TR EMERITUS

The Malaysian Insider, 31 May 2010 You have to hand it to Datuk Seri Najib Razak. He was spot-on in his first day of being prime minister when he said, “The days of government knows best is over.” Datuk Ibrahim Ali told Najib that much last night when he said the Malays, or rather his followers, had rejected the New Economic Model (NEM). They want to stick to the New Economic Policy (NEP), drawn up by Najib’s father Tun Abdul Razak Hussein in the aftermath of the May 13 riots. Ironically, Ibrahim’s Malay Consultative Council (MPM) had recently said the NEP had failed the Malays. The contradiction however, escaped the Pasir Mas MP who wanted to press home the point that Malays want to continue to enjoy all the privileges dished out under the NEP. But not all Malays enjoy the privileges nor do non-Malays who make up some 40 per cent of the population. For them, the government definitely does not know best if it waffles on key recommendations of appointed experts to institute steps and open the Malaysian economy. After all, Malaysia’s sixth prime minister is betting on the NEM to provide a fillip to the slowly recovering economy for him to seek his own mandate in the next general elections. Najib is right that shouts of “Hidup Melayu” will not bring food to the table for the community. But he has to stand firm and ensure measures that will benefit all Malaysians remain in place when he tables the NEM in the 10th Malaysia Plan this June 10. Being the cautious consensus-builder, the prime minister should also get the views of other Malaysians on the future direction of the national economy. He has less than two weeks to do so if the NEM proposals are really “trial balloons” and not the real thing for the country’s future. And he has to show leadership that his father did in rebuilding a country that had saddened “the world’s happiest prime minister” Tunku Abdul Rahman. Leadership to move the country to a new age, one not mired in the hang-ups of the past but of necessity. For Tun Razak, it was to balance the country’s economic inequalities and eradicate poverty during his time in office. For his eldest son, it is to repair the damage of that policy which only focused on Bumiputeras but was abused by rent-seekers who now use the lacklustre achievement of just 19.3 per cent stake in the national economy to justify keeping the NEP. While the government doesn’t know best, the least Najib can do is take the best of the NEM and implement it notwithstanding the carping from the likes of Ibrahim. Najib has to make it happen and not allow it to flounder like proposals for the GST, petrol price hike or stopping the sale of 14-stick cigarette packs. After all, the only thing new about the NEM would be if it is implemented at all. - The Malaysian Insider  Read More →

An elated Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has conveyed his congratulations to the Singapore women Table-Tennis team for winning the World Championship for the first time in its history. In a statement released by the Prime Minister's Office, Prime Minister Lee said: "I am delighted that our table tennis players have done us proud. Congratulations to them, and to the coaches and supporting team who made this happen. I was at a post-golf game dinner at Orchid Country Club last night (30 May), organised by the PAP Town Councils. We managed to catch a little bit of the last game on TV before dinner. At dinner we tracked the game almost point by point. Lee Bee Wah was there, receiving regular updates by SMS. When we heard that our team had won, she went up on stage to interrupt the proceedings and announce the good news. As you can imagine, the audience cheered, and drank more than one yam seng to our team." Lee Bee Wah is the President of the Singapore Table-Tennis Association. Singapore's trio Feng Tianwei, Wang Yuegu and Sun Bei Bei rocked the sports world in Moscow when they beat reigning champions China 3-1 in the championships to become world champions. Despite the official hype surrounding the victory, the response from Singaporeans has been lukewarm so far with some netizens pouring cold water on the Singapore team's success by describing the finals as between "China Team A and B".   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 →

OPINION The Singapore Table-Tennis team stunned the world when it beat reigning champions China 3-1 in the World Team Table-Tennis Championship. The team comprised of Feng Tianwei, Wang Yuegu and Sun Bei Bei who are all born in China. While the state media has been trumpeting the achievements of the trio, the response from Singaporeans is more muted with few outpouring of congratulatory messages for the team. Is this really Singapore's victory given the fact that the three players are already world-class players when they were "invited" to take up Singapore citizenship? Let us hear what netizens have to say: Andrew Toh: Rocked the sports world?? Don't make me laugh!! There is no pride in this at all. These players are all bought. How many FT players did we go through to win this? How are we expected to continue this success without buying new players?   Lim Ming Wei: If u check the butt. It still says "Make in China" ..   Joel Deng: Born in china but groomed in Singapore, thus not entirely made in china. I reckon we should stop discrediting them and start to accept and embrace the Singapore-FT way of life.   Terence Chua: I somewhat agree with Joel. PAP is screwed, but quit discrediting and giving the wet blanket for every single "Oh-Foreign-Talent" affair. Learn to see what's right within all those wrongs. For one, these China athletes were given a chance by Singapore. It's not like we took a wholesale product and bam, there we go. They trained in Singapore for a long time before they achieved all these. And what's more, we are still Chinese. Quit being a bitch some time.   Haziq Evan Rose: funny though... even the coaches are Made In China..(so its like an overseas experience with motherland trainers, ahh feels like home..) And more hilarious, you identify yourself as Chinese instead of Singaporean? Yes, that is the sad state of Singapore's first world standards-- still playing by race, eh? HOhoHOHoho."   Gary Yue: The whole issue with all these do not lie squarely on the beneficiaries of the sports authorities, but the sports authorities themselves and the political support that they enjoy from the state. And the problem with them lies with their ambition to make a name for themselves, disguised as a national agenda.   Andrew Neo: "China vs China.Where is the glory???I remember being attached to the TV when Ang Peng Siong made waves in Asia and the Olympics games.Shouting my lungs off as a kid at the National Stadium when Singapore was in the Malaysia cup.Remember Fandi Ahmad? Its not that i want to be a pain about FTs but we have been overrun by them and unless we make a stand now,the Singapore we know may be a thing of the past. As a citizen who has served NS and all 10 cycles of reservist training,i feel i have the right to bitch about all the so called FTs now who can swagger in get citizenship rights to vote (probably for the PAP) without first serving NS.   Clement Tan: China team B beat China team A. Still China Team A must be unhappy. Correct me if I am wrong, even HK has one or two HK-born table-tennis players representing it. Why bother with soccer, just make Usain Bolt a Singaporean, and instant glory with the world's fastest man.   Loke Yu Ming: Are sporting victories ends, or means to inspire our local young to take up sports seriously and cultivate national pride? How can we inspire our local young to take up sports when 2 decades after importing the likes of Li Jiawei to spar with our local players so that the latter can improve, our National team now comprises exclusively of mainland Chinese? How can we inspire our local young when schools give scholarships to foreigners who can win sports competitions and school-level sports finals feature foreigners only? How can we cultivate national pride through sports when our winning team does not sing Majulah Singapura? Dont national teams of all countries sing their respective national anthems to mark their victories? This finals is not broadcast on tv obviously because nobody is interested to watch it, despite the ST reporting this team's victories leading up to the finals. Clearly, we are not proud of them.     Read the rest of the discussion on our Facebook here.  Read More →