MPs, experts call for Medisave to cover more ailments

Some MPs, experts also urge yearly revision of usage to match rising costs
By Poon Chian Hui, The Straits Times, 27 Oct 2011

Medisave should be further liberalised so Singaporeans can draw on it more often and to cover a wider variety of ailments, said some MPs and health industry experts.

Echoing a recent call by Dr Lam Pin Min, head of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Health, they said Medisave use should be expanded to cover more outpatient treatments such as those for chronic ailments.

The usage should be revised yearly to keep up with the rising cost of living, they added. They also urged that Medisave be allowed to cover more items that are costly, such as scans which are now allowed only for cancer patients.

At the debate on the President's Address at the opening of Parliament last week, Dr Lam, the MP for Sengkang West, had said Medisave use should be liberalised as there were many instances of genuine spending on outpatient consultations, treatments and investigations.

He suggested that government subsidies be increased for the lower- and middle-income groups as the rise in medical costs is ahead of wage increases.

Medisave was introduced by the Ministry of Health in 1984 to help Singaporeans tide over major medical events such as hospitalisation. Between 6.5 and 9 per cent of a CPF member's pay goes into his Medisave account, depending on his age.

Over the years, the scheme has been gradually expanded to cover more situations. In 2006, Medisave could be used for outpatient treatment of diabetes under a newly formed Chronic Disease Management Programme (CDMP). More ailments were added over the years and, today, those who suffer from any of a list of eight diseases can use their Medisave to pay for outpatient treatment, subject to a cap of $400 a year from next year. Besides diabetes, the CDMP covers hypertension, lipid disorders, stroke, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, schizophrenia and major depression.

Asked to elaborate on his views, Dr Lam pointed out that the CDMP was just one area that could be reworked.

Singapore's success: An observer's take

By David Mason, The Business Times, 25 Oct 2011

I'VE been coming to Singapore for the last 48 years, which makes me feel ancient. Mind you, the first visit in 1963 was merely a one-day stopover on a ship back to the United Kingdom.

We berthed at what is now the container terminal and I bought my first transistor radio at what is now Raffles Place, from a small shop which was near Change Alley. We could not afford Robinsons on the other side of the park.

Immediately, I can hear young Singaporeans saying: 'Huh?'

Singapore has changed dramatically. I came to live here in 1979 and stayed until 1997. Since then, I have worked here on and off every year and have had the opportunity to see the place change and grow.

Modern Singapore is a success story. From a swampy island, beset with mosquitoes, whose only claim to success was its geographical location and its huge harbour, it has become one of the world's leading cities.

You all know the statistics, because you are brought up on them. Shipping, oil refining, transport hub, banking centre, high-tech R&D, regional centre in every way. Singapore is a success.

Yet this is fragile.

The world is truly global economically and Singapore exists only because of economics. The current outlook for the global economy is scary, to say the least, so Singapore must take stock.

You have had the same governing party since Independence and, if I have learnt one thing from them, it is that the nation requires stability. Without it, you are lost. I'll avoid the arguments about democracy because I'd like you to let me in next time I come to Changi.

But the message is very clear - do not throw away what your forefathers fought so hard to establish.

The modern Singapore shocks - in the nicest sense. Our first home was in Upper Thomson, with kampungs on three sides. The night-soil tanker visited every morning and woke me up, to get to work in a non-aircon bus.

Being an ang moh (Caucasian) and not used to the weather, I used to leave wet marks under my shoes by the time we got to Ocean Building. Now you have the most modern of buildings, an advanced transport system (okay, it gets crowded, but the aircon works) and fairly full employment.

You are also known as a place of enjoyment for the well-heeled, and some of them now live here. You have casinos, Formula One racing, the best zoo in the world, arguably the world's best food and an amazing number of foreigners.

Which is where this starts to get serious.

Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs published in French

27 Oct 2011

PARIS - A French version of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs was launched in Paris this week, the latest foreign-language edition of The Singapore Story to be printed and sold.

