Foreigners at the Gates, Ooops, Inside Already, Too Late!

More Tiongs, Banglas, Ah Neh, Pinoys coming! As long not those white trash ones who beat up a local cabby at the Durian and run road, or those Tiong drivers who strike, they are welcomed, in a way. Small  and medium businesses are happy as there would be a steady pool of foreigners to hire and fire, especially if the blue-collar foreigners are cheaper, experienced, work longer and harder.

You ask any towkay about the need to employ foreigners as cleaners, cooks, labourers, sales staff, service staff, they say that there is a shortfall of local workers coz no locals want to do the job. Service jobs are shunned and scorned by locals. There is no denial. Well, some are denying!

Minimum wage is the answer, some people loftily complain, so that Singaporeans can be hired to do the job instead of hiring a foreigner. Any of those critics actually had the balls and entrepreneur spirit to run a family business? Why pay a bad attitude local $2000 to clean the floor and or run the shop when a foreigner can do the job for half the price? How to run business like that if labour costs so high if employ Singaporeans? The ones who whine are usually employees who bitch that their jobs were taken away by foreigners. No, your job was taken away by someone who could do a job better than you and cheaper, not because the replacement has a different passport, speaks Mandarin with that loud accent or English with that Pinoy drawl.

You know who are the foreigners' only competitors? The Singapore old aunties and uncles doing cleaning and serving crew at McDonalds and SPC petrol pumps etc coz these pre-65 citizens know what hard work is and aren't scared of it. They strike fear in the hungry Pinoy or Tiongs' hearts as these tough old timers, they are of different era.

The resentment towards foreigners is very typical of the local who see obstacles instead of opportunities. The population in Singapore is expected to be 7 million by 2030, a 30% growth! Fucking hell! I'm going to buy as many rental residential properties of all kinds as I can afford to take advantage of this news! Overpriced D'Leedon, here I come this weekend to take milk the easy credit despite CM7! Also a walk-up in Serangoon to convert into a worker dorm .. oops should not have said it aloud! I'm going to get some and rent it out!

January 29, 2013 1:15 pm
Singapore calls for 30% population growth

By Jeremy Grant in Singapore

Singapore’s government has laid out a vision for sustaining the tiny city-state’s economic growth, predicting that it will have to accept a continued influx of foreign workers while it tries to persuade its citizens to have more children.

In a long-awaited white paper published on Tuesday, the government forecast that its population would grow by up to 30 per cent, to 6.9m by 2030.

Of that, up to 36 per cent, or 2.5m, would have to be made up of foreign workers, or what it called “non-residents”, as Singapore tries to balance a shrinking working-age population and low birth rate with the need to have enough workers to maintain economic growth.

Yet that influx comes as Singapore’s ruling party is already grappling with one of its biggest challenges in decades: persuading a population uneasy with a growing number of foreigners and ballooning housing costs, in an country only slightly larger than London, that some level of immigration is needed to sustain the economy.

At the same time as it says it needs more foreign workers, the government has recently curbed the number of foreigners allowed to work in Singapore. Those limits – which have intensified in recent months amid popular unease and a series of hard-fought local elections – have started to hit foreign investors.

Foreign workers currently make up 28 per cent of a total population of 5.3m.

Some foreign companies have reported difficulties obtaining approval for employment passes for non-Singaporeans. The European Chamber of Commerce has just completed a survey of its members on the issue, with results expected within weeks.

The government is also trying to boost worker productivity and to encourage its citizens to have more babies, warning of a “hollowing out” of the island nation’s population if the birth rate does not rise.

Last week, it unveiled a S$2bn ($1.6bn) package of incentives to encourage people to marry and reproduce. That was a 25 per cent increase on an existing package of similar measures.

Such issues have become a challenge for the continued legitimacy of the ruling People’s Action party (PAP), after years in which Singapore’s electorate has generally rewarded the government’s management of the economy at the ballot box.

However, last weekend, the PAP suffered a shock defeat in a by-election. The PAP’s candidate lost heavily to the main opposition Workers’ Party, whose campaign blamed the government’s immigration policy for high housing prices and breakdowns on congested public transport.

The government’s white paper warns that the number of citizens aged 65 and above will triple by 2030 and the number of those of working age, between 20 and 64, would decline from 2020.

“It will become increasingly difficult to grow our workforce through our citizen population alone, unless we succeed in reversing the declining fertility trend,” the paper, produced by the office of prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, said.

A shrinking working-age population would mean “a less vibrant and innovative economy”, while companies might not find enough workers, the paper said.

“Business activity would slow, and job and employment opportunities would shrink,” it added.

Michael Wan, economist at Credit Suisse, said that with the government projecting gross domestic product growth averaging 2-4 per cent over the rest of the decade, Singapore had “set itself an ambitious target” of 2-3 per cent annual productivity growth from 2010 to 2020.

