Chee Soon Juan lies about billions in surpluses

Debunking the lies propagated by Chee Soon Juan and SDP. 

SDP claimed that the Government collects billions in budget surpluses. This is not true. (See:http://bit.ly/2BpE4GD) 

When someone throws a number of assertions at you, you should ask them for the source of their assertions, the references to back up their assertions and you should do your own independent research to verify the truth of those assertions.

Don't be taken in for a ride.

LIES ARE A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY.

Stand up for democracy and fight against lies.

Chee Soon Juan lies about CPF

Making you angry so that he can win your vote. That's what Chee Soon Juan is doing. But lies must be exposed.

That said, think about this. CPF Life will save you from having to pay more in taxes to fund social policies to support people who will otherwise squander away their CPF savings. 

Do the mathematics, folks, and calculate how much it will cost taxpayers to support one person, who has squandered away his retirement savings, for the rest of his life at a monthly public assistance of $500.

Today, 1 in 7 Singaporeans are aged 65 and older. That's approximately 500,000. This will increase to 900,000 by 2030. Let's say only 10% will squander his retirement savings away.
Do the maths. (500 x 10% of 500,000 x 12 x no. of years he lives)

The Government's responsibility to take care of these people is also taxpayers' burden. THIS is the reality.

Exposing the lies of Chee Soon Juan and SDP one by one.

Up to 50% of net investment returns from our past reserves managed by GIC and Temasek Holdings is treated as Budget revenue. 

In fact for Budget 2017, 20% of the revenue for budget spending comes from GIC and Temasek. 

This means to say that every $1 out of $5 that the government spends come from GIC and Temasek.

Some say, why not increase their contribution to more than 50%. That will not be prudent because the government also has to ringfence our past reserves against inflation and against any fluctuations in currency which can drastically reduce the size of our reserves in bad times.

A notable quote from George Yeo:

“For as long as Singaporeans think that the government is rich, they will say look, c’mon, pass some over. But in fact, we have nothing. We are only a small island. We have no natural endowments. And what we have – I don’t know how many hundred billion dollars we have, even if you double it, what is that, compared to what others have, in the ground, in land, underwater?

And in a crisis, if we have nothing, how do you sustain a diaspora? So yes, there must be a sense that the ordinary needs of a Singaporean has got to be looked after, and a proper balance between spending of the generation today and saving for the future generation. That balance is a political balance. The government now is re-tweaking the balance, re-calibrating it, fearing it will go too far, because that will consume itself, but knowing that if it does not proceed enough, then there is no deal in the first place.

NOTE: Typo on photo. Net Investment Returns* and not Net Investment Income*

Tean Lim is a politician. PM Lee is a leader.

Tean Lim couldn't wait to deride PM Lee for "assuming the mantle of Chief Doctor" to speak about diabetes.

Why is the prime minister talking about diabetes instead of addressing rising unemployment, stagnating wages, cost of living, ultra-low productivity, he wailed.

He thinks the prime minister should only concern himself with the health of the economy and not the health of his people.

Obviously he has not heard that "health is wealth" or that "prevention is better than cure".

In all likelihood, he also does not realise that the economic health of a country is linked to the health of its population.

Health is a direct source of human welfare.

Health is also an instrument in raising income levels.

Poor health affects a worker's productivity.

Poor health affects a child's education.

Diabetes is a silent killer. It does not kill you straightaway. It damages your heart, your eyes, your nerves, your kidneys. It causes coronary heart diseases and strokes. It can cause you to lose your limbs through amputation. Wounds including surgical wounds from an operation either take a longer time to heal or get worse faster.

Diabetes robs you of the quality of your life.

You may not have heard of diabetes as a top killer but many common causes of death like heart diseases, strokes and kidney failures can be traced back to diabetes.

Knowledge is power, so it is well worth to spend time to talk about it, to raise awareness about it, to learn more about it so that we may have our own action plans to keep ourselves healthy.

Good health is, after all, a firm foundation. Build your life, your career and the economy on a firm foundation.

'PAP copied our ideas on education' is how Chee Soon Juan responded to PM Lee's NDR speech

These days, SDP has taken over from WP to do the crowing. From helping workers to early childhood education, PAP is following SDP's ideas, CSJ claimed!

And so CSJ claimed that PM Lee copied his ideas on early childhood education.

Unfortunately for Chee Soon Juan and SDP, their ideas came two years late.

Before SDP put out their ideas in 2015, then Education Minister Heng Swee Keat had already announced in MARCH 2013 a review of the education system and in particular, the launch of MOE pilot kindergartens to set the curriculum, and the quality and standard for pre-school education across Singapore.

