Dear voters of Fengshan SMC and fellow Singaporeans
My name is Dennis Tan Lip Fong and I am your candidate in Fengshan.
Serving you in two ways
At our first WP rally on 2 September, I said that it is important that we have opposition MPs to provide checks and balance and to speak up for you in Parliament. If elected, I will definitely be speaking up for you in Parliament.
Today I want to talk to you how I intend to serve you locally.
In the last 4 years, I could not serve you here in Fengshan as I am not an elected MP. But in the last 4 years, I was helping out in grassroots activities as well as weekly Meet-The-People sessions with Chen Show Mao and Muhd Faisal at Paya Lebar and Kaki Bukit divisions of Aljunied GRC, respectively. I spoke with many residents, wrote down case notes for the MPs, drafted letters on behalf of the MPs.
I hope that my experience will be of use in serving residents in Fengshan.
If elected, the cleanliness of the estate and the efficiency of the essential services will be my priority. If residents of Fengshan and East Coast elect me and the WP candidates, we will run the town council together and we have confidence in our combined management and professional experience to do this confidently for you. Otherwise, I am equally confident of looking after this town for you. We can also tap on the experience and expertise of our other MPs in the other towns.
Together with my colleagues from our East Coast GRC team, we have walked East Coast GRC including Fengshan for more than 2 years. We did weekly house visits for the HDB blocks as well as the private landed estates. During the campaign period, my team and I have also tried to visit every flat, every house. I am sorry if we have come when you were not at home.
If elected, I plan to be on the ground as often as I can, doing house visits and also spending time with you at the market and coffeeshops. I think this is probably the best way to know you and to understand your concerns so that I know how to assist you or to voice your concerns and speak up for you in Parliament.
Local issues
In my house visits in East Coast and in Fengshan the last two years I have had many conversations with residents. They brought up many issues. Local issues include no ramp and no lift access for the elderly and disabled on the Tanah Merah side of the Tanah Merah station, illegal parking problems for residents around Simpang Bedok and persistent dengue risk around the blocks numbered one hundred and eighty something, etc.
Policy issues
They also include many policy related issues that affect ordinary Singaporeans. I have spoken on retirement adequacy last Saturday. Today I will talk about a few more issues.
First, let’s talk about Pioneer Generation package. During my walkabouts in Fengshan, the Pioneer Generation residents of Fengshan have feedback that more should be done. The coverage should be increased. It should go beyond payment for medicine.
Also what are the government’s plans for the future elderly, those reaching 65 in the future years, does the government have similar plans to cover them?
What about public transport? The elderly above 65 in Malaysia pay a flat, nominal rate for public transport. Why can’t Singapore, supposedly a First World Country, do something similar?
The Government could also consider extending the Taxi Subsidy Scheme that is currently in place for disabled Singaporeans to our Pioneer Generation. While the Pioneer Generation Package is a long overdue step in the right direction, we must ensure that help for our seniors do not stop there. We must have a comprehensive approach to make sure that they can 安享晚年。
PMETs
Yesterday as I was visiting residents in the Simpang Bedok area of Fengshan, a resident stopped his car and shared with me his concern about job security for PMETs. Many residents have talked to me about this issue.
It is a common scenario in MNCs and foreign companies that set up offices in Singapore, that there is often a preference for their heads to employ people from the same country of origin. Does it mean we do not have enough Singaporeans PMETs who can work in these management and senior management positions? If there is not enough, then how does it explain the large number of well educated Singaporeans PMETs who are forced to work overseas? Or is the PAP so afraid of the MNCs that they let MNCs do whatever they want?
Many local PMETs face competition from cheaper foreign employees on Employment Passes. There is no clear quota for Employment Pass holders, unlike S-passes and work permits. As a result, employers and frequently foreign companies setting up shops here often do not make genuine attempts to employ locals. The Fair Consideration Framework supposedly set up to ensure that employers seriously consider employing locals first is toothless; it does not ensure that Singaporeans are not discriminated against. It does not even try to discourage employers from employing foreigners. The period required to advertise for local employees is too short. As a result, Singaporean PMETs, especially those who are of older age and may command higher salary face unfair competition from foreign workers especially those who may be willing to work for lesser pay.
A friend of mine, who is in senior management in a MNC and is himself an employment pass holder, told me that his company reviewed the Fair Consideration Framework when it was introduced and decided that they did not need to change their employment policies. I think that says a lot about how the FCF does not adequately protect the interests of Singaporean PMETs.
If you would like the employment policies to be changed and job security for local PMETs to be enhanced, vote the Workers’ Party and let the Workers’ Party continue to put pressure on the government to bring job security for Singaporeans PMETs.
Public transport
Since 2011, we have seen many train breakdowns. The Hong Kong MTR was started almost 10 years before our MRT. Yet it is one of that most efficient rapid transit systems. Its trains come more frequently during peak time but we have never heard of them having the same kinds or frequency of breakdown. Is this because the government has over the years never ensured that the train operators has a proper system of maintenance for their trains, track and equipment? If there was such a system and equipment and parts were properly maintained and replaced in good time, many of the breakdowns including the biggest breakdown that took place recently would not have happened!
White Paper on Population
The PAP MPs voted for the Population White Paper in 2013. In this election, the PAP candidates are all keeping very quiet on this issue.
My colleagues have spoken much about this issue. But what I want to remind you is this: the PAP is NOT going to U Turn on this. Not yet. With 7 elected WP MPs, it was not enough to make them U Turn on this. Fellow Singaporeans, if you are against the White Paper on Population, come Sep 11, vote for the Workers’ Party to force the PAP to make a U Turn.
PAP MP not solving your problems
Dear Fengshan residents, there are many more policy issues that residents have shared with me and would like me to bring up in Parliament. As a WP MP, I will be able to go to Parliament to speak up for you and ask the PAP ministers questions, questions that are inconvenient for them to answer. Never mind that your last PAP MP failed to speak even once in Parliament in the last 4 years, but now if you elect another PAP MP, do you think she is going to speak up against the PAP ministers and vote against bills and policies which PAP ministers are introducing?
There are so many issues of policy that needs to be resolved, so many problems that are created by poor PAP policies which PAP have not yet given any answers in the last 4 years. Rapid rising cost of living, sky high COE prices making it difficult for those who needs cars but cannot afford them, Singapore Power bills that go up every year regardless of drop in fuel prices, etc. PAP has kept quiet on all this.
Instead of spending time and resources fixing the problems, the PAP spent much of their time and much of the civil service’s resources fixing the Workers’ Party and our Aljunied MPs in the last 4 years. Mind you, these resources do not belong to PAP. The civil service resources are valuable resources of our country and our people, and funded by tax payers’ monies.
Like in their past, the PAP forgets one important thing. When you try to fix elected representatives of the Workers’ Party, you are not showing any respect to the people who elected them, the true blue Singaporeans and residents of Hougang SMC, Aljunied GRC and Punggol East SMC. What should Singaporeans do to a party with no respect for the electorate? Vote them out.
Dear residents of Fengshan SMC, please give the Workers’ Party an opportunity to entrench your say in Parliament. Vote for me Dennis Tan Lip Fong, vote for Workers’ Party.
Together, let us Empower your future!