Shadow Budget - Questionable Intent - Keeping Singapore Safe??

Page 20 point C(74). 

Given the current capacity of our Armed Forces, this Budget will not make any allocation for increase in our defence capabilities. An allocation of 2% of the Developmental Budget will be assigned to maintaining strong community safety and internal security. The Internal Security Department (ISD) will be abolished in the context of the repeal of the Internal Security Act. The Whitley Road Detention Centre will be closed.

Page 21 point C(76)

The Chief of Defence Force will commission a committee to study the feasibility of converting the Singapore Armed Forces, including the Air Force and Navy, into a scaled-down, fully professional Defence Force, taking advantage of our military capacity to reduce the costs of a conscript army. The first task of the committee will be to report on the reduction of National Service to one year and the feasibility of channelling surplus personnel to civilian sectors such as hospitals, ambulance services, social services and environmental clean-up units.

My comments

I think this is a very dangerous proposal and should not be taken lightly.

Shadow Budget - Questionable Intent - Taxation

Page 12 point C(6)

"Taxation will be orientated away from consumption to income, which is the fairest way of levying taxes. A graduated GST to take account of essential goods versus luxury goods will be introduced and a tax levied on property sale transactions above S$3 million, in addition to current stamp duty liability. In line with this, all government fees and licenses will be frozen at their current amounts. The habit of profiteering from basic services and from enterprise must be removed from all public sectors of the economy and society."

Page 12 point C(7)

"This Shadow Budget is based on several basic, people-oriented standards designed to enhance the nation’s resources and its output. These standards encompass the ideas and values that have emerged from key thinkers and economists in the recent period:

• Minimal expenditure increase;

• Redirecting of priorities;

• Efficiency savings;

• Removal of subsidies in favour of fair income;

• Reorienting of taxation away from consumption, and

• Divestment of government control in the economy.

They will ensure a stronger economy, a more cohesive community, and a happier, healthier and better educated population."

My comments
SDP is proposing to levy taxes on income and to orientate it away from consumption. I think this proposal is regressive in nature and totally missing the fundamentals.

Shadow Budget - Questionable Intent 3 - NGOs

Page 5 point A(14) 


The markets of the future will require us to watch and listen more closely to what people are buying, doing, and wanting. Singapore must develop an open approach to ‘niche markets’, for example, in eco-friendly and organic products, lifestyle pursuits, and even the opening up of our shores to regional and global non-profit organisations, social enterprises, and non-government organisations (NGOs). Such an openness is the result of enabling and allowing the people - the consumer and the merchant - to dictate where the market should go. Co-opting successful entrepreneurs into state-mandated committees is counter-productive because, governed by the internal logic of the establishment, they become hidebound by the culture of conservatism, hierarchies, and ministerial edict and become reified, unable to identify the trends and patterns of consumer behaviour.


Page 12 point C(12)


"The government will also repeal the Political Donations Act in order to encourage local NGOs to flourish and regional and international NGOs to relocate to Singapore, thus opening up a new economic sector."


My comments
Why was it mentioned in the Shadow Budget? Why do we need NGOs presence in Singapore? For purpose of transparency, SDP should list those NGOs they would like to be in Singapore. Who are they? Are they political in nature? Are they active groups in advocating human rights? What is their purpose here? How does it benefit Singaporeans socially and economically? Please elaborate.

Shadow Budget - Questionable Intent 2 - GST on Luxury Goods

Page 29 point E(13) 


"......Goods and Services Tax will be rescheduled to take account of basic services which will be zero rated. Luxury goods will be subject to an increased GST tax. Property sales transactions above S$3,000,000 will be subject to a transaction tax. Inheritance tax on estates above S$10,000,000 will be returned to the tax structure."




Page 18 point C(57) 


"A graduated GST will be introduced. It will range from zero-rated basic goods and services (food, medical care and products, and educational products and services) to a maximum of 10% for luxury goods (i.e. non-essential goods costing over S$500 each.)"




My comments

It is an over simplistic view.

Shadow Budget - Questionable Intent - Foreign Worker Levy

Page 13 point C(31) 


The Foreign Worker Levy payable by employers will, instead of being returned to the Government, be divided equally between the employees on Work Permits and the employer. In this way, both employee and employer benefit instead of the Government. We will encourage, through tax subsidy, the use of the employer proportion for productivity enhancements. The Security Bond will be abolished because there is no evidence that migrant workers will abscond or engage in criminal behaviour in its absence.