1st APRIL 2013:

The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) was officially launched to oversee the whole pre-school sector, to bring together all ministries involved with playschool (MOE, MSF etc) and to work with operators to make sure everything works well.

KiFAS was launched which subsidises kindergarten fees up to 99% depending on the financial background of the family.

In addition to KiFAS there is also a SUG (Start up grant) which provides additional assistance to needy families to pay for items such as registration fee, insurance, deposit, uniforms, material fees, supplementary fees, etc.

Things did not happen overnight. So much had been done by the time Chee Soon Juan put up his paper in 2015 which, incidentally, contained many bad ideas.

School mergers: Elitist, cold and clinical?

Elite schools are what you call 'popular' schools.

They become elite schools because they are popular. They did not become popular because they were elite schools.

And because they are popular, they get to pick the better students of each cohort because more students apply to these schools than are places available.

And because they get to pick the better performing students, they tend to also produce better results.

Merger smacks of elitism?

It is inevitable that when schools are merged or even shut down, it is the not-so-popular schools. This is a natural consequence of events.

This is because not-so-popular schools attract fewer applicants to their schools - because they are not-so-popular with students! Consequently enrolment falls when there are more places all around (in all schools taken together) than there are students. This follows from a falling or low birth rate.

In 1991, 49,114 babies were born.

In 2011, 39, 654 babies were born.

In 2015, 33,725 babies were born.

It does not make sense at all to say that the merger exercise smacks of elitism because only the not-so-popular schools are merged.

Why would you want to merge a school that is still attracting a lot of applicants in each cohort? Would you merge an elite school with a not-so-popular school when the elite school is getting more applicants than places available?

Is there a better time for merger?

There is no better time for merger. Any time is a bad time. Any time, there will always be a cohort of students preparing for a national exam who may feel the impending loss.

No merger is popular

No merger is ever popular because of the emotional attachment and sentiments involved. A merger is not a decision taken lightly with a clinical approach. You hear the announcement but you do not know what went before the decision, how policy-makers agonized over the difficult decision they have to make. You assume it was just clinical and business.

Leaders are called upon not to make popular decisions all the time. Sometimes they have to make difficult and very unpopular decision for the good of people.

Alternative to merger and easy way out

A leader that does not want to make the unpopular decision of merging schools and colleges could take the easy way out and allow time to take care of it by just leaving schools and colleges with falling enrolments to die a slow death.

Eventually enrolment is so small, no one makes a whimper when the school is shut down.

The leader will then be the winner at the expense of students who cannot reap the best out of the system because a small school population means a less vibrant school environment, fewer subjects options, and fewer CCA options.

But that would be an irresponsible leader.

No winners in a merger?

There are winners but there are no 'happy' winners in a merger exercise but there are many losers if schools are left to be (see above: Alternative to merger)

What next? How to preserve history and culture?

Between now and the 2019 is a precious time for schools and colleges about to be merged. Alumni of schools and colleges may want to make their way back to school, perhaps even don their school uniform and have a time of reunion and capture their moments in school in videos for posterity sake.

A montage of their school could be made.

Our paths meet and we journey together.

Make history together

Instead of being spectators and helplessly watching your college 'disappear into history', why not make history together?

Current students of two schools or colleges to be merged could come together to design the uniform for the future merged college, a uniform that is a reminder of the two colleges. They could come together to write the future college song that sings of their separate history and now a shared destiny.

One more lie exposed. Character is permanent.

Chee Soon Juan found outdated as well as inaccurate information from WikiLeaks that was dated a decade ago, and he thought he found just what he needed to spin a story about the real reason for the merger of several junior colleges.

To add credence to his baseless claim, he claimed that the leaked cable was by the US Embassy in Singapore. LOL

Truth is in the light

Well, the truth concerning the merger is not hidden. It is as clear as daylight to those who desires truth.

Birth Rate Falls

Everyone knows birth rate has been falling. And falling birth rate means fewer babies born.

In 1991, 49,114 babies were born. In 2011, 39,654 babies were born. A drop of almost 10,000 babies.

New universities added 

Meanwhile, new universities have been added. From 4 public universities, we now have 6, with the new additions being SIM and SIT. This will increase the number of places in university from 13,000 to 16,000.

Think about it!

Fewer babies born + more places available in universities = more students in higher education.

In fact, the government aims for 40% of each cohort to get a shot at public universities by 2020, up from 27% in 2012.

Primary and secondary schools merger

Besides junior colleges, some primary and secondary schools are also being merged.

Will Chee Soon Juan then then do the ridiculous and tell his fans that the real reason for merging primary schools is because the government want fewer children to go to school?

Character is permanent. That's very true.