Revealed: How The Pap Uses The Wage-CPF/HDB-Debt Cycle To Stab Singaporeans In The Back
The Magic PAP Cut Down Plan On Singaporeans Began in 1984
Finally, when did this all began?
So far, we’ve heard a lot about 1994. But this isn’t where the root of the evil started. It all started in 1984. 1994 was only when they embarked on the first expansion of the plan. 1984 was when they had planted the seed for their plan.
Back in 1984, when Goh Chok Tong had introduced the Medisave scheme, honourable late-PAP steward Toh Chin Chye had called out his bluff by revealing that the Medisave is “a recessive tax for the simple reason that those who are at the lower income level, because their CPF contributions are lower, will have to pay the full amount, whereas those with higher incomes do not pay the full percentage of their income towards the CPF because there is a ceiling.” He had called out the Medisave scheme to be “a very short-sighted myopic view”.
Mr Toh Chin Chye had also said that, “I totally disagree with the approach of Medisave” because he said, “The first responsibility of the Minister for Health is to ensure the availability of health care services. That is his first responsibility, that he must go round and nag at the Minister for Finance for the money. But he is taking on the job of the Minister for Finance” and making Singaporeans pay more for healthcare by a newly-invented scheme of the Medisave, instead of reallocate existing taxes to fund healthcare.
Mr Toh Chin Chye also said that, “No firm can afford to have two parallel medical welfare schemes.” In short, Mr Toh understood that in 1983, the PAP was already plotting a scheme to make Singaporeans double-pay for essential services such as healthcare and objected to such an insidious plan to make money off Singaporeans (Chart 112).
Chart 112
He lost the debate and the PAP pushed through with the Medisave (Chart 113).
Chart 113
After Medisave was pushed through and implemented, the PAP pushed down what the government should spend for healthcare from more than 40% to only 30% and they forced Singaporeans to pay using Medisave (Chart 114). Meanwhile, as Mr Toh Chin Chye rightfully predicted, the PAP then made Singaporeans pay both into taxes and into Medisave, thus double-charging us to use healthcare services in Singapore.
Chart 114
Not only did the PAP push down what the government should pay for Singaporeans, it also forced Singaporeans to pay more for healthcare (Chart 115).
Chart 115
Ever since then, the PAP is willing to pay only 30% to subsidise healthcare for Singaporeans, making it the worse government among the high-income countries by spending the lowest for healthcare (Chart 116). Other countries with a similar GDP per capita on health would spend 80% to 85% on health for their citizens or almost 3 times more than Singapore would.
Chart 116
That was 1984. In 1994, the PAP then launched a massive attack by reducing the wage share of Singaporeans, increasing the income share of the rich and increasing their own salaries by paying themselves millions, then increased our CPF contributions and spiked down the returns to our CPF, and then allowing the CPF to be used to purchase resale flats, which allowed prices to be driven up and further undercutting our CPF with the CPF-HDB extraction scheme. In 1996, they introduced executive condominiums to increase the prices of flats and spiked up the increase in the CPF Minimum Sum to further entrap the CPF for their own use (Chart 117).
Chart 117
10 years later, in 2004, after a stabilised period of the non-resident employment workforce, the PAP expanded on this plan and increased the non-resident employment to feed on their scheme, as they needed to replace the lost consumer spending that they had beaten out of Singaporeans, and to bring in more cheap labour to churn out more production and wealth for themselves (Chart 118). In truth, productivity never mattered. All they need was cheap labour and enough millionaires and billionaires to soak up the demand.
Chart 118
As mentioned, the PAP has also monopolised essential services in Singapore and can unilaterally increase the prices of these to earn profits from Singaporeans. Another thing happened in 2004 – in 2004, the profits of Singtel shot up from about $2 billion to $6 billion and has maintained at that level ever since (Chart 119).
Chart 119
It was also in 2004 when Lee Hsien Loong became Prime Minister and the salary of the Prime Minister jumped by leaps and bounds (Chart 120). Since no one stopped them in 1994, why not be more brazened and go even further?
Chart 120
Now, do you see another turning point – 2004 is another turning point when the PAP started cutting down on Singaporeans further, when Lee Hsien Loong became Prime Minister.
In 1974, Temasek Holdings was set up. Then, the “Singapore Airlines was formed in 1967 (and) …The national shipping line, Neptune Orient Lines, was formed in 1968… These companies became government linked companies (GLC). The government’s stakes in these companies were originally held directly by the Ministry of Finance.” Thereafter, “the Ministry of Finance established Temasek Holdings in 1974 to manage these assets.”