An initial print run of 2,500 copies of the two-volume memoirs, documenting the life of Singapore's founding father and the country's road to independence and after, will be sold in France, adding to the numerous translations of the best-selling memoirs.

Former foreign minister George Yeo, who initiated the idea of a French-language edition, was the guest of honour at the launch on Tuesday, which was attended by leaders from the French government, diplomatic circles, business, civil society and media.

Mr Yeo is currently a visiting scholar of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, which published the book and was launching it in partnership with the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA).

"The memoirs have been translated into nearly 10 major languages; however, the French edition was missing till date," Mr Yeo said, noting that the book could provide insights at a time when countries are struggling to achieve good governance.

He added: "Many Francophone countries have shown interest in the Singapore model. They are free to select the lessons they want to learn on governance and adapt it to their own political context based on their unique historical and cultural evolution."

MOM helps foreign workers to understand job terms

By Lin Wenjian, The Straits Times, 27 Oct 2011

Foreign workers coming to Singapore to work will now have a clearer idea of their terms of employment, as well as of the labour laws here, thanks to recent initiatives introduced by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

From June this year, work permit holders here have been given In-Principle Approval, or IPA letters, that were redesigned to make it easier for them to understand.

In the same month, MOM also started to conduct pre-departure orientation briefings for construction workers from China.

Employers and migrant worker groups welcome the measures, which they say will help prevent disputes - a problem that commonly arises because of misunderstandings and lack of understanding on the terms of employment.

The IPA letter, which all foreign work pass applicants have to present to the immigration authorities for entry into Singapore, now includes information on workers' salaries, allowances and fees payable to employment agencies here.

Work permit holders earn below $2,000 a month.

In addition, the letters sent to workers are now written in their native languages.

Reality bites: More Foreign Workers or Fewer jobs for Singaporeans

Firms feel impact of foreign worker crunch
Businesses protest, but some economists believe the limits are necessary
By Aaron Low, Magdalen Ng & Melissa Tan, The Straits Times, 26 Oct 2011

WINNING a $3 million contract should have been a triumph for Mr Robert Goh's electrical engineering business, but the foreign worker levy is ramping costs up so high that the 15-year-old company's future is in doubt.

SJ Thames Engineering employs about 20 foreigners for technical and basic engineering work, but once-healthy margins are being squeezed hard by the levies.

The cost per foreign worker is about $2,000 to Mr Goh. This cost includes $250 for lodging, salary of about $900 and a levy of $450.

'But even if I offer that amount, I can't get a local to join,' said Mr Goh, who placed an advert recently for an engineering job that attracted just six Singaporeans out of 160 applications.

He said that implementing productivity improvements is not that straightforward as the work is labour-intensive. 

Mr Goh's concerns are mirrored across the business community as disquiet increases over government measures to slow the flow of foreign workers.

There have been a series of moves over the past 12 months to make it costlier for companies to hire foreign workers, both at the unskilled and semi-skilled levels.

At the lower end of the skills scale, the Government is raising the levies of Work Permit holders. Companies will have to pay between $130 and $320 more a month for each foreign worker by July 2013, depending on the company's sector.

At the higher end, the Manpower Ministry is raising the salary criteria for Employment Pass holders to level the playing field for Singaporeans competing with foreigners for the same jobs.

This is to ensure that Singaporeans remain the core of the workforce, Deputy Prime Minister and Manpower Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has said.

Tax breaks and incentives were also implemented alongside the foreign worker policy changes to entice firms to increase productivity by investing in technology.

The main objective of these measures is to wean companies off cheap foreign labour as the country and its infrastructure cannot absorb infinite numbers of workers, said economists.

They are also meant to help raise productivity and indirectly increase salaries of Singaporeans.

