TR EMERITUS

PAP inherently is not evil but why is there raucous negativity, skepticism and insolence towards PAP? Why is trust bestowed upon them is in question? Perhaps, the answer lies in the Psyche of PAP: Invoking the proverbial fairy-tale recitation, “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the best (fairest) of us all’, PAP see reflection and hear only echo that soothes their intellect, validates their inculpability, elevates their elitist superiority and ruing power Welcome to the “New Order” of PAP This New Order coined to depict the morphing of Nation confronting its nemesis, its formidable ruling party; a “Nation Lost” struggling to reassert itself and seeking its identity. It has striking parallel in George Orwellian dystopian world of Animal Farm. Equality and justice applies more for some of Elite, Privileged and Powerful status. A New Order under a world priciest leadership which has gone icy, callous, a leadership which is struggling to uphold its Party hegemony. Our leaders are presumptuous, unapologetic, high-handed, callous, uncompassionate and arrogant. They self-canonize as invulnerable Master, the only Savior of the Nation. But do we have a Nation? Their dogmatic self-righteousness, high-handed elitism, relentless indoctrination, excessive curtailing of political expression, wealth-enriching and power-usurping priority have distanced itself from the citizens. Is there really no good honorable and noble leader around who will serve with firmness and compassion without temptation or motivation of exorbitant remuneration? The New Order starkly conflicts with the ideals enshrined in the emblem of our National Flag and National Pledge. These national ideals are “highfalutin” aspiration as proclaimed by PAP. Instead, cold pragmatism of economic pursuit is the order. Love of a Nation with national ideals, based on cold pragmatism is like a Nation without its Soul and Heart, future without ideals and dreams. Without dreams mankind would never have been today. Without ideals will there be Nationhood? Cold pragmatism of economics, will beget wealth and power, more power. It elevates, enriches and empowers the ruling party hegemony. Being highest paid leaders in the world is not enough; they want one party rule forever, their ultimate dream- their ideal. Equitable governance, accountability and conscience are apparently subjugated to cold pragmatism of economics of gain and benefits. Virtues are blandished on “high ivory tower podium”. High-handedness is the modus operandi of governance. Nobility of leadership is zilch. Humility is unspoken. Uncompassionate, unmoved to the pleading for little more assistance for poor is telling on their hard, icy pragmatism. It is like squeezing water out of rock in stark contrast to excessive splurging hundred of millions of dollars, with out compunction, for sake of glory, aggrandizement and status. Reverence of Wealth is consecrated in three tomb-stone like tablets of MBS. In the “worship” of cold pragmatism of wealth creation it sacrifices morality and ethic. We are confronting prostitution of all “forms and shapes” including flesh and soul. Cold pragmatism of economic enrichment has “freeze” better judgment. PAP has no compunction to hang juvenile drug-trafficker but welcome drug junta. In this New Order meritocracy is an apparent political artifice under the patronage of PAP as long as its serves to justify high-paying post for its kind. It is a “meritocracy” that justifies and accords Special treatment to special groups and privileged for juicy posts. Loyalty is can be “bought” through crafty enforceability of meritocratic principle-is it? Cronyists, henchmen, high officials, government servants, specially culled elites, even machineries of law and order, are paid exorbitantly high salary and perks. In return they will “sing same tune”, “act same play”, “rationalize its agenda”, even “play charade” of cover-up of failed policies and accountability. In broader context, meritocracy is “blind” to deserving lot. Meritocracy itself has lost its equitableness and meaning amidst the onslaught of desperate of relentless waves of hungry “aliens”. A so-called “first world New Order” that has lost its opportunity to build competitive robust industrial and economic growth based on productivity and indigenous technology. This New Order promises a “global city” to multi-racial “colonization and enclaves” or displacement of true-bred locals. Our living space and work are invaded; increasing more key positions usurped. True-bred citizens are more and more marginalized. This uncontrolled invasion has become parasitic on citizen livelihood-especially, lesser mortals and many who are ill-prepared against such invasion. Each successive wave of invasion sinks more true-bred deeper into the maelstrom of relentless and