Hard choices need to be made for sustainable healthcare: PM Lee Hsien Loong at the Official Opening of Sengkang Hospital Campus

Healthcare spending rising fast and will go up further, so new ways to fund it must be found
By Rachel Au-Yong, Housing Correspondent, The Sunday Times, 24 Mar 2019

Singapore's healthcare receipts already exceed $9 billion and are rising faster than GDP growth, with a certainty they will go up even further. Eventually, this will become unsustainable, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.

In the medium term, Singapore will have to find new ways to fund healthcare spending.

"But at the same time, we have to think hard about what we must spend on, and which drugs and procedures are cost-effective," PM Lee said at the official opening of Singapore's newest hospital, Sengkang General Hospital (SKH), and the companion Sengkang Community Hospital (SKCH), which provides rehabilitation services.

"We have to make hard choices, and I hope we will have the support of Singaporeans in making them," he added.



PM Lee's comments come after the Health Ministry said last August, when SKH opened its doors to the public, that it will take a pause to plan future healthcare needs after the next public general hospital opens in Woodlands in 2022.

Since 2010, the Government has been steadily building more facilities to meet growing demand as the population ages.

The Sengkang integrated campus in the north-eastern part of Singapore will add 1,000 acute hospital beds and 400 community beds when it opens fully. It currently operates about 500 acute and 150 community hospital beds. More beds will be opened progressively to meet rising patient demand.



Yesterday, PM Lee noted that Singapore spends less on healthcare than most other developed countries, yet has better outcomes.

One reason for the lower expenditure is the relatively younger population, "which has only recently begun ageing".

"But the main reason is because we have structured our system properly, and built in the right incentives to guard against over-consumption of healthcare," he said.

This is not easy to do because it is difficult to tell people that some treatments they want are not necessary or cost-effective, he added.

"Yet we have to watch how heavily the Government subsidises healthcare," he said, noting that in countries with high health subsidies, doctors tend to prescribe more unnecessary and expensive treatments.

PM Lee also spoke about how the healthcare system must adapt to Singaporeans who are living longer and have to grapple with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. They also live in smaller families, with a larger proportion of family members being seniors.

Every school must promote tolerance, openness: PM Lee Hsien Loong at Hwa Chong Institution’s 100th Anniversary Dinner

Maintaining multicultural exchanges essential for promoting societal cohesion, integration: PM Lee
He highlights Hwa Chong Institution's efforts to expose its students to different cultures
By Rachel Au-Yong, The Straits Times, 22 Mar 2019

Hwa Chong Institution may be steeped in Chinese history and language, but the school has taken steps to ensure its students are exposed to different cultures, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

He underlined the importance of having multicultural exchanges in a speech last evening to some 12,000 alumni, staff and students at the school's 100th anniversary gala dinner, held at its campus in Bukit Timah.

"Maintaining such multicultural exchanges is critical to promoting cohesion and integration in our society," PM Lee said in Mandarin.

Hwa Chong, a Special Assistance Plan (SAP) school, has few non-Chinese students. The school has, however, striven to give students the opportunity to mix with peers of different races and backgrounds through various activities, he noted.

For instance, the school partners ITE College West to organise a joint overseas community involvement programme trip, during which students from both schools work and live together.

Besides Hwa Chong, every school should promote the spirit of openness and tolerance because it helps preserve the foundation of Singapore's multiracial and multicultural society, PM Lee added.

"At the same time, we should also strengthen the teaching of mother tongues, enrich the heritage of our society, and further consolidate our country's multiracial, multicultural national identity."

Speaking in both Mandarin and English, he traced Hwa Chong's history, and said it is very much intertwined with Singapore's.



The school, which started with around 70 students in a small building in Niven Road in the Selegie area, has witnessed and participated in many pivotal events, he said, from World War II to the fight for independence from the British in the 1950s and separation from Malaysia in 1965.

For instance, many Chinese students - including those from Hwa Chong - joined anti-colonial protests after World War II.