Repowering US economy: Fix Education, Not Tax Cuts

Bloomberg, Edward Glaeser, 24 Oct 11

The Republican presidential debates have been replete with discussions about our economic future, but to listen to the candidates you’d think that the biggest problem is an onerous U.S. tax code.

I’m all for sensible tax reform, but prosperity depends far more on our skill base than on cutting tax rates that are already low by international standards. If the Republicans want to battle for a more prosperous, and stronger, country, they must start spending a lot more time fighting the failures of American education.

The attached figure shows the correlation between the logarithm per-capita income levels in 2010 and math PISA test scores in 2009. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, tests 15-year-olds in a range of generally prosperous countries, and takes on values from 200 to 800 (similar to the math SAT). Tests are also given for reading and science -- the scores are quite closely correlated across subject area -- but the math results are the best predictor of incomes across countries. I excluded Luxembourg and Lichtenstein because of size, and subnational Chinese areas, such as Hong Kong and Shanghai.

The graph illustrates that a 46-point test score increase, which is about 10 percent of the average score across countries, is associated with an increase of more than 90 percent in country level incomes. The test score variable can explain, in a statistical sense, the lion’s share of income differences across these countries.

Empirical Evidence

Although it’s sensible to be a bit skeptical about figures like this, there is a long and distinguished literature linking education with economic outcomes at the individual, country and metropolitan area level. Economists have found that earnings rise with education even among identical twins and that randomly getting a better kindergarten teacher produces higher adult earnings.

At the metropolitan level, education predicts earnings growth, not just income levels, and the presence of a land-grant college prior to 1940 is a strong predictor of economic success today.

At the national scale, fears of reverse causality are allayed by the fact that education predicts improvements in income and government quality, but ameliorations in those areas don’t predict improvements in education.

All in all, the link between education and prosperity is about as solid as anything in the social sciences.

By contrast, the statistical link between tax rates and prosperity is far weaker. Across countries, incomes are typically higher where governments spend more, as a share of gross domestic product. This is known as Wagner’s Law, and it doesn’t mean that big government increases prosperity, because government spending is primarily reflecting, not causing, high incomes.

But empirical studies, compromised by a host of tricky statistical issues, have typically found a murky relationship between government size and economic growth. U.S. tax cuts also typically appear to have modest impacts on economic activity.

This may not be surprising because our tax rates are already low relative to world standards.

I agree with Republican leaders who want to make the government more efficient and reduce our tax burden, but lower taxes mean less spending, and this is far from a silver bullet for the economy.

Similarly, the U.S.’s economic problems don’t primarily reflect deficient infrastructure or too expensive energy or the actions of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Skill Deficit

I support smart reform in all these areas, but if we fail to address the primary issue -- our skill deficit -- we’re fiddling while the country declines. Indeed, the figure shows that U.S. wages are already high relative to our skill levels. The big challenge is to ensure that Americans have the tools to thrive in an information age.

Our current PISA math scores put us in the middle of the pack. We’re on a par with Portugal, ahead of Italy and Azerbaijan, and behind Hungary and Slovenia. We’re far behind countries such as South Korea and Singapore.

Why should we expect an American with limited skills to earn dramatically more than an equally skilled counterpart in China or India? An American consultant doesn’t expect to earn a wage premium for advising an Indian company just because she’s from the U.S.

People who sell their time through the online marketplace Amazon Mechanical Turk can’t expect to earn more because of their location. Place matters -- we’re still educated by the people around us. The importance of having smart neighbors explains why cities like Seattle, Minneapolis and Boston continue to thrive.

But proximity is worth less and less if you aren’t learning from the people around you. Once upon a time, Americans could expect to earn more than equivalently skilled Asians or Europeans, because of our natural resources and a government that was exceptional in its stability, rule-of-law and embrace of capitalism.

Today, there are plenty of countries where entrepreneurs can thrive.

The would-be Republican candidates all champion enduring American greatness, but how can that greatness persist unless the U.S. is one of the most skilled countries on the planet? The 20th century was America’s century in part because we were so well educated.

