TR EMERITUS

I refer to the Straits Times forum letter by Mrs Ivy Singh-Lim dated 9 Aug 2010. Mrs Singh-Lim found Mr Alan Shadrake's assertion that Singaporeans mostly have to grovel to the government to lead a normal life inaccurate and insulting. She used her own example as a proud, first generation Singaporean who has never grovelled to the government or to the judiciary as proof otherwise. Mr Shadrake used the word 'mostly' to mean most Singaporeans, not all Singaporeans. Thus, Mrs Singh-Lim's single example to the contrary does not disprove Mr Shadrake's assertion that Singaporeans mostly grovel to the government. Mr Shadrake's assertion may well be inaccurate but unless we conduct a survey on the population, we well never know how accurate or inaccurate it is. As far as insult is concerned, while it is understandable that Mrs Singh-Lim should feel insulted, she should also realise that it is not Mr Shadrake's intention to insult if he truly believes in what he purports. If as Mrs Singh-Lim says, Mr Shadrake is merely here to expose the alleged tyranny of our judicial system, then the best way to thwart his intentions is not to ban his books but to conduct a thorough, fair and non-politically motivated survey of Singaporeans to disprove his case. If we follow Mrs Singh-Lim's advice, we would be merely muffling his mouth without establishing the truth.     Ng Kok Lim  Read More →

Embattled PAP Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, which has drawn much public flak lately for his "reckless" spending spree on the YOG, remains unapologetic about bursting the initial YOG budget by more than three times from $107 million dollars to the present $389 million dollars. [Get instant updates and discussions about the YOG on our Facebook page here] In an interview with BBC News, Dr Vivian said defiantly that he would still bid for the YOG at the current obscene budget: "If I could rewind time, with the benefit of hindsight, I should have budgeted a larger amount in the first place. But the real question is if I knew that it was going to cost this amount, would I still have proceeded to bid for the games? The answer is a definite 'yes'." There are many queries from concerned Singaporeans on how the budget was exceeded by so much especially when the Sports Hub, another pet project of Dr Vivian, remains in limbo. According to media reports so far, $5.5 million dollars have been spent on food for the YOG athletes and volunteers, $7 million dollars on Dr Vivian's world tour with the YOG torch and $8.9 million dollars on the giant YOG billboards and banners put up all over Singapore. The rest of the money is still unaccounted for. Dr Vivian added that the YOG will give Singapore "value for money" in terms of marketing to a global audience without substantiating his claims: "But it is an amount that will give us value for money in terms of positioning ourselves, in terms of marketing ourselves, in terms of making sure we are on everyone's radar screen the next time they make an investment decision, the next time they decide to site an international or regional headquarters or the next time they decide to expand their business." However being a new sporting event, the YOG has attracted scant interest from the international media so far with many of them giving the YOG opening ceremony last Saturday a miss or making only a brief mention about it in an inconspicuous corner of the paper. Despite spending a bomb on the YOG, Dr Vivian's ministry spent only a miserable $92 million dollars on social welfare projects for needy Singaporeans. When ask by fellow PAP MP in 2007 to increase the monthly allowance of Public Assistance (PA) recipients, Dr Vivian replied callously: "How much do you want? Do you want three meals a day at a hawker center, food court or restaurant?"     EDITORS’ NOTE: Has your life been turned upside down by the YOG? Please share your views with us. We assure you that your identity will be kept strictly CONFIDENTIAL. We will be your UNCENSORED VOICE. We will publish your letter in FULL with ZERO editing, moderating or censoring. You do not have to suffer in silence! You have the RIGHT to speak up as a citizen of this country. Remember: you are a CITIZEN of Singapore, not a SLAVE of the PAP regime. Our mailbox has been swarmed by letters from YOG volunteers for the last few days. Unless you specifically want us to publish your REAL NAME, we will use a pseudonym instead. Please understand that due to manpower constraints, we may not be able to publish your letters immediately and we will have to stagger them a few hours apart to ensure that they get maximum exposure. Please keep your feedback coming! Singapore for SINGAPOREANS! Your interests always come FIRST. 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A reader posted a comment on our site lately castigating us for only knowing how to criticize without coming up with any "better solutions". Another emailed us imploring us to offer "constructive criticisms" instead of ranting relentlessly at the government. What exactly is "constructive criticism" ? I have searched through all major dictionaries and can't seem to find a definition for it. The term itself is an illusion concocted by the PAP to limit the boundaries in which they can be criticized and to preserve and perpetuate the myth about their "capabilities". In the PAP/SPH, jargon, "constructive criticism" must fulfil the following criteria: 1. The identity of the critic must be known so that: he or she can be easily threatened, sued, bankrupted or fixed into submission which will take the sting out of the rest to exercise 'self-censorship' when criticizing the establishment. 2. Criticize them in subtle / diplomatic / friendly manner in order not to make them look bad so that they can continue to justify their exorbitant high salaries simply by proclaiming themselves as the best talents that Singapore will ever produce. Have a live debate in public between PM Lee and Dr Chee and the fake aura of invincibility which the PAP has so cleverly enshrouded itself will vanish into thin air instantaneously. 