MANIFESTO 2011

By Tian Zhenyu, Ong Beng Hwee, Lucas Jiang, Sun Bangjie

Class 4O3

OVERVIEW OF SINGAPORE’S DEVELOPMENT

Air Pollution

Income Gap

Racial Harmony

AIR POLLUTION

INCOME GAPSingapore has the biggest income gap among 23 rich nations surveyed in the book, The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. This chart from the book shows the income gap between the richest 20 per cent and poorest 20 per cent of the population.

RACIAL HARMONY

Chinese76%

Malays14%

In-di-ans9%

Others2%

Singapore's Population Composition

ChineseMalaysIndiansOthers

Bud-dhism/Taoism

51%

Chris-tianity15%

Islam15%

Hin-duism and

others5%

No re-ligion15%

Different Religious Groups in Singapore

Buddhism/TaoismChristianityIslamHinduism and others No religion

PERSPECTIVE AND GOALS OF SINGAPORE’S DEVELOPMENT

We believe Singapore will undertake a comprehensive development route. In the following 5 years, Singapore’s development will focus on three main aspects: economic development, social bonding consolidation and environmental conservation. These three approaches in Singapore’s future development are following a core concept --- sustainable development. With this core concept, we swear to endeavor to achieve the following goals in this manifesto

PERSPECTIVE AND GOALS

To maintain a high rate of increase in Singapore’s national income i.e. GDP and GNP so as to ensure the sustainability of Singapore’s economic development

To minimize the income gap between rich and lower-income group and improve the welfare of middle and low income people

PERSPECTIVE AND GOALS

To conserve the living environment , working environment and nature environment of Singapore so as to ensure the sustainability of living and development for future generation

To consolidate the social bonding between different racial groups so as to sustaining the community harmony amongst people

PROPOSAL

Minimize the income gaps and improve the welfare of low and middle income

• By pushing the bottom levels of the income distribution group up and slowing down the already rapidly increasing levels of income of the higher income groups

• By providing everyone with equal opportunities

MINIMIZE THE INCOME GAPS & IMPROVE WELFARE OF LOW-MIDDLE

INCOME

For those whose household income falls in the either below $200 per person or $1000 whichever is lower, the government would get the employers of these people to justify the pay they are receiving, whether it is acceptable by the standards as decided by a committee. If it is justifiable, the government would pay the household up to $100 per person in the household or up to the point whereby the household receives an income of $200 person, whichever is lower. If it is not justifiable, the employer is liable to increase the pay of the employee.

MINIMIZE THE INCOME GAPS & IMPROVE WELFARE OF LOW-MIDDLE

INCOME

For households with incomes below the average income per household the previous year, they would have their CPF interest rate increased to 3.5%(up from 2.5%) per year or $1000, whichever is higher. For households with incomes in the top 30% of the income distribution, the CPF interest rates would be reduced to 1%.

For households with incomes lower than either below $200 per person or $1000 whichever is lower, they shall be given free access passes to public transport.

PROVIDING EVERYONE WITH EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

For households with incomes lower than either below $200 per person or $1000 whichever is lower, the children would be given free primary and secondary education at local schools, paid for by the government.

Companies are encouraged to hire more people, based on ability. Companies can request for tax rebates if they have been shown to be actively providing more job opportunities for people in Singapore.

PROVIDING EVERYONE WITH EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

For households with incomes lower than either below $200 per person or $1000 whichever is lower, the family members in the age group of between 18 and above can opt for subsidized workshops or courses to improve their skills, from a range of selected courses picked out by the government to be useful skills to acquire (to be decided by a committee).

PROPOSAL

Conservation of the environment through

• Reduce the industry pollution• Reduce the city waste from people

CONSERVATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Enforce an Industry Emission Control Act. All the waste gas should be treated to remove the pollutant component before release to the atmosphere. All the factories can only release waste gas containing the pollutant gas percentage less than 1%. Factory failing to follow the act will be charged 10% to 30% of its revenue based on the amount of pollutant gas it released.

CONSERVATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Organize workshops and seminars for various factories to teach them the technology of reducing the waste gas and solids. Provide 10000 SGD fund for factories to build waste treatment facilities.

Enforce the Plastic Bag Control Act. People will not get free plastic bag from shops. Instead, it will be sold as the product at the price of 10 cents. People can purchase cloth bags from shops.

PROPOSAL

To promote the harmony in Singapore• By ensuring a stable demographics of

people in each neighborhood

PROMOTE THE HARMONY IN SINGAPORE

Slow down the influx of foreign talents by around 30% each year until the foreign talents make up around 30% of the Singapore population.

Make sure that these foreign talents do not entirely make up of a dominant race, which has around equal proportion to Singapore's racial demographics.

Ensure that the ratio of foreign talents to citizens and PRs do not stray too far away from 1:2

POSSIBLE NEGATIVE OUTCOMES

If the government has to give handouts to the people, it will make the people reliant on he government, without any desire for self-independence. Also, the money needed to give the handouts will be taken from taxpayers’ money, which will increase the financial burden on the rest of the working population. In the long term, it will be a huge financial burden on the government a more people depend on the government and do not work hard on their own.

POSSIBLE NEGATIVE OUTCOMES

By educating everyone (as shown by the free primary and secondary education), no one will do the manual jobs that do not require education. Without an increase in the number of jobs that require secondary school qualification, there will be an excess of people who have education up to secondary school, but not enough jobs for that group of people. As a result, their wages will decrease due to the increased supply, and unemployment will rise.

POSSIBLE NEGATIVE OUTCOMES

Although the ratio of foreign to local population is maintained at a constant, if the local population continues to decrease (as shown from the trend the past few years), then the number of foreign population must decrease accordingly too, to maintain the constant ratio. This means that our population will just get smaller and smaller. In this case, it will be extremely hard to ensure the survival of the nation as we lose out in terms of population size.

POSSIBLE NEGATIVE OUTCOMES

If we enforce such strict regulations on waste gas release, the companies will need resources in the form of land to build the waste treatment facilities, and energy to operate the facilities. Hence, this will increase their production cost (the $10000 fund may not be enough to cover the cost) and they have less land to expand their production facilities. This means that, without an expansion in production facilities, it will be harder to increase production; hence it will be harder to employ more people.

CONCLUSION

On the whole, our plan effectively tackles both the economic and environmental problems of Singapore with our three-prong approach. This approach serves to tackle the problem of environmental degradation both on the personal level and on the corporate level, and solves the problem of poverty by involving three parties, the government, the companies, and the people themselves to effectively nip the problem in its bud.

THANK YOU!