TR EMERITUS

I’m going to side track and shock my more liberal friends by defending a member of the ruling party in Singapore’s General Elections. The member is Mr. Murali Pillai, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bukit Batok Single Member Constituency (Bukit Batok SMC), who apparently said that he didn’t see why MPs were expected to serve the people full time and couldn’t keep their day jobs. This call has given the opposition plenty of opportunity to accuse PAP MP’s like Mr. Murali of being greedy opportunist who are more interested in extra money than in devoting their lives to serving the people. On the face of it, being an MP is a wonderful money-making scheme. If you’re elected into parliament, you get a monthly allowance of some $15,000 (three times the national average) and you are only work one day a week when you meet your constituents and even then, you have an army of grassroots volunteers who are so eager to please, they’ll do all the heavy lifting for you. Given this scenario, it’s only logical for one to take on another job as this job officially pays you to do not very much. When the Worker’s Party made Singapore’s electoral history by winning a single GRC (Group Representation Constituency – a concept unique to Singapore but it’s basically a case of voting for a single MP but getting four) in the 2011 General Election, the first thing that the Workers Party did was to announce that their MPs would only be MPs and live off the single income of an MPs allowance. It was a brilliant political move that was designed to show that the Worker’s Party MPs were going to be dedicated servants of the people as opposed to the ones from the ruling party, who were made to look like they were treating the MPs job as a summer getaway on the tax payers dime. While I get the political master stroke that this move is, I believe that the concept of making people work only one job is faulty. This is especially true in a time where innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) and robots are changing the job market in ways that we never imagined possible. Jobs that we thought of are no longer going to exist. Gone are the days when you joined a single department in a single company for the next fifty years. Tying people down to a single employer at any given time made sense when people worked for a large organization that would take care of them for life. However, in an era where organizations can dump you at a drop of a hat and be praised for creating “shareholder value,” this does not make sense. The only thing this does is to create a sense of insecurity among people and create a generation of neurotics who will do anything to keep onto that ever-precious job. It works beautifully for big time employers who haven’t exactly been good about raising salaries to keep up with inflation. I take the example of Singapore’s migrant worker population as an example. Thanks to the explosion of Covid-19 cases among are migrant worker community, the world became very aware of the sub-human conditions that our migrant workers were being housed in. It took a global pandemic for people to even pretend to understand that there was a gross mismatch in the power between the employers and the employees, which led to a national health crisis. One of the reasons for this mismatch in power between the employer and employee is the fact that the migrant workers are tied to the employers by law. The employer controls their right to stay in Singapore and the migrant worker has to put up with it. An employer can easily terminate the pass of migrant worker for the smallest infringement and choose other workers. By contrast, the migrant worker faces plenty of legal hurdles designed to give jobs to emasculated tin cans sitting in an office jacking off over spreadsheets, should he want to change his (they are mostly men) his employer because the current one is screwing him. I speak as someone who once had to fire 30 of them in a liquidation scenario. There are of course arguments that one has to be careful about conflicts of interest. For example, you cannot expect someone working in Human Resources at Coke to moonlight in the same role at Pepsi. Doing this would put most employers at risk – trade secrets would no longer exist. However, as long as you avoid such situations, there should be no reason why any worker should not be allowed to take a job on the side? I think of one of my best friends, who is a Nepali chef. He used to work for a hotel but on his spare days would cook at other restaurants. Didn’t please his HR but he had a reasonable argument, which was – “I can knowledge when I work other places, which I bring back.” It assumes that the knowledge of an employee is a monopoly of the employer. Contrary to what you might be told by the Singapore government, knowledge is not a static block but a flowing river and when people work in many places and in many different roles, they learn and share best practices. I had a relatively enlightened employer, who allowed me to keep working at the Bistrot. At first it was a little uncomfortable for him when common friend did point out that I was clearly happier in the Bistrot environment than in the office one. However, I had the chance to repay his kindness when I could introduce potential clients to him through people I had known at the restaurant. No sensible businessman who will depend on a single customer, so why should human beings depend on a single employer? The issue with our MPs is not so much a case of them having two well paid jobs. It’s a case of one of the employers not being willing to ask for more value. Mr. Murali is right, why can’t an MP hold down another job. The key here is that in return for the $15,000 monthly allowance, we should make Meet the People sessions every night. The MP can finish his day job at 6pm and then deal with constituents from 8 to 10 at night. That would be worth the money. Making people get tied down in an age of mobility and fluidity is to create slavery to an organization. The last time I checked, slavery was the antithesis to a normal society.   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 →

