TR EMERITUS

I wish I was an Indian National A*Star scholar instead of a Singaporean. If I wasn’t a Singaporean, I wouldn’t have to pay for my own school fees. I also wouldn’t have to apply for a bank loan for my tertiary studies in future like my elder brother did, even though he got 3As and 1B for his A-level results. If I were a foreign scholar, I could study for free in Singapore, get free housing and free allowance. A Singaporean student gets As and still must find his own way to pay his school fees and living expenses. A foreigner can get a free ride. If I were a foreign scholar, I can live off Singaporean taxpayers and do not need to do National Service after A-levels or Poly. National Service is a waste of time and a burden. NS is a waste of time because unlike my father’s generation, I am no longer defending Singaporeans anymore. I am defending foreigners who get treated better by a Singapore government simply because they are not Singaporeans. Even my father says so. My father finished his NS and reservist cycle. In the end, he has to work under a foreign boss who openly favours foreigners, especially his own kind. My father says the number of Singaporeans in his office is shrinking every year. They have been replaced by foreigners who are not cheaper, but simply because they are foreigners. The boss even openly says he does not welcome Singaporean applicants because they have to do reservist and it affects work. Such things did not happen 20 years ago. Now, more and more foreign bosses feel that way. But they are smart enough not to say it in front of a Singapore minister, who is stupid enough to think that they really support Singaporean staff going away for reservist. I know all these because my parents fight over money often. How can they not, when cost of living is going up much faster than salary, and my father is living in constant fear that his job will soon be given to a foreigner? He always say the writing is on the wall. My father predicted that if one day Singapore goes to war, when all the Singaporean soldiers return from reservist, they will find themselves all fired by their foreign bosses in the name of ‘restructuring’. He says that as long as the company uses the right phrase, MOM will not question why. So far, the government has not stopped my father’s foreign boss from firing Singaporeans and giving the jobs to his own countrymen. If our country continues to treat foreigners better than citizens, when war comes, then ask our foreign scholars and foreign bosses to fight for Singapore. We give them so much benefits. My brother says that for every one scholarship that we give to a Singaporean student, we probably are giving out at least 5 to a foreigner. I wish I was a foreign student instead of a Singaporean. I don’t have to do NS and I have a much better chance of getting a good scholarship instead of a cheap, derisory bursary, even though my school results and CCA results are as good as the foreigner.   Singapore student * Comment appeared in: A*STAR India Youth Scholarship    Read More →

A total of 96 questions will be raised by MPs, NCMPs and NMPs in Parliament tomorrow (7 Jul) [Link]. 24 of these 96 questions (i.e. 25%) will be raised by opposition MPs. At present, there are 99 MPs in Parliament consisting of: 80 PAP MPs 7 Opposition MPs 3 Opposition NCMPs 9 NMPs PAP MP Alvin Yeo who only asked 1 question in the whole of last year did not raise any questions for tomorrow's parliamentary sitting ('ST avoids mentioning Alvin Yeo is a PAP MP in report'). Questions to be raised in Parliament on 7 July 2014 by opposition MPs: Gerald Giam (5 questions): Questions for oral answer: • Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Transport under the new Government contracting model for public buses (a) how does the Government plan to buy back the public bus infrastructure and operating assets currently owned by the two public transport operators (PTOs); (b) how will the value of these assets be assessed; (c) how will the Government ensure that the PTOs do not profit from the disposal of these assets; and (d) how will the Government fund these asset purchases. • Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Transport (a) whether the Government expects to make an operating loss over the long term under the new Government contracting model for public buses; and (b) approximately how much operating subsidies the Government expects to inject into the public bus system each year. • Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Transport (a) whether the Government has any plans to extend the new public bus contracting model to the MRT system; and (b) whether the Government is satisfied with the current MRT ownership and operating model. Questions for written answer: • Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Transport (a) whether there is apportionment of costs between SMRT and LTA for the $900 million rail asset renewal plan announced by SMRT in 