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Saturday, March 10, 2012

Another $1,100,000,000.00 Tuck Yew Joke!

Why do the poor in Singapore have to bend over backwards to serve and make the rich richer?

Before my tears dried from the sad laughter derived from the joke of our government spending $860,000.00 on Mercer to recommend the million$ salary of ministers, I'm now shocked to know that Lui Tuck Yew will be spending $1.1 billion to help SMRT & SBS buy and operate more buses.

As much a they try to dazzle us with their brilliance, they do nothing but confuse us with their crap! Just what type of public transport operators do we have in Singapore? Are they privatized or nationalized? Or have Singaporeans been paralyzed?

Ex-MM Lee said Singaporeans are 'daft'. I may be wrong but I think Singaporeans are kind. They are so good natured that their kindness has been taken as a weakness. When injustices are committed against them, they would just grin and bear!

How can management, directors and shareholders of PTOs enjoy humongous salaries, bonuses, profits and dividends year in year out when taxpayers' money of $1,100,000,000.00 are used to help them run their bus business? This is after the increases in fares that's surprisingly approved by PTC only recently! How can the government allow and support such atrocity, such bully?

I mean, hey, it's the people's money! Is it only in Singapore that the PTOs can have the cake and eat it while having a free lunch?

My heart pains when Singaporeans are told by the PAP government of how it has taken such good care of its people especially the disabled, sick and needy old. It hurts to know that it is not the government that takes care of us. It is we who take care of ourselves! Generally, most Singaporeans, though poor, would depend on themselves to make a living, to survive. If they cannot earn their keeps due to sickness or old age or worse (losing their jobs to foreigners), majority would first deplete their savings (if any), depend (borrow) from family and friends or even Ah Longs before they would submit themselves to the indignity of being interrogated and asked, "You want your 3 meals in restaurant, food court or hawker centre?" to receive the measly public assistance!

The epic failure of PTOs in not giving discount to the disabled in Singapore is so telling! To hear Lui Tuck Yew say: "Now that senior citizens have been granted their full-day concessions, the next groups that I am sympathetic to are the disabled and polytechnic students. However, I urge Members to be patient as not all of these requests can be addressed immediately or entirely within a single fare revision exercise." is to make one cringe! [Link] I perceive Tuck Yew is more sympathetic to the bosses of PTOs than to the disabled Singaporeans and the Polytechnic students!

Lest I be accused for being unreasonable in my perception, I'm just sore that many have been sleeping on their shift!  The transport and housing crisis should not and would not have happened if ministers are on the ball and work in symphony! With their first world LKY schooled talents, how can they increase the population with foreigners by 2,000,000 without correspondingly match the social, housing and transportation needs? Damned! Even a moronic angry bird would build a nest before baby bird arrives! It's hard to fathom why our million$ ministers didn't have such foresight.

Yet another sick joke:
If "For every dollar that low-income Singaporeans paid in taxes in their lifetimes, they now get back $4 in the form of government aid [Link], how much did PTO's paid in taxes to get $1.1 billion in the form of people's aid?



feedmetothefish

23 comments:

  1. Can you fault the Minister for acting like this.

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  2. Clap, clap, clap. Unbeliever but it is true.

    Fish, I think they really regret letting go of Saw Phaik Wah. She would get the billions without asking a cent from the govt, and would still turn in hundreds of millions of profits.

    I can speak of housing as well. When profit is concerned it is so easy to make. I can do equally well. Just tell me how much to make. : )

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    1. Oh we are nvr short of jokers and retards these days! They are everywhere. Mind you there are not cheap either! Being paid millions by the citizens and they scheme ways and means to squeeze and extract every cent out of you ! We are like slaves here whilst the rich capitalists get even richer! That is the trend now. It's a sad truth.

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  3. I failed to understand why they don't open up the transport industry to allow competition which doesn't exist at all. Look at Hong Kong, for example.

    To give $1.1 billion to private organization which have been profitable for many years on the pretext of subsidizing the people is one of the biggest jokes in this world.

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  4. Doesn't Temasek own half of SMRT? So if they make SMRT pay for the buses, Temasek will loss money on the "investment." So to keep high return (or bailing out?), the government transfer taxpayer money to its investment vehicle.