The one thing that must have caught the People’s Action Party by surprise on Nomination Day was the tactical switch by the Singapore Democratic Party to field Dr Paul Tambyah in Bukit Panjang SMC. Widely expected to anchor the SDP team at Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, Dr Tambyah will instead face off with the PAP’s Liang Eng Hwa, filling in for Dr Teo Ho Pin, who has retired. SDP chairman Dr Tambyah is a political veteran given the recent honour of being elected President of the International Society of Infectious Diseases. The surprise tactical switch to Bukit Panjang SMC should see a hotly contested battle – one that the PAP didn’t see coming. There will also be a rematch between the SDP’s Dr Chee Soon Juan and Murali Pillai of the PAP. Dr Chee hopes to turn the tables on the PAP candidate who beat him in the 2016 Bukit Batok by-election. SDP secretary-general Dr Chee has once again stressed the need for a full-time Member of Parliament. When he made this point in 2016, Minister Grace Fu said: “Dr Chee hopes to be a full-time MP. But you should note he’s not actually giving up a full-time job. As far as I know, he hasn’t held a steady job for many years.” Now, concerning the 10 million population dispute, the PAP has said of Dr Chee: “A leopard does not change its spots. The new Dr Chee – of which there have been many – is still the old Dr Chee.” What else is new? Despite the tough times he has had, Dr Chee said at one rally: If I leave, there will be one less voice against the government . . . I was born Singaporean. I was raised Singaporean. And I will die Singaporean. Will Bukit Batok voters reciprocate by finally sending Dr Chee to Parliament? Isn’t it about time?   Augustine Low      Read More →

With General Elections (GE) slated for 10th July, the Team@TRE is delighted to see an excellent lineup of candidates from various alternative parties stepping forward offering to serve. While most of the candidates are predominantly male, there is no lack of female candidates with the heart to serve, for example, Sylvia Lim and Nicole Seah of Workers Party (WP). Since Sylvia Lim and Nicole Seah are already household names which require no further introduction, we would like to feature 4 other female candidates from the alternative parties with 2 things in common: they are running for the first time in GE 2020, and have a strong background in volunteer work or social activism. These candidates are not parachuted into the GE 2020 arena, but have a history of community service, although our first featured candidate was already literally parachuting when she was 17 years old. Kala Manickam (PSP) Ms Kala Manickam (click to enlarge) That’s Kala Manickam, one of the Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) candidates for Nee Soon GRC. Kala is contesting alongside Damien Tay, Bradley Bowyer, Sri Nallakaruppan, and Taufik Supan for the 147,047-voter-strong constituency. In May 2020, in a Facebook post, Kala marked her 30th anniversary of joining the Singapore Armed Forces in its pioneer batch of women officers. Kala was 22 years when she entered SAF, and in the first batch of women cadets to undergo the Tri-Service training (army/navy/air force) alongside the guys. Kala spent 7 years in the military and rose to platoon commander. Not all is regimental with Kala, although she attributes her physical, mental and emotional health to the SAF. A keen sense of compassion started to be fostered in her when she joined the National Heart Centre and the Singapore General Hospital as an adult educator, where she remained for 6 years, working through the very critical SARS outbreak. In her twenty years of experience in training and adult education, Kala encountered many adults who required various forms of assistance, but those issues could only be effectively dealt with at the policy-level. So, naturally, the next step for her, in order to make a difference, is to become a Member of Parliament so that she can walk the talk to “serve the people with all your heart.” Kala entered politics in 2018. Kala’s determination, conviction and belief in education developed at a young age, which led her to take the challenging path of working part-time to support her family while pursuing her academic studies. As an educator, she advocates for a nurturing education system that is holistic, and which respects the uniqueness of each individual, instead of merely getting caught up in “completing and scoring at worksheets.” This will translate into a competent workforce and a happy society in the long term. We certainly hope to see her raise issues on education and workforce development in Parliament. Raeesah Khan (WP) Raeesah Khan is our second featured candidate. Raeesah is running alongside fellow WP members He Tingru, Jamus Lim, and Louis Chua in the Sengkang GRC which has 120,166 voters. Raeesah Khan At 26 years of age, Raeesah is the youngest candidate in GE 2020. That is a moot point however as she is keenly familiar with the political and social spaces in our country; her father is the former presidential candidate Farid Khan; her mother has been volunteering in shelters and orphanages. In fact, she had celebrated a few of her own birthdays with children in the orphanage. Raeesah has already made a space for herself as a social activist and marketing consultant. She founded the non-profit organisation called the Reyna Movement in 2016. The Reyna Movement aims to empower marginalised women through community engagement and upskilling programmes. It operates in Singapore and Malaysia and runs programmes related to psychosocial wellbeing, development, food support, and counselling. Raeesah graciously admits that she comes from a privileged background. We believe that what makes her stand out amongst her elite peers, is how she directed her privileges to bring about constructive change to the community, and thus