TR EMERITUS

The family of Yong Vui Kong has been working hard these past two months – hitting the streets in both Singapore and Malaysia to collect signatures for a petition begging President SR Nathan to spare Vui Kong’s life. Activists in Malaysia have rallied to their cause.  By 10 am this morning, the campaign had collected a total of 109 346 signatures.  Among those who signed were 44 Members of Parliament and 15 senators in Malaysia. Vui Kong’s father and six siblings delivered the petition and signatures to the Istana earlier today. They were accompanied by Sabah MP Datuk Chua Soon Bui, some close relatives, as well as lawyers M Ravi and Ngeow Chow Ying. The family was not able to hand the petition to guards at the front gates of the Istana and had to use an alternative entrance 15 minutes away. The group walked uphill, in the blazing heat to this other gate where they were met by Security Officer, Corporal Marcus Chong [picture, right]. He took the files of signatures and told the family, “You may leave now.” Vui Kong’s father, Mr Yong Kwong Keong, had prepared a personal message for President Nathan. Corporal Chong was asked to help pass this on but declined to do so, instead asking repeatedly for the family to vacate the area. Mr Yong broke down in tears and the family knelt down in front of the gates.  They remained there for several minutes before guards ordered them to leave. At a press conference held later, Mr Ravi expressed disappointment over how the Yong family was treated at the Istana . “We are also faced with the unfortunate circumstance that we have to go to the Istana,” he said, “even though the courts have said that the President has no power.” Datuk Chua urged President Nathan and the Cabinet to give Vui Kong’s case due consideration before making a final decision. She also questioned a decision by prison authorities to deny her request to visit Vui Kong on Monday. The Online Citizen understands two of his aunts were also denied access, although a cousin was granted entry. “I feel the authorities should be more human,” Datuk Chua said. “This case is a special case. We don’t know how long before [Vui Kong’s] life is terminated. The family members and I came here just to see Vui Kong. We feel this is not too much to ask.” The deadline for Vui Kong to submit his clemency appeal to the President is Thursday, 26 August. However, when handing down his decision on Mr Ravi’s application for a judicial review of the clemency process, Justice Steven Chong had “invited” the Singapore Prison Service to extend the stay of execution as he said he expected Mr Ravi to appeal his judgement. Mr Ravi has requested confirmation of the extension from the Prison Service, however, as of Tuesday, 24 August, he has yet to receive a response. Vui Kong was arrested in June, 2007. He was 18 and a half years old then. The Singapore courts subsequently sentenced him to death for trafficking 47g of heroin into Singapore. He was originally scheduled to hang on 4 December last year, but since then, his lawyer, M Ravi, has managed to obtain two stays of executions. In the past few weeks, the Yong family, as well as campaigners in both Malaysia and Singapore have worked round the clock, organising public forums and collecting signatures online and on the streets, to appeal to President Nathan to spare Vui Kong’s life. Several non-governmental organisations are backing the campaign. These include the Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia, Amnesty International Malaysia, Lawyers For Liberty, Amnesty Hong Kong and the Singapore Anti-death Penalty Campaign. The Malaysian government added its voice to the call for clemency when it sent a letter of appeal to Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 29. The Singapore government however has yet to respond to the letter. A spokesman for the ministry told the media that “[the] letter of appeal has been referred to the legal authorities.” The campaign to save Vui Kong does not end today. “We will continue to collect signatures until the President makes a decision,” said Ms Ngeow. “As long as there’s time, even if there’s just one second left,” said Yun Leong, “we will all still work hard for Vui Kong.” Members of the public who wish to sign the petition may do so online here.   by Andrew Low, TOC Additional reporting by Lynn Lee. Editor's note: The Online Citizen have been actively campaigning for the clemency of Yong Vui Kong and has kindly agreed to share their articles with us.  Read More →

