TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent With the elections around the corner, the propaganda machinery of the PAP has gone into overdrive to "show" how much it is doing to help the poor and needy in Singapore. The Straits Times carried an article today claiming that more Singaporeans will be eligible for Public Assistance (PA) as it will be made more "flexible" to benefit a larger pool of people. Previously, one has to be proven either completely medically unfit to work, destitutes without any living family members and not having a single cent left in their CPF accounts before they can qualify for PA. From July onwards, Singaporeans whose CPF payouts under the Minimum Sum Scheme or CPF Life fall below the monthly PA allowance of $360 will receive cash top-ups in addition to their CPF payouts. An additional two hundred Singaporeans may become eligible when the new scheme kicks off with another 2,000 over the next five years. However, there will be no changes in the monthly allowance of $360. With the cost of living escalating throughout the year, the government should consider increasing the PA allowance. Furthermore, there are an increasing number of Singaporeans who do not qualify for PA, but are struggling to cope with daily living in Singapore. The present criteria is too stringent and should be relaxed to allow more Singaporeans to qualify for it, not that the PAP cannot afford it when it can lose billions of dollars in failed overseas investments without blinking an eyelid. Though Singapore is the second richest country in Asia after Japan, Singaporeans enjoy few social welfare benefits from its miserly PAP government which exhorts them to work for as long as they can well into their golden years till they drop dead while being "faster, cheaper and better" at the same time. When asked by MP Lily Neo in 2007 to increase the monthly PA allowance so that its recipients can have three basic meals a day, Minister for Community, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan retorted: "How much do you want? Do you want three meals in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant?" He added that "one limiting factor must be the sum that we give through public assistance cannot be so generous as to erode the work ethic." [Source: Channel News Asia, 9 March 2007] His subordinate, Minister of State Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, who made the announcement of the changes in the PA scheme in Parliament, said it will likely cost the Government $4 million more a year. To get a sense of proportion, the same Ministry unveiled a mega $10-million Community Integration Fund last October to make the new citizens feel accepted, welcomed and happy in Singapore. Last week, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC was reported to lose learly $10 billion dollars in its investment in Swiss bank UBS. With Singapore's economy set to grow again this year, the PAP will be rewarding its ministers and other political appointees a 8.8% pay hike costing taxpayers another $58 million dollars more or so. In the aftermath of the 2006 elections, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong raised GST from 5 to 7 percent to "help the poor." Till today, he has yet to explain to Singaporeans where the last four years of GST has gone to.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Fearful of losing its grip on the nation, the PAP is going all the way out to woo the immigrants by making it compulsory for them to attend "sharing sessions" to learn more about grassroots organizations Minister for Community, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan revealed in Parliament yesterday that permanent residents who intend to take up Singapore citizenship will now have to go through a Singapore Citizenship (SC) Journey which will include a "sharing session" with grassroots leaders. Dr Vivian had unveiled a $10 million Community Integration Fund to make the immigrants feel "welcomed" in Singapore. During the recent parliamentary "debates", PAP MPs fretted over how to "integrate" the foreigners into Singapore society with one MP Seah Kian Peng suggesting that the government spends more taxpayers' monies on programmes to help assimilate the immigrants. Due to the PAP's liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies, foreigners now make up 36 percent of Singapore's population, up from 14 percent in 1990. Of the remaining 64 percent who are citizens, an increasing number are born overseas As a result of a lack of foresight in planning, the floodgates are opened to allow too many foreigners into Singapore within too short a period of time such that we are now having a headache on how to integrate all of them. The PAP's knee-jerk response is to throw money at the problem in the hope that the immigrants will somehow find their places in Singapore society when some of them do not even speak or understand a single word of English. Making it compulsory for new citizens to attend "sharing sessions" with grassroots leaders may prove to be another insidious attempt to rope them into grassroots organizations which are pseudo-PAP organizations. PAP's octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew admitted recently to a group of visiting officials from China that the CCCs, RCs and CCs are all "part of the PAP". According to Dr Vivian, some 4,500 PRs and new citizens are currently serving in these grassroots organizations in various capacities and not surprisingly, some of them may "cross over" to the PAP eventually since grassroots leaders are often card-carrying members of the PAP. With native Singaporeans getting increasingly peeved off with the PAP for its lop-sided discriminatory policies, there is an urgent need for the PAP to bolster its flagging support base with new citizens who usually support the government. The next election may be the last chance for Singaporeans to reclaim ownership of their nation. At the rate the PAP is mass importing foreigners to replace the locals, Singaporeans may soon be relegated to being second-class minorities in their own country of birth.  Read More →

