Our Govt. Extractive Institutions

Our govt, dominated by a single political party for decades has become an Extractive Institution. They have refined the art of sucking the public dry over the years. A typical example is first they privatized public infrastructures like our bus service and mass rapid transport. Then our govt investment arm will become major shareholder in these companies. They received a handsome sum selling them off and later collect rich dividends yearly, besides washing their hands clean from running basic important public infrastructure.

Another clever con job is their lift upgrading program, which they sell to the public as 'asset enhancement' of our HDB flat. They have used it as a 'carrot' during past elections to entice the citizens to vote for them.

First they made a blunder in not catering to our aging population, not only do they not admit to their horrible short sightedness - they have the cheek to make us pay for the lifts. Then they declared that  they are doing us a favor as they are 'subsiding' the lift upgrading. Did they really subsides the lift upgrading - only God knows !

It is just like our public housing flats which they claimed they are selling to the public at subsidy. Basically the con scheme is similar to those run by unscrupulous retailers who first jack up their selling price and then declared they are have a fantastic discount sale. So let's say the origin price tag is $100. They jack it up to $150 and then give customers a 20% discount. End result is they make more profit than before. This is the art of extraction our MIW is very good in.

They denied opposition ward to uplifting program, until opposition did it on their own without help. The best thing is the residents need not pay for it. All of us in MIW wards paid for our lifts. The point is the Town Councils have collected so much money that every year a large proportion ends up in their sinking fund. We know that some of them have lost millions investing these sinking funds in toxic high risk products in the past. So they can gamble away the sinking fund but not put it to good use to upgrade the lifts.

This is the type of Extractive Institution MIW has become.All their talk about an inclusive society is just pure talk. How to become build inclusive society when their fundamental principle is base on extracting as much as possible from the citizens to benefit their own 'elite' group financially and politically.