TR EMERITUS

I express my views as a citizen and I invite contributions from fellow netizens too. Thank you all in advance. About 50 public service roles may fulfill elected presidency (PE) requirement - Chan Chun Sing (CCS), CNA online 11 May 2023. Halimah Yacob's term will end on 13 September this year and we will have a new president going forward. The above quote by CCS is quite self explanatory. Among other considerations such one's character and integrity, one key criteria that must be satisfied in the selection of a PE candidate is that the person must or have been in charge of an organisation whose shareholders' equity cannot be under S$500 million. Saving any unexpected curve ball requirements such as reserved for malay only lalala..., it would then appear to any reasonable person that with another pool of about 1,200 potential persons in the private sector candidates qualifying for 1 vacancy is a fairly large combined pool and secondly, since the EP's role is a largely ceremonial role except its 2 executive functions of acting as a 2nd key to our reserve and whose concurrent permission must be obtained before any key public sector appointment, then, to me, paying the current remuneration package is way out of line. The eventual candidate is likely to be someone who is senior in age, worldwise and remuneration package shouldn't be his/her primary consideration but rather things such as his/her contributions to our country at the national level, his/her state of health, his/her legacy and obviously for patriotism reasons etc must be foremost on his/her mind. Also, there is a Council of wise Presidential Advisers who are able and willing to guide and advise him/her to competently discharge his/her duties. When even Executive Presidents such as the United States President or the French President who are heading much bigger, complex and advanced countries don't even get half of what that Fatimah earns, it is timely for us now to do what is unpleasant but necessary, ie, to relook and review how we pay our figure head President not just because our country can afford it and friends friends in government say that it is the right thing to do. I have learned a long time ago that it is not what your friends friends say that makes you right, rather, you are right because your facts are right and your reasoning is right and that is the only thing that will make you right. Think.   Simon Lim      Read More →

I read with interest the TODAY’s report, “Higher taxes for the rich, mandatory pre-school attendance among MPs’ proposals to close gaps in society” (April 18). Foremost, if any country’s political leaders intend to care and work for the well-being of their people, they should uplift the life and living standard of its citizens and uproot or curtail the chasm between the rich and the poor, so that the country can progress fast, move towards economic prosperity and achieving the first world standards of economy and democracy. In this context, Singapore should not be an exception. In due course, we are curious to know how many millionaires or billionaires are there in Singapore? According to some online sources, there are about 298,650 millionaires in Singapore as at end 2022. And, the number of millionaires in Singapore is expected to hit 437,000 by 2025, an increase of 61.9% from 269,925 in 2020 No to be surprised, 6.1% of the adult population are millionaires, which is out of the Singapore adult population of 4,932,000. Despite the rising cost of living and being called one of the most expensive cities in the world (in the eyes of expatriates), Singapore is still home to many wealthy people. Obviously, this group of rich or ultra-rich people almost have one or more than one residential property in Singapore. Thus, the Government should seriously consider (instead of hesitantly) to impose wealth tax on these large groups of rich residents. It gives no cause for much criticism for few MPs to suggest that higher taxes on the rich for their properties inclusive of Good Class Bungalows, luxury condominiums, inherited residential homes, luxury cars and country club transfer fees. Relatively, there are about 262,400 “lower-income” resident workers, whose income are less than $1500 in June 2022 (according to reliable online source). Thus, it is timely for Associate Professor Jamus Lim, WP MP for Sengkang GRC, for proposing an "official poverty line" which is based on components that go beyond the basic needs of housing and others. With a poverty line determined, government assistance such as ComCare will then be able to adjust its thresholds accordingly to help poor families get the assistance they need. This also means that a refined system has to be put in place to reduce the need for "burdensome and intrusive" pre-approval scrutiny. It is one of the effective ways for the redistribution of wealth to the poor in Singapore. On broadening social support and levelling the playing field for Singaporeans who are not born into wealth, besides focusing upon expanding educational spending or resourcing, such as raising the number and quantum of government scholarships and bursary for the 60 per cent of "each cohort" who do not have access to state resources in the form of a higher education. Further, the SkillsFuture Credit framework should be horizontally extended to a lifelong scheme for helping our PMETs and low-income earners to continuously upgrade, enrich their expertise and skills, so that they will be able to survive in and irrevocably benefit from this highly competitive and dynamic business world.   Teo Kueh Liang (Mr)      Read More →

