The PAP uses the same sales pitch at every election

[LITTLEREDDOT]

"Vote in the right candidate/team/party who can steer SG for the next xxxx years."

And so the cowed voters voted for this batch of 4G ministers one and two elections ago and see what the voters got?

"Right candidates" like Kee Chiu, Josephine Teo
Incompetent handling of the covid-19 pandemic
No action on overcrowded dormitories all these years
Overcrowded trains
Too many students per classroom
CECA
Record number of PMETs jobless
Ponding that happens once every 50 days

Please continue....


General election will chart Singapore's direction for next decade, says DPM Heng Swee Keat

Counting assistants pouring out ballots from the boxes before counting them at Bedok Town Secondary School, on Sept 11, 2015. ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
PUBLISHED 57 MIN AGO

Lim Yan Liang


SINGAPORE - The coming general election will chart the course Singapore takes not just for the next three to six months, but for at least the next five to 10 years, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said on Monday (June 8).

"The election is really about direction setting," he said in an interview, noting there are significant challenges Singapore has to overcome, and significant opportunities it has to seize, over the coming decade.

"If Covid-19 is a test of a generation, the next five to 10 years will be a test of how our generation overcomes this test... and emerges stronger," he added in the interview with The Straits Times and The Business Times.

"Beyond party politics and elections, I hope that Singaporeans will focus on this one issue - how do we stay together as one people."
Mr Heng was responding to a question on how the global flight to leadership amid the pandemic might translate in terms of a mandate for the People's Action Party (PAP) at the election, which is expected to be called within weeks.

"We will have to let Singaporeans decide," he told ST Associate Editor Vikram Khanna.

"But I think beyond the election, the really critical issue for all of us is, how do we bring our society together to cope with this period of massive changes."

Covid-19 has been a "sudden shock" to the system on many fronts, and how Singapore deals with the challenges that have arisen will define the country long-term, he added.
At home, restarting an economy dampened by the virus is a challenge, alongside the need to find new ways to protect lives.
Abroad, Covid-19 has not reduced but instead sharpened geopolitical tensions, and the lack of global leadership to deal with the pandemic is concerning, said Mr Heng.

Multilateral and regional institutions such as the World Health Organisation and the Asian Development Bank must rethink their roles and see what they can do to bring parties together, even as like-minded countries are banding together to pursue their own agendas.

"We have to deal with a global front, we have to deal with our economic front, we have to deal with our social front," said Mr Heng.

"It's not just this one election, but I see significant changes that we need to make, significant challenges that we need to overcome, and significant opportunities, not in the next three to six months, but in the next five to ten years.

"These are changes that will define Singapore in the future," he added, as he underlined the need for Singaporeans to stay together as one people.
In this regard, Mr Heng commended Workers' Party chief Pritam Singh for having said in Parliament that partisan politics should take a backseat and that there should be a unity of purpose in battling Covid-19.

Mr Singh had, last week, said the WP took this position so that Singapore could single-mindedly overcome the challenge, adding: "The Workers' Party has not come in to publicly criticise the Government on its handling of an unprecedented crisis in ways that would undermine the national effort."

Said Mr Heng: "That is good, for a party to be responsible and take that view. Unfortunately, it's not the case for all parties, because there are parties that are (saying) 'well, look, this thing was not well done, that thing was not well done' and so on."

Mr Heng said there is a time and place to review policy decisions.

But right now, Singapore is "in the midst of a major battle on many fronts".

"All our people and all our leaders in every segment of our society must first and foremost look forward," said Mr Heng.

"What is ahead of us? What are the dangers in front of us? What are the opportunities in front of us? Let us focus our minds on the coming days and months, and the future."

There is value in looking back to see if there is something that can be done better as Singapore goes forward in this fight, he acknowledged, but said, calling for an accounting and fault-finding at this stage is a distraction from what needs to be done.


"I welcome any good suggestions about how we might do better in this battle. I'm very open to good ideas. You know my style," said Mr Heng, who initiated the Our Singapore Conversation after the 2011 General Election and launched the Singapore Together movement last year to generate citizen participation and involvement in shaping policies and programmes.

"Covid-19 is an important occasion for us to reinforce Singapore Together," he said. "How does Singapore come together to build the future of Singapore and to rebuild structures which have been damaged by this gale force wind?

 

[knnb40]

yeah I listen for 20-years.
would not want my kids to listen to the same tune and faced the same dilemma.
with the high salary MIW is clear and present risk.
1) gst beyond 7% but they still collect million dollars pa
2) my kids will have to compete with foreigner on usd-1500 to usd-4500 after he out from ITE/Poly/University
3) call me idiot behind closed door - have guts call me idiot during GE2020 lah

 

[spotter542]

Always using fear

 

[blackmondy]

Whatever direction Piss And Poop takes will always be a "Screw Singaporeans" direction.