Later on, on 22 May 1981, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) was set up (Chart 121).
Chart 121
Whether or not Temasek Holdings was set up in 1974 as part of this insidious scheme is a valid question. But to its credit, the first generation PAP politicians had allowed Singaporeans to earn higher wages and higher interests on their CPF, reduced the income inequality ever so slightly by the late-1970s, even as personal consumption was on a downward spiral. They had also maintained the share of income among the rich and did not allow it to spike. To their credit, the first-generation PAP politicians had taken care of and protected Singaporeans. They also did not take advantage of Singaporeans, just so that they could get ahead.
However, in 1984, the Medisave scheme was created and planted the seeds of to undercut Singaporeans. In 1984, they had also wanted to increase the retirement age but since they were unsuccessful, they created the CPF Minimum Sum to trap Singaporeans’ retirement funds, to force Singaporeans into working longer.
In 1994, the plot was expanded.
And in 2004, the plan was further expanded via the influx of cheap labour and by pushing up prices to earn profits for themselves, and then topping up their own salaries even further.
Since 1974, this Ponzi scheme had gone through ten-year interval updates.
This year, 2014, is the next pivotal point in the next strategic move of their plan. We might expect be expecting something big this year.
Last year, they had announced the Population White Paper. 2014 might be the year of the reduction and long-term eradication of the Singaporean to further entrench their plan (Chart 122).
Chart 122
So here’s how the Magic PAP Entrapment Plan works:
- Calibrate to pay Singaporeans only 42% of GDP to their wages.
- Cut out nearly 40% to force them to pay into the CPF.
- Monopolise essential services and unilaterally decide to push up prices.
- Calibrate increase in prices to force Singaporeans to pay out the rest of the 60% of their wages to pay for essential services.
- Decide to cut down further on 30% of Singaporeans to force them into (over)-reliance.
- For the poorest 30% of Singaporeans, cut down on their wages to force them into chronic debt.
- Force them to also pay 40% into CPF and 60% for essential services.
- But force them to also have to spend 5% to 51% more of their wages on basic essentials.
- Create schemes and increase prices to make Singaporeans double-pay on essential services.
- Use this double-paying mechanism to pay off a small part of the debt of poor Singaporeans. The rest goes into profits.
- Even then, the PAP only spends 2% of GDP on social assistance, which is the lowest among the developed countries.
- For CPF, force Singaporeans to pay the highest contribution rates in the world into CPF.
- Force Singaporeans to accept the possibly the lowest interest rates in the world.
- Take away Singaporeans’ CPF to invest in Temasek Holdings and GIC and earn 16% and 6.5% interest.
- Return only 2.5% to 4% to Singaporeans. The rest that is not returned is implicit tax that the PAP makes Singaporeans pay.
- Ask Singaporeans to use CPF to buy HDB flats, so that the PAP can extract their CPF out.
- Force Singaporeans to pay another 2.5% accrued interest on the CPF that is taken out for the mortgage.
- Allow Singaporeans to use CPF to buy resale flats and build executive condominiums to drive up prices of HDB flats.
- Extract even more of Singaporeans’ CPF out with increased HDB prices.
- Put in a CPF Minimum Sum so that after the extraction for the HDB mortgage and CPF interest, whatever is left in the CPF is trapped in the CPF Minimum Sum.
- (They have calculated how much to force you to pay out of CPF, how much interest to pay you, so that they would know how much you would be accumulate in the CPF. Then, with that, they have also calculated how much to charge for the HDB flat and how much the CPF Minimum Sum should be, so that they can then take your CPF back.)
- Force Singaporeans to take on further debt to fund purchases, such that household debt has increased to 77.2% of household income.
- Borrow Singaporeans’ CPF and force Singaporeans into a national debt of $404 billion or 115% of GDP.
- As this debt is owned by Singaporeans and have to be paid back by Singaporeans, Singaporeans have to pay back another debt of 115% of GDP.
- In total, force Singaporeans to go into a debt of more than 300% of GDP. If all Singaporeans use half of their wages to pay back the debt, it would take nearly 20 years to finish paying this debt.
- When Singaporeans want to retire at 65, we are forced to work for another 20 years to pay off this debt, then die.
The Perfect Plan for the perfect entrapment of the people. Welcome to the PAP’s insidious scheme to cut down on Singaporeans.
Chart 123
Chart 124
Chart 125
Chart 126
Chart 127
Chart 128
So, there you have it – the Stab-You-In-The-Back Plan of the Wage-CPF-HDB Holy Trinity, the Double-Paying Trickery, the Triple Debt Lock-In Mechanism and the CPF-Debt-Labour Bondage final trick in the book.
