TR EMERITUS

London-based Global Witness said that Cambodia's sand-dredging industry threatened endangered species, fish stocks and local livelihoods, despite the government's May 2009 ban on sand-dredging. "This situation highlights the continued failure of Cambodia's international donors to use their leverage to hold the small elite surrounding the Prime Minister to account," said George Boden, campaigner at Global Witness. "Cambodia's natural resource wealth should be lifting its population out of poverty." Koy Koung, the spokesman and undersecretary of state at Cambodia's Foreign Affairs Ministry, said he was unable to comment as the government had not seen the Global Witness report. The report said Singapore was the world's largest importer of sand in 2008 and has used sand imports to increase its landmass by 22 per cent since the 1960s. It said this development has wreaked havoc on the region's coastlines, with Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia having all announced bans on sand dredging for export due to environmental concerns. Global Witness said it had tracked boats being loaded with sand in Cambodia to their destinations in Singapore, a regional base for manufacturers and banks that is expanding its financial centre and leisure attractions onto reclaimed land. The Singapore government said sand imports for reclamation were done on a commercial basis by a government entity, with sand concession holders determining the source locations. "We are committed to the protection of the global environment, and we do not condone the illegal export or smuggling of sand, or any extraction of sand that is in breach of the source countries' laws and rules on environmental protection," Singapore's Ministry of national Development said. "The policing and enforcement of sand extraction licenses is ultimately the responsibility of the source country," it added. "Singapore says that the import of sand is a purely commercial activity but it also presents itself as a regional leader on environmental issues," said Global Witness' Boden. "If Singapore wants its environmental stance to be taken seriously, monitoring where the sand is sourced and what is being done to obtain it would be an obvious place to start."   By Neil Chatterjee Source: Reuters    Read More →

       As a Chinese-majority state sandwiched between 2 large Malay neighbours, Singapore has adopted national service since 1967 and established 350,000 strong SAF as a deterrent against any external military aggression. Being a small island state with no strategic depth, the SAF has been organized with an offensive posture in the form of combined arms divisions, an amphibious division and has acquired offensive weapons such as leopard tanks, self-propelled artillery, apache helicopters, Chinook helicopters, etc. This suggested that the SAF has adopted a land offensive or forward- defence strategy in defending Singapore against external threat. In the book on “Defending the Lion City”, Tim Huxley had suggested that Singapore is using a forward-defence military doctrine.        However, a forward defence strategy is based on the assumption is that the SAF is able to obtain accurate and timely intelligence on the movement of the adversary’s forces and is able to launch a first strike before they build up their forces to launch their attack on Singapore. However, what if intelligence failed? Unlike Israel which possess the strategic depth that enable the Israelis Defence Force to reorganize its forces before launching a counter offensive during the Yom Kipper War in 1973, in which the failure of the intelligence services had resulted in a surprise attack by Eypt and Syria, Singapore do not have the advantage of strategic depth due to its small land area. Hence, the landing of hostile foreign troops in Singapore would mean the end of Singapore.         Based on information obtained in SgWiki, intelligence in the SAF is well protected and little is known of the method of intelligence collection. However it is well-known that the SAF is probably the most advanced in SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) and imagery intelligence . On the other hand, however, does it mean that with an advance SIGINT and imagery intelligence, the SAF Intelligence Corps is efficient and able to provide early warning to the Singapore government and the SAF top military leaders of an impending military conflict?       The above limitations of Signal Intelligence and Imagery Intelligence of the SAF Intelligence Corps means that if an adversary wish to launch a surprise attack on Singapore, they can deployed a small group of soldiers/civilians to communicate with one another over radios as a form of deception and counterintelligence, while at the same time, deploying dummy soldiers, tanks, etc. on the ground to portray a large concentration of forces in a certain area, while their real concentration of forces are taking place on another area to launch a surprise attack on Singapore.            The limitations of the SAF Intelligence Corps are weakened by the increase of the retirement age of the SAF Intelligence personnel to 60 years old under the MDES scheme introduced by MINDEF in 2010. By increasing the retirement age of the SAF Intelligence personnel, it implies that the SAF Intelligence Corps will comprise of a large pool of elderly military personnel, whose sharpness of eyesight and hearing ability will be affected by their old age and whose mind will be less quick thinking in analyzing the information obtained intercepted from radio communications and air photos captured by UAVs and satellites. Moreover, by increasing the retirement age of the SAF Intelligence personnel, it means that the intelligence personnel will hold a particular post in their entire career longer. Hence, this means that should the intelligence personnel make a mistake when analyzing the intelligence obtained, the mistake will not be discovered if the particular personnel choose to hide his mistakes from his superior to protect his own career.        With the limitations of Signal Intelligence and Imagery Intelligence capabilities of the SAF Intelligence Corps, coupled with the increase in retirement age of the SAF Intelligence personnel, the SAF Intelligence Corps has “Eyes that do not see, Ears that do not hear.” Hence, will the SAF become like “a man without ears and eyes” and a national institution with the blinds leading the blinds?   Kelvin Kok  Read More →

