TR EMERITUS

OPINION The famous American writer Napolean Hill once wrote: "Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together." What he meant is that there is usually a correlation between the amount of responsibility one has and his/her renumeration. In other words, we should expect leaders who are highly paid to hold far greater responsibility than those who are paid less and rightly so. When you are paid an astronomical salary to do a job, it is expected that you will accept all responsibility for it as well, including mistakes. The recent flooding at Orchard Road is another sign of how adept our political leaders have become at shirking their public responsibilities towards tax-paying citizens. When trouble arises, their natural instinct is to take cover first. Humility is a dirty word in the PAP's dictionary. In any other developed country like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong or Taiwan, the Minister of Environment will be found at the scene of the flooding almost immediately to coordinate relief operations. An official apology to the public followed by resignation or sacking by the Prime Minister is the expected outcome to appease public anger, but not in Singapore where political leaders are shielded from public scrutiny by a compliant media and defamatory lawsuits and almost never held accountable for their words, actions and misdeeds despite being paid obscene salaries which will make Barack Obama blush. This is no ordinary mistake: the flooding right at the heart of Singapore's shopping district has caused millions of dollars in losses and damages and till today, nobody has accepted responsibility for it. Let us review what the PAP's response to the flooding. When the news first broke, there were no immediate comments from the PAP minister in charge Yaacob Ibrahim for three entire days! He is nowhere to be seen, heard or found let alone did he visit the retailers affected by the flooding like what Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao did in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. As usual, Prime Minister Lee was "missing in action" too. Only two days later did PUB bother to call a press conference to explain the cause of the flooding. While PUB CEO Mr Khoo Teng Chye admitted that they were "caught off guard" by the floods, he did not offer a public apology. Mr Yaacob was not present at the conference as if the entire matter has nothing to do with him when he should be the one answering queries from the media. The state media is quick to lay the blame on PUB and leave Mr Yaacob out from the picture completely who only commented publicly on the flooding at the sideline of a community event three days later to distance himself from it. Short of accepting responsibility for the lapse in general maintenance resulting in the flooding and apologize for it, Mr Yaacob was quick to find excuses to exonerate himself from any blame, dressing the screw-up as another "learning experience": “Every event is a new learning experience for us. This rainfall was totally unexpected, I can be very honest about it. If you look at rainfall patterns, we’ve never seen such a pattern. Having said that, it means there are new things happening, so the approach we should be taking is to learn from this, improve upon it, and assure Singaporeans that we’ll do our best to prevent this as much as possible,” he said. [Source: Sunday Times, 20 June 2010] He still has the cheek to heap generous self-praise on his subordinates for their efforts in controlling the flood: "“I think the response by the PUB, by the agencies, has been commendable. We have done our best to help the businesses affected, the people affected,” he added. Now who is ultimately responsible for managing environment resources in Singapore. Who is the overall in charge? Who does PUB report to? Who heads the Ministry of Environment? Why have such a ministry when there appears to be nobody leading it in times of trouble? Who is accountable for preventing such flooding in the first place? Sorry Mr Yaacob, your "best" is simply not enough. To put it bluntly, your performance as the Minister of Environment has been dismal, if not pathetic so far. How can Mr Yaacob not seen such a rainfall pattern at all? Below is the list of flash floods which had occurred during Mr Yaacob's tenure as the Minister of Environment: 19 December 2006: there was mayhem after 365mm of rain – third-highest recorded in the last 75 years – fell over 20 hours. 28 August 2007: 143mm of rain fell in seven hours, roughly 80 per cent of the average for the month, again there were flash floods. 28 November 2007: 99mm of rain was dumped in Orchard Road in just a few hours. Basement stores in Lucky Plaza and Liat Tower were flooded. 5 April 2009: 97.6mm fell, more that half of the average rainfall for the entire month, causing flash floods in MacPherson and Upper Paya Lebar.    19 November 2009: 110mm of rain – about six times that of a normal storm – fell in two and a half hours, leading to flash floods in Bukit Timah that caused at least $1 million in damage to cars alone. [Source: The New Paper] One need not be a metereologist to realize that flash floods and heavy rainfalls in excess of 100mm are relatively common in tropical Singapore, as in other countries in the region. Back in December 2006 when heavy rain caused excess water from the MacRitchie and Upper Seletar reservoirs to overflow and flood the surrounding areas, Mr Yaacob said in an interview with Channel News Asia: “You can’t design for rainfall of this level, it is just too huge. The thing we can accept is that we can only design our canal of a certain size, and at the end of the day, we have to live with some of these occurrences which occur once in 50 years or so. I know it is inconvenient to some Singaporeans, but on the part of PUB and NEA, we’ll do our best to alleviate the problem as quickly as possible.” He used the same excuse during the Bukit Timah flooding in December last year, describing it as a “freak” event that occurs once in fifty years: “What happened was very unusual. The intensity was tremendous. We knew the diversion canal was not big enough to take this. It is not possible… to plan for every event. Thursday’s weather… occurs once in 50 years.” he added. How many "once in a fifty year" flooding can tiny Singapore continue to experience? Similar-sized Hong Kong is hit by a dozen of typhoons a year, but its Central Business District was never flooded at least in the last decade or so. It is indeed a "freak event" that Singaporeans continue to pay more than $2 million dollars a year for the service of Mr Yaacob who cannot even come up with decent, logical and reasonable excuses to convince the people. Is it acceptable for Singaporeans to live with such flooding which occurs once every few months? A leader should lead by example and be brave enough to own up to mistakes and accept responsibility for them, what's more a public official who is paid by the people to serve them. Ministers and civil servants must be held to higher standards and be fully accountable to the public, not shirking responsibility to their subordinates and outsiders the moment trouble arises. With literally zero accountability to the public and no fears of ever losing their jobs, it is hardly a surprise that a culture of complacency has permeated the entire government and civil service. How can we expect improvements to be made when one can get away with almost any mistake and still continue to bring home fat pay cheques and bonuses at the end of the year? Don't expect heads to roll even if the entire Singapore is submerged under flood waters one day. Under Singapore's unique "meritocracy", the higher one's position is, the harder will be one's rice-bowl. Mr Yaacob's rice-bowl is probably made of platinum. That is why he is still learning from so many "new experiences" at the expense of ordinary Singaporeans who continue to live under the wrath of Mother Nature.     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 →