PAP Out, WP In

The facts speak for itself and Punggol East voted with their hearts! WP won and won big! WP grabbed 54.52% and PAP clutched only 43.71%.

More than 10% difference! More showing of the re-alignment of the political stars in future and WP's ascendency, is comparison with the Aljunied GRC contest, the other big battle that could go either way. In that epic 2011 battle, WP had 54.72% and PAP had 45.28%. From comparing the results yesterday and in 2011, PAP's was less popular than before while WP maintained prestige more or less.

Despite all the criticisms against WP, some fair, some unfair, some serious, some trivial, WP won by about 10% over the incumbent PAP despite a multi-party fight. Yes it was a by-election and chance of WP winning are much higher, coupled with the unpopularity of PAP in housing, inflation, transport and what not, PAP had skid marks and crashed into the wall.

Congratulations to WP, a win is a win and that is all that matters in politics. And it is also a win for Singapore truth be told as after all, it is not any party like SDP, but WP. LOL Will there be AIM-like problems when WP tries to take over the town council, especially when Punggol East town council is under the PAP GRC? Scratch head.

WP's Lee sets out immediate priorities for Punggol East
By Hetty Musfirah | Posted: 27 January 2013 1122 hrs

SINGAPORE: Member of Parliament-elect for Punggol East, Lee Li Lian, said her immediate priorities are the town council and meet-the-people sessions (MPS) in the ward.

The Workers' Party (WP) candidate told reporters after a thank-you parade on Sunday morning that she will be working on the logistics for the MPS.

She said volunteers from the single-member ward of Hougang and the group representation constituency of Aljunied, which are held by WP, will help out during the transition period.

As for the town council, Ms Lee said WP will give details on the handover some time next week.

For now, she will work closely with the relevant parties and ensure a problem-free transition.

Turning to Parliament, Ms Lee said she hopes to highlight issues raised during her by-election campaign.

She also hopes her win will spur more women and younger people to come forward in the political arena.

Will WP Get a Black Eye?

In 2011, WP won Aljunied because they were so close in 2006, Low Thia Khiang was leading from the front in Aljunied GRC, and WP had underdog status in the GE. In Hougang BE, it was WP homeground and HQ, no way PAP could penetrate it and turn it from Blue to White. Punggol East 2013 is different. Much different.

WP's is not really an underdog in this By-E.  Some ways yes, others, no. The underdogs in the internet are PAP (gasp, believe it), RP (yup) and SDA (super yup) in no particular order. PAP, RP and SDA are all so poor thing and pathetic in their own self-pwn ways. Anyway, people like to support the underdog. Especially when the underdog is made fun of. Png Eng Huat, HUAT AH, crossed the imaginary civil line that WP never crossed before by making fun of Dr Arse's name, saying that the Dr would "Koon" or sleep. Not sure if he meant sleep like Palmer sleep around or Ah Teo "sleep" on stage on first day of PAP rally. Orrrrrrr BTW we nobodies can mock Dr Arse. Not a politician on stage, don't stoop so low like the PAP like when they mocked a politician's O level grades.

I don't have problems with WP arrogance or not, accusations hurled from its jealous fellow opposition party critics. WP is leading and they can do what they want strategically in an election as they are their own captains of their political destiny. All these pleas by other parties about unity and whatfuck is just trying to hitchhike on WP's success so far. Spineless freeloaders IMHO.

However, I do have doubts about WP's intellectual clout to see through its policy reforms.WP has been quite convincing on its promise to moderate immigration and having foreigners here as long as they benefit Singapore. The devil is however in the details and WP has not shared what these little nitty gritty criteria are for allowing foreigners in.

Similarly, their policies on housing and transport, I'm not so swayed. Pritam Singh is as usual a powerful orator on stage but his views on housing and the stress on supply is simplistic, assuming it reflects WP high command's thinking. The cooling measures, 7 in total, are not meant to shock the market and bring prices down. Bringing prices down drastically would piss off investors and the construction industry, although buyers would be happy. BTW construction is mostly keeping Singapore from falling into recession. The cooling measures are to slow down the increase in property prices. Killer measures to bring down prices are dead easy but politically costly. Would WP dare to push for a policy that MAS should somehow jack up interest rates to 4-5% to kill off demand for property, and thus push property prices down? And if interest rates go up, how would it affect SME borrowing to survive in this uncertain economy?

I don't doubt WP's heart. I doubt their head. I don't doubt PAP's head. I doubt their heart.

All this said and done. I think WP might lose this BE simply because at the end of the 3rd and final rally, WP did not lead the audience there in reciting the pledge! They broke that special special tradition and therefore will break their winning streak. I pantang. WP should too.

Boring Watchdog WP

WP is not doing that great so far. Yeah sure it is still popular, but put it next to another opposition party like RP, you can see how different it is. WP started the campaign sluggishly with the flimsy mantra that they should be voted in so that PAP can work harder. Yes, yes, yes. With the lost of a GRC, PAP is shaking and worried about their little Risk board of Singapore slowly being carved out into WP blue areas. Let me repeat that mantra - so if we vote WP in, the PAP would work harder.?!