The Republican Party’s leaders should fight for better schools, because they have plenty to add to the education debate. The most remarkable education success stories of the past decade have been charter schools that expose their students to long classroom hours.

Hard Work

That message should be a perfect fit for Republicans -- the U.S. becomes smarter through competition and hard work. Years of research have taught us that teacher quality is paramount; this, too, can be a Republican issue. Candidates should fight to ensure enough school competition so that excellent teachers get top salaries and mediocre teachers get fired.

Republicans should also embrace the promise of new teaching technologies, such as New York’s School of One, which uses computers to personalize lessons. Republican candidates should offer an optimistic vision of a stronger and fairer country built on skills and entrepreneurship.

Yet some of these politicians seem to think that everything will be fine as long as Washington abandons its push to improve education. This is a path to mediocrity.

As Margaret Spellings, who served as secretary of education under President George W. Bush and is my colleague on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation United States Program Advisory Panel, told the New York Times, “We tried that for 40 years,” and “the results were far from stellar.”

Washington needs to be involved to ensure localities don’t put unions ahead of children. Massachusetts lifted its unfortunate cap on charter schools partially because of the pressure created by the Race to the Top program. A Republican policy could be even more effective.

Indeed, Republican presidents have a proud legacy of making the U.S. stronger through education. Abraham Lincoln signed the 1862 Morrill Act establishing land-grant colleges (which his Democratic predecessor had vetoed).

Dwight D. Eisenhower supported the Sputnik-era efforts that brought more science into schools. During the Ronald Reagan administration, the “Nation at Risk” report led to a national focus on science and math that created big returns for disadvantaged youths. Bush wanted to be an education president with the No Child Left Behind law.

Americans will earn what our talents produce. Any Republican or Democrat who wants to repower our economy must recognize that the nation’s future depends on its human capital, far more than infrastructure or energy or finagling with the tax code.

(Edward Glaeser, an economics professor at Harvard University, is a Bloomberg View columnist. He is the author of “Triumph of the City.”

In South Korea, too many graduates, too few jobs

Fred Hiatt, The Washington Post, 24 Oct 11

Americans who deem South Korea’s education system a model (President Obama, among others) might be surprised at one message leaders here are delivering to their youth: Drop out, please.

Well, that may be a slight exaggeration. But South Korea’s government has decided that too many people are going to college. It is working to restore the luster of a high school diploma as a stopping point for some and to establish a vocational track for others.

And that has to be sobering for anyone who has assumed that education will be the antidote to the downward-mobility pressures of globalization.

Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, frequently cite Korea in contrast to America’s shortcomings — the diligence of its students, the commitment of its parents, its success in equipping successive generations to compete.

Pretty much everyone agrees that this East Asian nation’s progress, in just half a century, from abject poverty to developed-world prosperity owes much to its schools and its devotion to schooling. South Korean 15-year-olds rank first in reading and math, and third (behind Finland and Japan) in science, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. U.S. teens rank 14th, 25th and 17th in the three categories.

Yet Koreans are deeply unhappy with their system — to the point that many blame their world-lowest birth rate (1.1 child per woman) on their schools. They complain about an emphasis on memorization, a stifling of creativity, a failure to teach usable English and a weakness in developing leadership skills.

Bukit Brown & Golf Courses

Golf courses, not history, should make way

By Liew Kai Khiun, Published TODAY, 25 Oct 2011

The Land Transport Authority's plan to open a major road through Bukit Brown Cemetery, which is of eco-heritage value, has raised debates between conservationists and developmentalists.

One sees the more intangible but longer term cultivation of a collective sense of identity and belonging; the other, the short-term but lucrative demands for growth and prosperity, particularly for this land near expensive residences along Bukit Timah Road.

As the population expands, the contestations for land use will become more pressing, and this debate is crucial in determining the liveability of Singapore for future generations.