This plan is a long way in the making – at least for 30 years now (and possibly even 50 years from 1963). So, what are you going to do about it (Chart 129)?
Sit down, keep quiet and wait for them to stab further knives into your back?
Chart 129
I have been trying to read up as much as I can over the past 2 years to learn more about what I can, so that I can keep knowing more and break through the thinking that they have fed us for years and decades. What the PAP has been telling us are all constructed half-truths to bury us in a world of their creation so that while we mindlessly believe in what they say, they can get away with it and continue making big money from us. Today, many Singaporeans are wiser to the PAP’s tactics and their schemes. Today, after this article, you will be even more aware of the huge Singapore Ponzi Scheme created by the PAP.
Don’t stop here. This is only the beginning. Today let us embark on our journey to educate ourselves more and to start on a path towards freeing ourselves and our minds and to let our minds run free. They can only control us as much as much as what we do not know.
But today we are in on their plans, and we know what trickery they have up their sleeves. They can no longer hide what they are doing and we are in on their every move. The PAP has sunk so far down into treachery that no matter how much they dig, they are only digging themselves further into their hole.
Let them dig. Let them continue to dirty themselves. Today is a new dawn where Singaporeans have come into our own, into a new beginning. Let the PAP prance around and play around with their politics in their little circus. Let us learn more new things and find new ways of doing things. Let us seek greener pastures for ourselves and new possibilities for Singapore.
In this new dawn, Singaporeans, let’s come together and chart a new destiny for ourselves. PAP has lost their way and we will respectfully let them go down the wrong path. Meanwhile, we have to start thinking of a new future and work together towards a new Singapore where all Singaporeans would be able to benefit together.
The PAP is no longer. Sure, let them sit and while they continue to bide their time, let us take this opportunity to find new ways of thinking and new ways to transform Singapore.
Welcome to the new era, my friends. The PAP will continue to hang on but there is only as much as they can hang on to. We will continue moving and sailing into a new Singapore and look forward to the future that awaits us.
On 3 May 2014, we will be holding an event to advocate for the right of Singaporeans for fair wages and rightful employment. It’s time we stand up for ourselves and it’s time we find the strength and belief with us to challenge the PAP to take back our country and prevent them from ruining our lives, and our children’s’ lives further.
Singapore is a turning point today. We can only depend on ourselves. We can no longer depend on the PAP. Many Singaporeans know this – the PAP has pretended to Singaporeans for at least 30 years now but in the last few years since the last election, their performance has only further degraded and degenerated. The PAP no longer prove themselves capable of running Singapore and are running Singapore into the ground.
For the long term future of our nation and our people, and our children and their children, it is time we step forth and it is time we take a stand. It is time we come together and protect ourselves. Only in solidarity and togetherness will we have the might to rid Singapore of the scourge that has made itself the government and controlled Singapore for their own benefits. We can no longer allow the PAP to run Singapore as if we don’t matter and to turn us into slaves for their own wealth. The PAP has exposed themselves to run a system that has been corrupted for their own benefit and selfish greed.
At the rate they are going, Singapore will collapse, if we are not already breaking apart. To prevent the demise of our country and what our parents and grandparents have built up for us, it is time Singaporeans take a stand and fight for the future of Singapore.
The more people who come, the more they will realise they cannot have their way. The future of our country can only be decided by the collective will of the people in Singapore and not by their wanton greed.
Come join us. Come chart a new future. Come take a stand and fight for the new Singapore you want to see. What say you?
Join the Facebook event page here.
Very well presented. This is indeed the truth that many daft Singaporeans are refusing to see all along. I am going to share this with all my family and friends. I am going to take it upon myself to educate them to not vote for PAP come 2016. Say no to PAP.
So not voting PAP in? Will those charts reverse their trends? By the way, you may not even have any trends to chart! We’ll be charting trends for basic needs and poverty. Then you’ll die comparing them with Norway.
Some people just don’t know what their priority is. Suppose you had been kidnapped, do you want to escape from the kidnappers first or are you worried that after you escape, will someone else kidnap you? Let’s deal with one thing at a time and cross the bridge when we come to it.
I agree with Ace. Don’t be a wussy, John. You don’t have a crystal ball or 20/20 hindsight, so you are not in a position to foretell the unknown. First thing first -> get rid of PAP.
So according to Roy, a ‘low wage’ worker should earn $3k. The auntie who sweeps our void deck should earn 3k from according to Roy earns 800 now.
