Time to consider a replacement for democracy

The democratic process is supposed to be a good way of electing the best people to lead a country according to the wishes of the people.

In practice, it has produced unsatisfactory results.

Here are my observations.
https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1527

Wisdom of the crowd

https://wisdomofthecrowd.sg/active_issue.aspx

WOTC - Financial control over infrastructure

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

Should the finance minister exercise control over infrastructure expenditure?

Here are the responses: (62 Votes)

60 % - he has been rather wasteful in approving costly spending and overrun.
34 % - He should reject spending that are too costly and wasteful.
6 % - We can rely on the tender system to get the best prices.
0 % - He is already exercise control with the existing system. 

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1347

WOTC - Failure of US China trade negotiations

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

Which party caused the failure of the negotiation on the US China trade dispute?

Here are the responses: (59 Votes)

51 % - US is making unreasonable demands. 
27 % - China trade practices need to change considerably.
22 % - China has tried to accommodate the US demands as best as they could.
0 % - China kept rolling back on their promises.

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1346

Forest City - impressive development and exciting future

When I first visited Forest City 2 years ago, I was impressed with the Sales Gallery and the hotel. There were no other developments.

After buying my apartment, I visited Forest City many times, with other people who are interested to consider a purchase.

I have the experience of seeing Forest City develop in stages and from scratch.

I observed the development one "park" at a time. Each "park" comprise of a few apartment blocks, and is similar to our condo project.

The development is impressive. I give full marks to the professionalism of the developer.

I am confident that the developer will keep Forest City in top shape for several decades. Let me explain why.

Forest City is a project that spans 30 to 40 years. The developer needs to maintain a high quality of maintenance for their earlier parks in order to sell the later parks.

If they allow the maintenance to drop in standard, it will affect the confidence of the future buyers and the sale of the later development parks.

Will the buyer be able to sell the apartments and make a capital gain? I advise against it.

The investor will be competing with the developer who will be selling tens of thousand of the same units. There will be a modest capital gain, based on inflation, but not the speculative gains (and losses) that you see in Singapore.

I like Forest City because it is a new city. It has a multi-layer concept for their roads. It brings a new lifestyle.

If it succeeds and becomes a buzzing city with many job opportunities, it can be very exciting. My grand children will find out, because I made my investment for them.

Tan Kin Lian

Wisdom of the crowd

Vote on these issues
https://wisdomofthecrowd.sg/active_issue.aspx

Be fair and factual in giving comments

I have seen many people giving their views and comments based on wrong facts. They said that the delay in crossing the causeway and 2nd link is mainly caused by the Malaysian side.

I have traveled to Johor and back on may occasions by car and by bus. Let me share my experience of the travel over the past two years.
https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1523

WOTC - US China trade war

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

What will happen next in the US China trade war.

Here are the responses: (59 Votes)

61 % - There will be another truce and a protracted negotiation.
20 % - It will get worse.
15 % - Trump will agree to a deal.
3 % - China will back down and meet Trump's demand.

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1345

WOTC - Are people poor because of laziness?

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

Are people poor because of laziness?

Here are the responses: (60 Votes)

58 % - They do not have the opportunity and are exploited to earn low salary.
30 % - They are disadvantaged because they come from a poor family.
7 % - They do not study hard to be well educated to get a good job.
5 % - This is the main cause of poverty.

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1344

Rot and decay in our society

We have to stop the rot and decay that has been eroding our society for the past one or two decades.

This rot is manifested in some incidents that happens every day. It has become the accepted norm.

https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1522

An useful visit to Forest City

I brought an European who is in his fifties to visit Forest City.

Earlier he had applied for residency in Singapore under the investor scheme. The govt cancelled the scheme after 5 years, so he cannot stay in Singapore any more.

He had to find another place to stay, as he had sold off his house in Europe 5 years earlier and the house prices there have since doubled.

I suggested that he should consider staying in Forest City under the MM2H (Malaysia my second home scheme).

Initially, he was hesitant. Having been rejected after 5 years by Singapore, he does not want to take the same risk.

After the visit, he became convinced. He asked in detail about the cost and design of the available apartments and also the view. This shows his serious interest.

There are many positive points for him to stay take up residency in Malaysia. He has the financial means to quality for MM2H.

The additional advantage is that the MM2H scheme gives him 10 years of residency and is renewable. He and his Asian wife are allowed to work or start a business in Malaysia as local residents. They treat the MM2H as residents and not foreigners.

He finds the freehold apartments in Forest City to cost one fourth of leasehold condos in Singapore  and the cost of living to be less than half of Singapore.

One visit makes a lot of difference, gives him a positive impression and helps him to decide to consider this new lifestyle.

Visit to Forest City by public transport

This is the first time that I took public transport to visit Forest City.

I find the trip to be very pleasant.

I took CW7 from Tuas Point to cross to the Johor CIQ. The whole journey, including passing two checkpoints and crossing the link took 10 mins.

I was expecting a journey time of at least half hour.

