TR EMERITUS

The recent flash floods are a matter of grave concern for Singaporeans. The few metre-high floods have caused much chaos and economic setbacks for the people. Could the recent calamities have actually been caused by soil erosion and instability because of rampant construction and development of land? The Jakarta Globe also pointed out that it could be the intense development of the Orchard area and road reconstructions following the new Ion Mall that affected drainage and water flow. My opinion is that we are going to see more natural disasters if the government is going to continue drilling more tunnels into the ground of this little island. The largest recent project being the MRT Circle Line. Who knows what other projects they are working on without public knowledge? I say this because we often encounter "special" foreign workers who come to work almost non-stop with 6 month and 1 year contracts, who you hardly see anywhere outside their workplaces and dormitories. Most times these workers themselves don't know what they are working on! And why is the government coming to suggest that climate change and global warming are to blame? If that is so, why are Johor, Batam and all other nearby cities and islands not affected? Why only Singapore? We also should start asking serious questions like whether its safe for us to travel in the MRT. Just imagine if the MRT tunnels started flooding while people were in the trains underground. Seeing how a serious breach of security happened in an SMRT depot only recently, the chances of another similar "lapse" are quite possible. Is the government going to check all the canals or tunnels? I'm sorry but I don't have the capability to do that for them. Are we going to encounter more floods in the coming days, weeks or months? I'm sorry but the government is not the one taking the MRT everyday.   SINGA BALA  Read More →

OPINION In his commentary on TODAY this Monday, veteran journalist P N Balji noted that the mainstream media has become more "critical" in its reporting on recent blunders by SMRT and PUB. "The positioning of reports, the sharp headlines and the practice of some media in keeping the stories on the boil for days has shred new light on how the missteps of some agencies here and their lack of anticipation are now being scrutinized. Just a few examples: The Straits Times sliced and diced the floods, devoting five pages, including page 1, on the first day of its coverage," he wrote. He is only half right. While the slant and tone of the articles appear to be more critical, they miss the gist altogether - the attention is focused solely on the SMRT and PUB CEOs who are being made the scapegoats for the lapses when the rot begins all the way from the top. Knowing the public outcry this time round cannot be contained so easily, the spin doctors a SPH are quick to realize that an outlet is needed to allow angry Singaporeans to ventilate their emotions while at the same time deflecting public scrutiny away from the PAP ministers. On May 17, two foreigners slipped into a SMRT depot completely undetected and sprayed graffiti on the side of a train. The security breach would have gone unnoticed by SMRT had not an alert commuter filmed the vandalized train in service and uploading the clip to Youtube. The fracas sparked a massive public outcry with many Singaporeans wondering what the outcome might be had the vandals been terrorists instead. In the aftermath of the PR fallout, the state media focused all the attention on SMRT while conveniently leaving out the government agencies such as LTA which quickly distances itself from it. There were NO comments made by the Transport Minister and Home Affairs Minister who broke his silence only a week later by pushing the responsibility for public transport security to SMRT whose CEO Saw Phaik Hwa was forced to express her "regrets" over the security lapse. Didn't the media realize that a Public Transport Security Committee was set up way back in 2002 to oversee security at public transport premises like SMRT depots? It was not warrant even a brief media in the papers. Again, the coverage of the Orchard Road flooding by the Singapore media was found wanting. For three entire days, there was no response from the Minister of Environment and Water Resources Mr Yaacob Ibrahim. A press conference was called two days later by PUB whose CEO Khoo Teng Chye admitted that they were "caught off guard" by the flooding. The state media went into overdrive to crucify PUB for its negligence, but keep clear of the Minister completely. Didn't Mr Yaacob say during the Bukit Timah flooding last year November that such flash floods are "freak" events which occurs "only once in fifty years"? Why didn't the media take Mr Yaacob to task over his remarks? A key role of the media is to scrutinize the words and actions of political leaders and to hold them accountable to the public. Unfortunately, the Singapore media has become no more but a propaganda mouth-piece of the obnoxious PAP regime. Instead of exposing their wrong-doings, it is now desperately trying hard to deflect the blame from the PAP leaders by passing the rap to the middle-ranking civil servants and corporate bosses. Singaporeans must not be misled and the deceived by the state media's latest PR gimmick to appease public anger and to save the skin of the PAP. The PAP is ultimately responsible for the security of public transport and maintenance of the drainage system in Singapore. When things go well, they are quick to claim credit for themselves. When mistakes occur, they are equally as quick to take cover and pass the blame to their subordinates. In other developed nations like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, they would be forced to apologize and resign from their positions and the media will have a field day demolishing them in public. Fortunately, they are in Singapore where the compliant media has become their spin doctors to spin webs upon webs of deceit to hoodwink Singaporeans. The late Singapore Chief Minister David Marshall once described the Straits Times as the "running dogs and prostitutes" of the PAP in 1959. His words still hold true 50 years later.     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 →

Don't expect the state to look after you when you grow old - that is the hidden message behind PAP Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong's speech at a CPF seminar yesterday. Speaking to an audience comprising mostly of retirees, Mr Gan reiterated the importance of retirement planning to them. "While the majority of Singaporeans correctly expected CPF to provide a modest standard of living in their retirement, 42 per cent assumed that their CPF monthly income would be equivalent to their last-drawn monthly salary. This shows that insufficient thought is being put into planning for retirement finances," he was quoted as saying in the Sunday Times. CPF has long ceased to be a reliable source of retirement funds for Singaporeans to tap on in their golden years as the bulk of it has been used to pay for banking loans for housing already. Despite the failure of the CPF scheme as a sort of pension fund for Singaporeans, the PAP continues to raise the Minimum Sum to prevent Singaporeans from taking out their CPF. Before 2003, all Singaporeans are allowed to withdraw their entire CPF in one lump sum upon reaching 55 years of age. Now, they have to keep a minimum sum of $117,000 in their CPF's ordinary accounts before they can withdraw the excess money. Though the majority of the population will not have the Minimum Sum in their CPF by the time they retire, Mr Gan continue to exhort Singaporeans to save enough for their twilight years "in the face of increasing longevity, declining fertility and an ageing population." However, the real wages of Singaporeans have not increased by much thanks to the relentless influx of cheap foreign labor while the annual inflation rate far outstrips the interest given by CPF. While Singapore is the second richest country in Asia after Japan, its citizens enjoy few social welfare benefits from the PAP government. Singaporeans are implored to work for as long as possible till they drop dead and die so that they will not become a burden to the state whose coffers are flushed with cash enabling its two sovereign wealth funds GIC and Temasek Holdings to splurge billions of dollars in overseas investments.   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 →