a faded notice to say that it is an offence to put up notices there and police report will be made.
His motivation and expertise seems to be how to make more money from the people rather than how to make people's lives better. Of course, given his distinctions in 7 subjects he will most definitely be able to defend his position by saying things like we have to take bitter medicine before life gets better and justify it by his use of statistics. I do not detect any sincerity on his part in helping Singaporeans so I must say it is time for him to step down as he is now a burden to the ruling party.
upward mobility is a thing of the past. now, the poorer families will not be able to provide their kids a good head start. and given our government's 'catch them young' attitude (as in Gifted program for P4, straight thru' schooling for Sec 1), many from poorer families will be left behind. influx of foreign labour will further depressed these group of Singaporeans ....
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