TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent A Spa manager is a job which Singaporeans will be keen to take up. Neither does it require any special qualifications or skills not found in the local workforce. For some strange reasons, a Filipino employment agency was tasked with recruiting Filipino citizens and those who are Singapore PRs only for 15 vacancies for Spa managers in Singapore: The candidates need to have a Bachelor's degree in Business studies, Commerce or Physiotherapy which are ubiquitous in Singapore. Leaders from the ruling party have always claimed that Singapore needs foreigners to take up jobs "shunned" by Singaporeans. In this case, did the hiring companies bother to recruit Singaporeans first before resorting to foreigners? Under Singapore's lax labor policies, companies are allowed to employ foreigners so long a quota for "local" workers are fulfilled. However, as "local" includes both citizens and PRs, the rule is easily circumvented by getting earlier arrivals to take up Singapore PRs, thereby freeing up slots to employ more foreign workers. The situation is further exacerbated by the astonishingly short time in which the PRs are granted. Most countries require foreigners to reside for a period of time before they are allowed to apply for PR, but not in Singapore. Based on media reports, some foreigners are able to obtain Singapore PRs within 3 to 6 months of application. Two out of every three PR applicants are successful, some of whom are non-speaking construction workers, cleaners, masseurs and even prostitutes. In some companies like Levis, it was rumored that more than 50 per cent of its staff are Filipinos. The recently opened Resorts World Sentosa also employ large numbers of Filipinos. While other countries such as Australia and Britain have introduced measures to curb the inflow of even skilled migrant workers to protect the livelihoods of their citizens, Singapore continues to welcome them with open arms despite some cosmetic changes made to better "distinguish citizens from foreigners." Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said lately that there will not be a major "turnaround" in the ruling party's pro-foreigner policies and the number of foreign workers may actually increase in the next few years ahead. In other democracies like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, such discriminatory labor policies will surely see the ruling party being kicked out of office by angry voters, but not in Singapore where its largely apathetic and ignorant citizenry continues to devour the propaganda being churned out daily by the state media. It is hardly a surprise that Singaporeans are described as "sheep" by SM Goh who need to be led by "lions" like himself and the foreigners flooding Singapore like a pack of hungry wolves and jackals to stuck "spurs" into their thick "hides".  Read More →

By Hurr Riyahi One of the characteristics of PAP Model is its tendency to start ahead but finish last. This can be seen in the outcomes of most PAP policies. What is funny about this is that about two thirds of Singaporeans (about 66%) only choose to see how PAP model starts ahead. Instead they fear to see how it finishes last. They are also deluded by the initial gains which they naively think will last indefinitely and/or repeat continually. That explains how PAP is able to make the voters believe that its model works and that there is no alternative model superior than its own. EDUCATION If you ask Singaporeans about their education system, majority will boast about how the students start ahead of other students in other countries. The ability to do English comprehension, essays and grammar in primary one is something which many point out to show that in many western education systems, the primary one kids are incompetent in such areas. However the same Singaporeans fail to realize that when those primary one kids reach the age of university graduation, say 21-24 years, the average western kid is far more competent than our average Singaporean kid in English which though starts ahead, finishes last. In the area of mathematics and science, Singaporeans kids start ahead of kids in developed countries in primary school by being far more competent in solving the most difficult questions. Most Singaporean families look at this as a major life achievement and superiority of the PAP educational system. However it is the kids in developed world who lag behind Singaporean kids in primary school in mathematics and science who later achieve big leaps in those two topics and using that be responsible for vast majority of the accomplishments in medicine, health sciences, engineering, information technology, natural sciences, economics, finance etc. On the other hand, close to three quarter of the Singaporean kids who slog and perform the most tedious questions in mathematics and science in primary school do not even attain university education. Those who do attain university education have hardly achieved anything much on the global scale in the sciences. ECONOMY When PAP transformed Singapore from a developing to an industrialised economy, it took only twenty years whereas Europe took two hundred years. Singapore was far ahead of the pace of industrialisation. However till today Singapore has not been accepted into OECD and therefore it remains an industrialised country and not a developed country. Europe took less than twenty years to become developed countries after becoming industrialised. PAP is taking more than thirty years and still it has not been able to get Singapore into OECD as a developed country. Instead it points to IMF or World Bank