I read with great amusement DK’s post on ‘HDB RAP VIDEO PRODUCTION’.
Just why the fxxk are they spending this money when they claim they have been making a loss providing housing for Singaporeans? Would a stupid rap like this makes our stay in our pigeon holes which takes us a decade and a half (or more) to pay off more comfortable? Would it not be better they save that money so that everyone can pay maybe even $1 less for their little pigeon hole?
In fact, looking at the extravagance, it begs the questions: does the HDB this day still serve its original intended function – i.e. to provide affordable housing for Singaporeans?
While some may still claim that it is still serving the function, the reality is that some people are now taking a decade and a half or more to pay their housing loans. And for those of lower income, the flats have more or less moved out of their reach. Of course, the $3 million dollar ministers will tell you to get a smaller flat if you can’t afford it.
So, on paper, the HDB ‘still provides affordable housing for Singaporeans’ . However, it is my considered opinion that slowly and surely, the impression of its true functions today are these:
- to find a way to build the houses as cheap as possible, like $60K a unit, and then sell them for at least $100K of profits. (e.g. A brand new 4-room for first-time owner costs $160K!)
- to come up with the best way to call a discount a subsidy. (e.g. It’s a real and tangible subsidy! Because you are paying less compared to the market price! And to get the subsidy you have to sell it to some other poor sucker.)
- to come up with ridiculous arguments on why they are making a loss. (e.g. Well, if we sells the plot of land to a private developer we could have earned more!)
Add the above to the list of stuff we should get an accounting from the Tali-PAP gahmen on top of the following:
- The surprise surplus from the raise of GST;
- The escape of Mas Selamat;
- The GIC & Temasek investments;
- What exactly is being done with our national reserves?
- How did a huge sinking fund in the town councils come about when they claimed our conservancy charges are just good enough to pay for the services rendered?
- Why is the sinking fund
that grew on the money tree used for gambling investments, and yet conservancy charges are still raised?
- Are we even getting proportional returns from what they are doing with our CPF money?
Simply put, ‘You don’t ask why you strike Toto’ is a lousy and uneducated excuse to give in Parliament – by one with a doctorate no less – when the Tali-PAP is asked to be accountable for how the huge surplus comes about from the GST increase!
When asked to clarify on the principle in which the gahmen applied in looking at salary of the minister pitching to corporate world vis-a-vis when it comes to accountability and responsibility, we expect the gahmen to do so, and not answered with the question to an opposition MP if anyone thinks that DPM Wong should be fired!
These examples gives me the impression that we are being held in contempt or low regards simply for asking for some accountability! It is as if we are all being ungrateful for even asking because they think they have ‘provided’ in terms of their own self-defined job descriptions! It would appear they are expecting us to shut up because we don’t know better and we shouldn’t know! In fact, I must ask, if this attitude is our own fault, just like over indulging parents have spoil their own children?
Come on, fellow Singaporeans! It’s time we put things in the right perspective, and stop allowing the Tali-PAP to put the carriage before the horse!
It is time to look beyond that pathetic few hundred dollars of GST rebates, the car or condo you might own or the well paid job you have now. It’s time to look at how we can get this gahmen to be accountable to us!
It’s way past due time we remember that they are paid in full with their $3 million p.a. pay, and remember the performance of a gahmen during its term is nothing but vindication of our trust in them for the previous election, and not justification for us to continue ‘signing them blank cheques’ for the next term so they can continue to do whatever they want!
When, will you say with your votes: ‘Enough is enough already?’
When?
Or you already did it another way, with your feet?