On the one hand, they were inspired by a movement happening in the world, he noted. On the other, some felt they had been treated unfairly under the colonial system, and wished to rise up against it.

"In the turbulent 1950s and 1960s, Hwa Chong provided the back-drop for anti-colonial and anti-government struggles, and many students were affected by left-leaning thinking," PM Lee said. "It was a time of turbulence."

Enrolment in Chinese-language schools dwindled in the 1970s, as English schools grew in popularity. Nine SAP schools were thus introduced in 1979 to preserve the traditional Chinese school cultural environment.

Hwa Chong was one of the nine. Today, the school is recognised for its high academic performance and bilingual alumni, PM Lee said.

He added that the school has to make a concerted effort on three fronts to continue thriving as an educational institution.

First, it must uphold high academic achievements, even as it continues to emphasise all-rounded education and the cultivation of character and values.

Second, it has a "special responsibility" as a SAP school to promote Chinese traditional culture, values and heritage, and to help students to master their mother tongue.

"This was the reason Mr Lee Kuan Yew introduced SAP schools in 1979. He wanted to revive the spirit of the old Chinese middle schools," he said, adding these schools had "emphasised character development, seriousness of purpose and the spirit of community".

Third, Hwa Chong students must "understand the context of our society, and their own responsibilities within it", PM Lee said. "You must know how Singapore society works, identify with fellow Singaporeans of all races and religions and feel a responsibility for your fellow citizens.

"You need to feel a calling to participate in community and national affairs, to contribute to the society and system that has nurtured you, and to take on leadership roles to help take Singapore forward."



Concluding in Mandarin, PM Lee noted that Hwa Chong is celebrating its 100th anniversary and Singapore, its bicentennial.

The road ahead is full of trials and tribulations, he said.

But citing the school's motto for continuous improvement, he said the country will continue to flourish if it adopts that same approach.

New Zealand terror attack: Societies must acknowledge rising Islamophobia, tackle right-wing hate ideology, says Shanmugam

Dealing with specific incidents not enough - you got to deal with the ideology, he says
By Charmaine Ng, The Sunday Times, 17 Mar 2019

Societies need to acknowledge that Islamophobia is increasing around the world and come down hard on these people, Singapore's Minister for Law and Home Affairs K. Shanmugam said yesterday.

Speaking to local media a day after the terrorist attacks in New Zealand mosques that left 49 people dead, Mr Shanmugam said: "When you see the face of the person who was alleged to have committed the crime, I think you see the face of evil."

He added that while people with right-wing hate ideology have carried out terror attacks for many years, the issue has not received "as much attention" as those said to be carried out on behalf of Islam.



Beyond having leaders speaking publicly to condemn the attacks and stepping up security, societies have to "face squarely the reality that Islamophobia is rising", said Mr Shanmugam, who was speaking on the sidelines of a grassroots event.

"Just as we come down hard on terrorists who say that they attack on behalf of Islam, you got to come down equally hard on Islamophobic people and also you got to deal with the ideology - it's not just dealing with specific incidents," he added.

"For that you got to start by acknowledging that it is there. When you do not acknowledge it, the problem just grows."

Societies need to figure out the boundaries between free speech and hate speech - a line which, in many places, is often blurred.

"We try and draw a line and a fairly strict line, whether it is in the form of entertainment or it is preaching... anything that interferes or attacks other peoples' religions, race," he noted.



Highlighting Queensland Senator Fraser Anning, Mr Shanmugam said of the controversial comments made by the far-right independent politician: "Attacking Islam, attacking the Prophet, saying that it is a savage religion. If he had been in Singapore, this would never have been allowed."

It was important for Singaporeans to understand that if people are allowed to attack other religions or races, over time this would spread as hate speech which results in a "culture of permissiveness", Mr Shanmugam added.

And that creates "a greater divide" and "a more permissive environment for violence... so we have to face up to these questions," he said.



