TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent Despite all the media hype about the two Integrated Resorts (IRs) providing employment opportunities for Singaporeans, it appears that foreigners are the ultimate beneficiaries at least in the case of the recently opened casino of Resort World Sentosa (RWS). According to a CNA report today, there were complaints from gamblers about the competency of the card dealers on the floor. Said one visitor to the casino: "It’s very slow, I don’t see a lot of Singaporeans also. They are still at a learning stage and they made a number of mistakes." A RWS spokesman said: "Mainly our croupiers are new to the industry. They started training as early as August last year so they have been training for quite a while. But nothing beats the real thing. So, when the casino opens, many are learning on the job." A reader who claimed to be working in RWS said many of the dealers are from China and Taiwan such that lessons have to be conducted in Mandarin for them. The Straits Times reported on 8 February 2010 that Resort World Sentosa (RWS) will be hiring 150 card dealers in Taiwan who are expected to be paid around $1,800 monthly. Besides Taiwanese, RWS has also been actively recruiting Malaysians and Filipinos to man its casino in Singapore. Philipines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in April last year that RWS will open about 5,000 new jobs for Filipinos. She had sent a delegation to Singapore to explore possible job opportunities for migrant Filipino and they went to discuss available slots for Filipino workers such as workers for hotels, casinos and performers with Tan Hee Teck, CEO of RWS. (read report here) In fact, the number of foreign workers at RWS is so high that HDB has to allocate two blocks of flats in Toa Payoh to house them. Unless RWS gives us an exact breakdown of the number of Singapore citizens and foreigners (including PRs) on its payroll, we can never come to a reasonable conclusion if it is providing more jobs to Singaporeans or foreigners. With the fesstive season drawing to close, Resorts World Sentosa expects visitor numbers to its casino to dip significantly today onwards after an overwhelming response to its opening, during the first three days of the Lunar New Year. Even then, a significant number of the visitors appear to be foreigners with PRs using their native passports to get into the casinos without paying the mandatory $100  levy. It remains to be seen if the two IRs will be a roaring success in the year of the Tiger or turn out to be "white elephants" like the now defunct Tang Dynasty village in Jurong which was launched amidst much fanfare too a few years ago.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent A Singaporean/PR/expatriate by the name of William Jansen has written a letter to the Straits Times Forum today praising the "high standards" of life in Singapore in response to an earlier letter by Ms Maureen Pollard expressing her "regret" in giving up Singapore citizenship. "Giving up Singapore citizenship is a serious matter and, apparently, there is no turning back. This quality of life must be hard to beat even if one emigrates to a developed country," Mr Jansen wrote. He did not quote any reports to substantiate his claims. However, Singapore is ranked the 70th best place in the world to live in based on the Quality of Life index computed yearly by Ireland-based magazine “International Living”. (read report here) which is corroborated by a similar ranking by The Economist Unit. The index is produced based on the following nine categories: cost of living, culture and leisure, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, safety and risk and climate. Each country in each category is graded on a curve and it is scored relative to every other country. The scores run 0 to 100 for each category. This means the country that gets 0 is the worst in that category, and the country that gets 100 is the best. The data is collated from official government sources, the World Health Organization, The Economist, and many other journals, tables, and records. Below is Singapore’s scores for each category: While Singapore scores high on risk and safety, health and infrastructure, it scores poorly in environment and freedom, bringing down its final score to a mediocre 61. Mr Jansen also claimed that he was "told" that many Singaporeans who migrated to other countries have regretted their decision again without substantiating them: "I have been told that there are many cases of Singaporeans who have emigrated to other countries and have regretted their decision to leave because they have suffered discrimination and are treated like second-class citizens in the country of their choice." If what Mr Jansen has heard is indeed true, then the Home Affairs Ministry would not be busy trying to entice Singaporeans working overseas to return to Singapore. Every year, about 1,000 Singaporeans give up their citizenship in search of a better life elsewhere. There are nearly 200,000 Singaporeans working and living overseas and it is highly doubtful that they will return to Singapore eventually. Even the mainland Chinese, whom the ruling party is so desperately trying to attract to Singapore to boost its declining birth rate, are giving Singapore a miss. In a Gallup conducted in July last year, the top three emigration destinations for China college students are the United States, France and South Korea. Singapore was not even featured in the top five. Mr Jansen ended his letter by urging Singaporeans to appreciate the "quality of life" they enjoy in Singapore and be "thankful" for what they are. Only Singaporeans of a certain "economic class" are able to enjoy a decent standard of living in Singapore. Under the rule of the PAP, Singapore now has the highest income gap between the rich and the poor among the 30 most developed nations in the world and one of the lowest domestic purchasing power. With the sycophantic state media censoring critical articles and publishing only spins and half-truths as such which are completely "divorced from reality", it is no surprise that the PAP leaders are still sleeping comfortably high up in their ivory towers.  Read More →

