TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent Though HDB has introduced some cosmetic changes in its housing policies to placate Singaporeans angry at the sky-rocketing flat prices and to entice PRs to take up Singapore citizenship, some PRs still refused to bite the carrot. Channel News Asia interviewed an Indonesian PR by the name of Vina Mubtadi who is not keen to give up her Indonesian citizenship despite Singapore's exalted status as a developed nation as compared to Indonesia. "If I give up my nationality, that means I cannot have a property in Indonesia. But if I stay a PR (in Singapore), although I have to pay a higher price to own a property here, at least I can have a property here and I can also have a property in Indonesia," she was quoted as saying. [Source: Channel News Asia, 7 March 2010] Ms Vina is not alone. There are a number of Malaysian and PRs from other nations who refuse to take up Singapore citizenship in order to enjoy the best of both worlds. Being a Singapore PR enable them to work in Singapore on a long-term basis while retaining their citizenship will enable them to own properties back in their own country for retirement in the future. As the Singapore dollar is a strong currency, it will usually bring these PRs a windfall when converted back into their native currencies. Furthermore, they are able to sell their HDB flats for a profit after they leave Singapore. The lack of differentiation between the immigrants and Singaporeans is becoming a sore point of contention which may cause the PAP to lose votes in the coming election. Though National Minister Mah Bow Tan claimed that PRs make up only 20 percent of the market and have no impact on the prices, a flat purchased by a PR is one deprived for a Singaporean. The latest measure to increase the minimum period of residency to three years will only exacerbate the housing shortage and inflate prices as there are now less resale flats in the market. Singapore PRs should not be allowed to buy HDB flats meant solely for Singaporeans or at the very least there should be a minimum period of residency before they can purchase the flats in the open market. Existing PRs who own flats should be barred from profiteering from the sale of their flats should they decide to leave Singapore later. With no opposition in parliament to fight for the rights of Singaporeans, there is nobody to check on the pro-foreigner PAP which has been courting the PRs and new citizens to shore up its flagging support base. Unless Singaporeans send out a strong signal to the PAP in the next general election, such discriminatory housing policies skewed in favor of the PRs will likely to remain in the near future to the detriment of young Singaporeans who are yearning to own a home of their own.  Read More →

OPINION The ill-timed  increase in the monthly Service and Conservancy (S&C) charges by Aljunied and Jurong Town Councils both run by PAP MPs has sparked an outcry among residents who are struggling to cope with the rising cost of living. Both Town Councils claimed that the hike is necessary due to increased electrical tariffs, cleaning costs and lift servicing costs. However, these increased costs are incurred by other Town Councils as well, including Potong Pasir and Hougang which are run by the opposition. Let us do a comparison of the S&C charges between Aljunied, Hougang and Potong Pasir: Aljunied Town Council's revised S&C charges from April 2010: Hougang Town Council's S&C charges: Potong Pasir's S&C charges: Why can Potong Pasir and Hougang continue maintaining their estates with the same S&C charges while Aljunied and Jurong are unable to do so? Furthermore, being much larger, Aljunied should be able to enjoy the economies of scale and therefore incur less costs for the same services provided. Are PAP MPs less capable or efficient than the two opposition MPs? The reasons, or rather the excuses used by the two PAP Town Councils to justify their increase in S&C charges are simply unacceptable. Before the PAP Town Councils decide to past the increased cost to residents, have they considered other options so cut costs? It is utterly insensitive of them to raise the charges now when Singapore has barely emerged from an economic recession. Though the PAP ministers will enjoy a 8.8% pay hike, not many Singaporeans are as fortunate as them. To the lower income groups, an additional $40 more of S&C charges per year may mean a lot to them. The two Town Councils should open their account books and allow the public to scrutinize its expenditure as well as sinking funds. How much funds have been lost through their failed investments in Lehman Brothers? Are the funds being utilized properly at all times? Are the lowest tenders being used? Aljunied and Jurong residents deserve to know the truth. It appears from the above comparison that opposition-run Town Councils are able to utilize their limited resources much better than the PAP Town Councils. Singaporeans should consider voting for the opposition in the next general election. As Hougang and Potong Pasir Town Councils have demonstrated, they are able to run their estates relatively well on a shoestring budget though they are deprived of upgrading funds from the PAP. Perhaps the PAP MPs should organize study trips to Potong Pasir and Hougang to learn how they manage their Town Councils so well without increasing the S&C charges all these years.  Read More →