When asked if security at religious sites will be stepped up in the light of the Christchurch attacks, Mr Shanmugam said that while Singapore remains on high alert, it has strict laws on gun control as well as on hate speech.

He also urged Singaporeans who have come across the video of the New Zealand shooting to not circulate it and delete the footage.

"Please delete it. And don't spread it. Because we are giving the gunman and the right-wing ideologists exactly what they want by spreading it," he said.

Universal Basic Income: Why should Government give handouts to everyone?

Policies involving the application of universal basic income are instituted with a broad brush (It's time to talk about a universal basic income, March 6).

Yes, they are simple to administer, will help those displaced by disruptive technology and may even enable creative endeavours not otherwise possible.

But why give an unqualified windfall to all and sundry, regardless of need, circumstances or motivation to strive for a better life?

Indubitably, the less fortunate, deprived, sick, handicapped and lower-salaried workers must be given a helping hand by the state.

But such financial aid must be targeted to be meaningful and work effectively.



With a good social welfare infrastructure under the umbrella of the National Council of Social Service, its complex administration in our small and smart nation is manageable, unlike with sprawled out populations in large countries, where those who need the most help may find it inaccessible.

We can't possibly continually give handouts to the able-bodied displaced by disruptive technology as this indicates the unremitting theme of things to come.

But retraining those eager to start afresh, of which schemes are aplenty here, and teaching them to fish again, will give them an occupation to provide food for a lifetime.

Yik Keng Yeong (Dr)
ST Forum, 8 Mar 2019

Older HDB rental blocks to get better ventilation, natural lighting

By Shabana Begum, The Straits Times, 8 Mar 2019

In the 1980s and 1990s, housewife Leong Lye Chan, 57, would squint hard while walking along the dark and gloomy corridors of the HDB block where she rents a flat.

She would perspire as she waited in the muggy corridors for her son after school.

In 2004, both ventilation and lighting at Madam Leong's Block 217 in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 improved significantly following changes made by the HDB.

Another rental block that was improved under the pilot programme was Block 1 in Holland Close.

Following the pilot, HDB will do the same at other older rental blocks built in the 1960s and 1970s in areas such as Bukit Merah, Kallang and Bedok.

These places house most of the older rental blocks, and the refurbishment will start in 2020.

Despite the tenants' positive feedback about the 2004 pilot, the works were not extended to other blocks in view of the rental demand and supply situation at the time, said an HDB spokesman.

A rental block typically has one-or two-room flats along both sides of the central corridor. Save for sunlight and wind sneaking into the corridor through open spaces at the lift and staircase landings, the rest of the corridor is mostly unlit.

To improve ventilation, HDB will create more openings along the corridors by removing some flats on each floor of the rental blocks, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for National Development Sun Xueling said yesterday.



The tenants living in the affected units will be moved to similar units in the same building or nearby rental blocks. "HDB will work closely with local organisations and the relevant agencies to ensure a smooth transition," she added.

Nationwide, HDB manages about 230 rental blocks, but lighting and ventilation improvements will be for blocks built in the 1960s and 1970s that have long corridors with flats on both sides, she said.

"We are looking to start preparation for the improvement works later this year," she added.

For Madam Leong's block, two columns of one-room flats were removed near both ends of the wide 10-storey block. Before the pilot, only the centre of the building had openings for air and light to enter.

Now, each floor is lined with 24 units, with two 5m-wide open spaces near the ends to facilitate cross-ventilation.

CHAS subsidies for all Singaporeans with chronic illnesses from November 2019

New green CHAS card from November for all Singaporeans with chronic health conditions
By Rei Kurohi, The Straits Times, 7 Mar 2019

From Nov 1, all Singaporeans suffering from diabetes, hypertension or other chronic illnesses can tap the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) for subsidies, and those who already qualify for it will receive bigger subsidies.

* MOH revises income eligibility criteria for healthcare subsidy and assistance schemes from October 2019 *

The introduction of the new CHAS Green tier is for households with a monthly per capita income of more than $1,800 or a home with an annual value of more than $21,000.

