TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent According to report on Channel News Asia, "more than 20,000 job seekers turned up on the first day of the JobsDB career fair at Suntec Convention Centre on Friday." CNA claims that "the job seekers include fresh graduates from the universities and polytechnics, as well as those looking for better prospects." and that the number of companies recruiting have doubled to give the impression that the employment prospects are turning rosy for Singaporeans again. However, based on three separate tip-offs we received from our readers, the fair was swarmed by foreigners who outnumbered Singaporeans by a ratio of two to one. One reader who preferred to remain anonymous wrote: "The most recent career fair in Suntec, there were lot of foreigners going to this job fair.  A lot of Filipinos were there, they crowded the place, they talked loudly, very noisy.  We can even see other foreigners went to the career fair in the national tv news.  The reporters are very clever to interview Singaporeans only.  How come they went to the career fair to compete jobs with our Singaporeans PMETS?" Another James Tan added: "The number of foreigners thronging the job fair is unbelievable. I think some of them may be here on social visit passes. Most of the positions on offer are mid-level ones which Singaporeans should be interested to take, but I saw companies accepting application forms from foreigners as well. Can JobDB give a breakdown of the number of foreigners versus Singapore citizens who found a job through the career fair?" As expected, the state media dares not report the reality on the ground. CNA could have easily caught hold of a few foreigners and asked them how they managed to come to the career fair in the first place or interviewed JobDB to find out the truth about the number of foreigners applying for the jobs at its fair. In other countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada, jobs are always reserved for their own citizens first. Only in first world Singapore that its citizens are expected to compete directly with cheap foreign workers for jobs.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so and help us exceed the number of fans on the official YPAP Facebook page.  Read More →

Just when we thought the scandals of Tiger Woods have stopped hogging our headlines, Singapore now has her very own Tiger Woods. So, who has opened the pandora's box to tabloid journalism and the characters involved in this case? It is a household name that Singaporeans would be familiar with- Jack Neo. The recent scandal of Singapore director, Jack Neo with a 22-year-old model Wendy Chong has hit the headlines of almost every publication. Thus far, the sex scandal which erupted last saturday, has not failed to arrest the attention of Singapore- much buzz about Jack's infidelity has been created by netizens- and the media alike, due to his high profile. For the uninitiated, the beleaguered Jack Neo is a well known figure in the entertainment industry, arguably the most successful one to date, and has directed in films, such as '' Money No Enough  '' and the latest film '' Being Human''. His film, ''Money No Enough'', has taken Singapore by storm; raking in a breath-taking box-office earnings of $5.8 million. He refuses to rest on his laurels and continues to make his fame known in the international entertainment scene. With his local production, ''Homerun'', he has made Singapore proud by bagging the first International Movie Award. In total, ''Homerun'' has achieved a good showing, with a total of six international awards. Further, he is also a prominent figure in the political arena: He is closely acquainted with Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo, a grassroots leader and was awarded a PBM for his services to the PAP during the 2004 National Day Rally. Not forgetting this, there is a new addition to his titles: Singapore's Tiger Woods. With much buzz generated by the affair saga of Jack Neo, it begs a question: Should he be forgiven for his sins? Ever since the news of his affair with the 22-year-old model Wendy Chong broke,  Jack has been flamed mercilessly by Singapore media and netizens and lampooned for lacking sincerity. He was even accused of staging the entire fracas- drama-filled press conference- to win public sympathy. What came into my mind is a scene from the bible: A woman, who had been caught in the act of adultery was brought to Jesus Christ by the scribes and Pharisees as a test to see if the Messiah was a liberal in matters of the Law of God. In response to their deceitful query, He didn't condemn the woman, not because He was a liberal, not because He condoned her sin, but because the men who brought the woman to Him were Hypocrites. He was the only person there that day who was free of sin, the only one who had the right to "cast the first stone." He didn't stone her (or her accusers), but instead forgave her and told her to sin no more. In my opinion, i feel that judgement should best be left to God and the verdict can be encapsulated into a sentence: Love the sinner but hate the sin.   Denise Lim  Read More →