2012; (b) if so, what is the apportionment of the costs between SMRT and LTA and the basis for the apportionment; and (c) how will the asset renewal plan be affected by the Rail Financing Model proposal submitted by SMRT. • Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Transport what are the details of the Rail Financing Model proposal submitted by SMRT. Yee Jenn Jong (3 questions): Questions for oral answer: • Mr Yee Jenn Jong: To ask the Minister for Communications and Information in respect of the recent security breach of SingPass accounts (a) what additional interim and permanent measures are being put in place to ensure that the operator carries out its operational roles, particularly in the monitoring, investigation and flagging of suspicious activities on the platform; (b) what is the latest update on the Ministry's investigations into the breaches, including when the full findings will be released; and (c) whether efforts have been made to find out whether the security breach is larger than the 1,560 accounts reported. • Mr Yee Jenn Jong: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development since 2001 (a) what percentage of the Child Development Co-Savings Scheme budget allocated for babies born into households of one-room to three-room flats, four-room flats, five-room and executive flats, and private property respectively, have been disbursed; (b) what percentage of children in each of these household types have received the full co-matching amount; and (c) what are the reasons for the differences in take-up rates amongst these groups, if any. • Mr Yee Jenn Jong: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry whether the Ministry will provide a national data bank on commercial rentals including effective rents with variable components and, if so, when. Lina Chiam (3 questions): Questions for oral answer: • Mrs Lina Chiam: To ask the Minister for Law (a) how many pawnshops have been established from 2011 to 2013; (b) what is the total amount disbursed by these pawnshops; and (c) how many defaulters could not redeem their items as they could not meet the repayment of their loans. • Mrs Lina Chiam: To ask the Minister for Health if the means-testing process for the Community Health Assist Scheme should take into consideration other assets such as bank deposits. • Mrs Lina Chiam: To ask the Minister for Education whether the Ministry will consider relooking at the competition framework for inter-school games to ensure a level playing field for students athletes from regular schools and those from the Singapore Sports School. Pritam Singh (4 questions): Questions for oral answer: • Mr Pritam Singh: To ask the Prime Minister in light of the discovery of unused ballot boxes that are not disposed of in a proper manner during the last presidential election (a) whether the Elections Department has studied the prospect of treating all ballot boxes, used or unused, as controlled items until the point of destruction in all future elections; and (b) what changes has the Elections Department introduced to its processes to prevent the occurrence of a similar incident in future. Questions for written answer: • Mr Pritam Singh: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs if he can provide (i) the racial breakdown (Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Others), in percentages, of full-time national servicemen and regulars who are currently serving in the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) respectively; and (ii) the racial breakdown (Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Others), in percentages, of NSmen in SPF and SCDF respectively. • Mr Pritam Singh: To ask the Minister for Defence if he can provide (i) the racial breakdown (Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Others), in percentages, of full-time national servicemen and regulars who are currently serving in the Air Force, Navy and Army respectively; and (ii) the racial breakdown (Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Others), in percentages, of NSmen in the Air Force, Navy and Army respectively. • Mr Pritam Singh: To ask the Minister for Defence if he can provide (i) the racial breakdown (Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Others), in percentages, of full-time national servicemen and regulars who are currently trained in the artillery, signals and armour vocations of the Army respectively; and (ii) the racial breakdown (Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Others), in percentages, of NSmen in the aforesaid vocations. Muhamad Faisal (4 questions) Questions for written answer: • Mr Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs of the full-time national servicemen and regulars currently serving in the Singapore Police Force and Singapore Civil Defence Force (a) what is the breakdown in percentages of those who are (i) senior officers (ii) junior officers (iii) non-commissioned officers, respectively; and (b) for each group, what is the racial breakdown in percentages for (i) Chinese (ii) Malay (iii) Indian (iv) Others, respectively. • Mr Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs of the NSmen currently serving in the Singapore Police Force and Singapore Civil Defence Force (a) what is the breakdown in percentages of those who are (i) senior officers (ii) junior officers (iii) non-commissioned officers respectively; and (b) for each group, what is the racial breakdown in percentages for (i) Chinese (ii) Malay (iii) Indian (iv) Others respectively. • Mr Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap: To ask the Minister for Defence of the full-time national servicemen and regulars currently serving in the Air Force, Navy and Army (a) what is the breakdown in percentages of those who are (i) commissioned officers (ii) warrant officers (iii) specialists (iv) enlistees, respectively; and (b) for each group, what is the racial breakdown in percentages for (i) Chinese (ii) Malay (iii) Indian (iv) Others, respectively. • Mr Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap: To ask the Minister for Defence of the NSmen currently serving in the Air Force, Navy and Army (a) what is the breakdown in percentages of those who are (i) commissioned officers (ii) warrant officers (iii) specialists (iv) enlistees, respectively; and (b) for each group, what is the racial breakdown in percentages for (i) Chinese (ii) Malay (iii) Indian (iv) Others, respectively. Chen Show Mao (3 questions): Questions for written answer: • Mr Chen Show Mao: To ask the Minister for Health (a) how many patients have benefited from the Interim Caregiver Service to-date; (b) how many people are currently on the waitlist and how long is the waitlist; (c) how many instances have there been where patients who qualify for the service have turned down the service and why; and (d) how many caregivers will there be when the service is made available this year to all restructured hospitals and community hospitals and how many patients can this number of caregivers support. • Mr Chen Show Mao: To ask the Minister for Health (a) how many patients have made claims from Medisave for overseas elective treatments each year since such use was approved; (b) how much has been claimed per year since such use was approved; (c) what is the breakdown of the treatments that claims have been made for; and (d) in cases where the treatments required hospitalisation, how many days of hospital stay per year do the claims represent. • Mr Chen Show Mao: To ask the Minister for Health (a) what dollar amounts in pre-employment grants (PEG) have been awarded to medical and dental students since the inception of the scheme; (b) how many medical and dental students respectively received offers of PEG; and (c) how many accepted such offers to work in Singapore. Lee Li Lian (2 questions): Questions for written answer: • Ms Lee Li Lian: To ask the Minister for Education what is the median salary of teachers who are graduates and diploma holders respectively at (i) MOE kindergartens and (ii) primary schools. • Ms Lee Li Lian: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development in respect of Singaporean children eligible for the Child Development Account (CDA) as of 31 December 2013 (a) what is the percentage of (i) children who have not opened an account; (ii) first-born and second-born children whose parents have not saved up to the maximum of $6,000 in their accounts; (iii) children with maximum CDA savings whose savings are used up in the first six years; and (b) what is the total amount of CDA funds used for education, healthcare and others respectively.    Read More →

"Ong Ye Kung poised for comeback in new GRC", so crows the lapdog sheet, the Straits Times. If readers can recall, Ong was among the losing PAP candidates in Aljunied GRC. Shortly after he lost the election, he also resigned from NTUC despite having been just promoted to the post of Deputy Secretary General during the elections. Ong Ye Kung joined SMRT as Assistant Secretary General in 2008. In the last few years, Singapore's income inequality rose to the highest level among developed countries. Ong is also on the SMRT's Board of Director and we all know SMRT had been fraught with morale problems under Saw Phaik Hwa culminating in the strike by a group of drivers in 2012. It was also revealed that unlike SBS in which 9 out of 10 China drivers were in the union, only 1 in SMRT was. Where was Ong Ye Kung when all these problems were developing? What significant constructive contributions did he make to enhance the welfare of workers as the Assistant and then Deputy Secretary General? So voters need to ask themselves: can you trust Ong Ye Kung to be your representative, your leader; if he did not and could not even take care of workers' welfare?   The Alternative View [source]: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Alternative-View/358759327518739    Read More →