Nomination Day will be followed by 9 days of intensive campaigning, but due to the Covid-19 restrictions are in place. There will be no lager rallies, like normal.
It is also to be held in a civilised manner:
Some may say, this is not Democracy, but what is so âdemocraticâ about mud slinging, backbiting and lying that is the norm in many other âdemocratic countriesâ??
The 4th day of campaigning has come to a close without any major incidents, or without any personal insults having been traded.
How is that possible!!!
Then the General Election 2020 is over and the result, not surprisingly, is that the ruling party PAP won a resounding majority of the seats in Parliament, with 83 out of 93 seats total.and 61.24% of the valid votes cast.
This is less than in the last election in 2015, but better than what PAP obtained in the two elections prior to that.:
there are starting to be lots of sound people in opposition now recognising the long term issues for Singapore, the young can see this.
The catch cry is the PAP have run out of ideas
When you look at the Singapore economic policies today its based on when the British ran it;
Runs on foreign capital, Singapore supplies cheap labour ( at an increasing rate) and has a tax regime to attract those foreigners.
Foreign income repatriated to Singaore is not taxed for corporates or individuals, thats one nice gem for those with foreign income.
Thats not sustainable and worsens Singapores number one problem, very low and a falling productivity.
That hits the middle class badly.
Its the old people that vote the PAP in as they remember all the good they did 40 years ago
Middle class had huge growth in wealth and well being then.
Not so. It is based on the Swiss model, as advised by a Dutch national that had the ear of LKY in the 1960/70/80s:
I donât know when you came to Singapore, but there wasnât much of a âmiddle classâ 40 years ago.
A burgeoning âmiddle classâ did emerge in the late 1970s, but it was not until around 1990 that Singapore had a large âmiddle classâ, living in their owned HDB flats and driving their own cars.
This has change as bit in the last few years, with an increasing income gap and less interest in âshowing offâ by having an expensive car parked in (now the near empty) Multi-story car parks that exists in every HDB Housing Estate.
The problem I see with Singapore is they have matured as a nation state. A very educated but still growing population with not enough jobs to support a middle class life. The ship building and repair labor jobs are not held by Singaporeans from what I have seen. Neither are many of the construction and maintenance jobs with infrastructure. Most jobs are held by temporary workers from out of country while those Singaporeans who may be very well educated but not at the top 20% cannot find jobs and make a living wage. Singapore is at a cross roads. It will be interesting to see how things turn out. I think the Singapore we know currently has about a 10-15 year life.
There are very few Singaporeans that would take on the hot and dirty work in a shipyard, on a construction site, or in road repairs, garbage collection, tree pruning etc.
These jobs, as well as domestic helpers, cleaners, dishwashers etc. are âreservedâ for foreign workers on Work Permit, who are not entitle to bring their family, or to apply for permanent residency. or citizenship.
There are also other âdegreesâ of foreign workers, incl. several thousand Malaysians who commute across the border every day, Singpass holder, Employment Pass holder and Permanent Residents of many different nationalities. These are higher skilled and in all kinds of jobs.
It is this last group that Singaporeans are afraid compete for their jobs, not the Foreign Workers living in dormitories.
As for unemployed Singaporeans, there arenât that many. Here is the figures for the last few years:
This year the unemployment rate has, not surprisingly, gone up due to the pandemic lockdown:
If you mean with PAP in a supreme political position, you are probably right.
That Singapore should somehow turn back to a post-colonial backwater, like it was when I first lived there in the late 1960s, not likely.
Not many shipyards on Bintan, but plenty at Batam (Tg. Uncang) Many of those have Singapore parent companies and a few Singaporeans in the on-site management.
That is correct, London had some rather rough areas.
By the late 1960s they had got the coal out of the bathtubs and got rid of the smog, if I remember right.
No, not many foreign visitors in Norway at the time, nor in NZ (Both were a bit âisolatedâ at the time")
In Singapore the majority of people lived in Kampongs:
But move from the Kampongs to HDB flats was in progress:
The biggest employer were still the Royal Navy, Army and Air Force. (Until they pulled out in 1971)
Shipping under Singapore flag was in itâs infancy and the Inner Roads looked like this (1972);
Well they failed in that, Switzerland is a high productivity country with lots of home grown industry exporting to the world.
( and has a very low level of tertiary educationâŚthey just do it)
Singapore is the opposite
