TR EMERITUS

The anti-PAP Facebook started by vocal PAP critic Alex Tan has exceeded 5,000 in membership in less than half a year, a sign of the increasing unpopularity of the ruling party especially among young Singaporeans. The majority of its members are Singaporeans between the ages of 20 - 40 whose votes are desperately courted by the PAP. Unlike their parents, the post-1965 generation owe no allegiance to the PAP and are more inclined to cast a protest vote against it in the face of rising public unhappiness over issues such as immigration and HDB flat prices. In contrast, the Young PAP Facebook and the REACH Forum Facebook have only over 3,200 and 1,950 members respectively despite massive publicity by the state media. Still, the reach of the New Media remains limited compared to the mainstream media which is read by millions of Singaporeans. As such, though the PAP is losing the war in cyberspace, it is able to count on the state media to continue churning out propaganda to serve its own partisan interests. All the media companies in Singapore are controlled by the PAP directly or indirectly in one way or another. The Chairman of SPH is a former PAP minister while MediaCorp is owned partly by Temasek Holdings, led by the Prime Minister's wife Ho Ching. Even the two largest telcos SingTel and Starhub are government-linked companies. It is hardly a surprise that international media watchdog Reporters without Borders rank the Singapore media 133th in terms of press freedom worldwide last year. As expected, the existence of the "Vote PAP out" Facebook was never mentioned by the state media out of fear of embarrassing its political master. Join the "Vote PAP out" Facebook here.  Read More →

The Reform Party and the Singapore Democratic Alliance have taken another step towards forming an alliance to contest in the next General Election expected to be called this year. The Secretary-General of the Reform Party Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam told Channel News Asia that his party and SDA are seeking approval from their central executive committees. He did not elaborate on whether the Reform Party will be joining the Singapore Democratic Alliance formally. The latter consists of Potong Pasir MP Mr Chiam See Tong's Singapore People Party and two other smaller parties. An opposition coalition will stand a far better chance of taking on the PAP juggernaut instead of fighting individual battles on their own. The move was welcomed by many netizens who are hoping to see the opposition putting up a stiff challenge to the PAP in the next general election. Loke Yu Ming wrote on TR's Facebook: "All the opposition parties should unite so that a vote for any opposition candidate, regardless of the party, is a vote for the United Opposition." Kevin Teo added: "Hopefully, more opposition parties will combined so that we will ultimately be like the USA's Democrats and Republicans, 2 big powerful parties, either one that become arrogant & stupid - like in the ... See Morecase of Republicans & George Bush that deregulated the financial industry, allowing the bankers to be greedy, leading to a financial crisis - ended up beaten by Democrats & Obama. So having another strong political party in Singapore is significant to balance the power of PAP." With public unhappiness and resentment against the PAP at an all-time high, the opposition is expected to make significant gains in the next general election including winning a coveted GRC.   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 →

OPINION Speaking on the eve of World Press Freedom day a few days ago, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng repeated his calls for Malaysia to implement Freedom of Information (FOI) laws to promote transparency, accountability and competence in governance. Since assuming his position in 2008, Lim has introduced various measures to promote more transparency in the governance of Penang such as mandating all state executive councillors to make public their personal income and assets. Freedom of information legislation are rules that guarantee access to data held by the state. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions. A basic principle behind most freedom of information legislation is that the burden of proof falls on the body asked for information, not the person asking for it. The requester does not usually have to give an explanation for their request, but if the information is not disclosed a valid reason has to be given. Over 85 countries around the world have implemented some form of such legislation, but surprisingly Singapore is not one of them. For a country which prides itself on the accountability and transparency of its governance, it is strange that Singapore has no FOI laws to enable and empower citizens to gain easy access to information held by the state. There is usually an information gap between citizens and the state which is privy to a wealth of information not available in the public domain. Bridging the gap via FOI laws will enable Singaporeans to better scrutinize and assess the performance of their leaders and civil servants thereby keeping them on their toes and improving public governance in the process. Right now, unhappy citizens can only lodge a complaint to the relevant authorities and agencies which may take ages to give a reply, most of which are standard one-liner: "We thank you for your feedback and the matter has been looked into." They are not obliged to reveal details of any internal inquiry or measures taken to rectify the problem. The complainant often goes away feeling aggrieved with few questions and doubts answered. Having FOIs will enable individuals to demand for information from the state which is now legally obliged to provide due assistance to them. This will make it difficult for leaders and civil servants to hide their mistakes and to sweep them under the carpet easily without attracting public opprobrium. In the long run, it will serve to promote greater competency, accountability and transparency in all aspects of public administration and governance. PAP leaders have always boasted of how "capable", "upright" and "honest" they are. Self-praise is no praise really. If they are indeed so good as they claimed, they should not have any worries putting their track record under intense public scrutiny. With all important state institutions under their control, there are no other independent estates in Singapore to check on the PAP saved for the apathetic citizenry. In most democratic states, the media usually perform the function of scrutinizing political leaders, but not in Singapore where it is relegated to no more a mouthpiece of the PAP. The greatest flaw in Singapore's political system lies in the lack of an institutionalized system of checks and balances to hold the ruling party accountable to its actions. As such, it is able to get away with the most atrocious of mistakes without having to pay a political price. For example, when Temasek Holdings CEO-designate Chip Goodyear left the company under a cloud of controversy last year, Singaporeans are unable to demand an answer from the government. Finance Minister Tharman brushed the concerns of Singaporeans aside on the grounds that revealing the truth will not serve any "strategic purpose". Having FOI laws will compel Mr Tharman to release the information to the public so long somebody asks for it. Unfortunately, the PAP is unlikely to implement FOI laws to the detriment of its own selfish interest as it is too used to ruling Singapore at its whims and fancies without any external interference or opposition. Law Minister Shanmugam even had the audacity to claim that Singapore needs a "strong" government with a "clear majority" to govern with scant regard to accountability and transparency. Can we expect the PAP to check on itself? Singaporeans should realize that they have certain political and civil rights as citizens of their nation and they have the right to demand for information from the state for the purpose of scrutinizing its performance. The government should be afraid of the people and not the other way round. Sadly, many Singaporeans are still ignorant of the importance and relevance of FOI laws without which they will forever be giving the PAP a blank cheque to lord over their lives.   Please join our Facebook discussion on this article here and invite your friends to do so as well to raise awareness among fellow Singaporeans. This page is maintained independently by a TR reader.   Copyright © 2009 – 2010 The Temasek Review  Read More →