TR EMERITUS

Press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, 11 February 2010 In response to media queries on developments in the two hit-and-run traffic accidents on 15 December 2009 that involved the Romanian Embassy vehicle S3401CD, the MFA spokesman said: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned HE Aurelian Neagu, the Romanian Ambassador to Singapore (who is based in Tokyo), to MFA on 11 February 2010 on the matter of the two hit-and-run traffic accidents on 15 December 2009 that involved the Romanian Embassy vehicle S3401CD. MFA stressed to Ambassador Neagu that the matter is of the highest concern to the Singapore Government and yet again reiterated that it was most important that the Romanian Embassy cooperate fully with the Singapore authorities on this matter. MFA informed Ambassador Neagu that the Coroner's Inquiry into the death of Mr Tong Kok Wai will be held from 3 to 10 March 2010. It was explained to the Ambassador that the Inquiry is not a trial, but a fact-finding inquiry to establish the facts where there has been an unnatural death. MFA handed Ambassador Neagu a diplomatic note seeking the Romanian Embassy's assistance in requesting Dr Ionescu to return to Singapore to attend the Coroner's Inquiry. MFA noted that it would appear from Romanian media reports that Dr Ionescu was still maintaining that the car had been stolen and that he was not the driver at the time of the two accidents. MFA pointed out that if Dr Ionescu was maintaining that he was not responsible, it was all the more reason why he should come back to Singapore to give his version at the Coroner's Inquiry. This will help the State Coroner to ascertain the facts relating to the two accidents. At the Coroner's Inquiry, Dr Ionescu can also question the witnesses. MFA also pointed out to Ambassador Neagu that Dr Ionescu was welcome to engage a local lawyer to examine the witnesses and put forth his version of the events at the Inquiry. Alternatively, the Romanian Embassy could engage a local lawyer on Dr Ionescu's behalf. Noting media reports of Dr Ionescu's claim in a recent Romanian television interview that there was a witness who could exonerate him, MFA asked the Romanian Embassy to request Dr Ionescu to give the Singapore authorities details concerning the identity of this witness. The witness can then be required to give evidence at the Coroner's Inquiry. MFA also handed Ambassador Neagu a second diplomatic note informing the Romanian Embassy that the State Coroner has issued a witness summons for Mr Marius Trusca, Administrative Officer at the Embassy, to give evidence at the Inquiry and assist the State Coroner in establishing the true circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Tong Kok Wai. The witness summons was issued because Mr Trusca's evidence is directly relevant for the Coroner's Inquiry. MFA noted that under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Mr Trusca is not obliged to give evidence as a witness. MFA therefore requested the Embassy to let Mr Trusca's immunity be waived so that the witness summons may be served on Mr Trusca. MFA referred Ambassador Neagu to Romanian media reports that in his recent interview by a Romanian television station, Dr Ionescu had also alleged that this was a case of a "set-up" by the Singapore Government because he had been reporting on political activities in Singapore. Dr Ionescu had alleged that there had been a similar case in 2007, when he was also accused of being the driver in a hit-and-run accident, but was eventually let off as he had an alibi at that time. MFA told Ambassador Neagu that if these media reports had accurately quoted Dr Ionescu, then he had made very serious allegations against the integrity of the Singapore Government which MFA categorically rejected as lacking any basis in fact. These allegations were also a gross insult to the victims of the two accidents. Dr Ionescu's claim that he had been accused of being the driver in a hit-and-run accident in 2007 is entirely false. Our records show that the Romanian Embassy vehicle S3401CD was involved in two traffic accidents in 2007. The first was a minor non-injury accident where the driver was not Dr Ionescu and the other driver did not wish to pursue the matter. In the second case, it was established then that Dr Ionescu, who was the driver, was not at fault and action was taken against the other driver involved in the accident. These facts clearly show that Dr Ionescu's claims are fictitious and at no time was he ever accused by the Police of being the driver in a hit-and-run accident in 2007. MFA also asked Ambassador Neagu for more information on the status of the criminal proceedings in Romania against Dr Ionescu, and on the Romanian system of investigations and prosecutions. The next step will depend on the Romanian Government's response to our requests and the outcome of the Coroner's Inquiry." . . . . . MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS SINGAPORE 11 FEBRUARY 2010 Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore  Read More →

