TR EMERITUS

According to the latest press release from the Ministry of Manpower, the total employment rate in Singapore continues to "grow" with 24,900 new jobs created in the last quarter alone. Job vacancies also rose by 73 percent to 45,100 in June, fuelled by strong economic growth secondary to the improving global economy. However, it was not revealed who get the new jobs. For all we now, the bulk of it may go to foreigners and PRs instead of Singapore citizens. Though the overall unemployment rate remains stable at 2.2 percent, it does not give an accurate portrayal of the reality on the ground as MOM lumps all PRs and citizens together in all its statistics. Neither does it include Singapore citizens who have given up looking for a job altogether or are on contract jobs. The figures can be easily skewed by getting foreigners to become PRs which will contribute to the "resident unemployment rate". MOM should release the real unemployment rate for Singapore citizens (ex cluding PRs) as well as its underemployment rate to better reflect the job market nowadays which is increasingly dominated by foreigners. Till then, Singaporeans will have to take the figures provided by MOM which is quite "divorced" from the reality on the ground with a heavy dose of salt.   Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us.  Read More →

Our highly paid MPs have again shown their ignorant regarding the termination of the free shuttle bus provided by Resort World Sentosa. They try to obfuscate the issue by highlighting that RWS promoted their casino rewards programme at heartland shopping malls and 7th month Hungry Ghost events. If promotion of their rewards programme contravenes Casino Control (Advertising) Regulations, they should just stop their promotion only. I have taken the shuttle numerous times and the exterior of the bus say "free shuttle bus to RWS: and not "free shuttle bus to casino". The only advert on the bus I remember promotes Universal Studios with a nice logo behind the bus. Everyone knows that the media in Singapore is tightly controlled by the government and for MCYS to accuse RWS of releasing stories of casino winnings to the media to drum up business for their casino is simply preposterous. MCYS should instead ask the MDA to investigate why the media choose to run these stories which might tempt people to try their luck at the casino. The onus is on the media to run the news, although RWS supplies the news releases to the media, the media can obviously choose to ignore it for the greater good. Maybe the media are more than willing to run smoke screen stories like these to cover up the many screw-up by the government. Least we forget, it was the media who also reported on the availability of these shuttle buses. MCYS have highlighted that the shuttle buses are not part of any public transport system but according to RWS operations VP Noel Hawkes, “RWS had been working with government agencies to ease congestion at the junction of Telok Blangah Road and Sentosa Gateway by providing bus services. When RWS put together its transportation master plan, “that has always been one of our plans to have a heartland shuttle service, so that we would bring people here by public transport and avoid people having to take cars and jam up the junction”. Even LTA also agrees that visitors should take public transport to RWS “Yam Ah Mee, Chief Executive of LTA, notes that public transport will be the best option for visitors. "We urge the public to take advantage of public transport to go to Sentosa and the resort. The enhanced road network and traffic management measures will help minimise congestion, but with many who will want to visit the IR as soon as it opens, traffic delays can be expected. The public is thus encouraged to take public transport to the resort." Public and island transportation are the recommended modes of travel into Sentosa, and SDC and LTA will monitor traffic patterns and make adjustments when necessary. Visitors are strongly encouraged to plan their journeys and factor in time for travelling to ensure positive experiences for themselves, their families and friends.” But providing the shuttle bus for their customer, RWS ensures that their customers arrived in their resort in a timely manner which will translate to positive experience for their customers, if this does not constitute as public transport, please tell me what does. MCYS also takes issue with the fact that the shuttle buses operated very long hours, up to 10.30pm on weeknights and up to 2.30am on weekends and the eves of public holidays and assumes that the late hours meant that most of the facilities at the RWS would be closed, except for the casino. Please see the list below entertainment/shopping/dinning facilities and their operation hours。 