brutal competition of “cheap, cheaper and cheaperest”. Many older true-bred will ultimately be the sufferers amidst relentless escalating living and health costs. GDP growth is all that counts; callous, mindless, soulless and relentless in the pursuit which benefits mostly outsiders and privileged lot. It is an icy pragmatism which weighs heavily on and chills spirit and drive of the mass-those at the bottom ‘frozen” into helplessness. The parasitic enclaves, like growing molds on fabric, threaten the fabric of the Nation of Nation-hood. Our cultural and societal silkiness is giving way to extraneous coarseness of character and behavior, even offensive to sight and sense. The nervous desperation to increase population has an insidious hidden agenda-garner new citizen electorate support, at all costs. The New Order is an exquisite “Porcelain Vase” with growing internal fissures. Our Nation unity is at stake. There is a widening and destabilizing divide between Rich and Poor. The Higher Mortal of elites, the intelligentsia and selective self-serving cream de crop live in guarded state of “utopia” while the Lesser Mortal struggle and eke out in despair a living approaching a state of “dystopia”. Future to Lesser Mortal is bleak. We are confronting a New Order which forces upon us a slate of unconscionable, uncompassionate, ruthless and unyielding policies without disregard for the cries of the Nation. Unquestionable, their policies are infallible. A stark example is terminally ill patient with no recourse but to die earlier before his own CPF can be used as result of CPF withdrawal limit.  “Die your own Business” is the cruel motto of this New Order-a frightening realization of worrisome retirement where welfare system is practically non-existent. We are confronting a New Order where PAP power, authority and self-perpetuity are being challenged. They will use masterly sophistry of “rationale” to justify policy and action. At times, in desperation of reason, they will use hypocrisy, obfuscation and enforcement of double standard. They will use statistics and numbers to tally with their objectives. They will come down hard voices which challenge their authority. Even an innocuous use of metaphor like “burn the MPs” is construed as incitement of violence but condone own use of metaphors like “buy supporter votes”, “meet you with hatchet at cul-de-sac” and “will kill 200k citizens to maintain order”. In their court of Law, interpretation can be tallied to their objective. They will do anything to stay in power first, even sell away the Soul of Nation, displacing with own blood or blood transfusion of its selection. We are confronting a New Order where foreigners including “devils”, “aliens” and “parasite” of all forms of disguise and characters are welcome as long as help sustain wealth and power for the ruling party and its kind. The subsistence of Singaporean heartlanders is lesser priority to enrichment of wealth and glory of their kind-their ultimate attainment, it seems, on pretext broader mass will benefit, including the lesser mortal. We are confronting a New Order where the once sacrosanct Social Pact entrusted with the ruling party, encapsulated in its cachet of “People Action Party”, is now seemingly a second fiddle to self-serving pursuit of power, wealth and its hegemony. We are confronting a New Order of schizophrenic identity struggle, confrontation within the Nation Psyche, a love-hate tug of war between the Nationhood and its alter ego. The recent cacophony of the YOG displeasure is manifestly a subconscious nation psyche struggle to “oust” its alter-ego identity. While PAP celebrates its “National Day”, nonchalance of heart-landers and growing antagonism towards PAP prevail in the atmosphere of revelry. It is PAP “National Day”, not the citizens. We are confronting a New Order where leaders are stoically “Deaf to all criticism”. Our leaders are out of touch with reality on the ground. In the Proverbial Mirror they want see own image and hear own echo. Ruthless, unapologetic is their action, they will “Silence the lamb” to hide naked truth, “hatchet” of Law of law suppress political voices and statistics to cover-up. Apology weakens their moral authority to rule, indicts their fallibility and culpability as leader. A New Order which, metaphorically, and aptly depicts as kingdom of LION ruling over the SHEEP-arrogant, presumptuous proclamation of their overpower superiority and leadership. SHEEP meekness, greed and fear are product of being cocooned under the draconian “law and order” of PAP for too long. Our meekness is our Nemesis in this New Order-a sacrificial lamb to Wealth, Glory and Power. PAP is not evil, at least of now. But it is morphing the Nation or perhaps a “Lost Nation” in its “Cocoon” with feeds of “Brutal Law”, Wealth and Power. Absolute