TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent The United Singapore Democrats (USD) becomes the latest political party to join Singapore's already crowded political landscape when its registration was confirmed last week. Its key leaders have been known to be associated with the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) including its President Ms Narayanasamy Gogelavany who contested in Sembawang GRC under the SDP banner during the 2006 elections. Ms Jaslyn Go who has been actively involved in SDP activities including being its emcee for some functions, is the secretary of the new party. Other members are Young Democrats member Muhammad Shamin and Chong Kai Xiong. According to a party insider who spoke to us on the condition of anonymonity, they may have decided to form a new party instead of joining SDP due concerns about its future - it will serve as a "back-up" in case SDP is wound up by the defamation lawsuits launched by the PAP. The new party was registered to contest in the next general election. It is not known if it will cause a split within SDP as some of its founding members have close ties with other SDP Youth Wing members. It is believed that Mr Chia Ti Lik and Mr Seelan Palay, who are known to be close to Ms Jaslyn Go may also be joining the new party at a latter date. For a small nation with a population of only 5 million people, there are no less than 10 political parties dotting the political landscape, a number of which are as good as being defunct such as the Singapore Justice Party. Unlike the Malaysian opposition, the Singapore opposition seems unable to work together and has been wrecked by repeated in-fighting and petty conflicts. For example, a 17 year old feud between SDP Secretary-General Dr Chee Soon Juan and Singapore People Party's Secretary-General Chiam See Tong was dredged up in the media again last week. Unless the opposition unite, pool their limited resources together and come under a common umbrella like the Singapore Democratic Alliance to contest the next election, it will be impossible for it to challenge the PAP juggernaut with its well-oiled grassroots machinery. What the opposition needs is not quantity but quality, a strong, cohesive and credible alternative to the PAP rather than a motley crowd of small parties driven by self-interests and big egos.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook discussion on this article here and invite your friends to do so as well to raise awareness among fellow Singaporeans.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Indulging in shameless self-praise is fast becoming a trait characterizing the world's most expensive ministers. Coming right after Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan who gave himself a pat on his back for maintaining a "sustainable" healthcare system in Singapore at an Asian conference on healthcare, it is now Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean's turn to do so.  Mr Teo was embarrassed publicly when he was caught on TV napping when his fellow colleague Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng was making a speech in parliament not too long ago: During a speech made at a civil service event last night, Mr Teo lavished generous praises on the PAP for "planning ahead". "Singapore has a reputation for being forward looking. For almost 20 years, scenario planning has been a key part of our efforts to understand and plan for the future," he proclaimed. The PAP has always portrayed itself as the "savior" of Singapore without which the entire nation will collapse. As such, PAP leaders have demanded Singaporeans pay them out of the world salaries without which they will leave for the private sector. A career civil servant, Mr Teo earns almost $3 million dollars a year, or more than 5 times the annual salary of U.S. President Barack Obama. He is expected to get another hefty 8.8 percent pay rise this year. Repeating an often used PAP rhetoric that it dares to take "tough" measures to tackle national problems, Mr Teo said: "Singapore has always taken bold, creative and pragmatic approaches to solve national challenges. When the situation calls for it, we have eschewed conventional wisdom, or the politically correct, and sought out innovative solutions." One "innovative" solution thought by the PAP to boost Singapore's declining birth rate is to flood the island with immigrants from China and India. Though many Singaporeans are unhappy with the PAP's liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies, there is nothing they can do about it as the PAP controls all state institutions and there is no credible opposition to challenge it. "The public housing programme, the Central Provident Fund system as well as the certificate of entitlement scheme for vehicle ownership are all examples of policy innovations," Mr Teo continued to boast to his audience rather unashamedly. Singapore's public housing programme and Central Provident Fund system have provided the state a ready available source of funds. More than 85 percent of Singaporeans live in flats built by HDB. A significant proportion of their CPF savings are tied up to mortgage loans used to pay for these flats. Under a new scheme introduced in 2003, Singaporeans are required to keep a minimum sum in excess of $110,000 in their CPF ordinary accounts before they can withdraw it when they reach 55 years of age. Singapore is the richest country in Asia after Japan and while its cash-flushed sovereign wealth funds can afford to lose billions of national reserves in failed overseas investments, Singaporeans enjoy few social welfare benefits from the nanny state thanks to its "policy innovations."   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 →