classifications, which are not benchmarks, and make political statements about Singapore being a developed country. Even amongst the developed countries, Singapore ranks the lowest amongst all of them in so many important areas. However PAP will only pick out fanciful and superficial areas like competitiveness, openness etc and try to show how its ahead of developed economies. Where Singapore needs to demonstrate is in its sustainability. Even recently the PAP leadership has come out to say its high growth strategy wont be sustainable in post crisis and Singaporeans must accept a lower growth path. HOUSING PAP was ahead of many countries in resolving housing problems and achieving home ownership rates. Yet today it has one of the worst housing crisis amongst countries in developed countries. In developed countries where housing prices are high, the people still have viable options of affordable renting. Singapore does not have such options. In terms of affordability Singapore started ahead of others in being able to provide houses which the citizens could deem as affordable. Today only the politicians and foreigners can deem the housing prices as affordable. The average Singapore citizen struggles to buy a simple house. Though in most developed countries, the government do not provide housing solutions, they create opportunities for people to find accomodation in an affordable and sustainable way either through buying or renting. TRANSPORT Being a small island, it was relatively easy to set up a bus, train and road network that is far ahead of any city. PAP achieved it. However today the transport network  in Singapore is one of the most congested, expensive and unpleasant all thanks to its ultra-liberal immigration policy. In many cities of developed countries, the bus and train fares are expensive but people have the option of cheaper car travel. In a land scare Singapore, it is only prudent to make car travel expensive and public transport very cheap. However the public transport companies run by private companies that are wholly owned by government seek perpetual increase in their profits and have driven up public transport costs beyond imagination. Singapore bus drivers also had a good reputation for safety and pleasantness. Today they have been replaced with foreigner drivers who are unable to communicate and who drive buses like trucks and bullock carts. The transportation system in Singapore that started ahead of others will soon be finishing last in ranking within a decade's time. SINGAPORE WILL FINISH LAST In every other area of Singapore one will find the same trend in the outcomes of PAP's policies. The sad reality is that Singapore will finish last in every area within five years time and it will be far too late for Singaporeans to rectify the situation then. About 30% of Singaporeans are being PAP faithfully. Another 40% are not sure but they are afraid of change and they are also not intellectual enough to imagine beyond PAP. Hence they rather dream along the rhetoric put out to them. In fact some of this 40% want change without PAP not voted out of power. However PAP has set up a highly interlinked system where it cannot touch one single area without upsetting other areas. Hence it will only make cosmetic changes. What is required is a major overhaul of the whole system. That reality alarms the 40% also who have no intellectual ability or confidence to see how it can be achieved. The 30% who wants to see change remain too few to see any real reforms becoming possible even though they may be loud. Singapore started ahead to Singaporeans and PAP. But it will also finish last due to Singaporeans and PAP.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Despite the massive media hype surrounding the government-run REACH portal as a feedback channel for Singaporeans on current affairs and policies, its readership and traffic have continued to drop. According to the latest statistics from web traffic company Alexa.com, REACH's traffic has declined by about 40 per cent in the last one month with a concomitant drop in its traffic ranking to over 4,000. During the same period of time, the monthly traffic of Temasek Review has increased by 14 per cent and its ranking has approached 200, making it the most visited alternative news sites in Singapore. At the present moment, the readership of Temasek Review is almost 20 times that of REACH. The state media has been busy promoting REACH to Singaporeans including a two-week long feedback exercise on the Budget to be delivered by Finance Minister Tharman today. In a recently concluded "feedback", REACH claimed that the "majority" of Singaporeans agree with the recommendations put forth by the Economic Strategies Committee. However, with such a low readership, one cannot help but wonder if the polls conducted by REACH are really reflective of public sentiments on the ground. REACH has come under increasing criticisms from the online community that it is nothing more than a "black hole" where feedback, criticisms and proposals frequently end up with no response from the relevant authorities. Some are of the view that REACH is just a "PR exercise" to show that the government "cares" when its real purpose is to serve as an outlet for Singaporeans to vent their frustrations. On average, the Temasek Review receives between 1,200 - 1,500 comments from its readers daily, many of which are dramatically opposite of the "feedback" posted on REACH. Singaporeans who are dead serious on providing honest feedback to the government should make their voices heard at the next general election instead of wasting time lending credibility to REACH.  Read More →