Power, absolute leadership, will corrupt eventually. Our destiny is at its mercy. Do we not want to check the excesses of the ruling party? Do we want excessive power of the ruling part to blind the Nation? Do we want back our civil rights and political freedom of expression? Do we want absolute power fall in the hand a dictator? PAP is already the Government. Do we want a PAP Singapore? Do we want to see the day we are no longer a Nation, a complete stranger in one’s land? Do we not want to dislodge the “vampire fangs” that have stultified political space, robbed us of civil rights and liberties of expression and drained the soul and blood of Nation-hood? Do we want this New Order? Is this just delusive perception? Is this a baseless critique of PAP? We must vote wisely.     Voice of citizen  Read More →

Written by: 新加坡文献馆 (Read Original Article HERE) Translated by: SgVolcano (a TR reader) The NDP 2010 rally speech by LHL has covered a few topics. The Chinese website of BBC had put up the main topic of LHL appealing to Singaporeans to accept new immigrants, and reported the views of the PAP government regarding new immigrants, and the PAP’s solutions for solving associated social problems caused by new immigrants. The Singapore government has habitually viewed the problem of immigrants and foreign workers as a social problem of Singaporeans opposing new immigrants and foreign labour, and the huge increase of foreigners has hence become a hot topic. The people are unhappy about the government continuously increasing the number of foreigners so much so that there is now severe competition in terms of work, education and living space, and the quality of life has been greatly reduced. In addition, they think that the huge influx of foreigners within such a short time span, has generated social issues and eroded the unity of the people as a whole. This official government view regarding the immigration problem, is superficial, and clearly lacking in reality. Not only is it biased, it also does not truly reflect the real root of the problems. In fact, this has twisted the root of problem to a great degree. In actual fact, it is not that Singaporeans are against the social problem of new immigrants and foreign labour, the truth is that people are not pleased with the socio-economic policies, the public infrastructure such as education and public transport, and they are disgusted by the way the government handles the ill effects arising from their policies and public service. In other words, the government inappropriately “equates” the people’s unhappiness with government policies and public service, with the people’s unhappiness with new immigrants and foreign labour. This kind of tactic not only hides the failures of the government policies and the public service, but also shirks the responsibilities of the government and transfers the responsibility of solving social problems to the people. Take public transport for example, according to earlier reports in Straits Times, the over-crowdedness in JE MRT station has a history of over 10 years, and the new platform which is in the midst of construction will only be completed in the middle of next year. Obviously, this situation has arisen due to a mismanagement of public services, and is not related to the new immigrants or foreign labour, although they have exacerbated the crowdedness. It is obvious that this political tactic of the government is incapable of solving the root of the problems. Not only does it not resolve existing social problems, it also creates new social problems. That is, it exacerbates the social conflicts between Singaporeans and the newcomers. The problems faced by the Singapore society now, for instance, lowly educated workers are not able to find jobs, Singapore companies are not able to find suitable local staff, these social problems are actually a result of past and present government policies. It has not much to do with new immigrants and foreign labour. First of all, the reason why Singapore has a lot of unskilled workers, is due to the failure in Singapore’ education system. Dr Goh Keng Swee thought that Singapore should not waste valuable resources on academically poor students who had low chances of achieving academic success. The objective of Singapore’s streaming system is to ensure effective use of scarce resources. But this is a view which is mercenary and lacking in humanity and has huge social repercussions. Singapore government implemented the primary 6 streaming system in the 1960s, which has resulted in a group of academically poor students who were streamed and abandoned too early in their academic pursuit. These old lowly educated workers who are currently facing unemployment, are probably a result of this mercenary and short-sighted education system. Besides, the criticisms