TR EMERITUS

By Albert Wong from South China Morning Post, 7 June 2010 Heckled, abused and accused of selling out the people of Hong Kong, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen yesterday hit back at protesters, saying they were in the minority and should not obstruct the "political reform vessel" from setting sail. On a stage in Shau Kei Wan during his electoral reform package publicity blitz, Tsang urged the crowd to applaud and cheer in support of the government proposal after he failed to quell the shouting protesters. Yesterday's "Act Now" campaign hopes to gather public support for the 2012 electoral reform proposal, but pan-democratic supporters who oppose the ideas took the opportunity to voice their opinions. The government proposal suggests amendments for both the chief executive election and the Legislative Council poll in 2012, but pan-democrats want guarantees on how universal suffrage will be implemented in 2017 and 2020 before they support the package. Ministers split into three teams yesterday, visiting Kowloon, Hong Kong Island and the New Territories in an attempt to distribute leaflets and promote the reform proposal to the public. Despite only disclosing their itinerary at 1pm, students, activists and supporters of various pan-democratic parties gathered at the destinations to welcome ministers with a chorus of heckling and booing. Protesters shouting, "All Wrong" drowned out every chant of "Act Now" by the ministers. "All Wrong" in Chinese characters is similar to those for "Act Now", the official slogan which literally means "weigh anchor", signifying the need to set sail towards universal suffrage. Tsang began at Kornhill Plaza in Quarry Bay at 3pm but was prevented from handing out fliers due to a crush of protesters, journalists and plain-clothes police who formed a tight cordon around the chief. Passers-by were frustrated that the MTR entrance was blocked, and the Jusco department store pulled down its metal shutters during the chaos. Tsang remained for five minutes, with the only words that could be heard coming from protesters chanting for the abolition of the functional constituencies. Tsang's entourage had better luck at the Oi Tung Shopping Centre, Shau Kei Wan, where a pre-arranged carnival was held, which Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong fishing sector lawmaker Wong Yung-kan attended. Tsang spoke on stage, but while invited guests were clearly supporters of the government, protesters chanted from the edge of the cordoned off area and passers-by on escalators voiced their discontent. Visibly agitated, Tsang departed from his prepared speech to accuse his detractors of obstructing reform. "These groups advocating being anchored, we do not fear you ... Today, we have to take the opportunity and raise the anchor on political reform," he said, using imagery to point out that the fishing community understood best the negative effects of being moored forever. When he failed to placate the protesters, he urged supporters to counter their chanting with applause. "Fellow citizens, let us show those who oppose the reform hear us cheer in support," Tsang said, as he walked towards protesters and pointed at them. "These are the minority, and those are the absolute majority. I hope you will stop obstructing this vessel from moving forward." As he left, a protestor appeared to run towards him but was knocked to the ground. As of yesterday, there were 9,161 members of a Facebook group called "All Wrong", which ridicules the government's 2012 reform proposal. Tsang was re-elected as chief executive in 2007 with 649 votes from 796 Election Committee members. Elsewhere, ministers led by Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah and Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung met similar opposition. Tang led a team into shopping malls in Kowloon West - the constituency that saw 60,395 people vote for the League of Social Democrats Wong Yuk-man last month - and was met by protesters who had to be removed from his path. John Tsang stepped out of a van in Sai Kung and strode to meet his first member of the public only to realise too late that he was walking towards a reform package opponent heckling him. Health minister Dr York Chow Yat-ngok, constitutional affairs minister Stephen Lam Sui-lung and education minister Michael Suen Ming-yeung handed out pamphlets while the chief executive and the three secretaries drew most of the attention. Wong said the voices of opposition were to be expected in a city that cherished freedom of expression, but Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing said such obstruction was not the proper exercise in freedom of expression and was "worthy of condemnation". Earlier yesterday, executive councillor Ronald Arculli acknowledged ministers were still ill at ease lobbying the public on the streets, but such communication was better than nothing at all. - SCMP  Read More →