Beleaguered PAP minister Shanmugam has lashed out at SMRT for the security lapse at its depot which rocked the entire nation two weeks ago. On 17 May 2010, two foreigners slipped completely undetected into a SMRT depot at Changi and sprayed graffiti on the carriage of a train. The security breach was not detected until two days later. The atrocious "feat" shocked many Singaporeans who are left wondering what the outcome might be had the vandals been trained terrorists instead. The ministries of transport and home affairs were quick to distance themselves from the mistake, leaving the hapless SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa to express "regrets" to Singaporeans. Though the state media has been keeping the matter out of public spotlight in the hope that Singaporeans will soon forget about it, negative sentiments on the ground towards the PAP prompted Mr Shanmugam to criticize SMRT and "tai-chi" the responsibility to it. Speaking to reporters during a community event today, Mr Shanmugam said it is "impossible and unacceptable to require the taxpayer or the public to pay for the security of thousands of profit-making entitles in Singapore." "You look at SMRT. It is an entity that makes profits. It is a listed company which makes profits for its shareholders. Is it fair for the public, through the government, to pay for that security either in manpower terms or in terms of the costs?....When it comes to private sector organisations, like the SMRT depot, it has been gazetted as a protected place, but the actual security of the premises is within the control of the company, as it should be, and SMRT has accepted that its responsibility is to provide for the security," he was quoted as saying in Channel News Asia. The PAP has suffered collateral damage from the resultant PR fallout as the security lapse reminded them of the embarrassing escape of famed terrorist Mas Selamat Kasteri from the Internal Security Department two years ago. Though SMRT is a public-listed company, it is owned partially by Temasek Holdings, which is owned by the Ministry of Finance. In his desperation to absolve the PAP from any responsibility, Mr Shanmugam even chided Singaporeans for not realizing that the government has "nothing" to do with SMRT. "If they do not see SMRT as a private company, then that is a misconception because it is a listed company, but it is private in the broad sense that it is not a government entity. It declares dividends which goes to the shareholders.....Some people have said Temasek has shares in SMRT. Does that make it a government entity? Temasek has shares in many companies - DBS, Keppel both within and outside Singapore. Does that mean they do not pay taxes to the government?" PAP leaders have demonstrated that they are only good at pointing fingers at others, but never themselves when things screw up. As for Mr Shanmugam, he has brought the art of "tai-chi" to another level altogether.   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 →

I am a Singaporean who subsribes to Starhub cable TV at home. I feel that the Singaporean TV media is so childish for not allowing Singaporeans to watch the World Cup in peace.  Even in Channel News Asia when highlights of the matches are shown, goals are only shown in the form of photographs. Even though the training sessions are shown clearly in video format, the goals are not shown. This is pure madness. First they monopolize the local TV network and force Singaporeans to Pay And Pay up to $90+ if they want watch to the World Cup. And then when they show the highlights of the matches on CNA, they refuse to show the goals in video format! Throughout the world, even in 3rd world developing countries, people are able to watch the games while resting peacefully at home. But in this so-called 1st world country, we are unable to watch these games even though we are paying for "Sports Channels" every month. We are even paying for TV liscenses annually. And if we don't pay, we are penalized for it in court. By the way, who is Starhub to block the World Cup from Singaporeans? Even in Malaysia, just across the causeway, people are coming home after work to watch the event which only happens once in 4 years – for free! And if Starhub is blocking TV 1 reception in Singapore, why not just block it forever? This incident shows clearly how the monopoly of Government Linked Corporations lead to the exploitation of Singaporeans. Lastly, are Starhub and Singtel really private companies? Who owns most of the shares there? They did not even have to compete with truly private companies before staging this charade to swindle Singaporeans. Maybe in the future we will also see M1 coming in to join this sick game of playing football with Singaporeans' money and choices. Stop treating us like preschool children, and stop being childish yourselves. You will all pay and pay for this one day.   Regards, SINGA BALA  Read More →