TR EMERITUS

Many people are calling for a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to investigate all matters relating to K. Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan's renting of their black and white bungalows at Ridout Road. Many informed Singaporeans are very angry and rightly so and inspite of that, LHL only appointed Teo CH to review the matter. A COI and a review committee are 2 totally different classes of seriousness and severity. The former is a heavyweight while the latter is a flyweight, so to speak. In merely appointing TCH to review this matter, LHL obviously considered it to be a flyweight matter. Adverse COI findings could result in potential legal actions, financial penalties, reputational damage, removal from office or position and policy changes etc. If Parliament is going to debate the Ridout Road bungalows issue in July properly and meaningfully, then the government should really set aside a ownself checks ownself, ownself reviews ownself, ownself everything ownself no wrong doing ownself reviews ownself committee lalala... It doesn't have much time left if it is truly serious about this matter. If this government is really serious about getting to the bottom of things and both K. Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan really have nothing to hide and fear, then get serious, support, request and appoint an independent and credible COI asap to do the job and clear their names. Reasonable enough? Think.   Simon Lim      Read More →

The current CDC voucher system is poorly designed and is troublesome for the merchant and the consumer. It works as follows: a) The consumer has to select individual vouchers for the merchant to scan. The vouchers are marked as redeemed and the amount is transferred to the merchant. b) If the amount does not match the vouchers, the consumer has to pay the difference in cash. Here is a better design for a CDC voucher system. a) The consumer can scan the SGQR code of the merchant and enter the exact amount to be paid. This amount is deducted from the CDC balance of the consumer. b) Many merchants are already on the SGQR system. They do not need to open a new account for the CDC voucher. c) The consumers are already familiar with paying using the SGQR. They can use the CDC voucher app to make the payment. This is a simple app that only require the scan and pay functions. It can be designed and implemented easily. The work involved in designing this system would be only a fraction of the work that went into the current CDC voucher system. If the government intends to use CDC vouchers to give future handouts, they should consider this new approach.   Tan Kin Lian      Read More →

I read with interest and puzzlement about the illogical rationale of the Commentary, “Xi Jinping’s Taiwan ambition threatens China’s rise” (TODAY, May 16). Former Chinese President Deng Xiaoping’s advice, “Hide Your brightness, bide your time” is perfectly fitted and applicable to China’s continued economic development and constantly strive to become stronger in many aspects. However, it doesn’t apply to the contradiction of fundamental principles, especially the matters which go against the principles of China’s national interests and sovereignty. For example, those foreign influences which interfere China’s internal affairs - Taiwan’s governance. China’s foreign ministry has been repeatedly emphasising that Taiwan is part of China’s indivisible territory. And, China doesn’t allow any foreign countries/powers to meddle with its internal affairs, violate its territory and sovereignty. China has also frequently urged other foreign powers especially the United States to scrupulously abide by the Three Joint Communiqués (between the People Republic of China and the United States of America) and fulfilling its promise of complying with one China’s policy and principle. For this half decade, The United States has been applying its power and influence, by forming cliques / alliances - rope in Japan, Philippines, the United Kingdom and Australia to isolate and impede China’s economic and foreign development. For example, In June 1950, The United States have been deploying its Navy Seventh Fleet at the Indo-Pacific Ocean and sailed across the Taiwan Strait to deter and intimidate the People's Liberation Army of China. In 2022, The United States’ Navy Seventh Fleet had dispatched nine of its warships navigated via the Taiwan Strait. Further, The U.S. State Department approved an arms sale to Taiwan with a total value of 619 million U.S. dollars (approximately NT$18.95 billion), including two types of missiles such as the "AGM-88B" used by the U.S. "F-16" fighter jets, with hundreds of pieces of eye-catching. This is the ninth arms sale to Taiwan since US President Joe Biden took office. Anyway, any politician with a little conscience should know well that interfering in another country's internal affairs is immoral, undemocratic and an outright violation of international law under the Charter of the United Nations. Simply ask yourself, could Xi Jinping tolerate this kind of barbarism and ridiculous interference of China’s internal affairs by the foreign power and sit by idly and remain indifferent? Thus, China perceives the issue of Taiwan as a matter of moral and principle. It is why the foreign minister of China, Wang Yi has said, “China today is not what it was a hundred years ago, and the world today is not what it was a hundred years ago”. This has clearly expounded that China’s today is the second largest economy in the world, and today's China will no longer accept its humiliation and allow foreign hegemons to bully it.   Teo Kueh Liang (Mr)      Read More →