Sunday, May 09, 2010

Doing things in Singapore

Comment posted in this blog. I invite readers to contribute to this topic.
We should compile a list of difficult and complicated ways to do simple things in Singapore. Here is my initial attempt to get the ball rolling:
1. Taxi fares
2. Buying a car
3. Buying an HDB lease
(legally, your HDB flat belongs to the government. What? You think the government is actually upgrading your flat/estate for free? It's you who is subsiding the estate upgrading since the estate and flat does not belong to you)
4. Our primary school textbooks and exams
5. getting a meaningful job when you are retrenched in your 40's
6. calculating the cost of constructing an HDB flat
7. listing and calculating the value of Singapore assets and reserves so that the Singapore President will know how to protect them

15 comments:

SL said...

1. cost of rising up a child.
2. restriction on use of medisave, ordinary/special acct.
3. low wages.
4. rising costs/inflation vs stagnant income.
5. over crowded buses and mrt.
6. Why impose erp when ther's already coe.
7. one citizen one car policy.
8. lack of public doctors
9. long waiting q at government hospitals and polyclinics.

Anonymous said...

what about the process of getting our kid enroll for the primary school? Parents volunteering in their ideal primary school for their kid years before their kid is ready for primary 1, 2km from the school, phrase1, 2, 3, etcs and all other rubbish just to register your kid into primary school

Merlion

Anonymous said...

Drawing 'meaningful' boundary line on our map every 4 years

Anonymous said...

- to know whether hdb is affordable or not
- to decide who is our next pm

Anonymous said...

In general, the government leads the way to complicate life for ordinary people. You can ask if a flat rate is better than multi tier fare structure for so many things in Spore.

Who benefits at the end? The one who charge us, of course.

Loh

Anonymous said...

REX comments on Loh's post.

A multi Tier structure is beneficial in some instance. Case in point: GST on water and electrictiy should be exempted for the first xxx units of consumption (xxx may be pegged to national average consumption pattern of typical household).

When oil prices increases, the government tell lies and say "we just pass only the cost price to you ane we increase the eletricity rates". Sneaky!! The GST is still there, we pay this tax for the additional rise as well!!. So, everytime oil price rise, poor folks also taxed on the additioanal rise. There is no extra cost incurred by the goverhment yet they tax everybody GST on the total prices for electricity tarriffs.

Water and electricity, how can they be taxable, it is not an luxury item like Rolex and Prada you know.

There are many things the govt can do to reduce the cost of living yet without incurring extra cost within the framework of the National Budget. The only impact is less revenue, not increased cost. Think about that.

And, Less revenue is something unacceptable to the govt, due in no small way, to the high cost of the civil service.

rex

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Tan,

I would like to comment about taxi services in my estate in Yishun.

I was trying to hail cabs on a Sat Morn without any success for some time. Many cabs were either with passenger or they have the Hired or On call sign without any passenger.

Then I saw an empty cab and tried to hail it. I saw the cab driver telling me to book his cab by hand sign. The cab driver was trying to earn extra booking fee! I refused to do it.

I realised then that all the cab drivers are abusing the process of call booking of cab by making passengers wait so that passengers are desperate to book a cab. Passengers do not have a choice to hail a cab on the streets any more.

I am not going to take a cab if it's not necessary from now on.

Anonymous said...

After being paid milions a year and the age-old problem of taxi service & lack of taxi when needed most is still remains a problem.

What can be done?

Possibility from a jobless man:

i) increase number of taxis.
ii) Study other countries' taxi system and pick one. Modify it to suit Sgp and implement.

iii) Do away with all kind of charges except entering in business areas or important hub like Shenton way, Orchard road and airport.

The Govt should do a KISS [Keep It Simple, Stupid]

Steve Wu said...

The current president SR Nathan fails as the constitutional custodian of the reserves:

1. fails to insist on the transparency and accountability of the reserves by the executive arm. This is an important check and balance element which Nathan has largely neglected.

2. fails to question the massive losses at the two investment agencies, GIC and Temasek Holdings, and to call for inquiry into the operational efficacy and the responsibility of the individuals. There is a dire need to establish transparency and accountability at these investment agencies.

3. fails to object to a parliamentary bill which allows the transfer of reserves between government organs without the president's consent. The bill was passed even though it was strictly unconstitutional.

4. fails to question the sale of strategic assets, e.g. all the power generation plants. President Ong Teng Cheong had previously expounded the concerns when POSB was sold to DBS without his consent.

5. fails to report to the People on the health of the reserves from time to time. For example, the parliament has passed a bill to allow the government debt (in terms of government securities) to increase from $250B to $320B. It has an impact on the reserves as the debt must be paid for in the future. Lim Hwee Hua provided an inadequate explanation in parliament.

This is an untenable situation.

Annoyed said...

To Anon 10:14am

Taxi drivers are not employees.

They are self-employed and have the same objectives as a business person:

Earn as much profits in the shortest possible time.

There are taxi drivers who specialise only in certain areas such as woodlands/yishun and jurong.

Once, I tried to board a taxi in Yishun. The driver asked what was my destination. I said Toa Payoh.
He responded that he only serves Yishun and Woodlands!
Gosh!.. for a moment then I thought I was in Melbourne and had boarded a taxi to drive to Brisbane!

Only in Singapore. Your Singapore.

Anonymous said...

I agree with number 7 on TKL's blog. Presidential election due. I hope our elected Singapore President will know how to protect Singapore assets.

Anonymous said...

Joke:

How many civil servants are required to determine if HDB flats are affordable?

ANSWER:
One. Only one minister is needed to make a statement that HDB is affordable. The thinking and debate ends after that. At least in the civil service anyway.

Pathetic Politics said...

Political apathy and disconnect.

Why would the well paid graduate in the banking/finance industry worry about political issues such as the presidency and reserves?
Why would the civil servant debate on the affordabilty of HDB flats?
It does not make sense!
They get a bonus yearly, they are comfortable and they have their cars and their holidays to Paris.

If I was a civil servant, I would have done the same.. be disinterested.. and I'll bet my last $2 that many people here in this blog, temasek review, online citizen will do exactly that.

It is not pure altruistic reasons that we care greatly about paliarmentary processess.. 99% of the citizenry dont even know what all this is about.. pure gibberish.

I, for one, dont care.

Anonymous said...

I thank Steve Wu for sharing his insights

On the taxi matter, something that is close to our heart, they are only trying to make a decent living they know best

Instead of pointing a finger at the taxi-drivers, do the taxi rental company and LTA share some responsibility for making hailing a taxi so complicated?

In my opinion, ERP and surcharges on taxi should be waived so as to encourage more usage (and lesser cars on the roads). In fact, i think taxi should be subsidised to lower their costs

This way, got quick bucks, who doesn't want to earn? In business, it is high turnover rate that usually matters, not high margin (as high margin jobs may not come everyday)

Jerome

Anonymous said...

Election Fever for change:
UK Elections hung parliament ?
2/3 of public, wants change?
Philippines Election - going for change!
Thai Election : Coming in November!
also looking for change?

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