A median wage worker who earn 3k now should earn 6k. So the will university grads not demand more?
If a low wage worker can earn 3k, will prices remain the same? Will a plate of chicken rice at a hawker center still cost $2.50?
Hello Eric, can I know your Facebook name? Mind to share with us? I also want to know whether you are certified economist.
Singapore and other countries have beggars. BUT I see so many poor elderly collecting scrap materials in rich Singapore. This situation does not appear in other countries. What can the new PAP help them?
Firstly, wage is only one component of total cost.
Secondly, if wages of the low and median wage worker is doubled or tripled, do you think it is a problem if prices of food in a hawker centre is double of what it is now?
The cost of living will certainly be higher but lower in proportion to increase in wages meaning that we will have a better quality of life. Simple enough to understand?
Yes, this is simple logic. I hope eric don’t carry the balls to far. Your credibility sucks, eric.
A research has already shown that a 10% increase in wages will only result in a 0.4% increase in general prices.
Let me just give you the simple reality – in Norway, wages are 3 to 5 times higher but grocery prices are similar, and housing and cars are cheaper.
So your “fallacy” is illogical.
Wow Eric, the first brilliant question I ever heard from you!
“If a low wage worker can earn 3k, will prices remain the same? Will a plate of chicken rice at a hawker center still cost $2.50?”
I really don’t know. When rentals can increase by 50% from $8k to $12k, making low wage workers progressively earn wages down to $500 per month also not enough. What do you think? Heh
$2.50 chicken rice? U are living in the 80s. LOL
Still have lah. Just need to take a $2.50 bus-MRT-bus trip with seamless transfer to enjoy.
Your article is indeed eye-opener! There will be worms inside PAP cans and skeletons inside PAP wardrobes.
PAP has already cheated our feelings, robbing our hard earned money because of CPF increased minimum sum and increased withdrawal age. HDB took advantage of CPF loan interest to rob our hard earned money.
CPF loan should not have interest. Why is PAP so greedy and selfish?
Shame on PAP, Lee Hsien Loong and his wife Ho Ching! Vote PAP out in 2016!
Fuck PAP off!
This purple eric makes more sense than the blue one.
In addition. CPF Life means that they can drag out the payout of CPF by another 20 years (assuming life expectancy is 85 years) and pay very little residue to your beneficiary. Why they want to do this is simply because the returns on the use of your CPF is much higher that the borrowing cost from us.
So why do you think they have now come up with compulsory MediSave Life?
You get screwed from birth till death, right, left and centre. This is worse than a Ponzi scheme.
In a Ponzi scheme, you have the option to get out while you are still alive. Here, your compulsory Ponzi membership expires only when you die.
Part 3 is the climax !
Your life is planned all the way to your death. We all are just slaves.
Singaporeans live in an invisible slave matrix where they can’t see, hear, smell, or touch. Worse, they are brainwashed in schools to support the PAP from young. Thanks to internet everything is exposed, its up to Singaporeans to break free for themselves.
This is a real eye opener. Appreciate your effort in getting the info and facts across to Singaporeans.
Those peoples whom involved in inventing this systems (past & present, directly or indirectly), must have deep in their stone heart, acknowledged there is truth in this article.
My blood boils when I read part 2. It is indeed an eye-opener as others have said. Thanks for compiling all these facts into very easy to digest charts and exposing the lies that PAP has been propagating all these years. A really well researched article.
I have been following your blog for a while and not only I have understood what has been going on but also to feel the effects of it. Not only are the rich getting richer, but they are also getting greedier. Look at how many honest businesses were forced to shutdown due to the exorbitant increase in rent and the inability to hire staffs due to wages and quotas. The standard of essential services like public transport and telecommunications here are so poor and we often hear praises of them being world class, and such praises really makes my blood boil.
Singapore needs a change. And the change needs to come from each and everyone of us.
It makes sense now why they build casino and locals are deterred from entering. its all about lining their pockets.
I have followed your blog through Tremeritus for some time. I also think that there are a lot of people who still think that perhaps we should change the leader or have a coalition and everything will be solved. It does not work that way.
There is no option but to aim to remove the ruling party altogether so that Singaporeans can be self-governing again.
Also we cannot let the ruling party choose who they prefer to be the opposition party. That is for the people to decide. So any change in leadership or succession planning that is “underway” is really meant for the ruling party alone–not for Singapore.
Singaporeans should keep that in mind.