I did travel at 11 am, which is off peak, so it helped. There was no crowd and no congestion.

It took 35 mins for the journey from Jurong East to Tuas Link and the transfer by EW7 to the Tuas CIQ.

In future, I would take CW3/CW4 from Jurong East to Tuas CIQ. The journey time would only be 20 mins during the off peak period.

The return journey was also pleasant. I cleared the two checkpoints, including the journey along the link, in 10 mins. It was 5 pm, so the crowd was bigger. But the clearance time was fast.

After this pleasant experience, I plan to visit Johore through the 2nd link by bus for shopping or food on a regular basis. And visit Forest City as well.

The bus fare from Singapore to Johore was $4 (flat) and the return fare was (surprising) RM 2.60 ($0.80).

The marketing executive from Forest City drove to pick me from the CIQ to Forest City. An alternative is to call Grab. The fare is RM 12.

There are other interesting places to visit, such as the shopping malls in Bukit Indah, Legoland or the mall in Medini.

Make full use of the KTM line between Singapore and Johor Bahru

The Malaysian govt has decided to delay the construction of the
Rapid Transit System (RTS) due to cost. Even if it goes ahead as planned, it will take 5 years to be ready.

I cannot understand why both governments refuse to consider increasing the number of trips on the KTM train between Singapore and Johore Bahru.

Currently, it operates 31 trips a day - 17 trips from JB to Singapore and 14 trips back.

The journey time is 5 minutes.

If the line is used fully, it should be possible to pack 6 trips every hour or 108 trips over 18 hours from 6 a to midnight.

This will be more than 3 times the current capacity.

By using a side rail on both sides, it should be possible to further double the capacity, i.e. 6 times of the current capacity.

If each train can take 250 passengers, the KTM train service can handle 54,000 passengers a day. This will take away 15% of the total travellers.

I hope that both governments give priority to make full use of the KTM line to increase the capacity by 3 or 6 times.

I cannot understand why this idea is not being explored.

I get the sad feeling that the government only wants to spend large sums of money on infrastructure, rather than find an efficient and low cost solution.

https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1521

Cancer Patient (Age 32) - Bone Marrow Donor Required

Dear Mr. Tan,
I have friend who was my classmate in Secondary 1 and 2.
He contracted cancer and is going for regular treatment at moment.
He currently needs a bone marrow donor in order for his life to be saved.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157082957417988&id=596127987
Please share this post?

Waive GST on essential items

Nearly 100% of the people who voted in my poll do not want GST on utilities and water, and on small purchases.

I did not ask about medical bills and medicines, but I am sure that they want GST to be waived for these items as well.

But 25% still want to keep GST at 7%. I cannot understand why. It seems to be a contradiction.

Maybe they want GST on luxury goods. What are these luxury goods?

If so, why don't abolish GST (which is intended to cover everything) and just levy a tax on luxury goods?

We already levy this tax on motor vehicles (i.e. COE, ERP) and on property (land sale, development charge, stamp duty, property tax).

What else needs to be taxed? Luxury handbags and watches? OK, just levy a tax on these items - and abolish GST, together with the wasteful cost of its collection and administration.


Read here:
https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1518

Prices charged by small businesses also reflect GST costs

The govt exempts small businesses from collecting GST. But the customers do not save 7% on the GST.
Why?
The small business has to pay GST on the goods and services that they buy from other parties. So, their input cost has already increased by the GST component.
They have to pay GST on their rentals and utilities as well.
The prices to their end consumers will have to include the GST cost that they incur.
It may be no different from the prices charged by bigger companies that collect GST.
Confusing? sure it is!
And very costly to administer as well. The cost incurred by small and big businesses to cope with GST collection and accounting also add to the prices that consumers have to pay. GST is a wasteful and costly burden.

How to abolish GST

GST brings in $11 billion of revenue to the govt. It also adds a heavy cost to business to collect and account for the GST. This increases the cost of living by up to 10% (based on my estimate).

I prefer the govt to abolish GST and find some other ways to replace it, if necessary. This will bring down the cost of living.

Here are some ways for GST to be abolished:
https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=1517

Wisdom of the crowd

Vote on these issues and win a prize.
https://wisdomofthecrowd.sg/active_issue.aspx

WOTC - Are PAP leaders competent?

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

Are the PAP leaders competent?

Here are the responses: (60 Votes)

77 % - They talk only, but cannot solve real problems. 
23 % - They are not competent in doing the jobs assigned to them. 
0 % - They are competent and the best available in Singapore. 
0 % - They are top scholars and can solve problems. 

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1343

WOTC - Are PAP leaders responsible

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd:

Are the PAP leaders are responsible and accountable?

Here are the responses: (61 Votes)

77 % - They like to avoid responsibility and push the problem to another agency.
23 % - They are afraid of making a mistake and losing their performance bonus. 
0 % - They take responsibility to solve the problems.
0 % - They work well with other agencies to solve problems. 

See the pie chart at: 
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=1342