One has to read in between the lines to decipher news from propaganda Is it just my imagination or has the state media been orchestrating “feel good” news to prepare Singaporeans for the upcoming elections to be held by 2011? From the Housing Development Board (HDB) recording a deficit of S$2.119 billion to companies fighting for higher wages for low-skilled workers, the news are almost too good to be true. The average man on the streets may not be able to understand media content analysis. With elections looming, it would be to Singaporeans’ advantage to understand Singapore’s press system and that media ownership does affect news reporting. Understanding media content analysis will then help Singaporeans read news more critically so that they can make an informed decision when they go to the polls (assuming there are no walkovers in readers’ ward). Singapore’s press system While western democracies such as the United States sees the media as a “market place of ideas” and a watchdog of the government, Singapore practices a “nation building” press system. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has maintained that this was needed for Singapore’s development when he first took over as the first Prime Minister of Singapore. A free wheeling press, he argued, will eventually lead to the collapse of a nation as evidenced by the liberal press of the Philippines. “The Philippines, before martial law, was an Asian version of the US system. The Philippine press enjoyed all the freedom but they failed the Filipino people,” said Lee in an address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on 14 April 1988. Lee does have his point as a nation building press was crucial for Singapore’s development due to the racial conflicts and religious fault lines that the Singapore government had to tackle post independence. Media ownership Let’s take a look at MediaCorp which publishes Today newspaper. MediaCorp is 100 percent owned by Temasek Holdings – the Singapore government's wholly owned investment arm. Its chief executive officer is Ho Ching, daughter-in-law of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The government, thus, has a monopoly on television broadcasting and directly holds most of the radio channels in Singapore. As a media entity that is owned by Temasek Holdings, MediaCorp has to report on stories that support the ruling party’s ideologies. Any other news that is critical of the Singapore government is generally not tolerated. Remember Mr Brown anyone? Media content analysis Fast-forward 43 years later, Singapore still practices the “nation building” press system as evidenced by an analysis of Today’s media content on 3 November 2009. The first page itself screamed a mini headline called “HDB turns community builders”. In it, the HDB said it had set up a new Community Relations Department two months ago to tackle the problems of squabbles among neighbours and the assimilating immigrants in the heartlands. HDB’s news appeared amid rising concerns among frustrated netizens over the government’s open doors policy towards immigrants which has priced Singaporeans out from the HDB resale market, as cash rich immigrants are able to offer higher cash-over-valuations (COVs) Flyers from property agents, acting on behalf of permanent residents, have been flooding the heartlands, promising high COVs to prospective sellers. Another “feel good” news is the “Drop in arrears despite recession” HDB said it was partly due to the introduction of trained counselors to help distressed families. However, it is worth noting that the Resale Price Index (RPI) is now at its record high, which means distressed owners were able to sell off their properties at a good profit and downgrade to a smaller flat. This is something that was affirmed by Nicholas Mak, formerly from Knight Frank, and now a lecturer in real estate at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. One only needs to go down to the grassroots and see the genuine hardship cases at the Meet-the-MP session, to see for oneself, how many Singaporeans are facing problems in servicing their HDB mortgage loan either through genuine hardship cases or their own folly. Another big shocker was HDB’s $2.119 billion deficit this financial year. However, this has already been discussed by fellow contributor Damon Yeo, in his well-researched piece. While the HDB feels the need to engage the public via the traditional press like Today, it has continued to ignore netizens as evidenced by its refusal to respond to Temasek Review’s press query. It is worth noting that the People’s Action Party (PAP) just last week said it was using online media to win the hearts and minds of Singaporeans – a media popular among opposition parties and those who are critical of the Singapore government. HDB on the other hand has refused to engage with Temasek Review’s readers. Its continued silence will only create more questions. Other social news include “On better terms” which cites companies like the National University Hospital (NUH) fighting for higher wages for its low-wage staff alongside comments by Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Manpower) Hawazi Daipi. This is in contrast to MM Lee’s comments on the widening gap between the rich and the poor. In response to a question by a SMU student on what Singapore could do to help its bottom 20 per cent, MM Lee answered that Singapore’s approach has been to create as many jobs as possible, while leaving the market to decide the right type of pay. “Never mind your Gini coefficient. If you don’t have a job you get zero against those with jobs. So our first priority is jobs for everybody,” Lee said. Another news piece, aimed at opposition held Hougang, had headlines that read “In Hougang, help in now closer at hand”. It mentioned that Community Development Council (CDC) officers are now stationed in their community to better help residents in distress. Bread and butter issues are important to heartlanders and announcing this news can be seen one way for the PAP to win voters in the opposition held ward. However, one has to remember that going through the welfare process and asking for help is a different thing altogether. Welfare is a dirty word in Singapore. For those who have fallen on hard times and seek CDC’s help, they have been subjected to CDC officers who can be rude and unsympathetic to their concerns. The CDC officers are just merely going through the motion, as it is their jobs to do so. One also has to show how pathetic one’s bank account is plus credit card spending to lament a “scolding” from CDC officers. In the meantime, Singaporeans can expect more “feel good” news until election times are over. The only consolation is that they are now better equipped to decipher news from propaganda. . By Khalil Adis, Social Correspondent About the Author: Khalil Adis graduated from Monash University with a Bachelors of Arts (Communications). He helps out at the Taman Jurong Constituency Meet the MP session whenever time permits and has seen genuine hardship cases from fellow Singaporeans.  Read More →