2015 – A year we go Back to Basic (B2B)
Over 50 years since the independent of Singapore, we had become the first world country like US,
UK and Japan. But the citizens are crying louder each day due to the key areas listed below:
1) CPF
2) Housing
3) Education
4) Public Transport
We feel the above have already deviate from their initial purpose.
1) CPF
The intention of CPF is for Singaporeans to retire once they reaches 55 years old. Over the years, it has expanded to pay for housing loans, educational loans and etc. It supposed to be of good intention. With the ever increasing of minimum Sum, more Singaporeans are not going to retire upon reaching age 55 as many will fail to reach the minimum sum.
CPF top priority should be retirement. As of 1 Jan 2015, the allocation rate Special Account
(SA) is still and only 6%.It would be easier to reach the minimum sum if we were to fall back to 1984 where the contribution goes as high as 50%.Over the years of contribution rate adjustments, majority of the money are still used for repayment of housing loan. If this goes on, the contribution still doesn’t favours our retirement at all.
CPF primary reason is for retirement. As part of our B2B campaign, we will continue to fight for Singaporeans to withdraw their money at the age of 55. This is your entitlement after years of hard work.
2) HDB
Government housing should be affordable, which they had kept their promise in the past. It is until Build-to-Order (BTO) flats emerges, the prices started to increase sharply. By having BTO, there is a shortage of available units, hence further increase the price.
Without a place of their own, couples tend to delay having babies as they might feel a lack of privacy.
By having high HDB cost, it also means to deduct more money from our CPF. Again this contributes to the problem as discuss above.
To stabilise housing prices, more rental units should be available to young couples which they can accumulate their wealth to purchase flat of their own in the future. In our B2B campaign we will also fight to reduce HDB cost.
3) Education
The result of a child determines his or her future path. Parents spent money on tuition, enrichment classes and many other activities to boost the result of their child. Did the parents ever thought that their child is lacking social areas and soft skills?
A lot of the children has lost their childhood or an unpleasant one due to our education system.
The education system in Singapore lack of creative thinking, critical thinking, logical thinking and social behaviour.
Our (B2B) measures include bringing back your children’s childhood which part of it will be introducing more soft skill lessons.
4) Public Transport
Our major public transport providers are public listed companies, which need to report to their shareholders.
Even with the lower fuel cost and assistance from the government, they still constantly increase their fare. The reason of doing so is to maximise their profit.
In our B2B resolution, we will push for the public transport to re-nationalise where the main and only shareholder will be the government. Thus profit driven will be minimize. Once profit driven mechanism is off, the public will be served with the maximum capacity it can handles.
Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA)
*Article first appeared on https://www.facebook.com/142458545911278/photos/a.284295651727566.107374...