national day rally 2010.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
another busy weekend - holidays to plan for, tuition classes to prepare, comex, and the list goes on. well, at least i'm being productive here.
however busy i am, i promised myself i will talk about the National Day Rally 2010. PM Lee, I must admit, is a good speaker, although his mandrin could still be improved. He brings forward a personal touch that not many leaders could do as well, and memorizing such a long script is impressive to say the least. Now for the issues covered.
Firstly, the usual stuff about the economy. Yes, our economy is improving, nothing much to comment on here.
Secondly, immigration. a problem that has been with us for many years. PM Lee made the justification for allowing foreign talent and workers in as easy to understand as he could. But as our population just crossed the 5 million mark, the key is now the quota that we should set for foreigners. and for embracing them into our society, Singaporeans must understand that foreigners are here to do jobs that Singaporearns either cannot or don't want to do. It is never an easy task integrating foreigners into a society, and more definitely can be done.
And then transport. The train distruption between Jurong East and Clementi this weekend is close to a disaster, if not one. But then again, the government is doing its best to improve the existing infrastructure. I'm not going to question why the government did not forsee a hike in ridership and start the works a few years earlier, especially so for the case of the Jurong East MRT. But what irks me are 2 issues - that (with the exception of Jurong East) the East are receiving more focus than the West, and that trains are still coming at 6 min interval during non peak hours, causing trains to be packed like they are in 7am in the morning.
Thirdly, housing. I'm not very familiar with the old rules, so I may not be in the best position to comment on this. But I've been following the papers closely this couple of days, and there are a few new rules that seem to be contradictory to our policies on immigration. One of which is that you got to sell your private property, whether in Singapore or overseas, within 6 months if you want to buy a resale flat here. This has the greatest impact on PRs. Many of them own private property in their home countries where their families reside in. Making it compulsory to sell their private property puts them in a dilemma - To sell their private property and result in their families having nowhere to stay or to not buy a flat in Singapore but opt to buy a condo or leave altogether? So much for making PRs feel more like home in Singapore and encouraging them to be citizens. I really wonder if the policy makers thought of this when they made the decision.
Finally, education. Another contradictory policy in place - IP. On one hand they are trying to shift the focus from a do-or-die examinations (especially the PSLE), on the other they are expanding the IP and even offering it to the N(A) students. While I do see the benefits of the N(A) one (that on another post when I'm freer), I think the current one has too many cons that come with it. Yes, it does allow more room for independent learning and reduces the dependence on O Levels, it is one which breeds complacency and inevitably makes PSLE extremely important, as that is the benchmark for acceptance into IP. I've talked about the IP before, so I guess I will leave the topic here, for now.
And I'm disappointed that the mother tongue policy isn't mentioned.
that's about all I have now...I have to get back to work. =)
however busy i am, i promised myself i will talk about the National Day Rally 2010. PM Lee, I must admit, is a good speaker, although his mandrin could still be improved. He brings forward a personal touch that not many leaders could do as well, and memorizing such a long script is impressive to say the least. Now for the issues covered.
Firstly, the usual stuff about the economy. Yes, our economy is improving, nothing much to comment on here.
Secondly, immigration. a problem that has been with us for many years. PM Lee made the justification for allowing foreign talent and workers in as easy to understand as he could. But as our population just crossed the 5 million mark, the key is now the quota that we should set for foreigners. and for embracing them into our society, Singaporeans must understand that foreigners are here to do jobs that Singaporearns either cannot or don't want to do. It is never an easy task integrating foreigners into a society, and more definitely can be done.
And then transport. The train distruption between Jurong East and Clementi this weekend is close to a disaster, if not one. But then again, the government is doing its best to improve the existing infrastructure. I'm not going to question why the government did not forsee a hike in ridership and start the works a few years earlier, especially so for the case of the Jurong East MRT. But what irks me are 2 issues - that (with the exception of Jurong East) the East are receiving more focus than the West, and that trains are still coming at 6 min interval during non peak hours, causing trains to be packed like they are in 7am in the morning.
Thirdly, housing. I'm not very familiar with the old rules, so I may not be in the best position to comment on this. But I've been following the papers closely this couple of days, and there are a few new rules that seem to be contradictory to our policies on immigration. One of which is that you got to sell your private property, whether in Singapore or overseas, within 6 months if you want to buy a resale flat here. This has the greatest impact on PRs. Many of them own private property in their home countries where their families reside in. Making it compulsory to sell their private property puts them in a dilemma - To sell their private property and result in their families having nowhere to stay or to not buy a flat in Singapore but opt to buy a condo or leave altogether? So much for making PRs feel more like home in Singapore and encouraging them to be citizens. I really wonder if the policy makers thought of this when they made the decision.
Finally, education. Another contradictory policy in place - IP. On one hand they are trying to shift the focus from a do-or-die examinations (especially the PSLE), on the other they are expanding the IP and even offering it to the N(A) students. While I do see the benefits of the N(A) one (that on another post when I'm freer), I think the current one has too many cons that come with it. Yes, it does allow more room for independent learning and reduces the dependence on O Levels, it is one which breeds complacency and inevitably makes PSLE extremely important, as that is the benchmark for acceptance into IP. I've talked about the IP before, so I guess I will leave the topic here, for now.
And I'm disappointed that the mother tongue policy isn't mentioned.
that's about all I have now...I have to get back to work. =)