Job Credit Scheme is a Misnomer!

Oxsome! Yes, that's Mr Low Thia Kiang's contribution to the Budget 2009 debate. Having come out with his reasons for the no brainer Jobs Credit Scheme, he was strong as an ox to withstand the bullies of the ruling party trying to make him look stupid. I'm glad that the speaker of the house had the decorum to make another mintster sound more stupid.

As vindictiveness is the essence of some, I won't be surprised if the whole ruling party re-orgs to come up with a slammer soon to put LTK down!

Where I'm concerned, the Jobs Credit Scheme is nothing more than a 'wag-the-dog' scheme to help companies and put the Government in a good light. It is a good hype to use the word "jobs" to give the impression that it is helping the employees. No matter how wordsmiths and lawyers would like to put LTK down, we cannot hide the fact that "Jobs Credit Scheme" is nothing but an "Employers Credit Scheme"!

The example given by Mr Low of employers saving $7,500 vs $900 must have made many experts in MOF cringe. It was reported in the Straits Times by, of all people, Chua Lee Hoong that even "Mr Ngiam Tong Dow, a retired Ministry of Finance permanent secretary, even argues that the Jobs Credit scheme is a 'strategic mistake . . . What makes the scheme easy to implement is that Singapore has in place the Central Provident Fund. The government grants are paid directly into the CPF accounts of workers.".

The scheming of this scheme is like magic! You'd know that the money from the left hand still goes back to the right hand! Interestingly, it's money from the reserves that goes to CPF that goes back to the reserves!

The greater joke is $4.9 billion dip into the reserves to make things happen.Wow, it sounds so grandiose and noble-like to have one key by government and the other key by Mr President to open the secretive keyhole of the vault to use the $4.9 billion. How much we have inside the vault only God knows! Even our past president Mr Ong Teng Cheong had trouble finding out.

Do the ministerial elites think that:

• Where our reserves comes from is of no concern to Singaporeans.
• How much is our reserves is of no concern to Singaporeans.
• Where our reserves are (apart from being in ShinCorp, ABC Learning, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, UBS, etc. where they are forced to be transparent) is of no concern to Singaporeans.
• As much as Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Chok Tong, Lee Hsien Loong, Tony Tan and Tharman Shamugaratnam can quote on the wonderful state of our reserves, who are we to know? If President Ong Teng Cheong had so much trouble seeking the truth, you think truth will be told to us peasants? So when I read "Never Break Piggy Bank" or "GIC generates returns", I'm like, "What Piggy Bank? What returns?"
  

One key, Two keys or Puki to open the vault of Temasek or GIC, is also of no concern to Singaporeans!

"Jobs Credit Scheme" or "Employers Credit Scheme"?

Meanwhile, 'Singapore will come out of this,' said Mr Tharman. 'We will bounce back the way we've bounced back three times already in 10 years.' - Straits Times

Hey, with the pay you guys are getting, we should not be in this aweful jam in the first place!

If you lead by example, you'd better cut cost (especially mintsters' salary) to save jobs in your ministries too!

Talk is so bloody cheap!

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