Extract from
Singabloodypore :
Focus on Khaw Boon Wan (non-NKF)In a
little-known CNA report, Minister Khaw announced that the Government has shortlisted several locations for retirement villages in Batam and Johore Bahru. That's right, and at least one will be built. The opposition needs to question Minister Khaw to reveal more details on this.
Khaw says that in the past, "the Singapore market was... too small for retirement villages to be commercially viable".
That overseas retirement villages are now viable indicates that Singapore's cost of living has become unaffordable for the old, that Singapore becomes unlivable for retirees.
It also means that the CPF system has failed: despite a high rate of enforced savings, retirees still cannot survive.
It also means that the rate of poverty in the old will rise, and the Whiteshirts have no real solution.
It also means abalone porridge was a hypocritical election ploy.
The opposition needs to frame the retirement village as a failure of social security and a cost of living issue.
As Minister Khaw makes a big deal out of being a devout Buddhist who cannot lie, who will refuse to answer questions if he feels he'll make a lie, further frame the issue:
Is the retirement village idea not an immoral thing - both in itself, and the implication that social security in Singapore has fallen apart?The man who said "If you do wrong things, tell lies, defame people, create trouble, incite hatred...then I think you have wasted your life and I worry about your afterlife" and "In my religion, one of the biggest sins is to tell lies. The next life, you'll become a cockroach or something" needs to be reminded that ill-treating the old and failing to care for the old is even more immoral.
The opposition should get the message out before the first session of Parliament begins.The silver lining in SDP losing the Sembawang contest is this: it's more embarrassing and damaging for the Whiteshirts to be forced to reshuffle Mr Khaw out of his Ministry.