The price of two-room flats at the EastLace@Canberra and EastCrown@Canberra projects are actually priced at $70,000, less the Special CPF Housing Grant (SHG) of $20,000 that was introduced in 2011, and the Additional CPF Housing Grant of $40,000 for first time buyers. The big question is how many of the 3,497 new flats launched by HDB in the non-mature towns of Sembawang, Sengkang and Yishun are priced at this level.
The EastLace and EastCrown flats are not the cheapest in terms of overall price. In June 2010, the price tag for a two-room flat at Rivervale Arc was $68,000. Still, this is proof that housing can be truly affordable, if they have the political will to make it so.
The newly minted permanent secretary at the Law Ministry said it was vital to find ways to understand what the silent majority is talking about, "Otherwise, your policies and laws may well be shaped by a very loud and noisy minority." Which is a strange thing to say. As long as anyone can remember, policies and laws have always been shaped by the small but voluble coterie of elites ensconced in ivory towers. The Population White Paper may not carry any signatures, but you know where the perpetrators can be found. Hint: their pay starts at $300,000++.
Speaking at the promotion ceremony for elite public service officers at the Marina Mandarin Hotel, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the Government faces a challenge of retaining the public's trust in a new and more challenging environment. “If we fail to manage public trust and if we end up with the deep scepticism about government seen in many other countries, it will reduce our space (to) manoeuvre." The latter will mean gerrymandering and all manner of manipulation of electoral boundaries will be more difficult to carry out. That's what the silent majority in this country is really talking about, the schemings to perpetuate the ruling class and protect their iron rice bowls. With the occasional crumbs for the peasants to nibble on, like a $10,000 public housing unit.
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People call The Shitty Times Shits Papers. It is the mouthpiece of the gov't. When maybe one unit is sold to the very rare and eligible person at $10,000, they report as if all 2 room flats are offer at $10,000 each. When people is against the population white paper, what did they report? When trust is lost, it is lost. Most in the papers reporting and the gov't.
ReplyDeleteIf the silent majority is 'silent', then how do they know they are 'majority'? Pray tell.
ReplyDeleteTharman said there are three things policymakers must do to retain public trust and govern well.
ReplyDeleteThey are: to implement policies well (you mean like the shoddy Population White Paper?); include the public in working out solutions (like NatCon?); and invest in community life (like giving $500 million to PA to splurge?).
What they do well is to create a facade of strong public trust and good governance. DPRK does that equally well if not better.
Silent majority is a euphemism for people who are dead. The law perm sec can go to hell if he wishes to know their views.
ReplyDeleteAnother year, another bumper harvest of newly minted elites. They haven't even recalled the previous batch of surplus-to-requirement (aka no estab) admin oppicers seconded to the respective mayor's offices, all paid more at the same rate or more than the mayors (who are themselves chiak liao bees)! At this speed of promotion, maybe the "noisy minority" who now shapes policies risk becoming the rich majority. Where does that leave the poor majority then? Anyway, the sperm sec may not know it, but the poor majority wield something his phd (permanent head damaged) cannot buy nor out-wit: its shaped in the form of a small rectangular paper shafted into a tight hole every 5 years :) Shiok arghh!
ReplyDeleteAll these mandarins need to do is to hold a referendum with only one question - do you trust the government? There is no need to pontificate on that. I am confident, if the recent Presidential election is any guide, that a solid majority will say NO. Indeed it appears that the citizenry are looking forward to the next GE.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is, there is no such thing as silent majority.
ReplyDeleteWe are not talking about the dead.
There is really only the voiceless majority.
Their views were not heard as they are not represented by the mainstream media, nor their self-invested PA, nor the out-of-touch elite MIW, or the ivory-towered civil servants.
Thankfully, internet has allowed the voiceless to become voiceful. But you will soon see more fabrication teams aka the Internet bridgade doing more fabrications and harassments so to drown out the real voices.
Yes, it took the policymakers 8 year stoo realise that we did not have enough policemen nad that too after the all hell broke lose. If the riots did not happen they will never admit this. That's why we need more Sylvia Lims in parliament. She knew what this policy makers did not 8 year ago.
ReplyDelete