    Singapore government should get out of GLCs and these "privatized" entities. They are profitable only because of their dominant and monopoly positions, not efficiency and productivity.

    When the government is not financially vested in these enterprises, it can then make rational decisions in the best interest of taxpayers.

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  5. Hey Fish, you know what I think? They are augmenting the bus fleets in anticipation of a further influx of FTs into this tiny already congested red dot/black spot. Shows they have belatedly learned a lesson, that they have to improve the infrastructure before bringing in more people to boost the GDP, their holy grail, otherwise the public will 'cow peh cow boh' when the public transport is further strained (to breaking point in many instances). Have they not said that they will be reviewing the optimal population size this island can support (as if all these years they do not know), and you know what? I bet it will be more than the current 5 million. The irony is that we are one of the smallest country in the world, the second most densely populated, and they want more people here. Madness!

    By the way I am probably a contemporary of yours, one of the first batch of graduates drafted into national service in 1969. I admire your posts, they highlight bad government policies and the social inequalities here, and you speak up for most of the poor and working class, the marginalised and retirees. Have a good day.

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    1. They are planning to bring in more FTs to this tiny red dot already congested with ppl. This is to prepare for 2016 cuz they know the original local citizens are not supporting them by brininging more FTs and hopely giving them citizenship, they hope to retain power cuz the newly minted citizens will be grateful to them and could be translated into votes! This the greater scheme of things. Got it? Think over it carefully why after 50 yrs, they decided to pump in tax payers' money to prop up those private transport companies when they are making profits every year? It meets more than the eye. Really langgar!

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  6. Let's keep the man separate from his ideas & proposals.

    A good man can have good or bad ideas at any one point in time.

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  7. The question is why are we (tax payers) giving $1.2 billion dollars to private, profitable bus companies?

    Why can't the bus companies raise the money themselves?
    a. rights issues of more shares
    b. reduce dividend payouts
    c. issue new corporate bonds
    d. borrow the money from the banks

    Alternatively ask Gerard Ee to convene a committee of inquiry to explore alternatives.

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  8. SBS Transit paid out $22.8 million in dividends in 31st Dec 2011.

    SMRT paid $117.5 million in dividends in 2010.

    So estimated combined dividend payout to shareholders' of the 2 companies = $140.3 million.

    So if both companies stop their dividend payments for 7.8 years
    ($1100 million divide by $140.3 million = 7.8 years.)

    The 2 companies can finance the $1.1 billion themselves.

    No need subsidy from Singapore taxpayers.
    No danger of a welfare mentality to Singapore.
    The 2 companies can continue to claim they achieve world class by their own meritocratic efforts.

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  9. After 50 years of running Republic of Singapore PAP has to buy buses using tax payer monies for a transport company.

    The money, the time of the
    government wasted.

    In Hongkong the public transport is more or less auto pilot mode. Private sector takes over.


    PAP model more like a communist trait..

    HK model rocks..a real open competitive capitalist zone

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  10. People, people, this $1.1B is a subsidy for the communters not the PTOs, without this subsidy, bus fares will cost more than taxi's and all our women will be maids in other countries and Indonesia & Malaysia will likely attack us on the same day! Lets give thanks to the highly intelligent PAPAYAS! Lots of thanks!!!

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  11. even the country with the dumbest ppl in the world like america, while frantically bailing out their banks, have a mechanism to get back the principal amt of taxpayers money with modest interest rates..

    the smart and uniquely singaporean scholars with their combined smarts can only muster a proposal to throw $$ into a bottomless pit of fire...

    wont it be remotely better to loan transport companies $1.1b @ even 0.0000000001% interest??? at least taxpayers get to see their principal money back someday

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  12. You need more opposing voices in the parliament to stop them from passing such a budget. You don 't see such BS in HK. Incredoulous... subsizing a public listed company? with taxpayers monies?

    Privatize the publich transport. A some earlier posters have indicated, the free market model in HK seems apparently more efficient and without the need for the government to pump monies into them, or continously allow the price HK uncontested by its legislators.

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  13. Can you fault the Minister for acting like this.  

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