TR EMERITUS

PAP MPs will be putting up a grand "wayang" in parliament later today to "ask" Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan "questions" on the recently concluded Youth Olympic Games (YOG) which has made Singapore a laughing stock in the world. Unlike parliaments in other first world countries, there will be no impromptu questions asked on the spot which may caught the PAP ministers off guard (again). Instead, the PAP MPs have to send in their "questions" to Dr Vivian Balakrishnan first to give him ample time to prepare an answer. In other words, they are simply reading from their scripts which is no different from a "wayang kulit". According to Channel News Asia, the MPs have "asked" Dr Vivian on the amount of public monies spent on hosting the YOG and the reasons behind the initial budget being bursted by more than three times to a shocking $387 million dollars. Dr Vivian, who has been keeping a low profile in the aftermath of the games will be given an unique opportunity to "redeem" himself by offering well-rehearsed "answers" to "smoke" Singaporeans again. The much maligned YOG was plagued by a series of problems and controversies from the very beginning such as: 1. a disorganized Opening Ceremony, 2. ticketing glitches, 3. mistreatment of volunteers, 4. mass food poisoning outbreak, 5. low turnout, and 6. the lamentable arrest of a YOG critic which made the international headlines. Like the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, the 2010 YOG will most likely be remembered by the police arrest of a 27 year old young Singaporean for posting comments critical of Dr Vivian's handling of the YOG on Facebook. Fortunately for Dr Vivian, he is unlikely to be taken to task by his fellow PAP MPs for screwing up the YOG big time because it is an unwritten rule that MPs in Singapore cannot be held accountable.   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 →

A probe by MCYS to establish that Singaporeans are not targeted and encouraged to go to the casinos at the integrated resorts resulted in the termination of the free shuttle service between RWS and the HDB heartlands. Notice put up to inform visitors of the cessation of the free shuttle service. Although many Singaporeans are oppose to having the casinos in Singapore in the first place, the government insisted on building the casinos, giving the reason that the casino is only a small part of the resort (less than 5% of the total space) and the rest of the resort is to be setup as a one stop destination for tourist and family to enjoy the numerous facilities. They also impose a casino levy to deter Singaporeans from entering the casino. I do not know why the government is stopping the free shuttle service which allows Singaporeans to visit and enjoy the 95% of the resort but is concerned about the 5% instead. If the whole point of stopping the service is to deter Singaporeans from visiting the casino, they should increase the casino levy or set a minimum income before they are allow to gamble, just like how MAS regulate issuing of credit cards, you cannot own one if you do not have the means. Besides, stopping the free shuttle service will not affect the hardcore gamblers,gamblers are used to paying for cruises and coaches to Genting. Stopping the service will only affect families who wants to enjoy the facilities of RWS without paying for the exorbitant transport charges. RWS internal survey shows that more than 60% of the commuters do not visit the casino,the news also reported that only 2 out of 10 commuters are visiting the casinos. Is the government implying that the star attraction of RWS is the casino and not the other attractions? If yes, why bother building the rest the resort? The other possible reason for stopping the free shuttle service - 1. SMRT not making money 2. SBS Transit not making money 3. Sentosa and monorail not making money The government is the major share holders of both transport companies and they are the one who are terminating the service, can you see the conflict of interest here? More than 1000 people will be laid off because of our government's decision, not to mention the transport company which have taken bank loans to finance this venture. Instead of creating jobs from the construction of the IRs, many jobs will be lost instead. Knowing that we will be having a long weekend, the government choose to deprive Singaporeans family of the free service by terminating the service on Friday instead of at the end of the week as previously announced   Chimes of Freedom  Read More →