The latest BTO project in Punggol is 6 times oversubscribed a day after it was launched, a sign that the present supply of public housing is far inadequate to meet rising demand. The prices of HDB resale flats continue to sky-rocket, rising 3.8 per cent to a fresh record in the second quarter compared to the first quarter based on preliminary figures released by HDB. The Straits Times reports today that property analysts have revised their estimates for resale flat price rises to between 12 to 15 percent. The astronomical prices are caused partly by the shortage of new flats and rising demand fueled by the relentless influx of foreigners. The ruling party had made known its ambitious plan to increase Singapore’s population to 6.5 million via immigration as early as 2005. However, only slightly more than 11,000 new flats were built between the years 2006 – 2008 when there were over 90,000 PRs and 20,000 new citizens alone in 2008: [Source: HDB Financial Report 2008/2009] Below is a graph illustrating how the rise in the prices of resale flats coincides with the rise in the number of foreigners in Singapore between the years 2000 and 2008, courtesy of Kojakbt, the moderator of 3in1kopitiam: Due to the ruling party’s liberal immigration policy, foreigners now made up 36 per cent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 per cent in 1990. The influx of PRs also contribute to a spike in the prices of resale flats as they have higher spending prowess and are willing to spend more. Two weeks ago, a new citizen from India and YPAP leader Sinha Shekhar boasted on the REACH Facebook that he owns both a private property and resale flat which is being rented out for income. Mr Sinha even whined publicly that the rental from his HDB flat is insufficient to cover for his bank instalments when there are many young Singapore couples who are unable to afford a roof over their heads. He subsequently deleted his comments as he did not want to appear as a "show off". Below is a snapshot of Mr Sinha Shekhar’s comments, courtesy of our reader James Ong: [Source: REACH Facebook] Despite evidence showing otherwise, PAP National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan is adamant that PRs who form some 20 percent of the buyers of resale flats, have "no impact" on the prices. He also chided Singapore home buyers for being "fussy".   Debunking official myths of HDB flats series: 1 Myth 1: Singaporeans are “owners” of their HDB flats 2. Myth 2: HDB flats are “affordable” to most Singaporeans 3. Myth 3: Rising prices of HDB flats “generate” wealth for Singaporeans   Related articles: >> Mah Bow Tan: HDB flats are still affordable to first time flat buyers >> Why Mah Bow Tan’s policy of high HDB flats is wrong >> Letter to Mah Bow Tan on HDB policies >> Singaporean want govt to allay anxiety over HDB leasehold >> Mah Bow Tan embarrassed by Reform Party’s Hazel Poa >> Mah Bow Tan: “Unrealistic” expectations to blame for unhappiness about flats >> Taiwanese PR paid record $ 650,000 for 4-room resale flat >> Grace Fu: PRs are helpful to HDB flat owners selling their flats >> HDB launches “traveling exhibition” to trumpet its achievements in the heartlands >> PAP to upgrade 12,000 HDB households ahead of next election >> Mah Bow Tan: We do not want flat prices to go down >> Prices of resale flats to rise further as PR quota reached >> Taiwanese PR offers $50k COV for resale flat >> Mah Bow Tan: PRs have minimal impact on resale flat prices >> No empirical evidence to suggest that public housing is affordable in Singapore >> When will Singapore’s property bubble burst? >> Why HDB is unable to reveal break down costs of new flats now >> HDB to consider introducing rules to curb property speculation >> HDB blames Singaporeans for not selecting flats when given the chance >> Singaporeans worried about retirement after depleting CPF to pay for over-priced HDB flats >> Mah Bow Tan acknowledged that rising HDB flat prices has sparked “fresh concerns” >> PM Lee: Govt does not have control over prices of resale flats” >> COVs of resale flats shooting through the roof >> HDB resale price index hit record high in 2009 >> Singaporean wants PRs to live in rented flats instead of buying resale flats >> Singaporeans wants PRs to be banned from selling HDB flats at a profit >> Shanmugam: Singaporeans likely culprits for driving up HDB flat prices >> Mah Bow Tan: HDB flats remain affordable >> Means testing for PRs to buy resale flats >> Immigration and public housing: should the govt or people plan ahead? >> Grace Fu: hard to predict demand for housing >> Indonesian PR bought 4-room flat at $653,000 >> Mah Bow Tan asks home buyers to be realistic >> PAP MP blames young couples who cannot get a flat for not planning ahead >> Home affordability: HDB versus the public >> Demand vs supply: so many applicants, so few flats >> Number of applicants exceed number of flats >> HDB to increase supply of flats >> Mah: don’t compare with prices in the past >> ERA: 40 per cent of HDB flat buyers are PRs     Please join our Facebook discussion on this article here and invite your friends to do so as well to raise awareness among fellow Singaporeans. This page is maintained independently by a TR reader.   Copyright © 2009 – 2010 The Temasek Review  Read More →