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 GAP

Singapore 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!