TR EMERITUS

Ex-ISD detainee Vincent Cheng has been barred from speaking at a seminar conducted by the NUS History Society. It is not known exactly who made the decision to do so, however the National Library Board is sponsoring the facilities and resources to the organizers. Vincent Cheng was one of the twenty two Singaporeans arrested and detained without trial under the repressive Internal Security Act in 1987 for plotting a "Marxist Conspiracy" to overthrow the PAP government. In a reply on Facebook to a query from blogger Martyn See, NUS History Society President Bernard Chen clarified that the History Society was the one who invited Mr Cheng to speak at the event and it did not make the call to remove Mr Cheng from the panel of speakers. He wrote: "The NUS History Society was the one who initiated and planned forth this seminar intending to share with Singaporeans cross-factual perspectives, experiences and discourses on Singapore History. To that, even with the exclusion of Mr. Cheng as a speaker, the objectives set forth by the Society will still be met, albeit not as comprehensive as what we would like it to be." The content of Mr Cheng's speech was not revealed. Vincent Cheng was a staunch critic of the PAP before his arrest and there were speculations then that he would be standing for the 1988 election as a candidate under the banner of the Workers' Party. "I had a meeting with Mr. Cheng himself on 26 May 2010 (Wednesday) to discuss his scope of discussion so as to better facilitate the seminar on Friday. It is our objective to present his side of the story as accurately as possible.....The organiser NUS History Society has apologised to Mr Cheng and offered to read his speech at the event," Bernard added. This is not the first time that an event involving a former ISD detainee was disrupted. Last year, a seminar on the 1987 arrests was canceled abruptly after the venue owners were called up by CID for investigations. *Source of photo: www.singaporerebel.blogspot.com   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 →

By Shazwan Mustafa from The Malaysian Insider Lawmakers from both Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) have agreed that an immediate implementation of any subsidy cuts would spell political suicide for the Najib administration with the next general elections within the next 34 months. They believe that subsidy cuts will likely be implemented in stages, and that a full-fledged slashing would only be exercised in the future, or at least after the next general election. The last general election was in March 2008 where BN lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala had disclosed proposed cuts that can save the government up to RM103 billion in the next five years but most critics say Datuk Seri Najib Razak must weed out corruption and leakages within his administration. “With the elections coming soon, I don’t see the government cutting subsidies anytime soon. They are not going to implement it immediately,” said Selangor opposition leader Datuk Seri Dr. Mohamed Khir Toyo. Khir told The Malaysian Insider that the the government will not risk angering the public by cutting off all subsidies. “The word ‘cutting’ is in itself a negative connotation...The government is doing their best to get feedback from the public.” The Umno man argued that instead of cutting subsidies the BN government should find alternative ways to “increase the country’s income”. “For instance, education is important, (the government) must study carefully. They need to see implications of restructuring subsidy, not everyone will like this. The subsidies must go to target groups. “Take fuel for instance. The government can cut off subsidies for RON97, but subsidise RON95,” said Khir. Former Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Shahrir Abdul Samad echoed his Umno colleague’s points, and said that any implementation has to be in stages to be “political acceptable”. “Even if it were to be implemented before the next general elections, it would be done in stages, It will be quite selective to be politically acceptable. I don’t think it will be implemented in total yet, there will be amendments,” he told The Malaysian Insider in a telephone interview. The Johor Baru MP claimed that any immediate implementation would have no “redeeming feature” that would make it acceptable to Malaysians. “If you were to implement it now, there will be no redeeming feature. It will still need some fine-tuning. That is why the government is still open on the issue. I don’t think the government will do it.” He said that what was lacking right now was a comprehensive database to determine target groups who needed financial assistance. “We must have a comprehensive database in order to determine targeted groups. There has to be a proper database which takes into consideration people’s  income tax levels, KWSP (Employees’ Provident Fund), Welfare department and JPJ (Road Transport Department). “As far as I know, we do not have a database which is compiled on income levels, that is comprehensive,” said Shahrir. He stressed that slashing of subsidies would need to be done in many levels of restructuring, citing for example how the public transport system would need to be restructured so that the hardcore poor would be able to benefit from it. The Umno MP agreed that wastage of money was also a reason why the country’s debts were at an all-time high, but claimed that the cost of subsidies were higher than wastage by the government. “The RM28 billion figure, it was not announced in the Auditor-General’s report. While I do not deny that there is wastage of projects, the RM28 billion figure is not true. That figure was first reported in The Star newspaper some time ago,” he said. Pulai MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said that ultimately it was up to Malaysians to decide on whether they were ready for subsidy cuts, as it was merely on a proposal stage. “It is up to the people to decide. The lab was done in order to get feedback. If they are acceptable to slashing of subsidies, then the government will go ahead . If they are not agreeable, then the government won’t go ahead with it,” said Nur Jazlan. Meanwhile, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders have agreed with their BN rivals that full-fledged subsidy cuts will not be executed anytime soon. “Politically, I think it is suicidal for them,” PAS treasurer Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli told The Malaysian Insider today. “If they do it (cut subsidies) in a hasty manner and in an amount that will not be tolerated by the people...people will be angry,” Dr Hatta added. DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua agreed, saying that BN’s slim win of the Hulu Selangor by-election and their failure to retain the Sibu seat would likely stop the federal government from going all out in slashing subsidies. “Because they only won marginally in Selangor and they lost Sibu, I think they may not cut as extensively as they would have liked,” said the first-term Petaling Jaya Utara MP “I think there is no question that the vote bank of Barisan Nasional will be severely affected,” he answered when asked how subsidy cuts would affect public sentiment. On whether BN would implement the drastic move before the next general elections are called, which may be held as early as next year, Kuala Selangor MP Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said that Najib would not risk going against public opinion. “I don’t think he will dare go against (the) rakyat’s opinion...especially after Sibu,” said Dzulkefly. “What they are doing now is public consultation to get feedback. Based on that, they will make their decision,” he added. Najib had said that it is the public who will ultimately decides if expensive government subsidies should be cut after Idris revealed government proposals to cut subsidies for fuel, electricity and food or risk bankruptcy in the next nine years. Idris, the CEO of Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), had said that 61 per cent out of nearly 200,000 Malaysians in the think tank’s SMS poll favoured subsidy reductions and supported the government implementing it within the next three to five years. However, Pua disputed the validity of the results, pointing out that Pemandu’s poll question was a loaded one. “That question is loaded –not properly contextualised,” he said. “It is like asking the question should the government cut subsidies first or corruption first,” he added. “It is not reflective of what people are thinking.” Pemandu’s poll text message had said that subsidising various consumer goods resulted in an annual expenditure of RM 74 billion. The poll then asked whether the respondent agrees subsidies reductions. Areas which have been identified include fuel, food and infrastructure as well as tolls. - The Malaysian Insider  Read More →

