#tharman

[helenacastles]

arman & thony | a playlist

“My kind companion Softens stone My gentle giant Painful reminder”

listen here.

[chawsl]

[aranelchan]

Singapore’s leadership crisis: why not Tharman?

This is the third of five in a series on Singapore’s prospective next prime minister. See here for the second, on Ong Ye Kung and Chan Chun

[cheongcalista]

Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies, Tharman Shanmugaratnam attended the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Chengdu, China from 23 to 24 July 2016. The G20 meeting discussed policies to enhance economic resilience amidst new global uncertainties.

DPM Tharman also spoke at the G20 High Level Tax Symposium on 23 July 2016. The Symposium covered the design of tax policies to support innovation-driven and inclusive growth, and to enhance tax certainty for businesses in the digital economy.

[cheongcalista]

DPM and Coordinating Minister for Social and Economic Policies Tharman Shanmugaratnam delivered a speech this morning at the launch of the Delta-NTU Corporate Laboratory on Cyber-Physical Systems.

In his speech, DPM elaborated on the Delta-NTU Corporate Laboratory as an example of how the Government is seeking to catalyse innovation, in each of our key growth sectors. Resources are put into supporting collaborations between our institutes of higher learning (IHLs) and industry players, which is one of the key ways we are spawning research aimed at meeting commercial needs.

[ionews-blog1]

PAP set to announce its candidate for Bukit Batok by-election on Monday, Politics News & Top Stories

SINGAPORE - The People’s Action Party (PAP) is set to announce its candidate for the Bukit Batok by-election on Monday (May 21), The Straits Times understands. “I am not surprised that Dr Chee Soon Juan has indicated that he is going to stand in Bukit Batok. He has been directly overseeing developments in the Bukit Batok single-member constituency since Mr Ong tendered his resignation on March 12, over an alleged affair with a grassroots volunteer. Mr Tharman, who is an MP for neighbouring Jurong GRC, was at an event to mark the first anniversary of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s death. Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development Desmond Lee is looking after the constituency in the meantime. source: http://www.straitstimes.com/politics/pap-to-announce-its-candidate-for-bukit-batok-by-election-very-soon-says-dpm-tharman?google_editors_picks=true

[chyetlatte]

staircase, block 104

By Tharman Shanmugaratnam (1978)

variation of yesterday’s game. accusing shrieks challenging laughter and yesterday is no pakai. and happiness is sometimes bought. scrambling up children’s lives, they too shall learn the ways – smother their responses, cultivate the measure of nonchalance: they too shall squeeze into lives and live with it. and happiness is often sold.

screaming past the lightning, then smiling through a missing tooth in the dark turn of the staircase

[contrabandkarma]

On Car Loans and Public Transport

Yesterday, DPM and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam delivered the Singapore Budget for 2013. One of the main things announced was a pretty fundamental change to car loans; whereas up until midnight yesterday some banks offered up to 100% financing at tenures of up to 10 years, the new rules that kicked in today mean that car buyers now have to pay up to 50% of the car price upfront, with loan tenures of a maximum of five years.

Predictably, there was an uproar with many unhappy that owning a car, already a terribly expensive exercise in Singapore, would be pushed even further out of reach for them.

However, I actually don't disagree with the new car loan restriction policies. Besides slowing car growth (and hopefully leading to less crowded roads), it forces people to be more fiscally prudent instead of overextending themselves financially just to own a car. This is a good thing, just so we're clear.

My issue is this: Instead of improving public transport to make it more attractive, the government simply decides to make private transport less attainable. Can't you fix what's broken first?

The problem of overcrowded roads/public transport is not an easy one to solve, for sure. However it is complicated by the fact that our public transport operators are privately-owned... Or as "private" as Temasek Holdings and GIC can be, anyway. They then have to put profits first before anything else, as it should be for any privately-owned company.

One wonders if things might be different if:

A) the public transport operators were nationalised; and/or

B) there was more competition allowed (for buses at least, not quite possible with trains obviously)

People should be attracted to make public transport their primary means of transport because it is so affordable and convenient that private car ownership makes less sense. They should not only be forced to take crowded and infrequent public transport because they cannot afford cars and have no choice.

Simply penalising car owners (through ERP, etc) and making cars less attainable cannot be the only answer.