3. Offer better alternatives and solutions so that they are able to demolish you if your proposals are unsound or steal your idea to become theirs in the future without giving due acknowledgement or recognition. An old dog is incapable of new tricks. It is the same old "divide and conquer" strategem employed over the years to split and weaken the opposition camp. Opposition politicians who give the PAP a "passing grade", defend its laws as "fair and just" and express their pride in voting for them in previous elections are "constructive opposition" to be given a positive spin by the state media to increase support for them amongst unsuspecting opposition supporters. Those who dare to "call a spade a spade" and criticize them are hauled up in courts, sued for defamation, bankrupted and demonized by the state media as "destructive opposition" bent on destroying the nation. How can an opposition politician destroy the nation by shouting 'where is the money' in public ? Or does one do so by really losing tonnes of money overseas and still dare not account to the public ? The primary purpose of an opposition is to check on the ruling party, not to make life easy, nice and cozy for them to run the show with impunity. In fact, they are supposed to make life difficult for them to ensure that they are accountable to the people. The opposition exists for the sake of opposing. This is the eternal truth everywhere else in the world, but under the distorted "spectacles" of the PAP and the state media, it is wrong to "oppose" for the sake of "opposing". Then what is the role of the "opposition" ? To be a flower vase to wayang in Parliament so that the PAP can continue to masquerade Singapore as a democracy to the world ? Under the PAP dictionary, the word "opposition" has become a dirty word because they do not like to be opposed. The Longman dictionary defines the word "oppose" as "to regard a suggestion or planned course of action with strong disapproval." Is there anything wrong in disagreeing with the PAP ? Must we always see eye to eye with its actions all the time ? If what they have been doing are perfectly free from blame, will there be any grounds for us to oppose them ? Is the opposition opposing them because of their party's name or logo ? It is not the duty of the opposition to come up with alternative policies to challenge the government for it does not have the manpower, finance and most importantly, the necessary information made available to them in order to do so. Can anybody tell me there is any opposition in the world, be it the Conservatives in the United Kingdom, the Republicans in the United States, the BJP in India or the Pakatan Rakyat in Malaysia which exists to not to oppose the ruling party, but to be a "constructive opposition" offering alternative policies without embarrassing the government? If the PAP government, with the entire civil service at its disposal still needs a "constructive opposition" to help them in policy-making and formulation, then perhaps they are redundant after all and undeserving of their high salaries. An opposition leader who dare not confront or challenge the ruling party out of fear of offending them and yet call on Singaporeans to vote him into Parliament to be a "watchdog" of the PAP is in fact a "running dog" which has betrayed the trust of the people ! Over here, we do not mince our words when we criticize the establishment and it is for our readers to judge for themselves the merits of our critiques, not the PAP, the media or its proxy blog TOC to pass summary judgements and teach netizens a lesson in "credibility". If what we post here is complete hogwash without any meaning, you can be sure that our faithful and astute readers will cruxify us immediately on the spot without mercy. A real tested political leader will be able to pass through the baptism of fire and withstand any bullets shot at him by his detractors. If you cannot take the heat, for goodness sake, just leave the kitchen ! Nobody force you to be in politics. You are in the game because you claim you want to serve your family...oops, I mean the people and so stop whining like a faggot and threaten to fix your opponents when they expose your inadequacies because they are just doing their job. A "constructive critic" if there is such a term, is one who points out the follies, mistakes and oversights of the government directly and fearlessly so that it is held accountable for them. Very soon, the state media will come up with a new definition for "credible bloggers", those who are known in real life, plays around with semantics to attract official attention and prostitute themselves for cheap media publicity. You bet that these shenanigans will be constantly promoted, appraised and adulated to dilute the influence of vocal blogs which dare to criticize the establishment. In my humble opinion, a "constructive" opposition / critic / blogger should posses the following attributes: 1. Courage to criticize, challenge and confront the establishment based to the best of one's knowledge reasonably and truthfully as far as possible. 2. Magnanimity to concede and admit one's mistakes if proven wrong. 3. Fortitude to withstand barrage of counter-attacks and to inspire others to join in the fray. Critics exist to criticize the government, just like the opposition exists to oppose the government. If the government wants us to based our criticism on substantial evidence, then it must be forthcoming with the information in the first place. It is ludicrous to expect ordinary citizens to spend time doing "proper research" before they are allowed to criticize. Maybe MICA should consider muzzling every citizen with a dog mask and only allow those with a "permit" to open their mouths. This "constructive" opposition / criticism is an illusion which only exists in the dreams of the PAP. They can only play such tricks on the minds of the electorate in Singapore where a majority of the populace has been brainwashed after 40 years of "national education". If they try to repeat the same bullshit in other modern democracies, they will be jeered, ridiculed and lampooned till they climb of out of their toilet windows and disappear without a trace like Mas Selamat.     Eugene EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was first published in February 2009 when our readership is much lower than what we have today. We are now republishing it for the benefit of our new readers as well as to debunk recent attempts by the Straits Times to deceive, mislead and hoodwink unsuspecting Singaporeans again by subtly "conditioning" them to accept the PAP concept of "constructive criticisms" which equates to "no criticisms" in reality. 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 →