TR EMERITUS

The high salaries of ministers has been a contentious issue ever since they were ramped up over the years. This discussion is not whether it is right to pay such high salaries, but whether this policy is indeed good for the ordinary citizens. It has been reported that the median salary of Singaporeans is $2400 per month. A minister gets about say $150,000 per month. This is about 62 times what the average citizens are paid. If one compares the ministers' salary to the lower income group, the contrast becomes even more magnified. Even with the best intention and effort, it would not be easy for a minister to truly empathize with the financial struggles of the citizens. Put yourself (an ordinary citizen) in the shoes of the ministers. Your salary is $2400 per month. You are a minister and your average citizens are paid about 1/62 times your salary. That works out to about $39 per month. At the last the meet-the-people session, a Mr Tan came to see you to ask for help to pay his utility bills. With the increase of 10% over the past year, his monthly utility bill have risen from $0.97 to $1.06 per month (in real life, from $60 to $66). An increase of 9 cents per month. Can you, as a minister with a salary of $2400,really understand how this man (the sole bread winner) needs ask for help over a 9 cents increase? Another complaint you recently received is that after the Clementi hawker centre was renovated, the price of a plate of Char Kuay Teow has increased from 4 cents to 5.7 cents ($2.5 to $3.50). The residents are outraged and are concerned that the cost of living is sky rocketing. Again can you as minister really feel outraged that the price has increased by 1.7 cents? With a salary of $2400 per month, you may not even bother to pick up a 5 cents coin if you see one lying on the pathway. So the issues of ordinary citizens become abstract too trivial for ministers to comprehend. They may have the best intention for the citizens. But the situation is such that to the whole group of ministers the value of money has become warped. To the point that listening to a citizen's complaint over a 9 cent issue becomes kind of unreal. Of course on the surface, ministers will still have to appear concerned and equally affected as citizens. But on a personal level, they can only try to imagine what it is like to worry over several cents. They would have lost the ability to comprehend the value of money as seen through the eyes of others. So the issue of paying minister such high salaries will render the cabinet as a whole simply unable to comprehend how ordinary citizens are struggling. Is that a good policy for Singaporeans?     A Concerned Citizen  Read More →

By Clara Chooi from The Malaysian Insider, 5 July 2010 Malaysia will plead for clemency for 22-year-old Sabahan Yong Vui Kong who was sentenced to death for drug trafficking. Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman told reporters in Parliament today that the Malaysian government sympathised with Yong’s case and pledged to use every diplomatic channel to help the man. “We will do whatever we can within our power. Based on the information I received, there is only one avenue left, which is to plead for clemency. “I will write to the government of Singapore and plead with them on humanitarian grounds,” he said. Anifah, however, said he would first wait for the legal aspects of Yong’s case to be presented to him by the man’s lawyer before writing to the Singapore government. “There will be a need to give legal basis on why he should be spared,” he said. The Malaysian government, through its appeal for clemency with the Singapore government, hopes to commute Yong’s sentence to life imprisonment. Yong was arrested on June 13, 2007 in Singapore and was later charged with trafficking 47.27g of a controlled drug, diamorphine, an offence under section 5(1)(a) of the Misuse of Drugs Act. He was convicted on Jan 7, 2009, and sentenced to death. The man appealed the decision but later withdrew his appeal and attempted to file a petition for clemency to the President of Singapore instead. The appeal was rejected. Four days before his execution date, Yong’s counsel M. Ravi filed an application in the court for leave to pursue the appeal and a stay of execution was obtained. Despite this, following the hearing of the application, Yong’s case was finally dismissed on May 14 this year. He faces the gallows by the end of next month if all legal and diplomatic channels to commute his sentence are exhausted. Yong’s case was taken up by PKR MP Chua Tian Chang who, along with Ravi and a Suaram representative, met Anifah late this afternoon to discuss the available options to save the man. “He (Anifah) had also brought in several officers during the meeting, including international legal experts. Anifah said he would write a letter, through diplomatic avenues, and seek clemency on humanitarian grounds. “He also said the ministry would send a watching brief to witness the trial (judicial review application),” Chua said. He noted that this was a clear indication that the government was committed to monitoring the case. Ravi said he would be filing the judicial review on the case in Singapore by next week. The lawyer added that he was pleased that Anifah had not only agreed to use diplomatic avenues to appeal for Yong’s pardon but was also willing to look into the legal aspects of the case. “I am encouraged by the fact that the foreign minister has taken into account the legal issue I was highlighting. It is a matter of pleading with the Singapore government through diplomatic channels, but it is also a fact that Yong is facing injustice in Singapore in the law because the clemency process itself is already flawed,” he said. Ravi said he would prepare the information on the legal aspect of the case for Anifah’s perusal soon. He noted that the international law expert present during the meeting had pledged to look into the possibility of bringing the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). “However, this is only after all local avenues have been exhausted,” he said. - The Malaysian Insider  Read More →

Stunned by the rising anti-PAP sentiments among young Singaporeans, the Youth wing of the ruling PAP has started a Youths United by Passion (YUP) programme to attract 15 to 17 year old teenagers to join its ranks. According to the Straits Times, the programme will involve the youths in Meet-the-People sessions, community projects and most importantly of all - "political education." PAP Law Minister K Shanmugam said in an interview with the PAP’s bi-monthly magazine Petir last year December that though the PAP has stayed in power because it has delivered “progress” to the people, “younger voters can erode its dominant position should the party fail to convince them that Singapore, more than most countries, needs a strong leadership and a political system that allows for effective and speedy decisions to be made.” He suggested that students “be taught, among other things, how political systems work in different cultures, the impact of geographical and social factors on societies and why city states rise and fall.” ‘This will make people look carefully at the liberal democratic model and help them decide which aspects best suit Singapore….Not every aspect can be transplanted in toto across cultures, without regard to different economic, social and geostrategic situations,” he added. However, YPAP Chairman Teo Ser Luck denied that the YUP was set up in response to Mr Shanmugam's concerns. This was his first public statement since the outbreak of the "Sinha Shekhar" fiasco. YPAP leader and new citizen from India Mr Sinha Shekhar sparked an outcry among Singaporeans lately when his callous remarks on PAP critics being "DOGS" were widely publicized in the mainstream media. Mr Teo did not comment or reprimand Mr Sinha Shekhar for his insensitive remarks, an indication that he had endorsed them. Despite the PAP's control of the mainstream media, its influence among young Singaporeans is getting weaker especially with the internet providing an alternative channel of news for them. A 15 year old Singaporean by the name of Kenneth Lin started an online petition against Singapore’s strongman Lee Kuan Yew for his disparaging remarks on Singaporeans made during his interview with the National Geographic Magazine in February this year. He is currently studying in a secondary school in Singapore. The YUP is aiming to "catch" young Singaporeans like Kenneth early to "brainwash" them before they join the growing ranks of anti-PAP critics in cyberspace.     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 →