Category: Singapore

The writing has been on the wall since 2007, when the government announced plans to introduce re-employment legislation, in tandem with raising the age at which Singaporeans can withdraw the bulk of their CPF savings to 65.

On Tuesday (11 January 2011), the Retirement Age (Amendment) Bill was passed. This Bill (now euphemistically named the Retirement and Re-employment Act) contains some provisions to steer employers in the direction of providing re-employment for their retiring workers, without actually raising the statutory retirement age.

While the law requires employers to offer re-employment to their workers when they reach the retirement age of 62, they are obliged to do so only if the workers fulfil a potentially subjective set of criteria: One, the employee must have at least satisfactory work performance, and two, the employee is medically fit to continue working.

The first criteria is very subjective, particularly if the employer has no proper performance appraisal system. The second criteria does not spell out that employers need to obtain the opinion of a doctor to prove that the employee is medically unfit to continue working.

But what is particularly disturbing is that this legislation gives the government the excuse to raise the CPF Minimum Sum Draw Down age from 62 to 65 or even older. They will reason that older workers can more easily find employment beyond 62 and so they don’t need to draw from their CPF savings. (The Minimum Sum, which now stands at $123,000, is the minimum amount of money that a person must keep in their CPF accounts. This large amount means that a large number of low-income workers have their retirement savings locked up long beyond their retirement age.) The reason, as explained the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in 2007, is so that their CPF savings can last longer.

Continue reading “Jobless at 62, no CPF until 65 or later”

It may come as a surprise to some, but I disagree with former Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong’s view that “school and grassroots work don’t mix” (Today newspaper, 4 January 2011). Mr Siew felt that “partisan activities that favour a specific political party or politician should not be officially sanctioned and endorsed by the Ministry of Education (MOE) or schools” and that “campaigning for political parties and politicians is clearly improper in schools and workplaces”.

I disagree with the thinking that if you are still in school, then you should avoid partisan politics; that politics is somehow an “adults-only” activity which will corrupt young minds. Consequently, this leads to local schools and even universities banning any partisan political organisations. For example, in the National University of Singapore, students who are interested in politics can only join a club like the Democratic Socialist Club, which disavows any political affiliation. In contrast, when I was studying in the University of Southern California, there was a College Republicans club and and College Democrats club. Members openly supported and campaigned for Republican or Democratic candidates during the local, state or national elections. A search on the Internet will find numerous Republican or Democrat clubs in high schools across the US.

Continue reading “Youths and politics”

There is a children’s book that I often read with my 2-year old daughter, Hannah, in the morning before leaving for work. It is titled I’m Thankful Each Day by P. K. Hallinan. I love that book (and so does Hannah) because I feel it aptly sums up my sentiments about the year 2010.

I can say without a doubt that 2010 was the most eventful and exciting–not to mention the busiest–year of my life so far. On the personal front, my wife Elena and I welcomed the arrival of our second child, Asher, in this world. (Yes he was one of just 17,238 babies born to Singaporean parents between January and October 2010.) Elena and I also celebrated seven years of blissful marriage last week.

In July last year, I published my first book, Singapore version 2.0: Alternative proposals for a better Singapore. I will be organising a book launch for in late-January. (Better late than never!)

On the political front, I was one of the four newbies elected to the Workers’ Party CEC (Central Executive Council). I got “arrowed” soon after that to be involved in the Party’s manifesto review, a task which involved many nights and weekends of research, consultations, writing, and long discussions with fellow party members to arrive at an agreement on the final text. Nevertheless, the policy wonk in me relished every moment of it.

Continue reading “I’m Thankful Each Day”

I represented the Workers’ Party at a political forum organised by The Online Citizen (TOC) on 16 December 2010, titled “Face to Face”. Together with the representatives from five other political parties, we fielded questions from the audience for over two hours on various national issues.

A summary of the points I articulated can be found on the Workers’ Party’s website.

The news report by Today newspaper and Channel NewsAsia can be found here.

Below are some of TOC’s videos of the discussion.

(See 9:52-13:30)

(See 6:49-11:03)

Remaining videos will be uploaded soon on the TOC website. Your feedback on my presentation–particularly areas for improvement–is most welcome.

[Note: The venue for the event has been changed to Quality Hotel on Balestier Road. Only pre-registered participants will be admitted, due to space constraints. Unfortunately, no more registrations are being accepted as there’s a full house. But the event will be video recorded, so look out for it on TOC.]

I will be representing the Workers’ Party at the upcoming political forum organised by The Online Citizen (TOC), happening next Thursday evening. Together with leaders of several other political parties in Singapore, I’ll be taking questions from the floor for over two hours.

You can find out more and indicate your interest to attend here.

Do come and invite your family and friends. I look forward to meeting you there!

In the run up the elections, many Singaporeans are stepping forward to volunteer their time and energy to help opposition parties, including the Workers’ Party (WP), to succeed at the polls. In fact, a number of my blog readers have emailed me to volunteer their help.

There are many things that supporters can help with, from accompanying party members of their house visits, to logistics, to being polling agents on Election Day. We welcome volunteers to help in any way that fits their schedule, interests and talents.

There is another outreach activity which very effective, but often overlooked—starting a conversation with your family, friends or colleagues about politics.

Continue reading “Start a conversation…about politics”