TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent In an interview with Chinese tabloid Shin Min Daily, a former mistress of PBM Jack Neo revealed that he had attempted suicide twice during their tumultuous two year affair. This seemed to contradict earlier statements by PBM Jack Neo that he was unable to break off with Wendy earlier due to her repeated threats to kill herself if he leaves her. Wendy claimed that PBM Jaack Neo cried no less than 10 times in front of her and tried to kill himself on two occasions. In one instance, he wanted to open the window and jumped off a building. In another, he was drink-driving on the road. "I was at Raffles Town Club and had a huge fight with him because I suspected that he was meeting another girl. He was very angry and anxious and threatened to open the window and jumped off. Fortunately, the window did not open......There was once when he was angry with another guy going after me and we had a quarrel over it. He ran to East Coast Park and drank a lot of beer. I went from Yishun to East Coast to find him and asked him to return home. He sped along the road and hit a bus. Though I asked him to slow down, he still continued speeding to end his life together with mine," Wendy was quoted as saying in Shin Min Daily. PBM Jack Neo is a prominent grassroots leader and a close friend of George Yeo who had openly called for Singaporeans to "rally" around him almost immediately after the eruption of the scandal when he had maintained a two month silence on a road traffic accident involving a Romanian diplomat which robbed the life of an innocent young man.  Read More →

作者：木羊 07/03/2010 最近一个退而不休的老头又旧事重提，说什么南大文凭没人要，毕业生要用中学文凭来求职。对我来说，我从来不隐瞒自已的学历。当然在毕业后两三年，受到不少歧视，吃尽苦头。但我只当作这是一种磨练，没有自卑，也没有灰心。终于一天，碰上一间瑞士公司请人，我去应征，通过测验后被录取。当时的上司是瑞士人，母语是德语 (German)，当然不会认为我的英文比二毛子差，就什么都不行（据他说我的测验分数最高）。工作两三年后，我的薪水已达到四位数，当时（70年代初）是属于高薪一族。 后来我经商失败，便到香港寻找出路，结果被一间日资公司聘用。日本人当然不会只看我的英文和文凭，他们要看的是经验、能力和过去的表现。 我的日籍上司爱好中华文化，他读过资治通鉴（日译本）。当他知道我在报刊上写专栏时（80年代），特别尊重我，还嘱我翻译一些作品给他阅读。尊重写稿的，我看只有在日本这个社会才能出现。我在这家公司服务了十三年，最后出任子公司的董事，是第一个非日籍董事。 但我班上的确有一位同学是用中学的文凭来申请工作。他是詹君，在印尼出生。詹君在印尼念荷文中学，毕业后到南大深造。南大毕业后，他移民荷兰。当时一家银行 聘请文员，只需要中学学历，他只好拿出印尼的荷兰中学文凭应征。被录取后，詹君从基层做起，任劳任怨。数年后，詹君申请调升。上司说这个职位需要大学文凭，詹君于是拿出南大文凭，结果得偿所愿。自此，詹君便一帆风顺，步步高升，直至退休。这件事说明了南大同学适应能力强，经得起考验，只要给予机会，一定能出人头地，何必他人杞人忧天？假如当年放生南大，让她自生自灭，南大一定能自力更生，自我强化，走出恶运。而南大刽子手也不会留下千古污名。 顺便一提的是，詹君是个永春和空手道黑带高手。他到荷兰初期，在一家华人公司工作，受到剥削。老板扣押工资，他找老板理论。老板的欧籍打手从背后扣颈，他反手一拳，那人应声倒地，詹君于是夺门而退（善战者不恋战）。这一拳令詹君在华社中英名大盛，也令荷兰人认识到中国功夫（那时李小龙还不热）。由此可见南大同学文武全才，不单抵用，耐用还能打。 当詹君对我说起这段往事时，我突发奇想：假一个国家有两支军队，一支操华语，熟读《孙子兵法》并拥有文天祥视死如归的精神；另一支由二毛子组成。大家装备一样而同时奉命出征，你认为那一支军队会提早凯旋归来？ 来源：http://nandazhan.com  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Blogger Gopalan Nair was flamed by angry citizens for giving them false hopes that Singapore's octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew may die anytime soon from a "massive heart attack." A former Singapore citizen who contested the 1988 and 1991 general elections under the banner of the Workers' Party, Gopalan Nair wrote on his blog on 6 March 2010 that "Singapore strongman 87 year old Lee Kuan Yew suffers massive heart attack". He subsequently updated it a day later as a "hoax" much to the dismay of Singaporeans who have "popped the champagne" prematurely to celebrate his death. The Straits Times predictably ran an article condemning him and claiming that netizens are infuriated with his hoax: "The buzz died down when he wrote another post admitting it was a hoax, but many netizens continued to fume. They condemned what he did as 'fear mongering', 'malicious', 'distasteful' and 'shameless'." [Straits Times, 9 March 2010] This is only half the story. While many netizens are upset with Gopalan Nair, a significant number are yearning for the death of Lee Kuan Yew and are angry with him for misleading them, a testimony of the increasing unpopularity of Lee, especially among young Singaporeans. When the hoax was first posted on Gopalan's blog, it spread like wildfire in Singapore's blogosphere. Below are some comments posted by Hardwarezone forumers: Vivalabam replied immediately: "Shall I buy champagne?" Raven1019 asked: "Where to celebrate?" Potato-sama added: "Where do I think of party