TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent Wendy Chong, the beleaguered mistress of Singapore movie director Jack Neo dropped another bombshell today after exposing his affair with her. In a no-holds-bar interview with The New Paper, Wendy revealed that she had sex with Jack twice a week when they were together in his car and various hotels. "Sometimes, he would drive to my neighbourhood in Yishun. At times, he drove to the carpark of Orchid Country Club." she told TNP. They subsequently had sex in hotels. "It was a hotel in Tiong Bahru and Jack knew one of the employees. Before checking in, Jack called to make sure that person was on duty. Jack seemed familiar with the place, so I asked if he took other women there before. He denied it, saying he went to the place only for filming," she added. Wendy first met Jack during an audition for the movie "Money No Enough 2" in 2008. Jack took the initiative to ask for her handphone number and they were making love a month later. However, the affair fizzled out after a year and their phone chats and meetings became less and less often. "I asked Jack why he was not as affectionate towards me and he said that every romance has its honeymoon period and when this period is over, the passion dies down," Wendy said. Contrary to Jack's claims that he had tried to break off with Wendy several times, Wendy said that it was she who initiated a split on 30 occasions, but "Jack persuaded her to hang on." The scandal had captured the attention of the entire nation due to Jack Neo's high profile, who is well known among young and old Singaporeans alike. While many of his fans expressed "disappointment" at his actions, some netizens applauded him as the "Tiger Woods" of Singapore. Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday that Jack Neo had also "courted" a former member of his entertainment group Foyce Le Xuan. Jack Neo's sexual exploits are burning a deep hole in his pocket. According to the same Lianhe Wanbao report, the box-office sales of his latest film "Being Human" dropped by $50,000 a day after his affair with Wendy Chong was exposed.  Read More →

I read with GREAT CONCERN, “Shark's fin a matter of moral suasion” posted on ST on 7 Feb 2010.  (Read here) The article suggested that sharks’ fins were served at constituency dinners, and two of our MPs saw no need to lift a finger to support shark conservation efforts, despite Singapore being listed as one of the top traders of sharks’ fins. As many may know, consumption of shark’s fin is a leading factor to the steep decline of shark population – the current population of different species is estimated to have fallen between 90-99% of what was about 20 years back. This means that if we have 100 sharks in the past, we are now left with between 1 – 10 sharks, depending on the species. Conservationists and scientists around the world have warned of the nearing potential collapse of the entire marine system, due to the decline of key species. Already more than 10 of sharks’ species have been listed as endangered however, Singapore is playing the waiting game, possibly for another country to take action before we react to what may be too late. The lackadaisical stand made during the Youth Forum is nothing but tremendously discouraging. While wildlife organizations and other social groups (divers, etc) step up on efforts to educate about ecological impacts caused by a non-staple such as sharks’ fins, it is of great concern if the MPs were speaking for themselves or if they were speaking from their capacity. Why should tax payers be indirectly paying for sharks’ fin to be served at constituency dinners, when a growing number is against the short-sighted continuation of this tradition? It is easy, for one of the MPs to verbally “encouraged” animal welfare activists to raise public awareness about their cause, but he failed to recognize that perhaps the government could take on a more proactive approach through leading by the simple act of removing fins from constituency dinners and all other government related dinners. Action should be taken in alignment with these verbal encouragements, and perhaps this could start by putting the power of the dollars to better use, instead of having it spent on sharks’ fins at constituency dinners. Jennifer Lee Check us out on Facebook For your reading pleasure: here  Read More →

OPINION The PAP has always boasted that their MPs are the best talents in Singapore. The parliamentary sessions last week had been an eye-opener to see these MPs flaunt their "talents". Based on their speeches, it is quite obvious that many of them, with the exception of Inderjit Singh are living high up in their own ivory towers and completely out of touch with the ground. This is not surprising given the fact that some had found their ways into Parliament without contesting an election. Tanjong Pagar MP Koo Tsai Kee, for example, had been a MP since 1991. He had never fought in an election before. From the most callous to the most juvenile remarks, we compiled them into a list here for our readers to enjoy, recap and to remember when the next election comes: 10. Dr Vivian Balakrishnan (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) on why he has ordered the removal of homeless Singaporeans camping out in the public (forcefully): "I have taken such an active stand to make sure we do not have people camping out on beaches, or parks or void decks, even though these may be safe and indeed, sometimes even pleasant areas for adults. These are not good and safe areas for children. And so I have insisted that (to) anyone with children. The children must be put in a proper home; they must continue to go to school. They must continue to get access to good food, good hygiene" 9. Jessica Tan (East Coast GRC) expressing her worries that the hike in foreign worker levy will turn away foreigners: "The hike in the foreign worker levy which if not calibrate, will send the wrong signal to companies looking to invest in Singapore or to foreign talents that the country is not open.” 8. Josephine Teo (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) rejecting WP MP Low Thia Kiang's suggestion to scrap the foreign worker levy: ""I can speak on behalf of the union leaders that we totally and firmly reject Mr Low’s disastrous suggestion that we remove the foreign worker levy as it will harm our workers’ interest." 7. Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade GRC) asking the PAP to spend more taxpayers' monies to help the new citizens feel welcomed in Singapore: “We have not done any large scale survey, we do not know their problems but we have already gone ahead and decided that the funds will go towards organizing activities…..What we ought to do is first – find out what new Singaporeans need, and then target funding at helping them meet these needs.” 6. Teo Chee Hean (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC) on the ruling party's renewed focus on productivity which has declined consecutively for the last three years and being caught napping during a speech made by DPM Wong Kan Seng: ""We are now a more developed economy - further up the productivity curve. We have made progress, but those ahead of us have also progressed and moved up as well. And those behind us have made rapid advances and are catching up with us.” 5. Koo Tsai Kee (Tanjong Pagar GRC) trying to lick the boots of his superior, Teo Chee Hean: “The SAF, despite its manpower constraints, has been able to face up to a widening range of security threats in recent years under Defence Minister Teo….And I am not saying this because he’s my boss.” 4. Baey Yam Keng (Tanjong Pagar GRC) who told the media a few days ago that he planned to raise issues concerning his residents in Parliament "Food is an important part of our rich cultural heritage – one which has been and will always been an attraction to locals and foreigners alike……The Food Museum could delve into aspects of local cuisine, such as ‘why Hong Kong noodles did not originate from Hong Kong’, and ‘why our Hainanese chicken rice is different from that found in Hainan Island’” . 3. Mah Bow Tan (Tampines GRC) who appeared lost after being grilled by fellow PAP MP Inderjit Singh: "PRs make up only one in five resale flat buyers and have minimal impact on resale prices." 2. Ong Ah Heng (Yishun Central) in an impassioned speech to defend foreign workers: “I know of one family who complain the cleaners in their precinct are lazy and too old. They don’t want local workers who are old, they want young foreign workers. To satisfy the demand, I changed the local workers to foreign workers. Foreign workers are not a burden to us. Their presence here is not negative. Without foreign workers, things will be worse.” And the quote of the year so far goes to Lim Swee Say for revealing the truth about the PAP MPs - that they are deaf to all feedback and criticisms. 1. Lim Swee Say (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) to Low Thia Kiang for bruising his ego: "We never give up....... We are deaf to all these criticisms.....So instead of telling us that low-wage workers are having problems, why not be part of the solution?" We can't really blame them for being deaf when they have been taught all along to sing in tune with their piper master PAP's octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew: “To be the prime minister, you don’t have to know every instrument, but you got to recognise, ah, he’s a good violinist, he’ll be the first violinist, he’ll be the double bass. He will play the viola, he will have the trumpet, he will do the drums. Then you coordinate them and then you have great music. And if you already have a great orchestra, you can put a dummy there and you still got great music.” [Source: Channel News Asia, 5 March 2008] Singaporeans, do you still see any value in voting for the PAP in the next election? This are the kind of MPs you will get raising your concerns in Parliament! And don't forget you are paying them $13,000 monthly to sprout such highfalutin stuff! Remember the PAP election slogan of 2006 - "Staying together, Moving ahead"? The PAP MPs are indeed staying together and moving ahead without us! While the pay of the PAP ministers, ministers of states and parliamentary secretaries are expected to increase by 8.8 percent this year, will you even dream of a pay rise? When your PAP MP put up a "wayang" house visit to your home in the next few months before the election and pretend to "listen" to you, don't forget this gentle reminder from Lim Swee Say: "We are DEAF to all criticisms!"  Read More →