Page 28 point E(12) 

"Foreign Worker Levy: The foreign worker levy will not be retained by government but be divided equally between the employee and employer, this benefitting employee and employer. The Security Bond will also be abolished as it leads to perverse and unjust outcomes for workers."

My comments
Why is SDP raising a foreign worker issue in their Shadow Budget? Is it a policy error? Who is the employee? Who is the worker? How does it affect a Singaporean worker? What is the economic benefit?

Singapore GE 2011 - How i would analyse the quality of the political party's manifesto

I would analysis the quality of any political party’s manifesto, arguments and proposals (regardless if they have any government experience or track record) on the following criteria:

• High-level and sophisticated understanding of economic and social realities and possibilities:

• Microeconomic
1. Consumer and Producer
2. Risk and behavior under uncertainty
3. Welfare economics
4. Economics of information

• Macroeconomics
1. Growth
• Progress of science and productive knowledge
• Growth of individual skills
• Incentives on every economic decision
2. Consumption
3. Savings and investment
4. Short-run fluctuations
5. Monetary and exchange rate policy in a small open economy
6. Financial crises.

• A clear plan from a policy-oriented perspective:

1. Economic convergence and patterns of development
2. Productivity and technological change
3. Poverty and inequality
4. Health and education
5. National Defense
6. Demography
7. Industrialisation
8. International integration

• A clear plan on development issues:

1. The design and implementation of programs and an assessment of their social impacts
2. International, Regional and Counter level trade arrangements
3. Timing and sequencing of transitions to the economy
4. Reform of the civil service.
5. Provision of public goods e.g. sanitation, law & order and water.

• A clear plan to expand democratization.

Reference Source : MPA/ID JFK School of Government

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/degrees/masters/mpa-id/curriculum/core-courses

Osama bin Laden killed in shootout, Obama says

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/al-qaeda-leader-osama-bin-laden-dead-tv-024851532.html

By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason | Reuters

File photo of Osama bin-Laden in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed Sunday in a firefight with U.S. forces in Pakistan and his body was recovered, President Barack Obama said on Sunday.

"Justice has been done," Obama said in a dramatic, late-night White House speech announcing the death of the elusive mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.

It is was major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team and could give him a political boost as he seeks re-election in 2012.

And it was at least a huge symbolic blow to al Qaeda, the militant organization that has staged bloody attacks in many western and Arab countries cities and has been the subject of a worldwide campaign against it.

Obama said U.S. forces led a targeted operation that killed bin Laden in Abbotabad north of Islamabad. No Americans were killed in the operation and they took care to avoid civilian casualties, he said.

In Washington, thousands of people gathered quickly outside the White House, waving American flags, cheering and chanting "USA, USA, USA." Car drivers blew their horns in celebration and people streamed to Lafayette Park across from the presidential mansion. Police vehicles with their lights flashing stood vigil.

"I'm down here to witness the history. My boyfriend is commissioning as a Marine next week. So I'm really proud of the troops," Laura Vogler, a junior at American University in Washington, said outside the White House.

Many Americans had given up hope of ever finding bin Laden after he vanished in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan in late 2001 as U.S. and allied forces invaded the country in response to the September 11 attacks.

Intelligence that originated last August provided the clues that eventually led to bin Laden's trail, the president said. A U.S. official said Obama gave the final order to pursue the operation last Friday morning.

"The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of men, women and children," Obama said.

A crowd gathered in Lafayette Park outside the White House erupted in jubilation at the news. Hundreds of people waved flags, hugged and cheered.

CAPTURED DEAD

Former President George W. Bush, who famously vowed to bring bin Laden to justice "dead or alive" but never did, called the operation a "momentous achievement" after Obama called him with the news.

Martin Indyk, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, described bin Laden's death as "a body blow" to al Qaeda at a time when its ideology was already being undercut by the popular revolutions in the Arab world.

Statements of appreciation poured in from both sides of Washington's often divided political divide. Republican Senator John McCain declared, "I am overjoyed that we finally got the world's top terrorist."

Said former President Bill Clinton: "I congratulate the president, the national security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous al Qaeda attacks."

Having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead.

Bin Laden had been hunted since he eluded U.S. soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan close to the Pakistan frontier in 2001.

The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan.

While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his militant Islamist views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway.

Besides September 11, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks -- including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Arshad Mohammed, Kristin Roberts and Tabassum Zakaria; Writing by Steve Holland; editing by David Storey and Philip Barbara)