TR EMERITUS

By Lee Wei Lian from The Malaysian Insider The Penang government’s open tender spree in the past few months could put the federal government in a bad light as both strive to show the public that they stand for transparency and excellence. While both have initiated efforts to make procurement more transparent to the public, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Penang government seems to have taken the lead with a stream of open tenders announcements for its big ticket items while the Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government has appeared very slow off the mark. Among landmark projects that were tendered out by the Penang state government include the multi-billion 100 acre Bayan Mutiara township project, the restoration of Fort Cornwallis, restoration of Crag Hotel, management of the Penang International Sports Arena and the Penang Hill facelift. Upcoming tenders include that for the Pulau Jerejak tourist development project. n the case of the Bayan Mutiara project, the Penang government seems to have taken a leaf out of the Singapore playbook and has opened the tender to international bidders in an attempt to build an “iconic, prestigious and sustainable” development. Singapore’s newest landmarks — the two world class integrated resorts (IR) at Sentosa Island and Marina Bay were built by international investors.  A subsidiary of Malaysia’s own Genting Berhad had built the IR at Sentosa Island. The federal government on the other hand has been slow to open up major projects to open tenders. The highly valuable 65 acre piece of government land in the prestigious Jalan Duta area was privatised last November to the Naza group without an open tender. Other major parcels of land where open tenders have yet to be called for redevelopment include the 3,300 acre Malaysia Rubber Board land in Sungai Buloh and the redevelopment of the 400 acre Sungai Besi Airport and the development of the 85 acre KL Financial District. Other valuable tracts of land where no open tenders have been called include 204 acres of government land in Jalan Cochrane and land at Jalan Peel and Jalan Lidcol. The open tender debate in Malaysia is a politically charged one as it is widely acknowledged that many if not most government contracts and licenses go to companies controlled by persons close to the political leadership. As companies are not selected based on merit, completed projects and public services are often of poor quality despite high costs and subject to much public complaint. Both governments also maintain public procurement portals but Penang had launched its portal first. The federal government portal — MyProcurement — also suffered the embarrassment of having glaring data entry errors discovered just a few days after being launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. While Najib has taken steps to tidy up procurement and the New Economic Model (NEM) framework mooted by his administration has also stressed the need for open tenders, the slow pace at which such reforms are taking place under his administration are leaving many wondering if anything has really changed. The danger for the prime minister than is that the island state will prove to be much more serious in terms of public accountability and performance and his government will suffer in comparison. While some expressed fears that the Penang open tender system would penalise Bumiputeras, Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng quashed such claims and revealed in January that 70 per cent of tenders from two state owned firms were won by Bumiputera contractors. He said that Malay contractors had won 16 out of 23 tender awards, or 70 per cent, from the Penang Development Corporation(PDC) and 44 out of 66 or 67 per cent of contracts issued by the Perbadanan Bekalan Air Pulau Pinang(PBAPP) in open tenders since March 2008. Najib has had to contend with continued demand for quotas set aside for Malay contractors after he said the NEM will free the economy and make it more competitive. Malay rights group point out that the BN government has yet to meet the 30 per cent target for Malay equity with just nearly 20 per cent since the New Economic Policy (NEP) came to effect in 1970. But detractors say the amount does not include equity by government units and companies investing on behalf of the Malays and Bumiputeras such as PNB and others. Source: The Malaysian Insider  Read More →

Since Temasek Review published an article on the sexuality preference of YPAP leader Jack Lin, some Netizens have slammed TR for getting "personal and degenerating into a personal vendetta with this article". (YPAP leader Jack Lin Xinli is Gay, claims fellow Gay Netizen, TR - 1st Aug) Jermin Chia: Whether Jack Lin is gay or not is out of the question. Personal attacks of any sort should not be condoned and we must not stoop the to the level of the party that TR dislikes. terrible: TR, you should be ashamed of yourself for even publishing this on your blog. Why do you even want to follow the low rag newspapers like TNP and the evening Chinese papers? Karl: I used to feel that Temasek Review would become an alternate choice of media representation for Singapore. However, after this incident, I feel that the team behind Temasek Review lack the maturity to be objective in reporting news. TR worst then SPH: I am going to change my nick, TR now do not even deserve to be mention in the same league as SPH. There are things that even SPH do not do. So was TR wrong to publish Jack Lin's sexual preference?  One reader has this to say: TR is an open forum. An open forum means contributors put out what they want to say. Yes, you censor the juicy bits but you have to (no choice) put out what contributions had been made. Is TR worse than SPH? Definitely not. TR has no agenda. It does not work for any particular group. SPH is owned by the Government and does the Government’s biddings. If TR does not publish this article contributed by a fellow netizen, then it should close because it is a closed forum – it is selective. As for what I think, it astonishes me that some people here still view Jack Lin Xinli as a victim of an “outing” – to have his sexuality dragged out into the open against his will. IMHO, if he hadn’t offended so many people with his remarks about “3rd class citizens” in the first place, would anyone be interested in his sexuality in the first place? There are loads of gay people in Singapore – why is the public interested in this one in particular and not others? Answer: because the other gays have not gone around offending other Singaporeans and insulting them. And you wonder why they are using this against Jack Lin. All I can say is that this guy was responsible for his own downfall – he doesn’t need anyone from TR to sabotage him, he has sabotaged himself and has no one to blame but himself.     Forecaster Extraordinarie II   P/S: And if TR "lack the maturity to be objective in reporting news" as claimed by some readers, then this article would not have seen the light of day.  Read More →

Hello everyone, I am currently a student at the National University of Singapore. Please understand that due to my ongoing studies I cannot reveal my name, faculty or year to you. What I'm going to share with you is a very riveting experience that I recently had. A few months ago I was approached on campus by a middle-aged man. I was having my lunch in the canteen and he came and sat next me. Although I found it slightly akward, he presented himself as being a late student that wanted to take up a degree at NUS and so I agreed to chat. He started out by just casually asking me about my studies and what I learn about in my course. After about 10 minutes, things started getting weird. The man kept asking me about whether politics are discussed in my class and what are my views on local and international issues. I replied most of them in a generic fashion, and he smiled at my every answer. He then asked me about my lecturer, what his teaching style is like and what are the kinds of reading material he recommends us. At this point I started feeling quite uncomfortable and wanted to leave, but curiousity got the better of me and I wanted to know what this guy's agenda really was because he mentioned my lecturer. We had talked for about 25 minutes, and he asked me how I'm getting by financially. I told him that I'm alright, trying to give him as little information about myself as I could. The man then popped the question, "How about I make you a good offer? I know you're not doing well financially. I am from the Internal Security Department. We are interested in knowing more about what your lecturer is talking about in class." "I'm sorry, I'm don't think I can do that sort of thing." I replied. "No don't worry, nothing is going to happen to you or your lecturer. Everything will be kept under wraps. You'll get $3000 for this simple project of reporting back to us" he said as he gave a light smile. Let me tell you, $3000 for a student like myself is a huge amount. But I just couldn't. For reasons I cannot explain here, I know why my lecturer was targeted and why I was approached for this "job". But I just need to get this out and I'm almost on the verge of tears as I write this. Singaporeans, let me remind all of you that this authoritarian state is playing a very sick game even in this day and age, even on the NUS campus. But that is all the more reason why need to stand up to them. To any of my fellow students or students-to-be reading this, please continue speaking up in class. When you are approached by the government to do such dirty work, turn it down politely and keep your conscience clear. Thank you.   NUS Student   Editor’s Note: This letter is published verbatim and the source of the accusation is not verified. Readers please draw your own conclusion.  Read More →