SGEP Editorial

SGEP now has an "editorial" on the home page that contains a summary of the key news for the day. You can visit SGEP home page visting the "Latest" page. SGEP or www.easyapps.sg/sgep  Do make it a point to visit the home page of SGEP daily. Learn about the issues that affect your voting at the general election.

Competition and professional fees

Chan Ban Choon wrote to the Straits Times about the need to provide the Law Society or government to provide guidelines on lawyer's fees. He pointed out that some lawyers are charing fees that are too high and "as they like". 

There used to be a guideline on professional fees set by the various bodies. I recall that the Competition Competition asked the doctors to remove the guidelines, so that the fees can be reduced by free market competition. I heard that this was not the outcome of the removal of fees. Some doctors increased their fees, and charged "what they like".

It is not possible for consumers to know what are the fair rates of fees for professional services, and to know the standard of the fees. This has to be set by knowledgeable people who takes into account the interest of the consumers and the professionals. The old arrangement, where the professional bodies provide the guidelines, used to work fairly well.

I suggest that the old arrangement be restored. It should be clear that the fees are guidelines and that professionals can deviate from the guidelines if they have specific reasons and have informed consumers about the deviation and the reason. 

Another arrangement is for the Competitions Competition to maintain a website (or outsource the work to an authorized party) showing the fees for various types of standard work that are charged by various professional firms, such as lawyers, doctors and engineers. This will be helpful to consumers who can check the website and get to a professional that charge competitive rates. It will encourage competition and bring down the fees to a reasonable level.

Tan Kin Lian

Taipei International Flora Show

Two letters were printed in the Straits Times about the poor standard of the Singapore pavilion at the Taipei International Flora Show. This is unacceptable as Singapore has prided itself for several decades as a "garden city".

This is another example of the bad state of affairs that has occurred in Singapore in recent years. The change to a "hands off" approach and "leave it to the private sector" is probably the cause of this deterioration. It is time for us to change our policies or find new leaders.

GRC and arrogance

Dear Mr. Tan,
I refer to your blog entry "Damage caused by the GRC system". I fully agree with your friend that this system has actually resulted in the typical arrogance (get out of my elite face) we see in MPs nowadays. Our ministers and MPs even publicly called us names such as "daft", "champion grumblers" (LKY), "very very selfish" (Vivian), "lesser mortals" (Charles Chong), etc.


That said, the recent announcement by PM Lee to have smaller GRCs and more SMCs is telling. Basically, the PAP is very afraid of losing a GRC at the next election, thereby knocking down 6 MPs at a sweep. Thus the party wants to reduce the potential damage.


Thanks.

Business cost and SCCCI

The Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry has also expressed concern over the increasing business costs:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1102440/1/.html