Last Saturday, there was an elaborate ceremony to mark the fact that a 74-year-old man finally got a job that he had been preparing for. The occasion, like all British events involving the Royal Family was as wonderful celebration of pomp and pageantry. Heads of State and Government from around the world were invited and the glamorous of British Society made it a point for the rest of us to see them at their best. Given that we live in an age of extremities, the coronation of King Charles III stirred a few emotions. On one hand you had people basking in the “pride” of the nation. At the other extreme, you had people complaining that the royals were “free-loaders” spending tax-payer money at a point when most tax payers have to choose between staying warm and having enough to eat. Out here in the former colonies, the editorial focus was on the rather ugly past of colonialism. It was pointed out that the fabulous Crown-Jewels of the British Royal Family was stolen loot from the colonies – so much so that the newly crowned Queen Camilla avoided wearing the crown with the Kohinoor Diamond, which was looted from India. Much was also made of the fact that the fortune of the British Royal Family was built on slavery. I studied British History (part of the History A-Level course) and I am well aware of the fact that the “Colonials” were not nice people. As the only Oriental growing up in the UK in the 1990s, I made it clear that my heroes were inevitably people who got rid of the colonials like Gandhi and Nehru in India or Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. My “action” hero was inevitably Bruce Lee, who showed little Oriental Boys that we could hold our own against the larger white boys. So, I get that brown and black people around the world feel a little miffed by any hint that they should celebrate an institution that represented a time when they had to call someone else “master.” However, whilst I do get why people outside the UK may have issues with the monarchy and its links to the colonial past, I think their anger is focused on the wrong target. The monarchy is by its very design “archaic.” It has worked in the UK because it is a symbol of a “glorious” past and the idea of “modernity” and “monarchy” can seem like contradictions. It doesn’t help that the current head of this monarchy is 74. One might argue that Old People simply don’t get it. However, if you look at what’s happened in the last decade of “Tory” Party rule in the UK, it actually turns out that the king is not the issue. The King, who does not have normal freedoms (though the money is beyond the wildest dreams of most) is actually looking like he’s trying to make the world a better or at least a nicer place, whilst the people’s representatives in Westminster and No 10 Downing Street seem to be in a daily competition to get nastier. When he was Prince of Wales, the King gave an interview where he talked about being “Defender of Faith,” rather than “Defender of The Faith,” (a title which ironically bestowed on Henry VIII by the Pope just before he decided to ransack Catholic Monasteries). It caused an outcry at the time and there were issues with the Church. However, if you look the demographics of 2023 and compare them with his mother’s coronation in 1953, you’ll notice that the United Kingdom (UK) has become a far more multi-ethnic and multi-religious place. Given that the monarch is technically Head of the Church of England, the King has made it clear that he a dedicated Anglican but respects the right of all faiths: [LINK] King Charles, has to his credit made it a point of visiting Mosque and Gurdwaras, showing that it is possible to religious co-existence. One of the best symbols of the coronation was getting the first ever Hindu Prime Minister of the UK to read a biblical passage. What could symbolise religious harmony better than that? Apparently, some people or at least someone claiming to represent people had issues with that and denounced a “heathen Prime Minister,” reading from the Bible. Rishi Sunak has undoubtedly done my things that should be criticised but showing respect to another religion should not be one of them: [LINK] Then, you look at the issue that upsets the brown and black in the colonies – slavery and its links to the monarchy. There is a complaint that the King and Prince of Wales have only “expressed sorrow” for the suffering of slavery rather than giving an outright apology. The King has even gone as far as to back research into the monarchy’s ties to slavery: [LINK] As an ethnic Chinese, I understand the frustrations that colonised folks have with “non-apologies.” The Japanese have been getting away with non-apologies for years when it comes to everyone else in East Asia. However, let’s give credit where credit is due. The King, who is merely a symbol, is trying to acknowledge that the past was not bright and rosy. It is ironically, the Prime Minister, who is the son of colonial subjects, and the man who actually makes the decisions who has rejected calls for an apology or to pay reparations to the victims of the slave trade: [LINK] The Old White Man who isn’t allowed to say much sounds like an easy target. However, he’s the one making the appearance of doing the right thing. The real problem is a Prime Minister like Rishi Sunak and Home Secretaries like Priti Patel and Suella Braverman who have made going to war against poor and helpless brown and black people a part of their policy. Let’s look at the fact that its Suella Braverman, a decedent of colonial subjects who dreams of sending South Asians seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda. It was Prince (when he was still one) Charles, the then scion of a family that represents colonialism who spoke out against this policy. Instead of reconsidering, the government felt he was out of line getting involved in politics. I get that colonialism was not a happy time for us in the colonies. However, lets not take issue when the person making an effort to look like he’s trying to right the wrongs of the past and focus instead on the people making the actual decisions enforce the worst bits of the past in a modern context.   Tang Li *Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able to meet people who have crossed borders and cultures. I’ve befriended ministers and ambassadors and worked on projects involving a former head of state. Yet, at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of befriending migrant labourers and former convicts. All of them have a story to tell. All of them add to the fabric of life. I hope to express the stories that inspire us to create life as it should be.      Read More →