TR EMERITUS

"[Many] others [myself included] would not be comfortable carrying around a device that could possibly involve us in any police investigation even if we were innocent or merely eyewitnesses." Yes, that's a good point. We use the TraceTogether app voluntarily and in good faith, with trust in what the govt says - that it is "purely for contact tracing, period." But now, we may be forced (?), ordered (?), by the police to hand over our TT device in whatever investigation just because we happen to be near the scene of a crime or offence, even if we ourselves are not at all involved. This is a betrayal of trust. Period.   Andrew Loh      Read More →

Me, Myself anf I One of the most important developments to happen to me was to become a regular feature on TREmeritus, one of our prominent socio-political websites. Along with the Online Citizen, TREmeritus forms what you’d call the backbone of Singapore’s alternative media or the place where the voices that the mainstream refuses to acknowledge go to vent. The way it works is simple, I rant on my little blog that’s struggling to get a reader beyond me, myself and I and then TREmeritus picks it up the posting and my struggling rants get beautifully amplified, so much so that when someone told me that I was “known as a political writer,” I had problems comprehending the fact that I was known at all. One of the greatest joys of having your work published in sites like TREmeritus is the fact that you’ll develop a “fan” base of sorts. I am referring to the group who will inevitably have something to say about whatever you’re ranting about and they’ll do their best to make their opinions known. As a rule of thumb, the majority of comments will probably be offensive and be said in the most offensive way possible. However, I enjoy reading the comments and I get a certain thrill in returning the favour and republishing the most offensive ones on my social media. My ego is inevitably stoked when I realise that I somehow provoked someone into a new level of being “interesting.” One of my biggest fans is called “Tracy.” She inevitably makes it clear that she detests me to the core. Her hatred for me has reached the extent where it’s taken a curious sexual undertone and a part of me suspects that this is an ex-wife who hasn’t forgiven me for not treating a “normal” middle class life as a means to an end. I’ve had offers to be on the receiving end of a golden shower and been challenged to have thing done to me with her private bits. I just that if I were to take Tracy on her offer, that she’s presentable (I’m past the age of expecting “babes”) and washes down there. Anyway, Tracy is the inspiration for this current posting because I noticed that in three of my last post, Tracy decided that I was a “shit-stirrer” who was always picking quarrels and that I should suffer a horrible fate for being a “shit-stirrer.” Tracy then proceeded to expose me as an ignoramus by telling me that whatever happened to “Zhang Zhan” should happen to me. I got to confess that I ended up having to Google Zhang Zhan because I didn’t know who the heck she was and I realized that if Tracy’s dreams were ever to come true, it would be a good thing. Sure, I’d suffer a horrible fate but at least, my little life would have been of some value to the greater good – as in the type of good that more than makes up for whatever you didn’t do in terms of material achievement. Zhang Zhan is probably what you’d call the “unsung” hero of Covid-19. She is the “citizen journalist” who exposed the Chinese Communist Party’s attempt to cover the full extent of Covid-19. For her efforts, Ms. Zhang was arrested and thrown into a gulag. However, thanks to her, the world got a much clearer picture of the virus and its effects. The story can be found at: [LINK] While the comparison with Ms. Zhang was flattering, I am, unfortunately an insignificant speck on the scale of things. Ms. Zhang braved a brutal communist regime’s attempts to cover it’s shit so that people would be informed about what has effectively been one of the most prominent issues of this new decade. I by contrast, merely made the point that we should never justify certain prejudices that we have and allow them to be made into public policy. The regime I live under, is not China’s CCP. Tracy also helped me to understand that society does need “shit-stirrers.” Sure, most of us try to avoid swimming in the smelly stuff because nobody wants to be covered in the smelly stuff. However, while nobody wants to get covered in shit, there is a need to deal with it because if shit left alone to fester, there is a potential that it will cause diseases. Jolovan Wham Case in point – treatment of foreign workers. We had a shit-stirrer called Jolovan Wham who spent years talking about the horrible conditions that foreign workers were being housed in. He was, as they say, a shit stirrer because he was upsetting the construction industry by publicly suggesting the industry pay more for humane housing for workers, upsetting the government by insisting it do something about a group of people who didn’t vote and he probably upset a few foreign workers who got scared that his agitations would bring the wrath of employers onto them. Most people didn’t give a shit and didn’t exactly think this shit stirrer was doing anything useful to their lives other than to throw shit at them. Then Covid-19 broke out in the dormitories. Whatever money the construction companies saved by keeping the workers housed in unsanitary conditions was spent in lost days as workers could not go out to work. The government realized that it had to act or risk losing its star status in Covid Crisis management that it had garnered from the international press. More importantly, the general public was forced to confront the fact that the workers were housed in shit and were a real threat to their well being because they were in position to spread the infection to the wider society, Far from being a “shit-stirrer,” Mr. Wham was in fact trying to be a shit cleaner, who saw the shit and tried to get the rest of us to clean the shit. However, we saw him as a shit stirrer and have labeled holding up a smiley face as the biggest threat to national security since the Japanese Imperial Army marched into Singapore. If you look at people like Mr. Wham, who have been charged in court for all sorts of interesting charges, you have to appreciate the fact that being a shit stirrer is not a bad thing. Quite often shit stirrer’s are in fact shit cleaners that we choose to ignore because we’re convinced that own shit does not smell and everyone around us will benefit from the shit rather like manure. So, it becomes easy to label the shit cleaner is a shit stirrer and we keep beating up the shit cleaner for being a shit stirrer. Then one day the shit explodes and before you know it, we’re covered in shit, flies and disease. So, the next time you think someone is being a shit stirrer, it’s probably best to hear them out and to see if they’re actually shit cleaners trying to get us to clean shit rather than shit stirrers trying to throw shit at us. Listening for a few minutes to discern whether someone is a shit stirrer or a shit cleaner is cheaper than having shit explode in your face.   Tang Li *Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able 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 →

Minister Balakskrishnan (VB), who is in charge of the Smart Nation initiative, said a few months ago that the data collected under Trace Together (TT) app is not stored in the government servers and that kept privately in the user's mobile phone. Minister of State of Home Affairs Desmond Tan (DT) said in Parliament that the government is empowered, under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), to access the data on the mobile phone. This cause an uproar. The citizens said that they have been misled by the government on the privacy of the data. Some people said that they will stop using the Trace Together app. This caused minister VB to have "sleepless nights". He realized that had "misspoke" about the privacy of the data in the TT app. Here is my perspective about the whole issue. I think it can be described as "making a mountain out of a molehill". It is exaggerating a small problem and making it appear to be a big problem. Under the CPC, the police is empowered to confiscate the personal computer of the suspect. The personal data that is stored in the computer is more sensitive and richer than the data in the Trace Together app. If there is privacy concern about police investigation, it should be targeted at the confiscation of the computer and documents that are being accessed, rather than the TT data. The extension of the power of the police to the TT data is quite a small issue. What can the police see when they access the TT data? They can know who are the people that were in close contact with the suspect during the past 14 days. This data excludes the physical location of the data that was captured. The possibility of the data being useful for the police investigation was so low that it was not worth considering. Why should it cause one minister to have sleepless nights and another minister to declare that he has the power to access the data? I find this situation to be quite ridiculous. I am concerned that it reflects poorly on the quality of the thinking and logic of the two ministers. Is this the quality of our ministers?   Tan Kin Lian      Read More →