Sunday, May 15, 2011

In Singapore, we just had our election last week and the results were rather astounding particularly for the ruling party. Even though the Party garnered the majority vote to continue as the Government, the win has been a dismal win of slightly more than 60%, causing the government to examine themselves to see what has gone wrong to have so many votes gone to the Opposition.
There have been opposing views and people have expressed their unhappiness with quite a number of issues and decisions made.

People are unhappy that they could not take out all their CPF monies at the age of 55 as legislation has been passed to hold back part of the payment first to 60, then to 62.
Another peeve is the open door policy to foreigners whom citizens have perceived as threats to their employment opportunities, education and other benefits as citizens.

Government has time and again spoken on the need to have foreign workers in Singapore for the country's economic growth but people were not convinced.
Another area in which people are unhappy is the escalating price of properties, particularly for young people who want their first home and the price of housing has gone beyond their means.

The feeling on the ground is that the government has become uncaring and has stopped heeding their needs. Many have felt that the government has taken a high-handed approach and ignore them.

The election has resulted in lots of expression of discontentment on the Internet and for once people can express their feelings more easily via the Internet without fear of repercussions. " The government cannot put all of us in jail!" was the expression. There was indeed a strong sense of liberation in this year's election.
Freedom of speech comes with responsibility, so while we welcome the chance to speak up and take a more active part in the affairs of the country, we must also heed the need to be clear-headed and not just be swayed by emotions and oppositions with their own agenda. It is important that Singaporeans need to be level-headed and think through with the interest of the country in mind.

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