Singapore GE 2011, Tampines GRC: PAP Vs NSP

Well well, the Singapore General Election is well underway, and as 1 of the voters in my constituency, I have to make a choice to let which team to govern me for the next 5 years. Lets take a look and digest the choices offered, starting with opposition.

NSP manifesto

Economy

Benefits:

• Priority for Singaporeans in Employment. They are advocating protectionism. On the surface, it looks good as more jobs are available for Singaporean, but is it good for the industry as a whole, esp with Singaporean demanding higher pay? Business is about dollars and cents, if they can't make $, they just pack and go. No, giving priority is not the way to go. Let the market forces decide and you have to be worth the price paid to you.

• Higher wages with stricter supply of foreign workers. This is a disaster. They are advocating 25% quota, meaning 25% foreigner and 75% Singaporean, with higher quota for industries not popular with Singaporean. How much higher will the quota be? Nothing said, look at construction and service, can they sustain? I think inflation will rise even higher if they enforce this.

• Focus on industries with jobs suited to Singaporeans. They give an example of training more doctors and therapists, which is as well a joke. Not everyone has the intelligence to be a doctor or therapists.

• Financial support for Local SMEs. They advocate preferential treatment for some government project. You mean you rather choose a B local team than an A overseas team which may be cheaper?

Housing

Benefits:

• Lower prices for first time buyers of new HDB flats. First time buyers to pay slightly above the cost of building the flats plus a discounted land price (which means 30%-40% discount to current price). Result: Good for first time buyers, bad for rest of assets owners as they will see their property value starts dropping. Why? Given the huge profits one stands to gain, everyone will just move in for BTO. Once they can sell the flat, they just cash in at whatever profits they deem reasonable. Before you know it, prices start dropping when sellers undercut each other when the volume of sellers spike.

• More compassionate rules and regulations to avoid homelessness. ok this one is reasonable.

• Upgrading for you no matter which way you vote. Hmm, this one I agree.

Ok, enough about their manifesto at the moment, will post more in my next post if I have the time. I am more concern now with what they propose to do in Tampines should they get elected. Below is an abstract I got from the Straits Times:

 THE National Solidarity Party will push for a community hospital to be built in Tampines to cater to the increasing numbers of residents above the age of 60. NSP secretary-general Goh Meng Seng cited this as one of the party's plans, if he and his four team members were elected as MPs for the GRC in the upcoming election. The team would also erect a sound barrier near Tampines MRT station to reduce the noise for residents living nearby, increase the availability of parking lots and improve estate maintenance such as fixing leaking roofs and clearing rubbish in a timely fashion.

1 more community hospital in Tampines? For goodness sake, if you take a look around at our current hospital, they are already severely short-handed. Who is going to mend your new hospital? Besides, we already have our next door Changi General Hospital, is there a better location other than Tampines? I think Punggol will be a better choice.

Next, a sound barrier near Tampines MRT station. Can you show me how you are going to do it given the lack of space already? I don't really like to talk but no concrete action type.

Increase availability of parking lots. Isn't HDB already doing that currently, converting open air car parks into multi storey carparks? Have you done your ground work?

Fixing leaking roofs and clearing rubbish in a timely fashion. Any examples? I thought we already out source the clearing of rubbish to 3rd party and for what I have seen, they are doing a good job, less some inconsiderate resident who anyhow throw rubbish during the night, causing a mess in the morning, which cannot be help. Can you show me some examples where rubbish is not cleared in a timely fashion?

I am not saying PAP is all that good. MBT did a mess of the HDB 2 years ago, freezing the flat supply and causing a problem now, but by the looks of it, looks like I have to make a choice between the lesser of the 2 evils.

Hall Pass

Synopsis: Rick (Owen Wilson) is a married man whose wife grants a one-week pass of freedom to do whatever he wants (affairs included), with no questions asked. Joining in the fun is his best pal Fred, (Jason Sudeikis) who at first thinks it's a dream come true. But it isn't long until things start to get a little out of control, as both their wives start engaging in extramarital activities as well. [Source: Yahoo! Singapore Movies]

Interesting concept. A 1 week break from marriage with no question asked. Apart from that, the whole movie is basically a no brainer, with crude jokes dished out that sometimes are not funny at all. At least a saving lifeline at the end was to show the audience that for the women that you have decided to marry, always be faithful and treasure her. My recommendation is to give this movie a skip unless you have nothing better to watch.

Rate: 5/10

Limitless

Synopsis: Eddie (Bradley Cooper) is an unemployed copywriter that believes all hope is lost when his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) leaves him. However things start to change when Eddie finds himself in possession of a drug that has some curious effect on its user. From his first hit, he realises that the drug boosts the intellect. It makes him highly focused and confident, thus he uses the drugs to come up in the financial world. Before long he catches the eye of business mogul Carl (Robert De Niro) and several hitmen who are in close pursuit to acquire the NZT drug. [Source: Yahoo! Singapore Movies]

Interesting plot centered around a drug that could boost human brain neurons and make any takers superhuman and invincible. Though the scriptwriter portrays the drug to be powerful enough to cause people willing to kill to get their hands on the pills, however, the pills "Wow" effects on human are lacking. All they can come out are some guy churning money off financial market, winning fights against a group of people, escaping pursuits by taking a girl on ice skates and slashing the ice skate blades on the pursuers. Given the all mighty effects of the drugs, the viewers are anticipating more. What happens to all the breakthrough inventions? Interesting plot, some exciting actions, if you are looking fr some time to kill, you can give this movie a try.

Rate: 6/10

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Faster

Synopsis: Following a 10-year prison stint, Driver (Dwayne Johnson) sprints out the gates on a mission to exact vengeance on those responsible for his brother's murder. Within hours of dispatching his first victim, Driver has two men on his tail: a veteran police officer (Billy Bob Thornton) and an eager assassin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Driver tries to stay one step ahead of his pursuers, but there are hints that his list is incomplete, and his life may be further endangered by an unknown source. [Source: Yahoo! Singapore Movies]

In summary, fast is the revenge but do you have what it takes to stay ahead? There is not much character development to speak of in the movie, just plain gun throttling actions of hunting down one target after another. There is one abrupt twist at the end of who the real mastermind is, which is kind of good, but still could not justify why audiences should pay the money to watch this movie. It will be better to give this one a skip.

Rate: 6/10