hurled against these lowly-educated workers, (for eg, they are picky about jobs and unwilling to work as cleaners) are largely biased. The reality is often not the case. The CPF system has a different effect on citizens versus foreign workers. From an economic point of view, employers has a lower cost of labour when hiring foreign workers as they do not have to shoulder the cost of CPF. And from a personal income point of view, Singapore employees have a lower get-home-pay has CPF has to be deducted from their salaries. In addition, the foreign workers benefit from the favourable exchange rate, and what they earn here is far more than what they would receive in their own home countries. Hence foreign workers have no resistance at all regarding the low pay in Singapore. But on the other hand, Singaporeans can hardly feed themselves with the meager salary, and have to put up with such horrible treatment towards citizens, how can one not feel sad or depressed? Under the outsourcing system, companies compete on the basis of price. Companies’ ability to pay higher salary is reduced when they earn less. Lowly educated workers have no choice but to accept the same job but with lower wages. But at the same time, workers have to face the pressure of higher costs of living, utilities and transport. The increasingly difficult living conditions faced by Singaporeans, is not due to the fact that they are lazy or not hard-striving. It is due to the result of the current socio-economic powers at work. Their difficulties are not alleviated because the government has failed to see the root of the problem or has chosen to close an eye. The case of Tan Jee Suan (who jumped into the MRT tracks) is a classic example. What has the government and their associated business partners done for the ill effects of our system? Some people have requested the public transport authorities to let the senior citizens enjoy a full-day subsidized rate. The reply from the authorities is that, they don’t encourage senior citizens from going out early in the morning due to lack of sunlight. Now who would want to wake up early in the morning to work if it is not for the sake of earning a living? To the lowly educated workers, the more money spent on public transport would mean that they would have to survive on less food. What kind of cold-blooded reply is that? Doesn’t this reflect the fact that the Singapore elites have IQ but no EQ? A PAP MP has suggested to let elderly workers increase their confidence and working enthusiasm by wearing sports shoes and sports cap to portray a more professional image. How can this kind of suggestion which is clearly lacking in substance and professional knowledge, improve the welfare of those unfortunate elderly workers? The naivety of not knowing the hardships of the people, coupled with the high-handed attitude of government officials, has unavoidably evoked strong protests from elderly workers. Is this the ill effects of the GRC system, when we have such low quality talent who has managed to penetrate into the PAP system? Firstly, the failures in the PAP policies, coupled with their inability to resolve the ill effects arising from such policies are the main reasons why there are so much grumbles and complaints from the society at large. Again, this has not much to do with the import of new immigrants and foreign labour, although they have also exacerbated the problems. Secondly, the human resources problem faced by Singapore companies is a result of government policies. Because the local talents are not able to satisfy companies in terms of both quality and quantity, hence employing foreign labour is the only choice. For instance, the huge increase in 2010Q2 GDP in the casino and pharmaceutical industries is the result of the mass import of foreign labour. The construction and running of the casinoes, and the manufacturing facilities of the pharmaceutical companies have to rely all on foreign labour. Then, why is there such a mismatch in economic situation and human resources? This situation reflects the serious insufficiencies and imbalances that the government faced in forecasting the economy, in planning developmental strategies, and in developing social and economic policies. Singapore had to rely heavily on foreign labour during the industrialization in the 1960s. But in letting local industries and enterprises play a minor role instead of the main role, it has limited the development of local industries and enterprises. That was the main reason why local industries and enterprises were not able to develop, accumulate experience and create new technologies. Just look at Taiwan, from the birth, development, accumulation of experience and creation of new technologies in their electronics industry, and you can easily see the shortfalls of the Singapore economic