I was reading the article by Takumi ( So you say Temasek Review is unfair and biased? ) and (Are you guys secretly approved by the PAP?) by Benjamin, the replies of which prompted me to write this fair and unbiased short opinion piece on Temasek Review. :) According to Alexa the Web Information Company, Temasek Review was ranked 75,475 most visited site in the world and 329 in Singapore in January 2010. Within a short span of 6 months, Temasek Review has moved up the charts by an impressive 1386 and 130 places respectively to rank 74,089 in the world and 199 in Singapore. For a relatively new site which has only been around for  2 years (having only registered the new domain in late 2009), this is some achievement which many would agree - the envy of many webmasters and bloggers on the internet. With power players from SPH like ChannelNewsAsia, TodayOnline, Straits Times and the likes, anyone would have thought that Temasek Review would need a miracle to achieve the standings they have today due to shallow pockets and limited manpower but miraculously they did it. Boasting a monthly pageviews of approximately 1,000,000 and unique visitors of 500,000, Temasek Review is now THE MOST READ Alternative News Site in Singapore with readership hot on the tail of TodayOnline (ranked 176 SG) and has overtaken the official government feedback portal Reach (ranked 3860 SG) and HardWareZone (ranked 212 SG) owned by SPH. Credit should be given when due and Temasek Review has the various Main Stream Media from SPH to thank for their success. It is common knowledge that all the papers in Singapore are owned by a single media company – Singapore Press Holdings, which is the de facto propaganda machine for the ruling PAP party. As such, Singaporeans can expect to NEVER get any authentic or accurate news from the Singapore media which is ranked a pathetic 133th in terms of press freedom by international media watchdog Reporters without Borders last year. With the coming of the internet age, Singaporeans are hungry for unbiased and truthful news which the MSM cannot deliver. News, articles and  comments that are prejudicial to the ruling PAP party are NEVER allowed to be published and Singaporeans are fed only with information which the ruling PAP party deems fitting for their own agenda. The same goes for negative comments on various official forums about the policies implemented by the ruling PAP party - they are almost ALWAYS deleted because the ruling PAP party won't hear anything of that sort, being 'deaf to all criticism'. It is precisely this lack of outlet and avenues for Singaporeans to voice their concerns, grievances and opinions that propelled the success of Temasek Review. Not only did they report on happennings in Singapore which the MSM dare not report, they also promised (to the best of their abilities) to allow fair, unbiased and unedited news, articles and comments from any writer, be it pro or against the ruling party, thus creating an environment for like-minded 'lesser mortal' Singaporeans (with no voice) to gather and share. The following comments from their readers best sum up the reason(s) for the success of Temasek Review. Tracy Tan: TR, you have done well. You have educated singaporeans of the pap’s shortcomings and failures. Keep it up. Takumi: TR basically allows you to offer opinions on both sides whether negatively or positively. They publish what you write. Whether you are for or against the govt’s policies. DarkAngel: TR Keep up the GOOD Job!!!!. Continue to maintain the sites unedited and unbiased opinion. Continue to demand quality and integrity for Singaporeans. Increase readership, Increase advertisement to cover costs and Advertise your site to increase readership. Whether in Opinions or Actions, Singaporeans need to believe they can and will have the will power to be able to govern by themselves with their and decide their own future without the reliance of a one party rule. changed singaporean: I used be to taken in by the Straits Times. Ever since I stumbled onto Temasek Review, I am so informed. Thanks TR, I now know a more balanced source. Cannon: Without TR I have no voice. I stopped reading local MSMs or watch the news for many years. TR is good for me. disappointed singaporean: The one thing I like about TR is that it does not proclaim to be fair or unbaised. It is simply a online tabloid, and a very popular one at that. However, it does not proclaim to have no agenda, or is particularly open. paul: I am depending on TR for all local news as i don’t trust other ankat newspapers. I spend an average of two to three hours a day on TR. TR is very fair and allows even the critics to post their views. V erySian: At TR, you are able to even spew out or vent out your frustrations here. But in that idiot ST, Today, The New Paper, are you allow to do that? No, right??? and last but not the least, European Expat: I am a european expatriate and I read the TR every day to get an idea of what is really happening in Singapore. I know that many expatriates do the same. I can also confirm that many diplomats read your on line newspaper. Well done TR and congratulations for having the courage to expose the lies of the political regime of Singapore and write the truth. Not easy in a country were the fundamental rights are constantly denied. On a side note, it is not easy for Temasek Review to keep the site up and running simply financed by advertisements alone. On a very conservative estimate, a cluster of 3 servers with the kind of bandwidth and hardware demand which the site draws will easily set them back by over US$3,000 a month. So for those who visit Temasek Review for whatever reason(s), be it for the articles, to scream your hearts out or merely to de-stress, please consider donating a token sum to help keep the site running. And to the team at Temasek Review, kudos to a job well done!   Andrew Anon    Read More →