hats when I read this?" Platee wrote: "Time to meet the maker and answer for ones actions. " After it was revealed by Gopalan Nair that his earlier blog post is untrue, many netizens expressed their bitter disappointment (that Lee did not suffer a heart attack) with some flaming him. Below are some comments posted by CNA forumers: Green88 wrote: "Why I don't feel sad at all after reading this (that Lee did not suffer a heart attack)? Am I ok? I guess this whole family no longer my hero anymore..." nav14 added: "Singapore no longer needs LKY. There are more than enough capable leaders to run the show unless they all collapse at the same time. Afterall at his age he can drop dead anytime. So he dropping dead would have been discounted by the market many years ago once the saw the next generation of leaders were just as capable. Actually right now he is a stumbling block to many policies. I am sure the second language policy will be radically relaxed after his death since he is the only one fighting tooth and nail for its continuation." Luan Zhu Gong Way agreed: "If it true, it will help Singapore save millions of dollar of taxpayers money per year X number of years. No chance to claim pension, another few millions dollar of taxpayers money save. Total can have tens or hundreds of millions dollar saving for Singapore. Our national reserve can start to have more saving? Will also cushion some of GIC and Temasick investment losses." Danielxx2 wants Lee to step down soon: "I have always believed, both for his sake and for Singapore's sake, that he should retire at next election. Not that he's not good, but handing over the reins of power officially to the next generation should be done while he's still hale and hearty. The transition will be smoother, compared to a situation where he works till 100 and suddenly passes away. There will be a huge shock and power vacuum then." On Facebook, some netizens cursed Gopalan Nair for giving them false hope while others defended his right to blog:  Haziq Evan Rose can't wait to see Lee goes: "muahhaha... we can't wait to see him go. Come to think of it, LKY has no heart. So heart attack? lol" Mohamad Khalis is sad that Lee did not kick the bucket: "Gopalan have every right to blog about it and I would just call his post cheeky.it may be a hoax but from it we can certainly see how some Sporean react to it. I have been following twitter and there seems to be lost of misinformed Singaporeans that blindly think Dictator LKY is 'The' Father of Singapore and 'Founder' of Singapore. It is indeed sad to hear that LKY is alive but the struggle to Free Singapore from the clutches of Dictator Lee still lives on.... May one day Singapore see the light of Democracy and Freedom."   Singa Crew puts it succinctly:   "The hoax post was a success. It did well in showing up the insecurities of Singapore as a nation and those of Singaporeans in general. I think a lot of people (myself included) was taken in because it sounds plausible (after all the Dark Lord is very old!), but mainly because we want to believe in this so much!"   Based on the comments above, it is quite obvious that a significant number of Singaporeans do not miss Lee Kuan Yew and yearn to see him go as soon as possible.   Though Gopalan's posting is a hoax, it has managed to cause a stir in Singapore with some punters even considering dumping their stocks when the market opens, a sign that Lee still wields considerable influence in the Singapore government even as a "forecaster extraordinarie."   Lee is already 87 years old of age. He had a bypass and a pacemaker inserted. To put it bluntly, he is a walking "time-bomb" who will "go" anytime anywhere either from another heart attack, a stroke, cardiac arrest or arrhythmia.   The last thing Lee can do for Singapore right now is to relinquish all his positions in the government and retire gracefully. He is well past his prime already and should not stand in the way of younger leaders. He will die sooner rather than later and time is definitely not on his side.   Singapore should start preparing for the post-LKY era to prevent the grisly scenario painted by Gopalan Nair from happening in the near future.      Read More →