Its holder can get up to $112 in yearly subsidies for a simple chronic condition, or up to $160 for a complex condition - meaning someone with multiple chronic conditions or one with complications.

Details of the new health assistance programme were announced by Senior Minister of State for Health Edwin Tong in Parliament yesterday during the debate on his ministry's budget.

The CHAS Green tier is in addition to the existing CHAS Orange and CHAS Blue, which subsidise treatment for common illnesses, chronic health problems and selected dental issues for lower-to middle-income Singaporean households.

Last year, about 630,000 patients benefited from CHAS subsidies, Mr Tong said.



Singaporeans who were aged 16 and older in 1965, referred to as the Pioneer Generation, enjoy CHAS benefits regardless of income.

From Nov 1, members of the Merdeka Generation, who were born in the 1950s and are in their 60s now, will also qualify for CHAS benefits regardless of income.

Annual subsidies for the Merdeka Generation will be capped at $340 for simple conditions and $520 for complex conditions.

For common illnesses, the subsidy will be capped at $23.50 per visit. For dental services, the Merdeka Generation will get between $16 and $261.50 per procedure, depending on what it is.

This is higher than the CHAS Blue tier for households in the lowest income bracket with a per capita monthly household income of $1,100 or less, but not as high as what the Pioneer Generation receives.



Subsidies for current CHAS Orange and CHAS Blue cardholders will also be raised by $20 a year, from $300 to $320 a year for CHAS Orange and from $480 to $500 a year for CHAS Blue.

CHAS Orange cardholders can get a subsidy of up to $10 per visit for common illnesses from Nov 1. Currently, they do not get any subsidies for common illnesses.

"Collectively, we expect to pay out more than $200 million a year on CHAS subsidies," Mr Tong said.



He added that the Health Ministry is working on simplifying the CHAS application process to encourage more Singaporeans to sign up.

Online applications will be available from September this year.

Needy Singaporeans to get more financial aid with increase in ComCare Long-Term Assistance from July 2019

By Theresa Tan, Senior Social Affairs Correspondent, The Straits Times, 6 Mar 2019

Needy Singaporeans will get more financial aid each month from the Government.

From July 1, a single person on the ComCare Long-Term Assistance scheme will get $600 a month, up from $500. Two-person households will get $1,000 a month, up from $870 now.

The scheme, also known as Public Assistance, provides a cash sum each month to destitute persons who cannot work permanently as a result of old age or illness, and have little or no family support.

Most are elderly Singaporeans, and recipients also get other help, such as with their medical bills. The increase in Long-Term Assistance quantums will benefit some 4,000 households.

Recipients of Long-Term Assistance will get help as long as they remain eligible for the scheme.

New beneficiaries of the ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance (SMTA) and those who have their SMTA aid renewed after July 1 can also expect more money.

Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee said in Parliament yesterday: "We also provide ComCare Short-to-Medium-Term Assistance to help families tide over difficult times and regain stability. For example, those whose breadwinners are temporarily unable to work, looking for jobs or earning a low income may receive temporary support.

"We have similarly reviewed ComCare SMTA to keep pace with living expenses and changes in expenditure patterns."

Mr Lee said the amounts given to SMTA recipients vary, depending on their needs and financial circumstances.

The Ministry of Social and Family Development's (MSF) spokesman gave an example of a family of two living in a one-room HDB rental flat with one person earning $500 from working part-time, and the family getting about $360 a month from the SMTA to supplement their income.

The household can expect an increase of about $200 in aid from July.

The length of monetary aid given also varies from case to case, but in a parliamentary reply last month, the MSF said a median sum of about $400 was given to families on the SMTA each month, and the median length of help received was about six months. From 2015 to 2017, between 14,000 and 16,000 households received the SMTA at any point in time.

Mr Lee announced the increases in ComCare quantums in response to questions from Dr Lily Neo (Jalan Besar GRC) and Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade GRC), who asked about the efforts to strengthen the aid given to vulnerable families.