Asia’s Ultimate Mixed Martial Arts Fighting Championship - 8pm Voyage de la Vie – I have seen this show and it runs till 11plus for the 8:30pm show The show runs on Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays, 8:30PM, Saturdays & Sundays, 5.30PM & 8.30PM Universal Studios After Hours - 7:00pm to 10:00pm every Friday and Saturday Lake of Dreams - Every Night, 9pm at FestiveWalk Hershey’s (The Bull Ring™, Level 1) - 10:00am - 10:00pm (Daily) Victoria’s Secret (Galleria Level 2) 11am-10pm (Thur-Sun) 11am-10:30pm (Fri-Sat) BreadTalk (The Forum) 8:00am - 11:00pm (Mon-Thurs) | 8:00am - 01:00am (Fri - Sat) Garrett Popcorn (The Bull Ring) 10am - 10pm Chili’s Grill & Bar (The Bull Ring) 11am-10pm (Mon - Thurs) | 11am - 11pm (Fri-Sun) Hard Rock Café (The Forum) 11:00am-1:00am As you can see from above, most of the shops open at 10am and closes at 10pm, which coincides with the operation timings of the shuttle buses. How can MCYS without checking the fact states that most of the facilities except the casino are closed. If they want to emphasize on the fact that the shuttle bus runs till 2:30am on Fridays, Saturdays and eves of public holidays when most of the facilities are indeed closed, they should also examine NR1 and NR6 which runs on the same schedule but until much later, till 4:30am. Unlike MCYS I can confidently conclude that the sole purpose of NR1 and NR6 are to ferry Singaporeans from the Heartlands to the casino because both buses start their service at 11:30pm when almost all the other facilities beside the casino are closed. The free shuttle buses provided by RWS are no different from other free shuttle buses provided by shopping mall like IMM /Sembawang Shopping Centre or both IKEAs. These buses provide incentives for their customer to visit and shop at their premises. MCYS should seriously reconsider the shuttle bus ban as it might seem as anti-competitive behaviour and impeding the growth of the business which setup shops in RWS. If you are wondering what possible motive MCYS has to implement this ban in the first place, please refer to my earlier article https://www.tremeritus.net/2010/09/15/mcys-stopping-of-ir-shuttle-buses-a-conspiracy/ Finally to address all you anti-gaming lobby holier than thou people. If the government is really serious about tackling this issue on local gamblers, I have several solutions which will 110% address the root cause of the local casino gambling problem and whoever complain about the shuttle bus in the first place, don't bark up the wrong tree, suggest these to your MPs instead 1. Raise the casino levy to an obscene amount like S$500-S$1000 per day and to eliminate the option of having a yearly casino levy. This will effectively stop all lower/middle income patrons from visiting the casino. 2. The Government should also mandate that all patrons should have a minimum annual income of $S30,000 to ensure that in event the casino patrons are truly addicted to gaming, they have a means to support their gaming habits. 3. Should the Government find that the steps outline above are still not sufficient to curb the gaming habits of Singaporeans the Government should implement an outright ban on all Singaporeans from entering the casino The destination of the free shuttle buses are to the integrated resorts and the casino are only a small part of it. Before the arrival of the IRs, Singaporeans are use to taking cruises and coaches to satisfy their gaming urges. It can be confirmed that the termination of the shuttle buses will have little to no impact on the gamblers. Finally, I hope everyone will come and support my facebook group to bring back the free shuttle bus. http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=113586455367007&v=wall&ref=ts Thank you     Chimes of Freedom  Read More →

"The term Minister is a Middle English phrase, stemming from the Old French word ministre, originally minister in Latin, meaning 'servant’.” From this definition, we can understand that the role of a minister is to serve the country. It is a huge honour to be able to serve and lead the country. As such, a minister should only be motivated to serve his country with national pride, but not due to the power, benefits and the monetary gain of being a minister. It is ridiculous to hear that a minister should be paid comparatively to the top CEOs in the private sector. These CEOs are expected to run a profitable business but a country should never aim to be profitable. Instead, a country should primarily be run in a way that she is able to give back as much as it could to her citizens while doing well with her finance, this being kept a secondary aim. In this way, the citizens and the country will be much value-added in the long run. Looking back into history, we have seen numerous patriotic politicians who have fought hard for our country’s independence. Now that we are politically stable, it might be hard for the country to produce politicians of similar calibre. Even so, I’m sure that every true Singaporean still feels patriotic enough to serve the country forward, regardless of their capabilities. Among them, I’m sure that some of the creams of the crop are good enough to lead us. Right now, what we need is a new set of team to bring Singapore to the next level. On a macro-level, a supreme leader is ineffective in controlling his team when all of them are equally good. A supreme leader can only work well when he is giving direct orders to his subordinates who lack the mental capacity