 

[knnb40]

always fear or threaten tactics -

no HDB upgrade your HDB will become slump

no job no investor as political not stable everybody will not come (?? so all asian country different political style yet trade and investment still raving ???)

don't open economic singapore no job....(asian country you think they are open ? only Singapore government open big big and wait to get fuck)

 

[bobby]

Heng led team in concluding CECA with India opening up SG for Indian FTs

On 29 June 2005, India and Singapore signed the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). This free trade agreement not only enables Singapore and India to trade goods freely, it also allows professionals to work in each other country more easily.

The CECA was concluded after 13 rounds of negotiation and the Singapore’s side was led by none other than Heng Swee Keat, the current PM-in-waiting, who was then Permanent Secretary for Trade and Industry. Heng and his team essentially did the ground work together with their Indian counterparts. They then presented their proposals to the politicians for approval.

Some of the areas covered by CECA include: Improved Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement, Trade in Goods, Customs, Investment, Trade in Services, Intellectual Property, etc.

However, controversial ones include concluding further Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) so as to facilitate the freer movement of professionals between Singapore and India. It helps to recognise each other’s education and professional qualifications so that Indian and Singaporean professionals from the following five professions could be able to practise in each other country:

1. Accounting and auditing
2. Architecture
3. Medical (doctors)
4. Dental
5. Nursing

Already, Singapore now recognises degrees of Indian doctors and nurses from certain Indian universities.

Movement of Natural Persons

Then, CECA also enables movement of persons between both countries. In particular, professionals employed in 127 specific occupations will be allowed entry and stay for up to 1 year or the duration of contract, whichever is less.

Also, intra-corporate transferees (i.e. managers, executives and specialists within organisations) will be permitted to stay and work in India and Singapore for an initial period of up to 2 years or the period of the contract, whichever is less.

The period of stay may be extended for period of up to 3 years at a time for a total term not exceeding 8 years.

In theory, of course, CECA could also benefit Singaporean professionals wanting to work in India but how many Singaporeans really want to work there to earn in rupees?

Indian companies try to exploit CECA loophole


After CECA was signed, some of the Indian IT companies set-up in Singapore tried to exploit the “intra-corporate transferee” loophole so as to get more Indian IT workers to work here. They would hire them in India and then “transfer” them to their Singapore subsidiaries to work, without the need to hire any Singaporeans.

This is because in Article 9.3, it said:

“Neither Party shall require labour market testing, economic needs testing or other procedures of similar effects as a condition for temporary entry in respect of natural persons upon whom the benefits of this Chapter are conferred.”

That is to say, economic needs testing like Singapore’s fair consideration framework which ensures fair hiring of Singaporeans cannot be applied to “intra-corporate transferees”. To top it all, Article 9.6 even allows the “intra-corporate transferees” to bring their spouses or dependents into Singapore to work.

India unhappy with Singapore

By 2017, thanks to CECA, large number of Indian professionals especially those in IT sector were moved into Singapore as “intra-corporate transferees”, since CECA did not set any quotas. Few Singaporeans, if any, were hired.

Many Singaporean PMETs started filing complaints of discrimination to the Manpower Ministry through the Fair Consideration Framework. The Singapore government was forced to slow down the approvals of Indian professionals to work here.

“This (visa problem) has been lingering for a while but since early-2016, visas are down to a trickle. All Indian companies have received communication on fair consideration, which basically means hiring local people,” the president of Nasscom, the IT association of India, complained.

In retaliation, the Indian government decided against expanding the scope of goods where import duties for Singapore goods would be cut unless the concerns of Indian industry are addressed, the Times of India reported.

In particular, the Indian government is against Singapore using the “fair consideration framework” to regulate the employment of Indian professionals in Singapore. “They (Singapore) are doing it despite the CECA clearly stating that there will be no ENT (economic needs test) or quotas on agreed services. This is a violation of the agreement,” warned an Indian official.

Obviously, when Heng negotiated CECA with India prior to 2005, he had not foreseen all these issues facing Singaporean PMETs. Perhaps he cared more if GIC and Temasek could invest freely in India or if DBS could open more branches there?

Nevertheless, Heng was confirmed to be appointed DPM of Singapore on May Day. Opposition member Lim Tean has this to say to Heng, the current PM-in-waiting, “Heng Swee Keat should explain his role in CECA, which cost Singaporeans jobs! What is the benefit to Singapore of CECA?”