Incompetence of PAP resulting in rising cost of living

Just so you know by now, Singapore is officially the most expensive city in the world. If you are just plain ignorant or a PAP apologist like him, you may like to download  the comprehensive report which clearly shows there is no political agenda against the PAP and the methodology adopted is reasonably just. Given how politically negative this ranking is reflecting on the ruling party, we should expect to see more comments from Singapore-based academias like PRC scholar Sun Xi (who has earlier defended the PAP's foreign talent policy, being a foreigner himself) to "weigh in" as if they are any experts or consultants in determining the cost of living.

Is the cost of living an issue before the ranking? No, a post-General Election 2011 poll conducted by JobsCentral shows that 51% of the voters took the cost of living as their determinant factor when they cast their vote. Even in the election campaigns of the PAP stretching as far as 2006, the ruling party has made several mentions of helping Singaporeans to manage the rising cost of living. 8 years down the road from 2006, today, we can safely conclude the PAP has failed utterly delivering their promises. So what happened?

An unrepentant habit in the old direction is why.

Right after making big speeches about controlling the cost of living and winning their mandate in 2006, Lee Hsien Loong said he wanted to help the poor and started raising the GST. This sparked off a relentless increase in cost of living and caused the income divide to worsen.

5 years later in 2011, Lee Hsien Loong and his compatriots made similar speeches about reigning the cost of living but he did nothing to the tax policies. GST remained at 7%, CPF contribution was increased instead to reduce the out-of-pocket dollars Singaporeans are holding, COE prices are left to spiral out of control which indirectly increases cost of goods and private transportation, public transport fares are allowed to increase, more ERPs are erected and the utility tariffs and HDB prices went up, and the list goes on. The PAP has done nothing to help Singaporeans relieve through lessening the indirect taxes. It is the same old approach adopted in 2006.

Lee Hsien Loong is yet again expected to remain silent on the issue of rising cost of living. His Ministers and MPs are probably busy cracking their head to think of valid excuses to make it seems like they have been trying their best. But if the PAP has and is really trying their best, incompetency perhaps is best befitting of them and that it brings more urgency than ever to replace them.