TR EMERITUS

Pop singer Ho Yeow Sun has been called up for questioning by police from the Commercial Affairs Department, the Straits Times reports today. On May 31, 17 members from the City Harvest Church was hauled up for investigations by the police for alleged misuse of church funds including Ms Ho's husband Senior Pastor Kong Hee. Ms Ho was not one of them as she was in the United States then. She is currently helping the police in its investigations upon her return. She has declined to speak to the media, referring them to her legal representative instead. Senior Pastor Kong Hee had largely kept out of the public spotlight so far since being implicated in the probe. Founded in 1989, City Harvest has grown to be the largest church in Singapore with a congregation of 33,000.     Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us.  Read More →

The Malaysian Insider, 17 June 2010 Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today continued his push for a siege mentality among the Malays by pointing out that the community’s political leaders were now under the thumb of “the others” and need to be united again for the sake of its future. Writing in his blog today, the former prime minister cited as an example of his argument the fall of the Perak Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government “led by a Malay (but) a certain race considered it the fall of a government belonging to their race.” Dr Mahathir has been stepping up his rhetoric in recent months to lobby for the current Umno leadership to respond to disquiet among conservative Malays. Backed by increasingly influential right-wing Malay groups like Perkasa, Dr Mahathir and his supporters have rattled Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s reform agenda. While Dr Mahathir and Perkasa have not directly criticised Najib, they have slammed some of his ministers and proposed policies for not fulfilling the “Malay agenda.” The former premier’s blog entry today was the second time this week in which he has argued that Malays were losing out to other communities in “their own country”, in remarks which even he has acknowledged could be construed as racist. “I will be accused of being a chauvinist and racist for voicing my opinion. I am willing to be labelled as such. My intention is to remind us all before it becomes irreversible. “Go on being divided and tussling. In the end what is being held will be spilled and what is being chased after will not be achieved.” Earlier this week, Dr Mahathir told a gathering of right-wing Malay groups that the Malays were in crisis and risked becoming marginalised like “Singapore Malays” because of political divisions. He argued that Malays could end up as a minority in their own country. According to him, the community had become divided by political parties selling them out for power. He blamed PAS and PKR, instead of Umno, for the predicament he claimed Malays were now in. He repeated much of the same arguments in his latest blog posting. The former PM claimed the genesis of the Malay division was in the decision of various groups to leave Umno. He cited as examples the formation of PAS by Malay ulama who were formerly from Umno, and also the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim sacking, which caused many Umno members to also leave the party. Dr Mahathir said that Malay support was now split among three parties — Umno, PAS and PKR — and suggested that the “other races” were now taking advantage of the division. - The Malaysian Insider  Read More →

I refer to Senior Minister of State Grace Fu’s response to my comment that opposition Town Councils which had never received either IUP, MUP or CIPC funding to improve and rejuvenate the estate would be in a disadvantaged position compared to PAP TCs. She was quoted in today’s press report to have said that “criteria for HDB’s upgrading programmes are clear and not all PAP wards qualify too.” And that “upgraded estate also faces maintenance issue as covered walk-way, for example, could need more effort to maintain than a clean patch of grass”. SMS Grace Fu is sidetracking the issue I raised and attempting to mislead Singaporeans to believing that the PAP government is fair to all Town Councils including those managed by opposition parties. Is she saying that upgrading programmes has no impact and implication on estate maintenance? Upgrading programmes such as IUP and MUP do not just build additional facilities like covered walk-ways as she mentioned. The upgrading programme also include upgrading of common areas like re-screeding of common corridor and replacement of lift lobby tiles as well as upgrading of playgrounds etc. One will not expect to find missing or worn off screws, nor floor mat being ripped off in new playgrounds. If the staircase railing is replaced with stainless steel railing instead of the existing mild steel railing inherited from the HDB as part of the upgrading program, one will not expect the railing to become rusty and corroded to become a maintenance issue. SMS Grace Fu also said that “not all PAP wards qualify for upgrading programme” and that “how much a town council gets from the government depends on the number and types of flat, not whether it is run by PAP or the opposition.” The funding she is referring to is SC/CC grants. What I am referring to in my statement is funding received by the PAP TCs via upgrading progamme. I have filed questions for written answers in Parliament twice, one in November 2009 sitting and another in April 2010 sitting asking for the amount of funding each benefitting PAP Town Council received from the various upgrading programmes. The answers given were the number of precincts upgraded at each PAP TCs and the estimated cost of the upgrading per unit. I am puzzled by this. It is time the Ministry of National Development let the public know how much additional funding each PAP TC has received through the various upgrading programmes funded by the national budget or has benefitted from the programme up to the financial year 2009 so that Singaporeans can have a clear idea of which PAP TC did not qualify for the upgrading program as mentioned by Grace Foo. The public should know how much additional funding is given to PAP TCs via the upgrading programs and hence can judge for themselves whether it could affect the outcome of town management. On the issue of SCCC arrears where the opposition TCs had exceeded the criteria set by the MND on TCMR. I noted that although MND had issued a “guideline” on writing off of SCCC arrears in 2008. PAP TCs had written off SCCC arrears. When SCCC arrears are written off, it is incomes written off and it will affect the bottom line. PAP TCs can do it perhaps they have more surpluses and are in a better financial position due to additional funding received through upgrading program? This is also why some PAP TCs are then able to use their own TC funds to help residents to pay SCCC arrears to reduce the number of months in SCCC arrears by way of offering part time employment. However, the more serious question is whether this is fair to other residents who pay promptly. I would suggest two more new criteria for TCMR for MND’s consideration. They are funding either directly received or indirectly benefitted from government programmes to improve and upgrade common areas managed by town councils; and amount of SCCC arrears written off by town councils. Band 5 being for the most funding and SCCC amount written off. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, when he was the Prime Minister once threatened voters not to vote for opposition candidates as opposition wards would become slum overtime. Both Potong Pasir and Hougang have not become slums today after more than a decade managed by opposition parties and the PAP must be rather disappointed with the outcome. The result of TCMR is a consolation prize to them.   Low Thia Khiang, Chairman   Hougang Town Council Source: Press Release on TCMR by Workers Party  Read More →