Introduction
Yes, it's election year and this blog is suppose to be about my personal finance not politics. Well, election does not happen often in Singapore and it's not as exciting as my home country, Taiwan. But this year's election is much more exciting (I feel media is too quiet). Although not every citizen gets to vote, but in this election a lot of you will be voting, I sincerely congratulate you.
Most parties have its manifesto consists of their policies base on their beliefs, ideas, and etc. for Singapore and it's citizens. If you re voting, you should read it carefully. We should also devise our own ideas for government policies base on our belief and conviction.
Personal Belief
My belief is base on Protestant's Holy Bible. I believe the Bible is infallible and I am more incline to take some passages literally. For example, it takes God six days to create the world and for me, a day is 24 hours. Bible is written for man to understand and not for us to second guess what does it really mean. I am clearly a fundamentalist and evangelical. Therefore, my principle of morality is conservative, but this does not mean I am a moral person and not all my deeds are moral. I am a sinner and I will continue to sin (I do try to cut down my sins). What is morally conservative anyways? Different people view it differently.
In a civil society, I do not support death penalty because ten commandments which was the written law from God does not permit one to kill. This does not mean I am a liberal. I also despise the idea of abortion. Yes, fetus can be scientifically proven to be lifeless, but one can not deny it's a initial life form for human being. I also believe in war of intervention. When Genocide occurs in a society, it's no longer a civil society and it should stopped by force if necessary. This does not mean I support death sentence given to Saddam Hussein. My belief is quite in line of Baptist's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptist_beliefs
Separation of Church and State
My belief and conviction are drawn from the Bible. My conviction is to share the Gospel and to teach God's way. But I firmly support separation of church and state. I strongly accept a secular state. I really don't care how many casino, red light district, and etc. we've got. My Lord Jesus never use political mean to overthrow the government. He left the Roman empire in tact. But He did fervently clean up His temple. Church belongs to Jesus and state belongs to its variety of people.
Democracy
I am a strong believer in democracy because each one us gets only one vote regardless of education, race, religion, wealth, and etc. Most importantly, history clearly shows autocracy is unfair and some even treat people cruelly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy
For those who knows me well, they know I am not fond of PAP and unlike most Singaporean, I don't adore MM Lee. But I do admire his love toward his wife.
My friend who lives in Holland village all her adult years had not voted in her life. Finally, this year she was excited that her GRC was contested by opposition. But somehow and I mean somehow, her estate was absorb into my GRC, Tanjong Pagar. I also got a friend who is almost forty years old is casting his maiden vote in this election.
If opposition was elected to government, the first thing they must do is to make sure everyone gets to vote. We must get rid of GRC and redraw boundaries. We have to make sure boundaries are geographical logical and stay intact, but some flexibility should be allowed due to population shift like en block or new residential state.
My suggestion is to divide Singapore into 10 districts and each district consists of 8 single constituencies. Each district has 2 "open" seats reserve for losers that garner the most votes. The open seats are prioritize for minority races to prevent marginalizing them. The numbers of districts, constituencies, and "open" seats are illustration only and need further discussion. (All numbers mentioned in the rest of article are only for illustration and open to discussion.)
MP should be a full time job and this is to serve people full time. Also, MP should not be allow to do sideline work to avoid conflict of interest. In order to contest a constituency, candidates must be a resident of the district where the constituency is under.
Free-Market Economy
I believe in an economy that is drive by market force with minimum government intervention. This kind of economy is called market economy or free-market economy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_economy
Government should let go of all government link companies (maybe keeping PSA and other infrastructure related assets) and merge GIC and Temasek into one sovereign-wealth fund which can sub-divide into different field like energy, finance, IT, service, and etc. Government is merely a caretaker of assets, fund, and national companies and must take no part in executive duty. Assets, fund, and national companies should manage by private hand. All audit reports should make public for scrutinizing and change audit firm every two years. Also strategy should be review by consulting firm and change consulting firms every 5 years. The goal is to create a self-sustainable government that minimize tax collection.
Minimum wage is a complicated policy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage Some for and some against it. I for one is against it. A lot of countries set minimum wage and it does not solve the problem of poverty. You may find more info of this topic in the
Economist. I take their side on minimum wage.
Somehow, the market is driven by desires and sometimes greed. Most people blame it on free market. Is it correct? We should not be gullible and easily tempted. We change consumer electronics or any other products way too often. Ideally, we should use it until it worn out or broke.
After the financial crisis and severe earthquake which created tsunami that put Japan in nuclear crisis, people are starting to realize we are squandering Earth's resources and too splurge. Currently, western world is starting it's austerity policies.
CPF board should privatize into a investment fund and let people have the freedom to choose what kind of fund they want to invest in. It's still necessary for the government to force people to contribute money for retirement. I think 20% of salary is good enough, 10% from company and 10% from employee.
Most people feel free-market will raise poverty. Therefore, government should have welfare programs to support less fortunate people. Government must make sure people has four basic necessities, clothing, food, shelter, and transportation. Clothing and food are less of an issue for Singaporean so I won't address them.
Housing
The goal of HDB is to "provide Singaporeans with quality homes and living environments" not creating monetary gains for owners. We should scrap HDB and privatize all public housing. Recently, the Economist wrote a special report on property.
This special report will argue that the effects of property booms and busts can be made less damaging, but that the asset itself is inherently unsafe. Another rich-world bubble may be unlikely in the near term, but things feel very different in emerging markets. In China in particular, the worry is about another bubble that could shake the world economy. And even in developed markets, property, which many people regard as stable, will always be prone to volatility.
The report also stated "If home ownership was the American dream before the bust, lots of people are now waking up to the benefits of renting". It also mentioned German's home ownership rate is 46%
, Switzerland is below 40%, and Singapore is almost 90%.
All residential estates within 2km radius of MRT stations should rent to people who has household income below S$8,000. Each estate should have all basic amnesties like clinics, public library, swimming pool, and etc. It should also have nursing home and dormitory for maids.
My idea is bold in Singapore, but it's normal in other developed nations.
Transportation
Government should nationalize all public transportation companies and refraining from operation, but let private operators run it. Every 2 years, MRT lines and bus routes are open for tender to seek the lowest fix fare price.
Taxi companies should be left alone, but should give discount to less fortunate people who is handicap and elderly.
Our government already discourage car ownership, but alternative is very limited. Government should encourage people to rent cars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_sharing
Part 2 will be my views on education, health care, and immigration and my conclusion.