to understand the reasoning behind those orders. What is effective though, is when all team members contribute their parts and they nominate someone to help coordinate their movements and keep them focused on their objectives. Bringing it over to the political stage, what we need is true democracy whereby normal people can have the same rights as their leaders to mould and fine-tune Singapore. If everyone is able to give and take, we may be able to enjoy a high standard of living even if it may mean a high cost of living. As such, it is also important for our leaders to lead by example for the citizens to emulate upon, just like how a father should be exemplary enough to support the child’s development in his different aspects of life. We also have to remember that respect can never be demanded but should be earned. As a reminder to our future leaders, we have history on our side to learn upon. Many empires have fallen due to greed, mistrust, complacency and lack of compassion. Buddha is a fine example of a good leader by living in simplicity, peace, gratitude, wisdom and compassion. Prophet Muhammad s.a.a.w. led a life of poverty while at the same time, influenced and enriched the minds of his followers. You may call them religious leaders but nevertheless, they are still good leaders with legions of followers trusting their ideas and beliefs. To set the ball rolling, I shall throw down a challenge to the oppositions. Are they willing to sacrifice the worldly pleasures to lead us through the future with dignity and mutual respect? I think it is time that we should not overpay our leaders. The changes to the benefits of a minister should be as follows: The radical change will be to scrap these minister’s wages totally. Instead, they will be treated with more dignity. They will be given a spacious but not so lavish private property each, a real paradise home to live in for a lifetime. However, the only catch is that these properties are owned by Singapore and will be passed on to the next leaders upon their deaths. They need not worry about their essential household bills as that will also be part of their benefits. As our leaders, we should trust that they will not waste water, electricity and others. An estate whereby all the ministers stay should be introduced. Having a close community for them can build up their rapport and encourage team bonding. They will also be provided a reliable and nice car, without it being too luxurious, to travel around in Singapore. Since the citizens need not pay for their wages, these ministers can go anywhere to enjoy free meals, provided that these meals must be well-afforded by most Singaporeans. With more ministers having their meals in shopping mall’s restaurants and etc., I’m sure they will be able to understand more about the lives of fellow Singaporeans. Education is very critical in the development of a person. The children of these ministers should be given free education to study in the local schools, similarly to most Singaporeans. If they cannot believe in the strengths of Singapore’s education system, they should not be Singapore’s ministers in the first place. If a minister is good enough, he should be able to lead as long as his mental capability still permits. Should a minister decide to retire after feeling the burnout of his job; he should be compensated accordingly to how long he had served the country. With more years of being a leader, the higher his monthly pension should be. By then, his descendants should be able to live independently and a monthly pension of between $1k to $5k should suffice for them to enjoy their retirement and the occasional holidays. With the citizens being compassionate enough, I’m sure the leaders will get to enjoy life similar to that of an upper class citizen. A healthy life will contribute to a healthy mind so it’s also important to ensure that our leaders are given a bit more leeway such that they are able to live comfortably. I’m sure that even if after all these have been implemented, the amount will be just a small percentage as compared to the insane amount of pay that they are getting right now. To prevent corruption, we have to ensure that all their needs can be met and at the same, we should also be able to differentiate between a need and a want. All we need are patriotic leaders who are willing to serve the country. As to how good they can be to lead the country, they can always rely on the support of their teams or even the people to brainstorm on new ideas. Just take a good look at Mozilla Firefox, ”the Mozilla project is a global community of people who believe that openness, innovation and opportunity are key to the continued health of the Internet”. It is constantly improved upon by the community to benefit everyone. The best thing of all is that it is provided at no additional cost to its users. It is time that we take a pragmatic approach on how a leader of Singapore should live his life. “The glue that holds all relationships together - including the relationship between the leader and the led is trust, and trust is based on integrity.” – Brian Tracy     Adi  Read More →