Why can't the government leave me be?

Holy Jesus H. Christ on a pogostick..

I just finish declaring that I am going to lay off ranting about the Lee FamiLEE and the rest of the shit-flinging monkeys that form the Singapore government when they do something so damn stupid it has to be mentioned, lest I be accused of slipping into irrelevance.

The thing happened about two weeks ago, a local blogger under the nickname, mr brown (Apparently the caps in his keyboard is broken) came up with an article in one of the local newsletters named TODAY. His article, found here, titled "Singaporeans are fed up with Progress" was a light hearted look at how the government here can be clueless enough to say that things are looking up when a third of the population saw real incomes shrink. It also took potshots at what the Progress Package was supposed to be. From what I recall it was a way of "sharing Singapore's surpluses with Singaporeans", suddenly it has now become, according to MICA's press release, "a way to help lower income Singaporeans cope with higher costs of living." Now what is this? A rethink?

Now, ladies and germs, knowing the legendary status Singapore enjoys when it comes to freedom of expression, what did you think happened?

A> Did the government ignore the article and refuse to give it unnecessary publicity?
B> Did the government admit that the progress package was not as it had claimed, a way of sharing Singapore's wealth with the people but a cross between a bad attempt at bribery, and chump change to withstand the onslaughts of price hikes that was to follow?
C> Did the government change its views on means testing and agree with mr brown that it needed a relook?0
D> Did the government issue a completely worthless non-answer reply, and then had him fired from his newspaper job?

If you said D, congratulations. You have a brain.

I am not a big fan of mr brown. I mean, he writes very well but his brand of humour is too mild and inoffensive. How the hell could anything he write inflame these monkeys this much? Can't these idiots take a joke?!

But all this is old news, right? I mean the government is not exactly the paragon of virtue as far as rights of the individual are concerned. Hell this is the only country that still charges people under sedition laws.

What struck me about mr brown's article was his reference to this thing called "means testing". What this basically means is that if you're using a government service (like fixing a broken nose in a government hospital because you fell down a), you pay what the government thinks you can afford. How does the government arrive at this figure? Oh, quite easily it seems. They just add your total income and divide it by the number of dependents. So if you earn more, the government assumes, you must spend more for things like your health. Sounds fair? Well, the problem in this whole thing is one assumes that the government got the figures right. The government estimates that people with a per capita monthly income of S$1000 and above not eligible for subsidies. Have these people ever lived on a grand a month?! Which world are these people living in? Healthcare in Singapore is ridiculously expensive and the social safety net is a joke.

So brownie boy raised an issue with the fact that means testing means that he now has to pay more than double what he used to get some proper education for his autistic child. Why? because apparently just because you make more than $X you only deserve little help from the government (whose ministers, with their sprawling bungalow houses, obscene pay, free cars, free holidays have the gall to tell you to not depend on the government for anything). In order to get any level of proper subsidy from the government you have to make less than $300 a month, and even then it's not free. You still have to fork out 25% of your bill from your pocket. First world government indeed. And for using sarcasm to highlight this he was anally ravaged by the Ministry of Information, Communication and Arts. (Only in Singapore is a retired army general in the right place and frame of mind to frame policies on what can be considered art).

Anyway, I hope you Singaporeans have fun with this current lot in parliament.

How are you spending your Progress Package eh?