So that means the WP MP does not need to work hard and just sits around slapping the PAP once in a while. In that case, why vote WP in? Why not vote RP's secretary-general, KJ, who actually brought the government to court over the $4 billion loan to the IMF. Did WP bring the PAP government to court over anything? In fact, WP did not file any motions in parliament at all since they fought tooth and claw into it after 2011. Actually, maybe voters who are different from WP and PAP politically, like those who support SDP, should think of supporting RP. Dr CSJ was the one who shouted at then PM Goh over loans to Indonesia remember? It is like deja vu except that KJ is smarter and by the book, and looked better as a result. RP and SDP are closer than we think, just like PAP and WP are closer than we think in terms of their rather conservative ideology.If KJ decides to canvass for the LGBT vote these last few days, then he is after the SDP voters too.

WP is a great party, but they lost the drive for this By-E. They were energised in 2011 but in these few days, did not really follow up in the rallies on transport or housing, recent fuckups by the PAP. Or revisit their manifesto winners like healthcare. WP looked like it either ran out of ideas or steam, or both! Despite saying they would not bring it up until after the government issued a report, WP brought up the AIM issue during its second rally and that was the most creative rally point they had, which should be kept for later. Or more wet markets in Punggol East. What about something bold like WP kindergartens to rival that of PCF?

WP's mantra of voting them in to make PAP work harder is as boring and flat as the PAP's shitty fear-mongering during GE. PAP would threaten - vote us in or else investors would run away, vote us in or else property prices in the area would dive, vote us in or else upgrading would take forever to come.

WP is also coasting along, even claiming credit for everything so far as their reasoning is that if they were not in parliament, PAP would not have done anything to improve our lives. Err OK some merit but... And if we want more improvements, we should vote more WP MPs in. OK well. But not too many since they are not ready to take over the government yet. WTF! First world parliament my ass. Remember their MPs who plagiarised? Remember them telling the other parties that they choped Punggol East?

Still, WP has 2-3 more days to go and they might pick up the ball they dropped. Like I said, they are a great party but so far, they are just sadly stumbling along and if not careful, waste the chance of getting this SMC.

From Death Threats to Hope Family Action

Kenneth Jeyaretnam blazed away with complaints about a death threat to his son! WTF! You know who the death threater was ???? It is that stupid parody troll, SMRT (Feedback)! Facepalm. KJ is the son of JBJ and he contested in court to stop Singapore's $4 billion loan to the IMF as he interpreted it as unconstitutional. Still, all that comes to nothing with his petty quarrel with a well known retard troll and interpretation of that trolling as a death threat. BTW I hope police arrest that troll! Oh! Desmond Lim the other small-timer candidate in this By-E also said he received intimidating calls! Being threatened to gain sympathy and votes? Come on KJ and Desmond Lim, you guys can come up with better political stunts? At least provoke them and then be threatened with a lawsuit from them!

KJ Threatened his own Campaign Instead!

Unless what KJ is going to next is after making the police report on the so-called death threat, he will raise a copy of the police report during his rally speech and repeat his father's infamous line "And now I have here in my hands a police report"! If he does that...

While KJ shot himself with a badly executed election stunt to gain sympathy votes, PAP shot first with a lukewarm rally on Friday night. The crowd at the rally was not huge, maybe a few hundred people, and thinned even more when it began to drizzle.

The most impressive thing about the first PAP salvo was that they catered to the hearing-impaired audience, OK the deaf, can I say the word "deaf" instead of these meaningless empty political correct words? OK the other impressive thing was that Dr Arse Koh like DPM Ah Teo before him, delivered speeches in Malay. Right away the Malay votes goes to them for effort. And fuck, I know my Malay accent when I hear it, Ah Teo's Malay was better sounding than Nicole's Malay speech back in GE 2011.

Besides the form of sign language interpretation and Malay language speeches, let's give it to PAP, Dr Arse speech was so-so and kinda lame in content IMHO although his delivery was not bad. He talked that he was a Punggol boy, yawn, and that he was going to build childcare centres, coffee shops, look into feeder bus services, start a job placement centre, and Rivervale Plaza would be up by July. Plus his slogan of Hope Family and Action. All are important BTW but zzzzzzzz Errr OK, so what the fuck did Palmer do after he won in GE 2011? So what makes Punggol residents think this Dr who just popped into the scene would make a difference if another old bird PAP MP with his supposed PAP insider connections did not meet the needs of Punggol residents? Punggol residents would try someone new right?

WP you are up next. Don't disappoint and be complacent as you allowed the PAP to start first. The PAP candidate fired the first shot with local municipal concerns. Are you going to match it plan for plan, or try to regain the lost initiative and surprise Punngol and the rest of us with a with a different and bold theme. Go for WP kindergartens and clinics?