Mr Lee said that in the past decade, the MSF has reviewed and adjusted the ComCare rates every two to three years. The last review was in 2016.

Free cervical cancer vaccine for Secondary 1 female students from April 2019

Offer will be progressively extended to all girls currently studying in secondary schools
By Salma Khalik, Senior Health Correspondent, The Straits Times, 7 Mar 2019

All Secondary 1 girls in national schools, including madrasahs, will be offered free vaccination from next month to protect them against cervical cancer.

About 200 women get the cancer each year and 70 die from it, said Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor yesterday.

She added: "This cancer, which is caused by infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV), can be prevented with vaccination and screening."

The vaccine protects women against common HPV strains, which primarily cause cervical cancer, but can also cause vulva, vaginal and anal cancers.

As a one-time catch-up, the offer will be progressively extended to all girls currently studying in secondary schools. Those of similar age studying in private education institutes will also be offered free vaccination, if they are Singapore residents.

This is an opt-in scheme.



The Government has put aside $10 million for this year, and $2.5 million annually from next year.

Singapore has picked the second oldest of three HPV vaccines on the market, Cervarix, which protects against HPV strains 16 and 18, which account for 70 per cent of cervical cancers.

Streaming into Normal and Express in secondary schools to stop in 2024; to be replaced by full subject-based banding

Subject-Based Banding (SBB) to replace streaming in schools
Students can take up subjects at higher or lower levels, and graduate with common cert
By Sandra Davie, Senior Education Correspondent, The Straits Times, 6 Mar 2019

Forty years after streaming was introduced in secondary schools, the Ministry of Education has taken the momentous step to do away with the Normal (Technical), Normal (Academic) and Express streams.

In their place will be full subject-based banding, in which students take subjects, at a higher or lower level, based on their strengths.

The ministry will start full subject-based banding in about 25 schools next year, and apply it to all secondary schools by 2024.

All Secondary 1 students in the 2024 batch will take subjects at three levels - G1, G2 or G3, with G standing for "General". G1 will roughly correspond to today's N(T) standard, G2 to N(A) standard and G3 to Express standard.



Through their time in school, and as they further develop their strengths and interests, they will be able to take a combination of subjects across different bands.

When they reach Sec 4 in 2027, the students will take a common examination and graduate with a common secondary school certificate which will be co-branded by Singapore and Cambridge.

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung said: "With full subject-based banding implemented, form classes reorganised across the board and a combined secondary education certificate, we would have effectively merged Express, N(A) and N(T) streams into a single course. The Express, N(A) and N(T) streams, and their labels, will therefore be phased out.

"So, from three education streams, we will now have 'one secondary education, many subject bands'. We will no longer have fishes swimming down three separate streams, but one broad river, with each fish negotiating its own journey."



With students taking up subjects of varying combinations, the ministry hopes schools will group students in different ways and not just academic abilities. This will bring more social mixing and encourage students to help one another.

Explaining why the ministry was doing away with the Normal-Express divide, Mr Ong said that streaming was introduced 40 years ago during an "efficiency-driven phase" to cut down on student dropout rates.

Attrition rates have come down from about a third of every cohort in the 1970s to less than 1 per cent now. At the same time, the ministry recognises that there are downsides to streaming, said Mr Ong.

"Entering a stream that is considered 'lower' can carry a certain stigma that becomes fulfilling or self-limiting. Students can develop a mindset where they tell themselves, 'I am only a Normal stream student, so this is as good as I can be'," he said, pointing out how, over the years, several MPs have brought up these pernicious effects of streaming.



This point was also highlighted by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a Facebook post yesterday, when he said that streaming has some drawbacks: "It lacks flexibility, and students in the slower streams may become demotivated. Banding overcomes these difficulties, while enabling each student to learn at the pace which suits their aptitude and level, depending on the subject."

Mr Ong said that while there are some students who are very strong in every academic subject, most have uneven strengths, and even specific weaknesses. "It is just the way humans are. The challenge of our education system is to cater to that."