OPINION (DISCLAMER: The below article is sent to us by a reader who chose to remain anonymous and does not represent the views of TR which do not endorse, support or condemn the hoax perpetuated by Gopalan Nair.) When Gopalan Nair posted the article last Saturday claiming that PAP octogenarian leader Lee Kuan had "suffered a massive heart attack", it sounded so real that it soon spread like wildfire in Singapore's blogosphere. 24 hours later, he updated the title to clarify that it is a "hoax" before penning another article to explain why he did so. Gopalan's "hoax" naturally did not go down too well with netizens especially those who have "popped the champagne" too early to celebrate the news, many of whom flamed him for spreading "malicious" lies. As expected, the Straits Times jumped into the fray by portraying Gopalan as a nutcase while casting doubts on the credibility of the New Media. Some bloggers even tried to make use of the saga to boost their own "credibility" by condemning Gopalan on their blogs and demanding an apology from him. Netizens should not fall into the trap set by the establishment and mainstream media and start to play according to the rules set by them using their own contorted version of "credibility" as a yardstick. In today's wired world, there is such thing as "absolute truths" or "absolute lies" - everything else exists somewhere in between in a gray area. Gopalan has the right to post whatever he wants on his blog. The onus is on netizens themselves to decipher for themselves the degree of truth in his article and to expose the fallacies if any. That is what the New Media is all about - a free-for-all world where nobody can control the flow of information or has the monopoly on the truth. And the most beautiful part is that everybody is interacting with one another on an equal footing - no one is more "credible" or "truthful" than the other. Gopalan Nair has been blogging for many years, far longer than the existence of this site. Though some of his views may be outlandish, he has never posted any "hoax" at least till last Saturday. Being a lawyer by training, he should know that he will be discrediting himself by posting such unverified reports on his blog. Even if it is really a hoax, it is unlike him not to post a disclaimer at the bottom of the article. Now consider the following anomalies: 1. There was no immediate response from the Prime Minister's Office to refute the statements made by Gopalan Nair. In this instance, there are sufficient grounds for suing him, even in the United States. 2. The best way to dispel the rumors is to get SGH to issue a public statement that Lee was never admitted to the hospital. The Straits Times mentioned that SGH received numerous phone calls from the public, but did not reveal if Lee was ever admitted. 3. Lee made a trip to the United Kingdom yesterday. He had not been seen in public for more than a week. Given the possible damage done by the rumors, shouldn't Lee made a public appearance in Singapore to allay lingering anxieties and concerns? If you realize, till now, amidst all the cacophony, it has yet to be proven beyond any reasonable doubt that Lee was never admitted to SGH last week for a heart attack or otherwise. Whether it is indeed a hoax as claimed by Gopalan is another matter altogether. The burden of proof is on the authorities to show us that Lee is indeed in the pink of health and since the matter had already been brought up by the mainstream media, why didn't it proceed to clarify it completely now and then? There are two ways to refute such rumors: either issue a public statement to demolish them once and for all or ignore them altogether. It is strange that the state media has gone on a merry-go-round to discredit Gopalan Nair without addressing the crux of the matter. Is Lee's health less important than Gopalan's online credibility? Let us recall a sensational murder case which rocked Malaysia last year. One of its key witnesses Balasubramaniam had made a statutory declaration implicating Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Najib Razak in the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu. He retracted the declaration a day later and made a new one removing all mention of Najib before disappearing. He finally surfaced 8 months later in India where he claimed that he was forced to retract the first statutory declaration and that its contents are true in an interview with Malaysia Today. Reading is not believing. There's more than meets the eye in this case.  Read More →