While I am heartened by the Government's commitment to "a city within a garden", I am unsure how this can be realised in practice. The approach to Bukit Brown Cemetery seems instead to be turning the country into gardens within the city.

Perhaps, we need a radical rethink of land use in light of the current limitations, and I suggest that Singapore does away completely with golf courses.

According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority, 22 golf courses and three temporary golf sites occupied 88 per cent of the 1,600 hectares of land used for sports and recreation in 2000, or 2.2 per cent of total land area.

To underline the exclusive nature of golfing here, the premium Singapore Island Country Club has four 18-hole courses, a nine-hole course and two driving ranges that stretch from Adam Road to the boundaries of Peirce Reservoir.

All these facilities and land, enjoyed by about 18,000 members.

Although golf courses are located in constrained areas near water catchment zones, military training grounds or flight paths, not only do they occupy huge tracts of land, they are economically unproductive, socially exclusive and environmentally damaging.

If Singapore's policies are based on pragmatism and inclusiveness, golfing should not be considered a practical activity here. Golfers should go to neighbouring countries for their sport.

Governing in the new normal

The New Normal and what it means for Governance

by Donald Low, Published in The Straits Times, 9 Sep 2011

The two elections of 2011 herald a significant shift in the political values, attitudes and aspirations of Singaporeans. While the PAP and its preferred candidate for the Presidency were returned to power, it would be a mistake for the PAP government to assume that with the elections behind us, it can return to the business of governance along the technocratic lines it is used to.

The Singapore polity has changed profoundly, perhaps irrevocably. President Tony Tan hinted at this when he said at the start of his election campaign that politics in Singapore has entered a “new normal”. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong too recognised that politics in Singapore has changed when he warned of the dangers of polarisation and populism. He also highlighted an important, but often forgotten, truth: to get our policies right, we must first get the politics right.

For more than forty years, the PAP government “got politics right” by suppressing and minimising it. With the exception of Parliamentary elections, the PAP drove out almost all forms of democratic politics from public life. It saw governance as a pristine, rational pursuit which should be only minimally subject to political contest. Governance, government leaders believed, should be undertaken by an enlightened elite insulated from the political pressures which they believed would lead to extremism, demagoguery and populism.

Politics in Singapore allowed a system of technocratic governance dominated by elites. To the extent that there was politics, it was kept within the Establishment, a state of affairs described by Prof Chan Heng Chee as the “politics of an administrative state.” For their part, citizens mostly accepted this state of affairs, trading away some of the liberties found in democratic societies for a government that delivered the goods.

In the aftermath of the 2011 elections, the government can no longer take this for granted. Competitive politics has returned to Singapore; the government can expect a policy and political landscape that is far more contested and vexed. Can good governance be sustained in the new normal? How should the system of technocratic, elite governance adapt?

Gaddafi

Why Gaddafi was the quintessential 20th-century dictator
By William J. Dobson, The Washington Post, 22 October 2011

The Arab revolutions of 2011 have claimed their third dictator, but the death of Libya’s Moammar Gaddafi is not just the end of another strongman. Even in his downfall, Gaddafi had to be different: While Tunisia’s Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak stands on trial, Gaddafi sought to cling to power to the end and died in the streets of Sirte, his home town.

His demise means more than the conclusion of his brutal 42-year reign and the beginning of Libya’s best chance at a democratic future. It is also the turning of a page in the annals of tyranny. Gaddafi was one of the last of a nearly extinct breed — the uniquely 20th-century dictator.

He certainly could play the part. Gaddafi will probably be best remembered for the figure he cut: a bizarre, mercurial oddball with dark sunglasses, wacky outfits and gelled hair. His idiosyncrasies were legendary: When he traveled, he stayed in a luxurious Bedouin tent and — like some bad Bond villain — had an entourage that included female bodyguards and a busty Ukrainian nurse.