OPINION In the highly unlikely scenario that a "freak" result occurs in the next general election due to be called soon which sees the PAP being booted out of office, what will happen to Singapore? Actually, life will continue as before despite the doomsday predictions by PAP activists and apologists that Singapore will collapse like a pack of cards without the PAP governing the nation. Contrary to the fear-mongering propagated by PAP leaders, our flats will not become worthless overnight, foreign investors will continue to stay put and Singapore will remain as stable as before. The only people who will suffer an economic loss are the PAP ministers who will be stripped of their multi-million dollar salaries. During the 2008 Malaysian general elections, the opposition won the two richest states of Penang and Selangor for the first time and form the state governments. The Democratic Action Party (DAP) heads the Penang state government while Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) governs Selangor. Both have no prior experience in governance. As the Malaysian opposition had difficulties recruiting credible and qualified candidates into its ranks for the election whose results were completely unexpected, they had problems filling the state exco positions of the state governments. Nearly half of the state executive councillors in Penang and Selangor have no tertiary education with some barely completing secondary school. Furthermore, the states were deprived of funding from the federal government in Kuala Lumpur which is still controlled by the Barisan Nasional coaltion. Though there were initially some fears about their competence, the opposition-led states not only did not implode from within, they continue to attract foreign investments and life remain the same as before for the people living there. The Penang state government has introduced an open tenure system for bidding government contracts and Selangor requires its exco members to reveal their salaries and assets to the public. These are positive steps forward in good public governance which will never be taken under the previous administrations. Your correspondent visited the two states in February and can attest to the fact that they are still as stable and prosperous as before. In fact, many Penangites have a favorable impression of the DAP-led government and it is unlikely that the BN can recapture the state in the next general election. If the Malaysian opposition can rule two states much larger in size than Singapore, why can't our opposition do so? According to a recent Straits Times report, the opposition has seen an increasing number of professionals and graduates joining its ranks. Some 70 percent of the candidates standing under the opposition banner in the last election have a tertiary education and the pecentage will surely increase in the next. With due respect to the Malaysian opposition, our opposition should be of a higher quality and caliber than them. We have highly qualified leaders within the opposition camp such as Reform Party's Secretary-General Kenneth Jeyaretnam, a double-degree graduate in economics from Cambridge University who can fill a ministerial position in any cabinets in the world. Also in the Reform Party are a former SAF scholar Tony Tan and a former senior civil servant Hazel Poa, both in their mid 30s. From the Workers' Party, we have Mr Low Thia Kiang, an opposition veteran with nearly 20 years of experience in Parliament and Ms Sylvia Lim, a lawyer by training. The other opposition parties also boast of candidates from various fields such as medicine, engineering, economics and education. While the opposition may not have any experience in governing Singapore, they are unlikely to make a mess out of it as the Malaysians have shown. More importantly, we have a first world civil service to run the nation. The ministers are only in charge of formulating national policies whose implementation on the ground lies with the civil servants. In other democracies, it is common to see governments come and go and prime ministers replaced every now and then, but the nation stays strong and continues to grow. For example, Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was voted out of office after 53 years in power, longer than the PAP. It was replaced by the Democratic Party of Japan which has no experience in governance. Do we see Japan in chaos today? It is high time that Singaporeans do some "spring-cleaning" and sweep the undeserving deadwood out of office so that qualified men can bring about much needed changes in Singapore. The PAP has clearly run out of ideas to lead Singapore judging from its gross mismanagement of the Singapore economy. Our GDP growth over the last few years is a mirage - it is built largely on the mass importation of cheap foreign workers which reduce labor costs, thereby inflating the GDP figures at the same time. A certain percentage of the PAP ministers' salaries is pegged to GDP growth - the higher the figures, the more money they bring home. During the same period of time, the median salaries of Singaporeans have stagnated, cost of living has sky-rocketed, income gap between the rich and the poor have widened considerably and standard of living has declined. We cannot continue relying on foreign workers forever and must move up the value chain fast to produce world class companies and products like the other Asian Tigers, but innovation is incompatible with a totalitarian form of government which brooks no dissent. The PAP will not make any changes which will threaten its political hegemony. What is good for its survival may not be in the best interests of the nation. Things cannot get worse than now. We seriously need an urgent overhaul of the entire system and put things back into order. So Singaporeans should not be fearful of voting for the opposition in the next general election for the opposition's success will open the floodgates to encourage more Singaporeans to join politics to serve the nation. An open, competitive and fair political system will only improve public governance and ensure that only sound policies which take the interests of Singaporeans into consideration are implemented.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook discussion on this article here and invite your friends to do so as well to raise awareness among fellow Singaporeans.  Read More →