A monkey throwing darts at the share pages of the Financial Times could have made bucket loads of cash over the last year. But Singapore's super-smart sovereign wealth funds, which lost billions of dollars by investing in Western banks at the height of the bubble, seem to be having renewed difficulties even while every other Joe is lining their pockets. The estimated $675 million that the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) appears to have lost on a bad property investment in New York is arguably the least of Singapore's overseas investment problems. Any investor can make a bad individual call and you have to take the rough with the smooth. What's more worrying is the emerging governance crisis at Malaysia's Alliance Bank, in which Temasek is a key shareholder, having bought a 29 percent stake in 2005 and parachuted in a new chief executive and several directors. (For those of you who don't know, Temasek is an "Asia investment house headquartered in Singapore" - a Singapore government euphemism for a sovereign wealth fund.) The exact details of the problems at Alliance Bank remain unclear but the company has confirmed that it is conducting an internal investigation into a corporate governance related issue. Chief executive Bridget Lai, who was headhunted by Temasek from her previous job Standard Chartered, is currently on leave (and will be for another two weeks) while this investigation is carried out. Chief operating officer Shim Kon Tek is also on leave. But Lai remains chief executive and stated earlier this month that rumours that she had resigned were "wholly untrue" and "highly defamatory". An analyst who attended an investor briefing by the company on Friday hinted that the investigation "was purely a disciplinary one related to branch refurbishment contracts whereby due procedures were not followed in relation to filing of paperwork and checks over external renovators’ qualifications," according to a Malaysian press report. While the details are sketchy, companies do not normally send their chief executive and number two on leave pending an internal investigation for no reason. Unsurprisingly given the lack of information, investment banks have rushed to downgrade their recommendations on Alliance. Temasek, like other sovereign wealth funds, is under more pressure than ordinary fund managers to uphold high standards of corporate governance. Yet something seems to have gone wrong on Temasek's watch at Alliance. And make no mistake. Although Temasek only owns 29 percent of the shares, it is a key driver behind Alliance. Not only is the CEO a Temasek appointee but four of the nine other board members are current or former Temasek employees. Singaporean government officials love to lecture their Malaysian counterparts on issues of transparency and governance. On this occasion, it appears the Singaporeans will have little to brag about. Ben Bland Jakarta, Indonesia  Read More →