But the move to do away with streams is not the culling of a sacred cow, but rather an incremental move, he added.

Over the years, subject-based banding was gradually extended, and Normal stream students who took higher-level subjects have performed comparably to their Express counterparts.

Mr Ong said the ministry has been grappling with this trade-off - between customisation and stigmatisation - adding that changes should be thought through in education.

He said: "We should never stay frozen for a long period, only to make sudden big changes years later. So, any change analogous to the slaughtering of any animal is most likely a bad idea."

He ended his speech by saying that in making this change, the ministry was guided by the belief "that no child's fate is fixed, and in an environment that encourages growth and development, and promotes holistic education, they will fulfil their potential to be sons and daughters of Singapore whom we are proud of".

ColouriseSG: AI-powered tool instantly colours old Singapore photos

Month-old free online software developed by GovTech team is a global hit, with 68,000 users
By Shabana Begum, The Straits Times, 2 Mar 2019

It all started when three specialists from national information technology agency GovTech wanted to bring history to life by adding splashes of colour to old Singapore photographs.

Throughout January, the men from GovTech's Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Division developed a deep learning model that colourises black-and-white photos.

Called Colourise.sg, the free online tool, which went live in the first week of last month, takes about 31/2 seconds to add colour to an uploaded photograph. But the trio who created the AI-powered tool for an internal company hackathon did not realise that Colourise.sg would gain international traction.

Just days after the tool was put up on the Internet, users from England to Argentina were raving about the tool's speed and colourising precision on Twitter.

"A Dutch user tweeted that he colourised the one photo he has of his mum when she was young," said Mr Tan Kai Wei, 26, one of Colourise.sg's creators.

"There were a few who didn't know what their late grandparents looked like in reality. This tool gave a possibility for them to find out."

Mr Preston Lim, 26, the software engineer behind Colourise.sg, said: "These anecdotal comments highlight how visceral and emotional colour is, and how much emotion colour can bring to people."

About 68,000 users globally have used the tool, with 270,000 colourised images generated.

Compared with existing colourisation tools, the month-old software is unique because it was intentionally trained to colour images specific to Singapore.

Mahathir says Singapore's success due to Malaysia supplying it water

Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad says Johor govt, people must speak up on the Singapore water agreement
He calls pact 'morally wrong', and says state and people should not wait for federal govt to renegotiate water price
The Straits Times, 1 Mar 2019

PUTRAJAYA • Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday urged the government and people of Johor to speak up against what he felt was a "morally wrong" water agreement with Singapore.

The "rich" country of Singapore has been benefiting from "poor" Malaysia on the water issue, he told the Johor government's retreat with the federal Cabinet in Putrajaya.

"Singapore rapidly developed because we have been supplying them with water, but I find the Johoreans rarely talk about it," Tun Dr Mahathir was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.

"They just wait for negotiations to be undertaken by the federal government as if the state government is unaffected... The state government must make their voices heard. The rich are depending on the poor? This is not only illogical but also morally wrong. We must put stress on this issue," he added.

He was quoted by the Malay Mail online news as saying: "Not just the federal government, not just our negotiators, but the people of Johor must also pressure, saying that Singapore is exploiting Johor's water."

He added, as quoted by the news site: "Singapore depends on Johor for electricity, water and all that. If we manage these well, we will get enough profit.

"However, now, since 1926, we sell water to Singapore at the price of three sen for 1,000 gallons - not litres, but gallons.

"This is the price of 1926, but even now, Singapore is still paying three sen for 1,000 gallons of raw water from Johor. We have to fight this, but it seems we are not that smart in defending or highlighting the mistreatment that is happening to us."



The water issue with Malaysia resurfaced in June last year, a month after the Pakatan Harapan government took office, when Dr Mahathir said the price of raw water sold to Singapore was "ridiculous" and that Malaysia would approach Singapore to renegotiate the terms of the agreement.