Author: 新加坡文献馆 (Read original article HERE) Translated by Bruce Wee (a TR Reader) In the Mandarin NDP Rally speech, LHL coined a new political slogan: “Singapore Spirit”. Citing YOG as example, Singapore Chinese paper summarizes the Singapore Spirit as ‘Dare-to-do-and-be-accountable’. To such explanation, a HK news commentator expressed amazement and skepticism: a Kia-Su (afraid to lose) and Kia-Si (afraid to die) Singapore is advocating ‘Dare-to-do-and-be-accountable’ Singapore spirit? According to LHL, Singapore spirit is ‘To unite and cooperate, fearless of hardship, discerning decisiveness, and sharing the fruit (of achievement) with all the people’. Singapore Chinese paper thinks that the essence of it is ‘Setting a high target, always be prepared, work together in cohesion, and achieve results’. How these 2 seemingly different abstract descriptions of the Singapore Spirit can be integrated and realized is not known. After all, these slogans are nothing but trumpet blowing. In Singapore political culture, slogans are all the while for political aspirations, meaning they’re just unrealistic political objectives. ‘More good years’, ‘Swiss Standard of living’, etc slogans are all precedence of slogans that never realize. However, in a Singapore society that has no dream, to cultivate the spirit of ‘Dare-to-do-and-be-accountable’, is indeed a very positive, wishful thinking, a direction of social development that’s worth looking forward to. To nurture the ‘Dare-to-do-and-be-accountable’ spirit is absolutely feasible, as this social spirit is what Singapore used to possess, but had subsequently lost it, unfortunately. Example, after WW2, ‘dare to do, dare to sacrifice’ spirit has spearheaded the Independence Movement in Singapore. The ‘against all odds’ spirit of Malayan Chinese community has founded the Nanyang University. The spirit (‘Unite and cooperate, fearless of hardship, decisive with discerning, and sharing the fruit with all the people’) that LHL looking forward to, has long existed among the Clans of the Chinese community, only question is whether such spirit that ‘places the interest of others above that of oneself’ is still surviving today. Likewise, the Singapore spirit to ‘persist with determination against all adversities’, has already been clearly demonstrated in Singapore history when patriots such as CHIA Thye Poh, Dr LIM Hock Siew, POO Soo Kai, and Said ZAHARI got locked-up and suffered in Changi Prison. So what has the Singapore spirit of ‘Dare-to-do-and-be-accountable’ becomes now? In a news report dated 07-Sep-2010: ‘NUS Business faculty, Marketing department, an associate professor Ang Swee Hun (?) and students, conducted a survey on 270 youngsters between the age of 19-23, revealed that 56.3% of young Singaporeans have the desire to always win, of which, 3% are very extreme, and demand to win almost each and every time… although Singaporeans are eager to progress, and eager to win, they lack motivation in learning and upgrading. Survey shows, although > 53% of the respondents believed that learning is the key to success, 54.1% do not think there is a necessity for them to learn further. ‘ This social survey report proves that young Singaporeans want only the results, but without putting in the required effort. Singapore has become an indolent society. It reflects a society where everybody wants all the benefits/incentives, but nobody dares to shoulder the responsibilities. The news article on GCT’s PR speech dated 09-Sep-2010 has this phrase: ‘This researcher points out that, with the hostile approach to retaining talents, even if some of them accepted Singapore Citizenship, they would have become calculative. Any ordinary person would have thought: I’ve abandoned my own country for Singapore, so how is Singapore going to compensate me on this?’ This reflects that under the guise of pragmatism, the mentality of ‘benefit-as-only-motive’ has become the yardstick of moral righteousness. Social relationship is built upon ‘what benefit will you be able to give me?’ This is what LHL called, a society where ‘nobody can resist money’. And hence, the spirit of dare-to-sacrifice has vanished; A mentality where Self-interest has far superseded the collective interests. Singapore has transformed into a society where monetary benefit is the life-long objective of individuals. Such society lacks spiritual civilization and hence is not able to flourish great ambitions that are fearless of adversities. Naturally, ‘dare-not-do-dare-not-be-accountable’, or ‘dare-to-do-but-dare-not-be-accountable’, have become the characteristics of such materialistic society. Not long ago, BP (London) CEO tendered his resignation for the blame on the oil-spill incident at Mexico Gulf. Recently, some Philippines government officials had also resigned for inappropriate handling of the hijacking of HK tourist bus incident. However, in the history of PAP, it seems like there is never a case of high-ranking official who concede any blame and resign. Some incidents that are still fresh in our memories are: MRT construction causing fatal accident, the great escape of lame Mas Selamat, and lately, the failure in providing adequate public service to meeting demand, Orchard Road flooding, and the tall-order YOG that exceeded the original budget by 3x. Such social phenomenon reflects that the government officials, from low to high ranking, lack the courage to bear any social responsibility that even the 3rd world governments would have. What has caused Singapore to regress till this state of decadent society, where they dare to draw the world’s highest pay, yet dare not bear any responsibility? There must be a reason for everything. In Singapore political system, the flaws in super-high pay scale and GRC system are the main causes that erode the moral and value of the society. As pointed out by a Singapore senior journalist YU Chang Nian in his current affair posting, ‘They are intellectually wise, but they lack the political properties to build intimate relationship with the people and empathy for the people; ‘ …attracted inappropriate candidates to politics, the reason why these people chose to join PAP is because it is a sure-win approach and an assurance to a bright future; these people lack the courage and spirit to join the oppositions and face challenges. ‘ Ex ST news editor YEO Toon Joo has similar view: ‘LKY has bought over the soul of his people at the time he ensured they’re beyond corruption…searching for future leaders should not be restricted to the criteria in academic achievement; outstanding academic achievement does not equate to the quality of an effective leader…looking for those with kind heart and sympathize others, especially compassionate to help those less fortunate Singaporeans, they should be passionate in helping the locals, willing to sacrifice a lot, and with the will of steel….’ Obviously, obscenely high pay scale only attracts those who place benefit-as-only-motive, and GRC system allows sub-standard candidates to piggyback in (to the parliament). These by-passers on the political stage have no idea of where they’re from and where they’re going, and lack the personal believe of contributing to the society. Hence, how can the well-being and future of the country / people be entrusted to the hands of these pragmatists who dare-not-do and dare not shoulder the social responsibilities? Long ago, when LKY was looking for his successor of his power, he lamented that all his candidates have not been tested in the ‘stormy ocean’, but only have experience in playing in ‘swimming pools’. As such, the essential approach to short-listing the new generation of political successors has to be testing for leadership that exhibits records of significant achievement, and history of shouldering responsibilities. Undoubtedly, the new generation of Singapore political successors must take the test, and only those with outstanding results are allowed into the team of political successors. Those who failed the test must have the courage and honesty to face the consequences of their failed performance. In addition, PAP advocates meritocracy, and hence in this doctrine, those high ranking officials who failed the test should automatically withdraw themselves from the team of new generation political successors, in order to avoid causing disastrous impact to the country and the people. A retired Permanent Secretary pointed out: Singapore’s interest is to place above that of PAP. Frankly, if PAP’s government truly possesses the spirit of ‘Dare-to-do-and-be-accountable’, they should rectify the super high pay policy and abolish the GRC system, because these only benefit the PAP, but it will harm the long-term benefits of Singapore and the citizens. There’s such a saying that, “knowing one’s mistake and then rectify it, is one’s ultimate kindness”. Whether our ruling politicians are willing to make their rectifications shall greatly depends on whether they really possess the ‘Dare-to-do-and-be-accountable’ spirit.  Read More →