OPINION The Singapore women table-tennis team's victory over China at the World Championship a week ago has polarized public opinion and sparked an intense debate among Singaporeans if the win truly belongs to Singapore. The trio who brought the trophy home are all born in China and came to Singapore as established table-tennis players - Feng Tianwei, Wang Yuegu and Sun Beibei. A significant proportion of Singaporeans labeled the match as "China Team A versus Team B" and felt that there is nothing really to celebrate. Some even poured scorn on the policy-makers splurging millions of taxpayers' monies to "buy" success at the detriment of developing local sports talent. The PAP's "foreign talent" sports policy has been a controversial one all these years with many Singaporeans disagreeing with its approach and strategy of enticing foreign players to take up citizenship in order to represent Singapore in international competitions. While the Singapore women table-tennis team has secured an unprecedented victory over perennial world champions China and put puny Singapore on the world map, the mood on the ground has been rather sombre and nonchalant despite the pathetic attempts of the state media to whip up public sentiments including a delayed telecast of the match by MediaCorp. PAP supporters and apologists come out in force in the internet chatrooms, decrying the critics as "xenophobic" and arguing that other nations have imported foreign talents as well to represent them. China is no doubt the undisputed world leader in table-tennis, having producing several great players, some of whom now ply their trade in other countries. Though some nations like Hong Kong and United States have imported China-born players to represent them like Singapore, more than half their team still consists of natives. Let us take a look at the Olympic teams of Hong Kong and United States: 1. Hong Kong: Ko Lai Chak, Lau Sui-Fei, Song Ah Sim, Li Ching (China), Tie Ya Na (China) 2. United States: Jasna Fazlic, Mark Hazinski, Sean O'Neill, Wang Chen (China), Gao Jun (China) As we can see from the above, China-born players make up less than 50 percent of the teams in contrast to Singapore which consists 100 percent of China-born players including the coach. Some defend the PAP's sports policy as akin to that adopted by many countries like France, whose 1998 World-Cup winning team consists of many players of African descent like Zinedine Zidane whose parents emigrated to France from Algeria. These blind supporters miss the fact that most of France's players were born in France or came to France at a very young age. Zinedine Zidane was born in Marseille while Thierry Henry in Paris. France did not import established players from Brazil or Argentina like Robinho and Lionel Messi into its team by offering them instant citizenships like Singapore. Furthermore, the French players of African descent are already naturalized French citizens who speak French with a native accent and are French in every other way compared to Singapore's China-born players who look, speak and behave differently from Singaporeans. There are even doubts if they can sing Singapore's National anthem and recite the Pledge. Singapore cannot claim any credit for nurturing the three China-born players as they were already established professionals when they joined the Singapore team. In fact, their Singapore citizenships were fast-tracked precisely because of their "talents". Both Wang Yuegu and Sun Beibei were already ranked among the top ten players of the world when Singapore roped them into the team. Wang made her inaugural appearance on the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Pro Tour in June 2005 at the Volkswagen Korean Open in Suncheon, South Korea, where she and Sun Beibei took the silver medal in the women's doubles. On 24 September 2006, Wang achieved her first gold medal on the Pro Tour at the Japan Open in Yokohama before she took up Singapore citizenship in 2008. Feng Tianwei was ranked 73th in the world and was playing in the Japan's professional league when she was talent-spotted by former national coach Liu Guodong. [Source: Wikipedia] Not withstanding the fact that Feng was only in the China "B" team and unable to break into its "A" team after three years, she is already far ahead of the local-born Singapore players in terms of international experience and exposure. It is not entirely a surprise that her world ranking improved dramatically after given the opportunity to shine by Singapore. Instead of dismissing the criticisms from the ground as mere grouses and complaints from jealous, disgruntled and marginalized citizens, the policy-makers should pay attention to some of the feedback given. After all, sports does serve a secondary objective of bonding the nation and it makes little sense to spend millions of dollars to develop table-tennis only to receive such a lukewarm response from Singaporeans. The backlash from the ground will be less had the team comprised of some native Singaporeans and if the players had come to Singapore at a very young age for other purposes other than to play ping pong. It is both unfair and unreasonable to label Singaporeans as "xenophobic" just because they do not see eye to eye with the PAP's "foreign talent" sports policy. By and large, Singaporeans are the most open, tolerant and accepting people in the world partly due to our upbringing and the cosmopolitan nature of our nation. Most of us do not mind bringing in young foreign talents to complement our limited talent pool to increase our global competitiveness, but a clear demarcation must be drawn between importing and nurturing potential talents and "buying" established talents. For example, the reaction from Singaporeans was predictably less hostile towards China-born swimmer Tao Li who came to Singapore at the age of 13 and studied at the Singapore Sports School. There is an urgent need for the authorities to review its long-standing "foreign talent" sports policy and start listening to the people who are ultimately paying for their expensive "investments". As one netizen sums it up succinctly: "There is no honor in buying trophies. I rather watch a team comprising of native Singaporeans get thrashed at the finals than a team of China-born players winning the competition." 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 →

According to a report on China's news portal sohu.com, Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB) and Manpower Ministry will be launching a mass recruitment exercise on 26 June 2010 at Shanghai for China's electrical and software engineers. More than 250 vacancies are available in the following positions: RIFC Design Engineer, Application Engineer, Digital Design Engineer, Equipment and Maintenance Engineer and Senior Hardware Engineer. It is not known why Singapore needs to go all the way to China to recruit their engineers. Is there a shortage of trained engineers in Singapore? Each year, more than a thousand electrical and computer engineers graduate from NUS and NTU. Why are these vacancies not offered to Singaporeans first? PAP leaders always claim that foreign workers are needed in sectors shunned by Singaporeans. During his May Day Rally this year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called on the "understanding" of Singaporeans to accept a higher inflow of foreigners. It is unlikely that Singapore engineers will "shun" the jobs on offer, why then are Singapore firms still recruiting engineers from China? Besides engineering jobs, Singapore companies have launched job fairs frequently in China and other countries as well for positions which can otherwise be filled up by Singaporeans. In March, a Singapore bus company put up a job advertisement in a Sichuan newspaper to recruit bus drivers from its provincial capital Chengdu. A month later, EDB officials flew to Taipei to launch a recruitment exercise for Taiwanese engineers and graphic designers. As expected, these news were never reported by the Singapore media which continue to deceive and mislead Singaporeans that there are "plenty" of jobs available in Singapore. Without a free and independent press to reveal the reality on the ground, Singaporeans will forever live under the delusion that their government can "do no wrong."   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 →