Election is here!

First thing that came to my mind when I got to know the election date was, “Damn, it is the day I return to Singapore from a long awaited girls trip.”

Can I make it back in time? Hence, my friend and I made the decision to book earlier bus tickets back to Singapore.

Politics in Singapore is boring but I still want to vote.

The ruling party will continue winning the majority seats in parliament but I still want to vote.

The opposition in my ward really CMI to the point that they might as well walkover but I still want to vote.

I missed the bulk of the rally last night because I was in a call with classmates for my school work. Normally, I will be at the opposition rally during election time. It’s fun.

It is the only time we dare to criticise the government openly.

If I hadn’t misbehaved in the past and left negative trails in my private life, I might have joined the opposition.

Then again, I wouldn’t like the attention and I won’t like dealing with keyboard warriors so I respect and applaud everyone who is in the public eye for politics.

To my future Members of Parliament

As your middle income Singapore auntie, housing, education, jobs are my main concerns.

Housing

When it comes to housing, who would have predicted that it will inflate so much that new public housing can cost more than half a million dollars. Irony is, it is only yours for 99 years because you never truly own it.

That is the affordable, they said. If you need to use 25 years to pay off something, it is not affordable.

Now that I am a parent, I worry for my child if he can get his own place to start a family in future. I started putting money into his CPF to compound interest because I don’t want him to lose out. It may still not be enough but 不要输在起跑点。

Education

Somebody realised the system of placing emphasis on academics is not for everybody along the way. Plus, the piece of paper is not a guarantee of success and most importantly, job security. I appreciate that we have initiatives to push out upskilling and subsidies for adult learning. More if you are above 40 like me.

Not faring too badly too badly in education, but I still don’t understand why my 5 year old child has homework every weekend. I would prefer to bring my kid outdoors.

Fact is, we have too many educated people working in office, then we have to import labour for other industries, leading to influx of immigration impacting housing, food and schools. The vicious cycle continues.

Jobs

Gone are the days where people hold one job for life. Schools have to churn out the right people for the right job. There are so many choices now.

After going through a retrenchment cycle, I can only say that it is not that people don’t want to stay but the companies can’t guarantee jobs for life. Don’t blame the generation. Loyalty goes both ways.

It is not just having jobs. Better quality, better paying jobs and also job stability.

Is increasing the population through importing foreign labour the only way for growth? What is the proportion of Singaporeans, foreign labour to growth? What about better quality jobs that doesn’t require manual labour?

I love my country but it is getting too crowded and I can’t breathe and I struggle to find space sometimes.

Whichever party it is, please make Singapore a better place for us.