Dear TR,   I decided to write to you after reading the stories of Ms Judy Eng and Ms Melissa Quek. I am a 20-year-old poly student. My family and I live in a four room HDB flat that is fully paid up. I am fortunate that my father works for a Scandinavian company that really takes care of its workers (it fully restored pay cuts the moment sales improved). As a student, I am yet to be burdened with housing costs and raising a family, but I still feel that something is seriously dysfunctional in our little island. The denial of subsidized transport fares for poly students is an injustice. My peers in JCs and ITEs spend so much less. Polytechnic students are not all rich, you know. Despite a petition, there is little momentum in reversing this anomaly. When I see the refusal of the government to even subsidise public transport for disabled Singaporeans, I harbour little hope that our concerns will ever be heard. I am also very disturbed by the influx of foreigners, especially students. In my secondary school, 20 scholars from China were brought in each year. Within months they outperformed everyone else even in English. Many Singaporean students felt they were being denied the chance to be the first in the subjects and tests. I have always wondered why the government is bringing in these PRCs and giving them free scholarships. Shouldn’t public schools be focusing on nurturing our own talents? With the impending increase in poly, ITE and university fees, I worry how my parents are going to pay for my degree education. Why must the government keep raising fees for education when it can afford to lose billions in bad investments? Where is the sense of priority? Surely spending a few billion to absorb the increased costs is reasonable? As a 1st world country, we should have free primary and secondary education. The PAP is so greedy that it claims school is free but charges a ‘miscellaneous fee’. As a Singaporean Indian, I feel increasingly threatened by the risi! ng numbers of Indian PRs and new citizens. Similar to the situation between PRCs and Singaporean Chinese, there is very little in common between Indian PRs and us. Little India has been all but overrun by them. Local Indians now try to stay away as far as possible. We have been crowded out from the restaurants, markets and temples. Most PRs who come from India are not Tamil-speakers and generally look down on South Indians, who Tamils belong to. When my mother was shopping in Mustafa Centre, a group of North Indians (likely to be PRs) walked past her and she heard one of them uttering “bloody Tamilians” to his friends. There is a belief among Indian PRs that they are in demand to work in Singapore because the local Indians are not as good as they are, and therefore they behave with a sense of superiority and snobbishness. The scourge of castes has completely disappeared in Singapore. We see each other as Indians and nothing else. But these PRs are bringing in their prejudices from India and corrupting our local culture. We are beginning to see advertisements put in the paper asking for brides and bridegrooms from a certain caste. Even the PRs in the parents support group in my sister’s school immediately enquired about our caste as soon as we introduced ourselves. We are losing our unique Singapore identity to the policies of the PAP, which seems to worship foreigners like gods and trample on Singaporeans. Chinese, Malay, Indian, Eurasian and all other Singaporeans are one of a kind and special. No amount of money, social engineering or integration can ever transform foreigners into true-blue Singaporeans. I live in the area that was once part of Cheng San GRC. I remember when I was little, JB Jeyaretnam came to campaign and even after he lost, he graciously returned to thank the voters anyway. It has been nearly four years since the last election. My current MP (who daughter is infamous for an ‘elite’ remark) has yet to visit my block even once. Without knowing residents’ concerns, it is no wonder why MPs have time to engage in frivolous debates about frogs, food museums and beauty secrets. The man who killed his children, set fire to his flat and jumped to his death recently, lived only a few blocks from mine. When that incident happened, the reality of Singaporeans struggling with their lives really hit me hard. It pains me each time I see an elderly Singaporean rummage through dustbins for cans to sell and toil as cleaners until their deaths. It is shameful for our leaders to proclaim our country as “first world” and being in a golden period when all the gold is flowing into the pockets of ministers. I think our seniors all deserve a big thank you and a comfortable retirement for their years of service to nation building. It is time for Singaporeans to take back our country, eject unnecessary foreigners and start providing decent lives for ourselves. Foreigners (including PRs) must always remember that in Singapore, they live on our terms, not vice versa. Singapore is our home. It’s worth saving.   T. Rajendran  Read More →