Under the 1962 Water Agreement between the two countries which expires in 2061, Singapore is entitled to draw up to 250 million gallons a day (mgd) of raw water from the Johor River at three sen per 1,000 gallons.

Johor is entitled to buy five mgd of treated water from Singapore at 50 sen per 1,000 gallons. Singapore has said this price is heavily subsidised and below the cost of treating the water.

Singapore's stance is that in 1987, Malaysia lost its right to review the price under the 1962 Water Agreement when it chose not to do so.



Speaking about the water issue and referring to Singapore, Dr Mahathir was quoted by the New Straits Times newspaper as saying: "How can such a rich nation with higher per capita income of US$18,000 (S$24,300), compared with us, with per capita income of US$10,000, pay such an unreasonable rate?"

Dr Mahathir claimed that Singapore is also making profits with the high pricing of its desalinated water, yet still pays Malaysia only three sen for the raw water, Malay Mail quoted him as saying.

The Prime Minister said Johor should play up its strategically located ports and lower costs to entice Singaporeans to invest and shop there.

Parliament: Mahathir's comments on water agreement a 'red herring', says Vivian Balakrishnan
By Adrian Lim, Political Correspondent, The Straits Times, 2 Mar 2019

Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has called Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's pointed comments over the 1962 Water Agreement a "red herring".

Referring to Tun Dr Mahathir's remarks on Thursday urging Johor's government and people to protest against what he called a "morally wrong" pact, Dr Balakrishnan said the words used were "strong, emotive" and intended to rouse public opinion.

Dr Mahathir, in urging Johor to protest the agreement, had questioned how "a rich nation" could pay "such an unreasonable rate" for raw water sold by Malaysia.

Dr Balakrishnan told Parliament that Singapore's position on the water pact has been "clear and consistent". Neither Malaysia nor Singapore can unilaterally change the terms of the agreement between their countries.

He said Dr Mahathir himself had explained in 2002 that Malaysia chose not to review the price in 1987, when he was PM, because it benefited from the deal - under which Johor paid for treated water at a fraction of the treatment cost.



Dr Balakrishnan added: "I am supposed to be diplomatic. But I think members of this House also know that I call a spade a spade."

Budget 2019 debate in Parliament

House passes Budget targeted at building strong, united Singapore
By Adrian Lim, Political Correspondent, The Straits Times, 1 Mar 2019

Parliament yesterday passed an $80 billion Budget that Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said aims to help Singaporeans thrive and to build a strong, united Singapore.

In a 90-minute speech responding to concerns 55 MPs raised over three days, he outlined key principles underpinning the Government's spending and revenue plans.

While many MPs welcomed the $6.1 billion set aside for the Merdeka Generation Package to fund healthcare subsidies for those born in the 1950s, some called for more help for seniors and the less well-off. Others asked if the planned goods and services tax hike from 7 per cent to 9 per cent, to take effect some time between 2021 and 2025, could be deferred.

Mr Heng noted the Merdeka package is on top of existing schemes. This year alone, he said, the Health Ministry expects to spend $6.1 billion on patient subsidies under existing permanent schemes. And while the Government has yet to decide on the exact timing of the GST hike, it is necessary to support structural increases in healthcare spending, among others, he said.

Addressing calls for more help for the young, workers, the less well-off and seniors, and for a fairer tax system, he outlined three Budget principles he termed the "Singapore way": The Government puts people at the centre of its strategies; plans for the long term and adapts to changing needs; and works in partnership with people, firms and others.

Doing so has allowed Singapore to do more with less, he said. And the Government believes the best way to take care of Singaporeans is to empower them and build capacity. "There is always room to do even better", he said. "But overall, it is a good system, which gives Singaporeans a good foundation in life."



He also listed three goals on the fiscal front: Remain pro-growth, ensure the overall system of taxes and transfers is equitable and keep the tax burden on the middle-income low.

While all MPs backed the Budget, Workers' Party chief Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC) rose to state for the record that his party's position on the planned GST increase, which it opposed last year, has not changed.