Re: My Thoughts In Hougang

The following response is part of my beliefs in standing up for injustice and irresponsible comments made. This is definitely not a case of a personal attack on the author himself.

I am entitled to my own opinions. I would appreciate it if you would respect them and engage me and the rest of the bloggers on a responsible and humble manner.

Mr Joel Leong,

From what I understand from your article, looks like the residents of Potong Pasir and especially Hougang have been suffering from a huge dose of injustice for decades!

As 1st July 2007 approaches . . .

I am committed to seeing a flexible GST policy, whereby each citizen will contribute accordingly to their level of prosperity and progress in society.

I recognize the intrinsic problems faced by the Singapore society in the next 10 to 30 years, of which the yawning income gap between the rich and the poor and an aging population are of my top priorities.

Thus, from my perspective, the implementation of GST is a sound one as it provides the government with the financial resources to strengthen the existing social welfare programmes already in place, thereby enhancing the social safety nets to assist the low-income groups, with the intention to close the widening income gap.

Furthermore, financial resources are needed to conduct medical research and development, to build health care infrastructures, and to finance the increasingly costly medical bills of Singaporeans.

In the light of all these, it is crucial that the government receives healthy levels of revenues through the implementation of GST.

I support the notion of implementing a GST policy with a rate of between 3 to 10% and reject the call to abolish/ waiver GST on basic necessities. Basic necessities as well as luxury items should be taxed.

However, I beg to differ from the government proposal to keep GST at 7% across the board.