Roy, why don’t you expose the truths in the main media such as the press or STOMP. Best still if BBC or CNN can report it to the whole world the PRO ang mo Singapore government will have to change to save face. Otherwise, do you really think the PAP will let us bring them down by just mere voting? Remember, all those in power are afraid to lose it & they will do anything to keep it.
Hi, mainstream media in Singapore is controlled by the PAP. They won’t publish this.
Hey there. Malaysian here.
You have written a fantastic article.
A true eye opener for an outsider like myself.
All the best in liberating your country from your corrupt government. We’ll also do our best to remove our own.
Peace.
Thank you, Calson, may both Malaysia and Singapore work towards a government and society which will enshrine equality and the protection of their peoples and bring our region towards a renewed peace, prosperity and equality and the Nordic region had been able to achieve.
Just a factual clarification on the accrued interest. See http://mycpf.cpf.gov.sg/CPF/my-cpf/buy-house/BH7.htm:
If you sell your HDB flat, you need to refund the principal amount you had earlier withdrawn for the purchase of the flat, including the accrued interest, to your CPF account. This interest is the amount you would have earned, had the savings not been taken out.
If you are aged 55 and above when you sell your flat, the CPF refunds will be used to top up your Retirement Account up to your cohort Minimum Sum and your Medisave Account up to the current Medisave Minimum Sum. Any excess CPF refunds will be paid to you within 5 working days from the crediting of the refunds to your CPF account.”
As CPF account holder is required to refund the accrued interest to his CPF account (and not another party), and excess CPF refunds could be withdrawn at age 55 years and above, the CPF account holder would effectively not “lose” the accrued interest he refunded isn’t it? What the account holder effectively lost is the interest he would have earned had he not withdrawn the money for purchase of the HDB flat.
No.
(1) This interest should be paid by the government in the first place.
(2) If you don’t pay back the accrued interest, whatever you have inside would be eaten up. If you have to use cash in hand to pay back the accrued interest, this is money lost in cash which you could have used for something else.
(3) In the first place, the government gives a low 2.5% interest – proven to be the lowest in the world – on the CPF and second, the government jacks up the prices of HDB flats, which cause us to lose our CPF.
It’s because of the poor interest rates and unjust increase in flat prices that cause us to lose our CPF.
If the government is sincere, return the interest that that use our CPF to earn – they taken our CPF to earn up to 16% interest in Temasek Holdings but return us only 2.5%.
Effecticely, we’ve been robbed of our returns.
Hi Roy,
Thanks for sharing what I believe, many ordinary folks out there still do not know what the CPF “Acrued Interest” means and how its mechanism actually works…
Your sharing will live on…
PAP will go to HELL
You got it wrong la
Why CPF pay us interest? Simply because we contribute into the fund and the Government uses the fund for investment. That is why we earn interest from our CPF savings.
when we withdraw the money from CPF for our flats and $$$ is not available for the government to invest. So why the government should pay the interest?
You want CPF to pay us a higher interest ah?
HDB loan is marked at 0.1% above the CPF interest rate hor. If the interest if CPF interest is 5% and HDB loan is 5.1%. What will happen to our loan repayment??
During the 80s, flats were very cheap – a 4 room flat was around $40K. If I bought a flat then and sell it today, if I only return $40K to the CPF. WIll it be enough for retirement?
Be realistic.
In the early 1980s, the CPF interest rate is 6.5%.
It woud be ridiculous to pay the CPF accrued interest, even though it is a tool for money creation.
Was told many years ago that the lien would simply expire when one retire or pass away. It can’t be paid if your property is not sold and in any case they have to return you the cpf monies after retirement or death. Question is what happens if it is not sold, does the cpf lien carry on indefinitely? Good job bringing it up as I couldn’t get an answer on this.
Your other points are valid too.
CPF site says that if sold, transferred, etc it need to be paid even after 55yo and it goes into the retirement a/c to be distributed back to you in bits.
Don’t touch the cpf!
This is just preliminary. All those points about HDB interest rates, etc are all irrelevant and can be solved.
Rules are made by man.
Can this be a good strategy: After redemption of my bank housing loan, i should then pay CPF (using own cash) all monies utilised for HDB plus accrued interest to prevent compounded growth of accrued interest? In this way, government at least will need to pay me 2.5% interest. Am i correct?
I mean we should not wait until the sale of HDB flat to repay CPF the monies utilised for HDB plus accrued interest. If the sales of HDB is 30-50 years as you indicated, i actually run into a snowball growth of accrued interest. If this is true, i better act fast to cover the ‘hole’ after completing bank loan. Thanks.