His stories are too remote to be taken as general trend in Singapore. It is like painting a bed of roses in a desert. Besides, I there are too many questionable messages in his speech.
1. He said ERPs are to help car owners but deliberately leave out
the fact that taxi passengers bore the charges. Thus impact the cost of livings and shops surrounding the ERP area are badly affected with many bosses suffering losses by 30 to 50% of customers.
2. He mentioned low tax rate to help the poor, but in general low income
earners are not required to pay tax and yet everyone pay GST daily which is higher than income tax. On top of GST, the conservancy charges, the utilities taxes, the property taxes, the unecessary 4D taxes if you win 3rd price/consolation price, transport hikes, and he is planning to increase some more charges in future (which is put on hold for the time being).
3. By extending maternality leaves to 16 weeks is to buy the loyality of his
civil servants because not all private companies succumb to that idea as
it put company productivity level at stake.
4. He wants Singaporean to enjoy work life balance but still suggest that Singaporean should be able to take stress and pressure in work which usually comes with long hours and jeopardize family times. This point is too contradicting to his message.
5. Just as young men sacrificed their 2 years in NS, he is now encouraging young women in their 20s to get married ahead of their career planning forgetting that once these women want to build career in their 30s or 40s it will be too late as they have passed their economic value.
6. He claims that public transport such as MRT and SBS have improved tremendously in terms of waiting time and peak hours but these are not true from experience unless LHL go down personally to take trains & buses in the morning rush hours. Is he advocating further transport hikes in the near future?
7. He wants Singaporean to learn to clear plates in food court after every meal as compared to children clearing plates at home. He forget that we paid uncessary high prices for simple food outside and some even came with GST charges and service charges and why are we clearing plates when the price of such are factored in the price we pay for the food. By the way, did he clear his own plates or his lackey dogs just lick it up for him. Please lead by what you preach and not expect Singaporean to do you service to impress others. Besides, with the influx of foreign workers, you got mixed up with what Singaporean did not do what foreigners did to tarnish our social image.
His message has caused much indigestion and I badly need some panadol to sooth it.