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani from The Malaysian Insider KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today argued that public debate on racial issues has hampered Malaysia's economic growth and will destabilise the country The former prime minister also blamed his successor Tun Abdullah Badawi for the current racial tension, suggesting Malaysia was more united under his 22-year rule. “I am worried because over the last five, six years, you don’t see the country growing at all. At the same time you see accusation on the part of all races. The Malays accuse the Chinese, the Chinese accuse the Indians and then the Indians accuse the Malays," Dr Mahathir told reporters after launching Malay rights movement Perkasa's inaugural congress here. Perkasa is led by Pasir Mas MP Datuk Ibrahim Ali, who wants the ruling Barisan Nasional government to stick to affirmative action policies and to protect the Malays. Ibrahim, who left Umno when it was led by Abdullah, was a deputy minister in the Mahathir Administration. “Before that there were no such opposition because people were doing well and happy. The government was also doing everything possible and of course we are not perfect, but people were happy. If the people were not happy then they would have created a lot of problems. “There was also no questions asked about who gets what and how much. If there are questions, we deal with it behind closed doors because if you go public then emotions are stirred and that is not good,” Dr Mahathir said. The country's longest serving premier then took a dig at Abdullah, whom he ironically named as his successor in 2003. “When I stepped down, it seems that the new government of Abdullah was more liberal and this is because the people want to have more freedom to discuss sensitive issues but as you can see today the relationship between the different races is worse than during my time,” the 84-year-old said. Dr Mahathir stressed that Malaysians must decide between freedom of expression or economic stability. “So the question is whether you want to have the freedom to discuss for the sake of discussing or you want to have stability in this country. “If you want stability and growth in this country then it better to handle this thing as a sensitive issue but if you think that you want to be liberal like in some countries, they cannot grow because they are liberal and the situation in the country is always unstable,” he said. He pointed out that public debate will result into anger and racial hatred. “If there is public debate on racial issues then of course you will defend your race. The other side will defend his race and sometimes they don’t stick to facts. They say things which raise emotions, anger and hatred which will destabilize the country. “I know all about freedom of speech but I know many countries which have freedom of speech and can never have any progress except for the highly developed countries. There they can curse each other and then adjourned to the pub and have a beer. But here, if you curse each other it, you don’t talk and becomes worse. Your daughter cannot marry his son and that sort of things. Here we are different from them,” Dr Mahathir said. He also urged for there to a study to be conducted on how much the Malay community has benefited from the government’s economic policies. “Position and statement are being made which have no factual basis. So if I am not correct, let’s do a proper study. You can have independent people to do a study. If you say the Malays have taken over everything, all the scholarships are going to the Malays and no places given to the non-Malays so let’s do a proper study of the whole thing. Don’t just focus on the government. “The non-Malays should also stop making baseless allegation such as all scholarships are given to Bumiputeras and all government contracts are given to Bumiputeras. Is this true or not? It is not enough to just speak, must have facts. It is not based on facts. I want it to be based on facts. This is a multi-racial country. We have share together because we live together. But if we make baseless accusations against one another, it will create instability. Instability will affect everybody,” he said. Dr Mahathir also mocked Abdullah for only providing economic corridors but not economic growth during his time as prime minister which ended in April 2009, a year after humiliating losses at the 2008 general elections.. “The situation is way better than Pak Lah. During Pak Lah’s time, I could not speak at all. I was not invited by anybody. He is very liberal and democratic but people like me could not speak. However Najib did give me some opportunity to speak so he is good. Najib also has ideas (for the country)," he said, referring to Abdullah by his popular dimunitive. “My hope for Datuk Seri Najib is more than the predecessor, Mr. Corridor. There are many corridors but what can you find in the corridors? The press should make a report on all the corridors of the five years, what has been done,” he added. - The Malaysian Insider  Read More →