Top 8 will be a new regular Sports feature (published every Friday), where the editors will choose eight top persons/incidents and rank them in descending order, either by pure opinion, hard data or a mixture of both. Why eight? It is not because the editors are lazy but because top ten is getting boring and eight is a lucky number in Singapore! _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ranking Methodology: 50% opinion; 50% statistics __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ray Ang As a follow-up to our previous week's article, we shall look at the top 8 flops so far this season here. 8 ) Ross Turnbull Only 25 years of age, Ross Turnbull represented England U20 in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship. After spending the 2008/09 season fighting for the number one position with Brad Jones between the sticks at Middlesbrough, Turnbull made a shock move to Chelsea in July 2009 when his contract with Middlesbrough expired. It came as a huge surprise then as Turnbull claimed that the reason he left was to gain more playing time. Despite his lofty ambitions, he was only expected to be an understudy to Petr Cech. However, after joining Chelsea, Turnbull has not only failed to unseat Cech, but is even losing out to veteran Hilario for the reserve goalkeeper spot!  7) Michel Salgado Veteran defender Salgado joined Blackburn on a free transfer after losing his position in the starting lineup to fellow Spaniard Sergio Ramos in the Real Madrid team for the past 2 seasons. The transfer was seen as a major coup for Blackburn as there were many other Premier League clubs vying for Salgado’s signature. The move to Blackburn was intended for him to get more playing time. Despite his pedigree and his vast experience, Salgado has played a bit part role at Blackburn so far, making only 3 starts in 25 league games. 6) Nikola Kalinic Having sold Roque Santa Cruz off to Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers badly needed a striker to fill the gap and bought highly rated young Croatian striker Nikola Kalinic for £6m. The 22-year-old came with good credentials, after having ended the 2007/08 season as the second top scorer of the Croatian league and picking up the coveted Swan d’or Award, (Young Player of the Year) from the Croatian Press Association. He was dubbed as the “Croatian Ibrahimovic” and Croatia manager Slaven Bilic also described him as the future of Croatian football. Despite all his accolades, Kalinic has struggled to live up to his expectations since joining Blackburn. He has appeared for Rovers 16 times in the league this season but has only scored 1 goal thus far.  A bad year for Benitez(s?) 5) Christian Benitez Christian Benitez, or “Chucho” as he is more affectionately known as, joined promoted Birmingham City in June 2009 for a club record £7.7m. Benitez started his football career with Ecuadorian club El Nacional and quickly gained a reputation as one of the best players ever to play in the Ecuadorian top flight. During his 3-year stint there, he was scouted by many top European clubs. Despite that, he made a surprise decision to join Mexican club Santos Laguna in 2007. During the 2 seasons there, Chucho also impressed and won an award in 2007 for the best Ecuadorian footballer playing outside Ecuador. Internationally, Chucho also have an enviable scoring record for Ecuador, finding the net nearly every other game for the national team. However, despite getting plenty of playing time at Birmingham, Chucho has so far only managed to score a meagre 2 goals in 22 appearances for them. A paltry return considering fellow teammate Kevin Philips has managed to score 3 goals in only 9 appearances for Birmingham! 4) Fabian Delph Aston Villa swooped to sign England Under-21 starlet Fabian Delph from Leeds United in August 2009 for a fee reported to be in the region of £6m. Having won the League One Young Player of the Year award in 2009 with his skilful play and lightning pace, Delph was heavily linked with a host of Premier League clubs including Everton, Manchester City, Fulham, Sunderland and Tottenham. Delph started the season brightly with Villa, starting 4 out of Villa’s first 9 games in all competitions. However, since then, Delph has only made 3 starts in the subsequent 25 games. 3) Yuri Zhirkov Zhirkov moved to Chelsea in July 2009 from CSKA Moscow in a deal worth to be in the region of £18m. He came highly rated and gained recognition for his impressive performances for CSKA Moscow in the UEFA Cup. His moment of international recognition actually came during Euro 2008 when he was named in the UEFA Euro 2008 Team of the Tournament.  He was also one of the 30 nominees for the Ballon d’Or award for that year. He was expected to provide cover for left back Ashley Cole and also take over the left wing position from Florent Malouda. However, neither had materialized as Zhirkov has only managed 7 appearances for the Blues in the Premier League so far with the bulk of it coming off the bench. The jury is still out on whether Zhirkov has what it takes to cut it in the Premier League, but at £18m, he is one of the most expensive benchwarmer in the league this season. 2) Michael Owen Former Anfield hero Michael Owen made the shock move to bitter rivals Manchester United on a free transfer in July 2009 in a bid to revive his flagging England international career.  