TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent Following the publication of Dr Chee's letter "'PAP just as confrontational, replies Chee" a few days ago, the Straits Times published a total of 8 letters on its Forum section today, six of which lampoon Dr Chee for his "confrontational" style of politics and heap generous praises on the PAP. The gist of these letters revolves around the following: 1. Dr Chee's style of politics is not compatible with Singapore. 2. A "constructive" opposition is more desirable and suitable for Singapore politics. 3. No major overhaul in the current system is needed as the PAP government has done well over the years. Joshua Selvakumar wrote: "In my opinion, the PAP need not be confronted today. It has given all Singaporeans and even non-Singaporeans an island to call their home with good opportunities. It is safe and peaceful here. That is what every citizen of any country needs and what every world leader should give his people. We do not need an opposition for the sake of having one. We do not need confrontation, but rather a contribution of opinions and suggestions to a system that is already working well." Roy Ong agreed: "The current Singapore Democratic Party with its attitude of confrontation is not the type of opposition party I wish to see in Parliament, unless it changes to a more constructive style that will add value to national politics. The fact remains that we must credit Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and his successors who, through integrity and reliability, have transformed Singapore from a vulnerable state into a thriving, stable country of which we are proud." Patrick Tan added: "From my casual observation, even the PAP is constantly transforming itself. It is now less authoritative and more open to listening. I shall, however, let the PAP defend itself. Forcing change by staging protest marches, hunger strikes and criticising Singapore while in foreign countries may be juicy news for foreign powers and their media, but they do not help our cause in any way." Do these represent the genuine public sentiment on the ground? Is this another classic example of "astroturfing" by the Straits Times. It appears that the PAP will have the last say or laugh after all with the mainstream media firmly under its control.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans.  Read More →

Reuters, 17 April 2010 A huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano spreading out across Europe is causing air travel chaos on a scale unseen since the Sept 11 attacks and costing airlines hundreds of millions of dollars. The plume that floated through the upper atmosphere, where it could wreak havoc on jet engines and airframes, threw travel plans into disarray on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday Severe disruption of European air traffic was expected today, aviation officials said. Airports in much of Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands remained closed and flights were set to be grounded in Hungary and parts of Romania. “I am furious and frustrated,” said Sara Bicoccih, stranded at Frankfurt airport on her way home to Italy from Miami. The US military had to reroute many flights, including those evacuating the wounded from Afghanistan and Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said. “I would think Europe was probably experiencing its greatest disruption to air travel since 9/11,” a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority, Britain’s aviation regulator, said. “In terms of closure of air space, this is worse than after 9/11. The disruption is probably larger than anything we’ve probably seen.” Following the attacks on Washington and New York in 2001, US air space was closed for three days and European airlines were forced to halt all transatlantic services. Disruption from the volcanic ash eruption in Iceland is costing airlines more than US$200 million (RM640 million) a day, air industry group the International Air Transport Association said. But unless the cloud disrupts flights for weeks, threatening factories’ supply chains, economists do not think it will significantly slow Europe’s shaky recovery from recession or affect second-quarter gross domestic product figures. “The overall impact should be very limited even if the problem persists for a day or more ... ,” IHS Global Insight chief UK and European economist Howard Archer said. - Reuters  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Speaking at the Singapore-China Forum on Leadership yesterday, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said that "building trust between government and citizens is a continuous process" and noted that it is a "good thing" that young Singaporeans want to participate in the decision-making process. "Instead of regarding this development as a vexatious demand for Government to be more open, transparent and accountable, it should be regarded as a positive sign of the citizens wanting to join in to build a better society," he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times. He also heaped generous self-praise on how the PAP continually "re-established" trust with the people during recent crises in 1985, 1997 and 2001 to illustrate the importance of building trust between the government and the media. SM Goh quoted a "February survey by US-based PR firm Edelman, which found that 84 per cent of Singaporeans and 74 per cent of Chinese citizens trust their governments respectively, compared to 46 per cent for the US and 38 per cent for Britain." He forgot to mention that the media in U.S. and Britain are free compared to Singapore and China. The Singapore media is ranked 133th in the world in terms of press freedom by international media watchdog Reporters without Borders last year. As the state media is staunchly pro-government, negative publicity about the government is often censored and covered up.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans.  Read More →