and development strategies. Now the Taiwanese electronic industry plays a leading role worldwide, but what about our local electronics industry? In 1979, the government abandoned SMEs via higher wages, and released the labour back to high-tech MNCs. This was the main reason why Singapore local technology industry cannot fluorish and grow. In addition, the financial grants and packages were only granted to MNCs, this kind of discriminatory policy resulted in the fact that the local industries had nowhere to turn to for help. Why did the government favour the MNCs over local companies? Why couldn’t the government give priority to the local SMEs? The principle behind the distribution of resources and the streaming in education was the brainchild of Dr Goh Keng Swee. Do not waste valuable resources on SMEs which have no economical future. This kind of thinking had killed the passion and opportunities of local low-cost enterprises. Besides, urban renewal had also destroyed the low-cost economic environment that Singapore once had. Singapore is unable to cultivate local industrial technologies, and hence it is unable to actively control the directions of its own economic development and production. In other words, Singapore has to continuously rely on foreign investment and foreign technologies. This basically explains why Singapore constantly imports foreign labour to push its GDP growth. From the economic history of Singapore, we know why Singapore has to rely on foreign investment and foreign technologies in the long term, is because Singapore’s economic development strategies lack a forward-looking and intelligent view. But because both MM Lee Kuan Yew and Dr Goh Keng Swee are both rare intelligent talented men, hence it is controversial to view Singapore’s government policies as utterly useless. Or perhaps the hidden agenda of the Singapore government is to build a political and economic agent of the western capitalist economies in the Far East. In the history of Singapore, the original political motive of the British government before and after WWII was to retain an independent Singapore as a military and economic fortress in the Far East. Certainly this is another historical topic that needs to be verified. This is a necessary footnote to interpreting Singapore government policies. In other words, Singapore’s social problems are due to a failure in government policies and mismanagement. It has nothing to do with new immigrants and foreign labour. Singaporeans are unhappy about the governing ability of the government. They are not against new immigrants and foreign labour.  Read More →

In a sign that Singaporeans are getting desperate to vote the increasingly unpopular PAP regime out of office, netizens are pleading with the fledging Reform Party to contest in their constituencies. The Reform Party (RP) had just conducted a joint walkabout with the Singapore People's Party in Toa Payoh last Sunday and received overwhelming support from the residents there which left some Singaporeans living elsewhere red-eyed. Tern Aik Wei asked RP to contest in Sembawang while Leon Lui reminded them not to forget Bedok and Siglap. Andrew Toh asked if RP is going to contest in Joo Chiat where he lives. [Source: TR Facebook] Verysian invites RP to contest in Jurong: "Come on Kenneth, come to Jurong and claim GRC there as Jurong has been walkover for years….Jurong needs you Kenneth! Please come and challenge Jurong GRC, bring down all the Pappies out to the exit door." Netizens staying in Toa Payoh have also indicated their decision to vote for Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam and Mr Chiam See Tong should they contest there. Ixnay: "I’m staying in TPY and Mr. Chiam will definitely have the votes of my family and I! That’s 6 votes just from my family! Finally!!! changed Singaporean: "Welcome Chiam See Tong and Kenneth Jeyaretnam, my family, my parents, my brother’s family will all vote for you. A total 9 votes in total." Toa Payoh residents have not voted for more than 10 years since the estate was amalgamated with Bishan to form Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC in 1997. In the meantime, Reform Party leaders and volunteers are working the ground hard to listen to the genuine concerns, worries and fears of Singaporeans. It just conducted another wallkabout in less than a week last night at Blk 986C Jurong West Street 93 (643986) (West Coast GRC). The Reform Party still requires many volunteers to help out at its events and walkabouts in order to get its message across to Singaporeans who are not net-savvy. If you are keen to volunteer for the Reform Party, please join its Facebook here to contact its administrator.   Related articles: >> Toa Payoh residents welcome RP/SPP leaders   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 →