Owen hoped that by linking up with Wayne Rooney, he can help convince Fabio Capello that he is worthy of a place in the England squad for the World Cup Finals. However, since joining the Red Devils, Owen has only managed 10 starts in all competitions and is behind Dimitar Berbatov in the pecking order. Despite impressing in the Champions League and scoring a hat trick in the away game against Wolfsburg, Owen has found playing time harder to come by. Ferguson’s decision to change to a 4-5-1 formation in recent games has not helped either. With the World Cup just barely 4 months away, Owen must hope for a major miracle for him to be able to catch that flight to South Africa! Santa Cruz wonders what went wrong  1) Roque Santa Cruz We have finally arrived at the "cream of the crop". The biggest flop of them all. Numero Uno. The accolade falls to none other than Paraguayan striker Roque Santa Cruz. After joining Blackburn Rovers on the cheap in the summer of 2007 from Bayern Munich, Santa Cruz went on to prove himself as one of the most fearsome strikers in the Premier League, netting 25 goals in 58 appearances for Rovers. After Mark Hughes made the switch from Rovers to the Eastlands, he brought his star striker Santa Cruz over with him to Manchester City for £17.5m. However, City’s summer purchases did not stop there and they also bought Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor to lead the front line. Santa Cruz had to vie for a spot in the starting lineup with Tevez, Adebayor as well as Benjani, Bellamy and Robinho.  He has had a torrid season so far making only 11 appearances so far for Manchester City with the bulk of it coming as a substitute. His miseries have been compounded further with the dismissal of his mentor Mark Hughes. New manager Roberto Mancini has seemed to favour Benjani and Bellamy over Santa Cruz. We can only hope that the boyish looking Paraguayan able to find form in time for the World Cup where he is expected to lead the Paraguay national team, being their second-most prolific scorer in their history. About the Author: Ray is a proud product of a local university (the one furthest westwards) and is based in London after having completed his Masters there. He currently plies his trade in a research based function for a financial institution and lists sports and current affairs amongst his many interests. ________________________________________________________________________________________ The editorial team will like to seek the opinion from all  readers on what you think. Do you agree with the Top 8? Is there anyone that you feel is more worthy to be on the list? Leave a comment! If there is something that you will like us to feature as part of this top 8 series please leave a comment and our team will try to accomodate!  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Dr Silviu Ionescu, the Romanian diplomat implicated in the double hit and run traffic accident in Bukit Panjang in December 2009 which claimed the life of one innocent young man now turned around and accused the Singapore government of "setting him up." In a recent interview with a Romanian television station Antena 3, Dr Silviu Ionescu claimed that the case against him was a "set-up" by the Singapore government because he had been reporting on political activities here. Dr Silviu told Romanian online newspaper click.ro that he had requested the Romanian Foreign Ministry to recall him from Singapore several times last year because he felt pressurized by the "political aspect" of Singapore. "The first two years were normal, but subsequently I received complaints from the Singapore government that I was too concerned about the local politics which has caused tremendous amount of stress on me." he said. Dr Silviu did not elaborate more about his involvement in Singapore politics or how the Singapore government has exerted "pressure" on him. He also claimed that there had been a similar case in 2007, when he was also accused of being the driver in a hit-and-run accident, but was eventually let off as he had an alibi at that time. MFA, which summoned Mr Aurelian Neagu, Romanian Ambassador to Singapore, to the ministry today, told the envoy that Dr Ionescu 'had made very serious allegations against the integrity of the Singapore Government which MFA categorically rejected as lacking any basis in fact.' 'These allegations were also a gross insult to the victims of the two accidents,' said the ministry's spokesman, who added that Dr Ionescu's claim that he had been accused of being the driver in a hit-and-run accident in 2007 is 'entirely false.' MFA handed Ambassador Neagu a diplomatic note seeking the Romanian Embassy's assistance in requesting Dr Ionescu to return to Singapore to attend the Coroner's Inquiry. For two entire months after the accident, there were no press releases or public statements from MFA on the case, not even a simple word of condolence to the families of the victims. When asked by the Singapore media about his views on the accident, Foreign Minister George Yeo said: "What happened was very bad." It is baffling that MFA will take a sudden interest to the case after Dr Silviu had made the allegations against the Singapore government on Romanian TV and newspapers. As Romania is a member of the European Union, the views carried by its media may influence the perception of Singapore among EU countries. Such sensational negative reports will surely tarnished its reputation overseas. The Singapore government has always maintained that its "integrity" is beyond any doubt and its leaders are all "holier than thou" and "whiter than white" angels who are completely honest, upright and incorruptible. The onus is now on the Singapore government to sue Dr Silviu Ionescu for defamation like what it did to the Singapore Democratic Party in 2006 for distributing flyers linking it to the NKF saga.  Read More →