OPINION In the aftermath of the "Eric How" fiasco which invited widespread ridicule and derision from netizens, the YPAP appeared to have "retreated" from the New Media for the time-being with its members keeping a low profile on both the YPAP Facebook and the P65 blog. Unfortunately, the opposition seems equally clueless about the New Media as well and has done little to utilize it fully to engage young Singaporeans. With the exception of the SDP website, the other opposition websites all suffer from a poor readership like the PAP's. Few opposition leaders bother to maintain a blog or Facebook. If one goes to the streets and ask 10 young Singaporeans if they have heard of "Kenneth Jeyaretnam", "Desmond Lim", "Justin Ong" or "Hazel Poa", chances are, they will not be aware of their existence. Can they expect young Singaporeans to cast their votes for them on polling day? In today's internet age, a blog is a must-have of every politician who has to prove to voters that he/she deserves their votes, especially with more and more IT-savvy Singaporeans joining the electorate each year. To focus solely on grassroots work while ignoring public sentiments in cyberspace is tantamount to throwing away precious votes which can be easily courted via a blog. Through the amount of effort an aspiring politician put into his/her blog, voters can assess how much dedication, sincerity and passion he/she has in serving them. A simple blog which is updated frequently can achieve the following: 1. Raise the profile of the politician. 2. Establishes rapport with the voters directly. 3. Understand their concerns, fears and worries. 4. Publicizing one's views and stance on current affairs. 5. To garner precious resources such as donations and volunteers. A well-run and widely read blog is winning half the battle even before the election is called. For the purpose of illustration, we shall study the internet strategy employed by the Malaysian opposition party Democratic Action Party (DAP) which began in 2006, 2 years before the 2008 Malaysian general election. DAP had seen an influx of young graduates and professionals into its ranks who managed to persuade the Old Guards to employ the New Media as a medium to reach out to the electorate. Like Singapore, the Malaysian mainstream media is blatantly biased towards the opposition, especially DAP which is often demonized as a "racist" party by the Malay newspapers. One of the first steps taken by DAP leaders was to embrace the New Media whole-heartedly by making every CEC member start a blog including 68 year old opposition leader Lim Kit Siang: http://dapmalaysia.org/newenglish/ta_dap_blog.htm Lim is both the state assemblyman and MP for the constituency of Ipoh Timur in Perak, which is larger than Singapore itself and yet he can find time to update his blog at least once a day. Not surprisingly, his blog is one of the highest read political blogs in Malaysia. He does not need the mainstream media to carry his views anymore and in fact, they have to read his blog to get the latest updates about him! Besides key leaders, young candidates-to-be are expected to run their own blogs to engage with young voters. Examples of new DAP faces fielded in the 2008 elections are Tony Pua, Liew Chin Tong and Jernice Lee, all of whom maintain personal blogs which are updated frequently. Though they were never given any publicity by the mainstream press, young Malaysian voters were already very familiar with them by the time the election was called and they threw their support behind them. All three won by overwhelming margins in their maiden elections, including Tony Pua who defeated MCA stalwart Chew Mei Fun her stronghold of Petaling Jaya. Their victories are not "freak" results. It was achieved painstakingly not only through sheer hard work by meeting the residents in the constituencies weekly, but updating their blogs on an almost daily basis. They have demonstrated their sincerity and desire to serve their nation to the people way before the elections, but what about our opposition candidates? Do Singaporeans wish to cast their votes for candidates who appear out of the blue on the eve of the election or will they vote for somebody whom they are already familiar with? The opposition should not wait for the mainstream media to give their fresh candidates some token publicity on nomination day. It is time to kick-start the election campaign right now through the New Media so that young voters already know who they are by then. Take the example of Singapore People's Party's Alex Tan. Though the mainstream media has tried to portray him in a negative light, he has managed to neutralize it cleverly by taking his battle to cyberspace. The "Vote PAP out" Facebook which he set up has garnered more than 3,100 members in less than two months. He posts on the Facebook daily and interact with netizens. If he were to contest in a single ward in the next election against an unknown new PAP candidate, who do you think young Singaporeans will vote for? Opposition candidates must not shy from the limelight or they should not even be in politics in the first place! Since they are going to be made public figures anyway when their candidacies are announced on nomination day, why not make themselves known earlier? Every new opposition candidate should emulate the example of Alex Tan - set up a blog and Facebook and start telling the whole of Singapore what their views are on issues like immigration, housing policies, education, national service etc. The New Media remains the opposition's best weapon against the giant propaganda machinery of the PAP. The battle for the hearts and minds of Singaporeans starts now. There is no more time to lose.  Read More →