making her one of us. I’ve had all the opportunities afforded to me. That’s why I’m so passionate about this, because I want to use my privilege for good. According to her Twitter profile she is “passionate about equality and stray cats.” She is a women’s rights activist and young mother. Her reasons for running in GE 2020 are, according to a video and a tweet from 29 June: “I’m running for Parliament to call out the deep-seated inequalities in our current system…” She notes that “vulnerable groups such as low-income families and the disabled are disproportionally affected… There is a need for long-term policy change and the elites should not be the only ones with seats at the table.” Indeed, COVID-19 has made “working from home” a very workable reality especially for the disabled. We look forward to Reeasah taking these issues to Parliament to level the playing field for the socially and physically disadvantaged. Min Cheong (SDP) Min Cheong is the third candidate in the spotlight. The Holland-Bukit Timah GRC is being contested this GE by the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and the People’s Action Party (PAP). Min Cheong (35) is running with teammates Alfred Tan, James Gomez, and Tan Jee Say. Min is a writer and marketing communications strategist who joined the party in 2011. Min Cheong In her own words, she hopes to nurture “a real appetite and aptitude for critical thinking and meaningful debate, empathy, as well as an unwavering desire to fight the good fight for people who need support alongside causes worth championing.” One of her other passions is what she calls “workforce wellness,” which encompasses an overarching approach to reform how people in Singapore live and work, covering areas ranging from “socio-economic sustainability, job creation, and innovation, career empowerment, organizational culture, and personal wellbeing.” A confessed “tech junkie,” Min has worked in startups, non-profit organisations, and MNCs in the areas of consumer technologies, telecommunications, and education. We think she will be excellent in the area of how digital technologies interact and shape the workforce and employment landscape. This issue is especially critical amongst members of the older workforce. We hope to see her propose policies in this area. To Min, as she likes to be called, the love and support from people from all walks of life including those she and her running mates met at Ghim Moh during a walkabout – “keeps us going and gives us the courage and conviction to continue fighting for all of you.” She hopes for “a Singapore we can all be happy in and proud of.” Interestingly, Min is accomplished in Krav Maga, or “contact combat” which is a military self-defense and fighting system derived from a combination of techniques sourced from martial arts such as Aikido, Boxing, and Wrestling Judo and Karate. Min trains with the local chapter of the International Federation of Krav Maga. Wendy Low (PSP) Wendy Low is the fourth, but by no means last in our featured group for this piece. Wendy is an Intellectual Property lawyer specialising in copyright, patent law, and confidentiality-related disputes. This is just one side of her. Wendy has shared openly and with passion, strength, and emotion about how strongly she feels about the inequality and lack of opportunities in our country. Wendy Low (center) Currently 43 years of age, Wendy is with the Progress Singapore Party. She is running in the Tanjong Pagar GRC which has 134,642 voters along with teammates Terence Soon, Abas Kasmani, Michael Chua, and Harish Pillay. Refreshingly, she has shared in Cantonese while on walkabouts and speaking about the election. She was drawn to the party when she heard Dr. Tan Cheng Bock. Wendy has lived in several parts of Singapore splitting her time between Tiong Bahru and Clementi during her primary school days. She jokes about being “a Tiong Bahru kid with a lot of pride.” She shares some personable and close-to-home anecdotes about how she got into law despite difficulties with the timing of the exam. Her nickname at home was ‘big cat eyes’ in dialect. It is truly heartening to see her interview in the PSP online portal in which she does not hold back on many aspects of her life the likes of which enable one to truly feel like they have had a privileged peek into her world. She speaks about how as a Singaporean she/we tend to believe that the homeless are taken care of in contrast to her actual encounters with homeless folks on the ground. She quotes the number of homeless Singaporeans as around a thousand according to a survey and says it is “the situation of them being there when we should have the resources,” noting that the majority are the working poor. She is also concerned about food waste; she compares food shop owners who dispose of their surplus unsold and therefore wasted stocks of food juxtaposed with the groups of people searching the bins for food for sustenance. Other groups she highlights are the cardboard collectors and those who rely on leftovers or items that have been deemed unsellable. Wendy has been interested in the lives of regular people since her childhood. Her empathy for others, in particular, the less privileged and the have-nots is truly an inspiration. The female candidates highlighted above are truly inspiring and have stay grounded on the needs of the community. Their years of experience within the community have given them an intuitive grasp of the problems and challenges that Singapore is facing. Together with their strength of character and professional background, they are ready to serve Singaporeans. Should we send them to Parliament to effect real structural and policy changes for a more fair and just Singapore?   . Please join our official Facebook page here and Twitter here. Do also invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Kindly note that both our Facebook and Twitter pages are updated in real-time via APIs, synced to our main website. 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