Old and new citizens

A reader wrote to the Straits Times to suggest that "old" citizens and "new" citizens should be treated differently for priority allocation into the choice schools. A new citizen wrote today to state that this would be unfair and is bad for Singapore.

For the past 20 years, I have strongly disliked the practice of our Government leaders and top civil servants in writing complicated rules to differentiate between different classes of people - graduates and non-graduates,  different allocation to benefits according to the type of house that you live in, different eligibility to tax relief according to the birth order of your child or the year of birth, different level of health care subsidy according to the type of house you live in and income, complicated rules to determine eligibility for welfare payments, and so on.

If you are caught on the wrong side of the rule, bad luck to you. And the people who write the rules will know how to be on the right side of these rules. It is unfair, but this is Singapore. We are used to this type of environment.

I wish Singapore to be fairer and simpler. We should make high income earners pay more tax, and after that, apply the same level of benefits to all citizens, regardless of income level or housing type. There is no need for complicated rules.

We should pay an adequate allowance, almost like a full time salary, to our National Servicemen. After that, there is no need to have complicated rules to give them slightly more in entitlement to Government benefits.

Tan Kin Lian