If you are middle class in Singapore will things get better or worse?

“I get asked this question wherever I go. Yesterday I attended a small gathering arranged by a group of Singaporean planters to celebrate the closing days of CNY. And again I was asked this question.

But before we dive into considering this question. I believe it is important to take stock of certain realities.

Firstly, it is not easy to answer this question. Not with a propagandist press that seems to be only interested in forwarding their political master’s mind bending rhetoric whilst ignoring wholesale significant social events such as the recent protest in HLP. So in my view it’s important to first appreciate that you will probably NEVER get a full and detailed analysis from the likes of the MSM as to whether things will get better, worse or remain the same if you happen to be in the middle class in Singapore.

The only reason why I felt the need to mention the biaseness of the MSM is to underscore the scarcity of the truth in our age. We are truly living in an age when nothing can be trusted any longer. Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Treat everything as suspect no matter where it comes from. Even what I am about to share with all of you should be given this treatment – only after rigorous examination and analysis should you consider it as the truth.

I will call a spade a spade. I do not believe the government of the day will change their dubious policy of growing the population by putting it on steroids to chase the allure of growth. The main reason why I do not believe they will ever change is because we are essentially dealing with a political hegemony who really only know ONE way how to grow the economy.

It’s like a one trick pony. Or a monkey who only knows how to pick coconuts. Or maybe a tradesman that if you open up his tool box all you will see is a hammer and nothing else – wonder no more why everything in the world looks like nails to them.

I think when you see it from this perspective then it becomes very clear why the government has decided to proceed with this idea of ramping up the population despite the general mood of dissatisfaction – if we are dealing with a world class outfit who knows three or four ways to grow an economy intelligently like the South Korean. German or even Indonesian planners – then there might be scope to explore other alternative ways. But that is not the general impression that comes across to me – all I see are politicians who simply do not have the requisite imagination to prosper in this age of globalization other than to grow the economy through the opium of cheap labor and hollowing out the middle class.

Now if you happen to be a professional and middle class in Singapore. Then you really need to ask yourself what has happened in the last 10 years in your industry. For example has salaries gone up correspondingly with the rising cost of living? Do you find that your salary is getting smaller and smaller? What about your quality of life? Can you afford to own a car?

Only you can really answer those question yourself.

And the reason why these questions hold the skeleton key to your original question is simply because what the White Paper proposes to implement today is not something new, innovative or even brave – don’t let any politician pull the wool over your eyes by telling you this is some super duper new improved strategy to grow the economy. It isn’t. Like I said, it’s a one pony trick, the same monkey act, the hammer in the tool box – as this is the SAME growth strategy that has been used for the last ten years deliver GDP growth in Singapore.

So from that performance benchmark who don’t need to impersonate Nostradamus and try to beacon out the distant future to the even ask yourself how will my life get better by 2030. All you have to do as a family man is undertake a simple analysis and ask yourself has the quality of my life and my family improved or gone down from the year 2003 to 2013?

Now if the answer is – the quality of my life has gone down significantly. Then HOW can it possibly get better from 2013 to 2030?

For things to get better the growth strategy needs to go through a overhaul – but like I said, since they are using essentially the same strategy to grow the economy – how can it possibly get better?

This if you all must know is how I made my decision. Like I said, I call a spade a spade. I believe, I have every right to my point of view. I only live once.”

Darkness 2013

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“About five years ago when I first observed that turning the wheel of life in Singapore will increasingly get harder for the middle class family men. I posted some of my thoughts in YouTube. At that time, the only people who believed me were predominantly gamers. That was what I have always believed.

Through the years. I realized that these messages that I once wrote, stuffed in a bottle and threw out into the wilderness of the digital sea must have been read and acted upon by more than just the inner circle of the gaming community.

Yesterday, when I attended a small CNY gathering of Singaporeans. There was a group who had driven all the way from Muar Johor. This is like a 11 hour journey by car. When they saw me. One of them asked sheepishly “you must be Darkness 2007.” I said yes and one by one they shook my hand and some even began to sob quite openly. It was a very emotional moment that I had not mentally prepared myself for – I realized then these people had come all the way here just to thank me personally. As they too had once listened and acted on some of my cracked brained predictions. I should have felt happy. But I did not feel happy at all. Instead I was swept away by a curious mix of sadness and regret. As I knew deep in my heart I could have done much more. Much, much more. You see I had no possible idea that I could be so right. I had no idea that life for the family man in Singapore could have been so crushing .And at the time when I made the call to go out and search for the land of milk and honey to make a better future for our kids – even I myself wasn’t very sure whether things could get this bad for the average middle class family man in Singapore. It’s not my fault that I didn’t warn more….I tell you all it’s not my fault….I tell you all, I can’t be blamed for this. I didn’t know! I had no idea!

If I knew things were so bad. I would have spoken out louder then. I would have even taken off my shoe and banged the table so hard that everyone would prick up their ears. I would have made more YouTube videos. I would have written more. I am so sorry, I failed so many people. I am so very sorry. Please forgive me.

This was what I felt in my heart then, when I shook the hands of those men who had travelled so far just to see me.”