TR EMERITUS

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal from The Malaysian Insider Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today that he considered himself a “Malay first,” and then only a Malaysian, in response to a challenge issued by DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang. Lim had earlier this morning challenged Muhyiddin to state that he was Malaysian first, and Malay second to prove that he did indeed believe in the concept of 1 Malaysia which had been Barisan Nasional’s “unifying” slogan under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. “I am Malay first! But being Malay does not mean you are not Malaysian. It is not a race issue. It’s an understanding of the term gagasan. I dont think Kit Siang understands what the word gagasan means,” said the DPM. Muhyiddin, who is also Barisan Nasional Deputy Chairman claimed that Lim’s persistence in the matter was a Pakatan Rakyat (PR) tactic to try and drive a wedge between him and Najib. “The question of 1 Malaysia should not be brought up. When a leader talks about the interest of his own race, it does not mean he doesn’t support 1 Malaysia. 1Malaysia is based on the Constitution.” “There is nothing wrong in leaders fighting for their own race. Don’t tell me Kit Siang does not fight for the Chinese?” he said. Muhyiddin also accused Lim of using the benchmark of “middle Malaysia” on him, which was not applicable. “I challenge Kit Siang to come out and say that PAS and PKR supports the concept of Middle Malaysia... can he do that? They don’t support it. It’s only a DAP slogan.” “Look at Barisan Nasional, 13 component parties of different races and all believing in the message of 1 Malaysia. His (Kit Siang) party is a chauvinist party.” Source: The Malaysian Insider  Read More →

Dear TR, After reading the '14 year old Singaporean vows to leave Singapore if PAP is not voted out by the next general election'. The article written by the student has given me a wake up call. I am also a Secondary School student just like her. First off, what I would like to mention is that I am literally being overran by Foreign Students in my school. I agree that they do provide some motivation for us to catch up and win them. However, what I cannot accept is that they are not only rude, but also inconsiderate for others. I had an experience where the foreign students would just sit at any table they like in the canteen and throw whoever's belongings onto the floor just to sit there - yes, even if there are already students sitting there, they will just push them off or threaten them. The foreign students are mostly from Indonesia, a minority of them are from china though. They usually stick together and do not welcome others into their group. I would say not a lot of people pay attention to them but they do piss people off and I would say my friends and I do not really like them. They shout across to each other in class in their own language like we are invisible, they talk loudly everywhere, copy our homework. Even when they want to copy our homework, they go like "Oi, let me see" I do not believe that they are from scholarships but rather they're family are just plain rich. Also, some of them have the habit of skipping school for no reason whatsoever, even though we are having our O lvls this year, some of them can still go clubbing at night to the wee hours and just report sick the next day. They also treat our belonging like thrash and just throw it around on the floor if they want to sit at the place. I do not see my school doing anything about them even though they skip their CCA's and skip school. Sometimes I really wish they would all just pack up and go back to their country. Why should these type of people be accepted into our society, they are only doing more harm than good to it. Also, why is it that Singaporean's are a minority in Singapore, doesn't that just prove that something is very wrong with the way this country is being run? Till this day, I still do not understand why people still vote for the PAP, when they tell people to send the elderly to Malaysia while they work in Singapore. I quote from HEALTH MINISTER Mr Khaw Boon Wan speech "My personal view is, our land is expensive. But we have nearby neighbours in Johor, Batam and Bintan. The elderly want to reach their doctors within half to one hour." Why do we have to send our elderly overseas just to ensure they get treatment on time. Singapore is a world class country, yet we cannot even assure the elderly that they will be able to reach treatment in time when they request for help. What rights do we have to boast that we are a world class country. Shouldn't a world class country be able to do that? I wish to share this with many others too. Why is it that in Singapore, things only go one way - up. It seems that Singapore is the only country in the world that is able to defy gravity as everything goes up, except our pays. Prices of food have increased, prices of housing have increased, GST increases, the Government gets a pay rise to avoid corruption, prices of public transport goes up, the number of ERP in Singapore goes up, Electricity and water prices goes up. Our pay? One way, down and rarely up. I still remember that during my primary school. $2 can last me for the whole week in school, right now? $2 is barely enough to last me for one meal in my school. That is all I have to share. Thank you for reading.   Adrian Heng   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. Do you have any similar stories to share? Or have your heard of such stories elsewhere? Please email us at [email protected], we want to hear from you. Your article need not be long and we do not require you to write in perfect English.  If you are not keen to reveal your identity, we allow you to use a pseudomyn. Rest assured that we will keep your contacts 100% strictly confidential. We will not edit or censor any part of your article. Most importantly, it must come straight from your heart.   Other real life stories: >> 14 year old Singaporean vows to leave Singapore if PAP remains in power >> 20 year old Indian feels threatened by increasing number of Indian immigrants in Singapore >> 32 year old Singaporean: I am lucky to be born earlier >> 28 year old teacher burdened by hefty mortgage loan for HDB flat before marriage >> Young Singaporean expressed her worries at uncertain and gloomy future  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent The Singapore Civil Service has launched an "Overseaas Development Programme" to train more officers to engage with emerging countries in the world such as China. Speaking at a civil service event last night, Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the civil service Teo Chee Hean spoke of "the need to continuously provide public service officers with an edge so they will remain competent in an ever-changing world," the Straits Times reports. "This requires officers to have skills in lobbying and negotiation, to cultivate overseas networks inside and outside of government, to understand the psyche and peculiarities of other cultures, and to be able to adapt quickly to new environments," he added. It is not known how much taxpayers' monies have been pumped into the program to train Singapore civil servants to "deal" specifically with China. A staunch anti-communist ally of the United States in the 1960s, Singapore embraced China with open arms after former Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping liberalized China's economy in the 1980s. In recent years, Singapore has welcomed an increasing number of students and workers from mainland China. Every year, the Ministry of Education gives out generous scholarships to bright college students in China to study in Singapore varsities. Chinese workers are also employed in all industries and are allowed to compete directly with Singaporeans for jobs which can otherwise be taken up by them. PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew told the National Geographic interview lately that it is a "good" thing that Singapore welcomes so many Chinese immigrants (from mainland China) as they are more "hard-driving" and "hard-striving" than locals. "If they do not have the spurs stuck in their hides, that's their problem," he was quoted as saying by journalist Mark Jacobsen. At the same time, government-linked companies flocked to China to do business including the epic flop - Suzhou Industrial Park which reputedly made a loss amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. The China-Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) was set up in 1994 at the outskirts of the Suzhou City in Jiangsu province with the help of Singapore funds and expertise. Singapore owned a 65% stake in the park. Even as the park was being constructed, the Suzhou City government set up Suzhou New District Industrial Park (SND) right next to SIP. It was the exact replica of the Singapore model. As the Suzhou City government had a majority stake in SND, it largely ignored the SIP and concentrated on promoting the SND instead. After incurring losses of some US$90 million over 5 years, the Singapore consortium lowered its stake to 35 percent, raising the Chinese consortium’s stake to 65 percent from 35 percent and reducing the Singaporean share from a planned 70 sq.km. to just 8 sq.km. Hopefully the new generation of Singapore civil servants trained to "deal" with China will not make similar mistakes which cause Singapore to lose money again in its business ventures with China.   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 →