Mdm Deputy Speaker, the Prime Minister raised the proposal to retune the CPF. He said we have to throw away some of the burdens so that we can climb this road to the highland. This reminded me of the "Reform and Opening Out" of China. In the early 1980s, when China started to have this reform and this opening to the outside world, Mr Deng Xiaoping's famous quotes were displayed at big billboards along the thoroughfare in Shenzhen at that time. He said that, "If we do not open up and we do not reform, this would be a dead world for us." The Prime Minister did not mention about death yesterday. But at the National Day Rally, he said that if you cannot breathe, then you will die. If you just lose face, you would not die. And the Deputy Prime Minister had just proposed the relief packages. These are a shot in the arm. So, even if you may lose face a bit, you can still stand up and then you can walk. In the past, when we fall down, we just stand up and walk again. But now, when we fall down and scratch ourselves, we wait for the Government to help us. So, I think the people should take action themselves and cannot just rely on the Government. Thus, while I support the PM's retuning of CPF and DPM's relief package, the issue here is what next? I have three suggestions.
First, as the Prime Minister has said, we have to lighten our burden, to travel light, and we have to have a thorough reform. It is our hope that the Government and the whole set-up would cut waste, just like what the Deputy Prime Minister has said, the Cut Waste Panel (CWP). I think the Government should do it thoroughly and have a thorough reform of the whole service.
NTUC had held dialogues with 38 unions involving few hundred union leaders. They all understand that we needed to adjust our expectation. We have accepted this CPF adjustment. The question they asked is "Will the Government adjust our cost of living?" "Will the Government reduce its charges?" "Will the employers look after our welfare?"
DPM has given us an assurance. The Government should change the mechanism. So, when the workers have adjusted, the Government should also adjust. One point brought up by many people is that they could not understand why is it that hospitals still insist that if you stay in a B1 or B2, you cannot downgrade to a C-grade ward. And if you are living in a 4 or 5-room flat, why not make the downgrading easier for them?
There is this song "Struggle to Win" saying that sometimes you go up and sometimes you go down. The Teochews said that if you can only go up and cannot come down, the whole family will die. So, I think the Government should do away with all the bureaucratic red tape. We are having a problem now. All said we want to reform. But when the economy recovers, let us hope that the civil servants will not say that we will have to increase charges here and there. If that happens, everything will go back to what it was before.
As far as the employers are concerned, I am very happy to note that although Dr Gan See Khem is also an employer, she feels that employers should do more to care about their employees. Many employers give a lot of lip service. They talk a lot but do very little. So, I think when the employers have benefited from this CPF cut, and if they are doing well, they should share the gain with their workers.
As far as jobs are concerned, nowadays, we keep hearing employers saying that Singaporeans do not want to do certain kind of work. But the question is: what type of job - because the work system and salary is not conducive for local. They treated Singapore workers as foreign workers. I think the employers should redesign, re-engineer their work so that workers will find it more friendly and conducive to work. In this aspect, NTUC will work closely with the employers in various sectors on this so that more unemployed Singaporeans can get jobs.
Secondly, the Government is very good in its financial management. But this CPF adjustment is actually a manifestation of Government's financial policy and philosophy. The ordinary folks may not be good in managing their finances. Singaporeans in general know the ways to prosper and want to make profits, but they do not know how to manage their fortune. It is said that if you save one handful of rice in every meal, in three years, you will be able to buy a horse. When we talk about horses, Singaporeans will always talk about horses in terms of buying 4-D during the weekends and make some windfall from there.
It is also said that even billionaires should be calculative. However, Singaporeans take this to the extent that as they have few thousands dollars in the CPF, they have to keep calculating about it every night and every day. They always look at how they can maximize it.
Prime Minister had mentioned about the inadequacy of the minimum sum and proposed that it be raised over a period of time. We have to explain to our people plainly. Otherwise, the Government may put in a lot of efforts. They may have very good intentions but the people would not appreciate it. In financial management, we do not just resort to the expert. We should teach every Singaporean how to manage their own wealth and property.
Thirdly, Prime Minister had mentioned that this reform is painful. In other words, everyone must be prepared to endure some pain. Prime Minister said that if we do not have a fish, even a prawn will do. But I have people telling me that prawns are as expensive as fish. It shows that people are not thinking what the Prime Minister was thinking. Prime Minister said that if we do not eat fish, then, eat the cheaper prawns but Singaporeans are thinking about the more expensive prawns. I think, in this case, if you have no fish to eat, you have to adjust downward to have the dried prawns, not fresh prawns.
Earlier on, Mr Low Thia Khiang had said that the Prime Minister might have forgotten, might have amnesia that we promise better life. In fact, Government has not forgotten what they have promised. They want to give people a better living. Thus, the retuning of CPF is exactly with this aim in mind that you must first of all have the job before you can live a better life. So our Government is anxious about them. That is why we have to do this reform very speedily, as fast as we can. Mr Low Thia Khiang said that Government has not fulfilled its commitment to the people and we should apologise to the people. I think he did not understand the serious situation. For instance, if a father had promised the child that if he passed his PSLE, he would give him a watch. But now, the father runs into financial problem. He may not be able to afford to buy the son a good watch but he will still buy him a watch when he gets a job. The son can understand. I do not know why Mr Low Thia Khiang cannot understand. Mr Low compared the Government with that of a rabbit which has been sleeping and has just woken up from its dream. I must say that the Government has sleepless nights on the job situation in Singapore. So if you do not sleep, how do you have a dream? Everyday, the Government has been thinking of how to restructure our wage. Prime Minister has already raised a lot of points in this aspect, I would not repeat them.
I would like to urge the Ministry of Manpower to get more Singaporeans upgraded through its newly set up Workforce Development Agency. The new economy has taken away many of our jobs, so we have to speed up our skills redevelopment programmes. NTUC has launched various upgrading programmes and many workers were benefited from this scheme. But some people do not see the benefits including Mr Low Thia Khiang. He has said that the Government should apologise to the people. Actually, the Government is looking at the big picture. Many years ago, we had already made the preparation by urging workers to adopt the lifelong learning approach. Now it is raining, and the weather is getting very stormy, so we have to prepare ourselves for the stormy weather. Mr Low Thia Khiang blamed the Government for the bad weather. My point is that we could not stop the bad weather but we can prepare for it. I think we should encourage more workers to participate in these training courses so that we could see the general trend. It is not the time for us to blame one another. We should be working together in one heart.