His speeches were as long-winded as they were unintelligible. (His 2009 address at the United Nations, slated for 15 minutes, ran an hour and a half.) His ideas, if that is the right word, will be forever preserved in the Green Book, his slim political treatise that he claimed spelled out an alternative to capitalism and communism. What it was, in fact, was a pocket-size totem to his megalomania. Schoolchildren were forced to commit passages to memory; its banal and bizarre aphorisms were plastered on billboards and broadcast on radio and television each day.

Of course, the 20th-century tyrant was hardly all style and no substance. Gaddafi, after all, funded the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Irish Republican Army and trained would-be autocrats in his dictatorship academies. And he went from terrorism paymaster to participant in 1988 when he ordered the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, a crime that claimed 270 lives.

But the crimes that made Gaddafi a fugitive — that led him to the drainage pipe where he was reportedly hiding when captured — were those he committed against his fellow Libyans. It was his style of rule, rather than his personal tastes or even international terrorism, that made him a 20th-century totalitarian throwback.

10 new hawker centres to be built after 26 years

By Ng Lian Cheong, Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia, 8 October 2011

The government will resume the building of hawker centres to meet the needs of the community in new population centres.

It'll build its first hawker centre after 26 years in Bukit Panjang. About 10 more will be built over the next decade.



Minister for Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan announced this on Saturday, during a visit to Bukit Timah hawker centre.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said: "It's a part of local life, it's a place that people want to get to, it's a place where jobs, good jobs, are created for Singaporeans. And there's that sense of belonging. I think that's the most precious and unique aspect about the hawker cenres in a Singapore style."

Dr Balakrishnan said there have been calls for more hawker centres over the years.

He said the government will focus on building the hawker centres in new towns, such as Pasir Ris, Punggol and Jurong.

"My preference is that these centres be run on a not-for-profit basis, so I won't be selling centres to commercial operators," Dr Balakrishnan told reporters.

"But hawkers still have to make a living."

He said he hoped that by increasing the supply of hawker centres, customers will be assured of "good, affordable food".

'Venice of Punggol' opens - Waterway idea came from Mah Bow Tan

'Venice of Punggol' opens
By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia, 23 Oct 11

It has been four years since Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sketched out his vision for Punggol, a sleepy suburb located in the northeastern part of Singapore.

It was an ambitious project to transform what some residents have described as a backwater town into a "Waterfront Town of the 21st Century".

An earlier plan to remake Punggol had hit a bump, when the Asian Financial Crisis struck.

Built at a cost of S$225 million, the new waterway by the Housing and Development Board - described as the "Venice of Punggol" - was finally opened on Sunday evening.

Mr Lee, who was speaking at the opening of the Punggol Waterway, recounted how the waterway was originally conceived as a pipeline between Serangoon and Punggol reservoirs and credited former National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan for making the change.



The project cements Punggol's claim as Singapore's first eco-precinct, along with other green features incorporated into the town's design.

The town, one of the biggest in Singapore, will house some 23,000 families by the end of the year.

In sprucing up old neighbourhoods, Mr Lee said the government will partner residents and the community in the effort.

Mr Lee said: "Every estate that we build will have its own unique identity, its own distinct landmarks and its own particular charm. Each estate will not just be a set of block of flats or precincts, but a home for Singaporeans, a community of residents, a place where friendships are made and memories are formed."

In designing the waterway, memories of the area have also been preserved.

Alan Tan, Project Director, Waterway@Punggol, said: "For example at the Kelong bridge, we have some ideas of the poles and stilts, which are remnants of the fishing villages of the past in Punggol town. Also in the past, Punggol had a lot of mangroves, and now we've incorporated some mangroves into the eastern part of the waterway."

The man-made river is expected to become the focal point of the new town.

Mr Lee also reiterated the government's commitment to improve the amenities and conditions in older housing estates like Yishun and East Coast, even as newer ones get a facelift.