TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent Despite offering an apology to leaders of the Buddhist and Taoist communities in person and posting it on his website, many netizens remain unsatisfied that Lighthouse Evangelism Senior Pastor Rony Tan was "let off" the hook with only a slap on the wrist. Pastor Tan had sparked an outcry lately with his remarks on Buddhism and Taoism during a church session which was widely circulated in cyberspace. He had since apologized after receiving a call from the Internal Security Department (ISD) two days ago. Now, a Facebook entitled "Embrace Religious Harmony" been set up to demand "that Rony Tan be sufficiently punished for his religious insensitivity". The creator is Jayakumar Poomi. Based on some of the harsh comments posted on its wall, it is apparent that its members are not quite ready to forgive Pastor Tan. Sabrina Chew wrote: "The religious harmony the nation has painstakingly cultivated can be easily destroyed with 1 or 2 Rony Tan's who seriously needs to be educated on what religion is and everyone's right to their own religious beliefs." Bernard Lim added: ".....he does not practise what he preaches. Instead of preaching the song of harmony in Singapore, he preaches the discordant noise of discord." Though the leaders of the two faiths have accepted Pastor Rony Tan's apology, and wish to let the matter rest, some netizens felt the law should have dealt with him as it did to the three Chinese teenagers who were arrested for posting "racist" remarks on Facebook last week under the Sedition Act. TR reader "one" is ready to forgive, but wants the police to apply the law fairly: "Yes, it is about fairness in applying the Law. Netizens can forgive Paster Roy, but the police must apply the law fairly. Else you are giving wrong signal to the people, and this itself will cause unrest among the people. Remember, the 3 kids on the net may have said those racist remarks due to frustrations, and they are arrested; but Paster Roy’s act is a calculated one." "Atheism is the cure" is of the view that his apology is not sincere: "Rony, sounds like your “apology” is Phoney! As an analogy…. U take $1 from someone and keep quiet until you’re found out and threatened with punishment. But then, u only apologise reluctantly but do NOT give back the $1 – is that a real apology? Rony has already caused great damage, yet perhaps he thinks he can get away by just issuing a simple apology? To show true sincerity, he should make and circulate videos of him apologising for EVERY insensitive remark he made in those videos (that means if he made 10 remarks, he should address and apologise for ALL 10 remarks, and not just make a blanket apology. Next, he should invite some Buddhist and Taoist priests to preach to his congregation for a full month, and allow them to rebut all those remarks he made." A Christian Francis expressed his disappointment at Pastor Tan's remarks: "As a Christian myself, I am saddened by you, Pastor Rony Tan and your preaching. Wrong path Rony, Wrong path. Looking at your expression, there is so much of hatred in you on other people believe. Certainly not in the Bible! You acted on your own and you do not represent us Christians. I’m not a Buddhist or Taoist yet I felt for them. I think you should really watch your own videos repeatedly, your body language and expression, think hard and ask yourself what you had gained. You had just killed the faith of potential Christians. To all those of you who laugh at his service, I see some serious faces too take a moment, think and pray for Rony and those he has misled." The irony is, the majority of the criticisms hurled at Pastor Tan come from self-professed atheists and even Christians themselves and not the Buddhists who have been calling for calm. Bodhivimala implored Singaporeans to place religious harmony above their personal beliefs: "This is a good lesson for all of us that we have to mindfully place peace and harmony above what we believe. Another important lesson for us, the Buddhists, is not to allow others take away our peace and happiness inside us. As Ajahn Brahm said, “if others attack the container, don’t let them attack its content as well”. Religious symbols and doctrines are parts of the container, while the wholesome quality such as moral virtues, calm and clear mind, and wisdom are part of the content. Salute to the many Buddhist leaders and followers who have put the matter into the right channel with spirit of religious harmony, and to Ven Kwang Sheng for exercising forgiveness towards one’s ignorance. May all beings be happy and at peace." This unfortunate incident is another timely reminder for Singaporeans not to take our racial and religious harmoney for granted as fault-lines still exist in our society deep beneath the veneer of stability and they can rupture at anytime. It is also posing a headache for the authorities who must be seen as impartial in the application of the law and yet not aggravate the tense situation at the same time. While many netizens are sympathetic towards the three Chinese youths, they have adopted a hardline stance this time against Pastor Tan probably because he is in a position of authority to really influence others. As the few hundred comments posted here have illustrated, the social "unrest"  emananting from Pastor Tan's remarks have not only caused hurt and anguish to the religions involved, but to atheists and followers of other faiths as well. More dialogues and interactions are needed between leaders of the different religions in Singapore for them to gain a better understanding of one another as well as to foster mutual trust and respect.   EDITORS' NOTE: Readers may encounter problems posting comments today. We are currently working on the problem and we appeal for your kind understanding and patience.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Only 6.1 per cent of workers attending the skill-upgrading courses sponsored by the government under the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) receive a pay rise upon completion. SPUR was introduced in January last year to help save the jobs of Singaporeans and PRs when Singapore was mired in recession. It aims to help companies to save manpower cost and better manage their excess manpower as well as to reskill and upskill local workers including those retrenched, upgrading their skills and converting to new jobs. It provides for up to 90 per cent of funding for the courses which are applicable for both citizens and PRs. According to a survey done by the Manpower Ministry in January this year, 57 per cent of those who attended skills upgrading courses offered by SPUR felt that they have increased their skills and productivity and 34 per cent felt that they have boosted their employability. However, only 6.1 per cent received a pay rise after attending the SPUR programmes and 4.6 per cent were promoted. While SPUR may help to save the jobs of some workers, its long-term benefits remain obscure so long employers are unwilling to reward their workers with higher pay. The root cause of the problem lies in the ruling party's pro-foreigner labor policies which had allowed employers to hire foreigners easily. Though there is a quota of local workers to be filled, the numbers can be artificially increased by getting foreign workers already on their payroll to apply for PRs. With no independent trade unions to fight for their rights, Singapore workers are forever at the mercy of the big companies and businesses. No matter how much training and upgrading they go through, their pay is unlikely to increase by much due to their inherent lack of bargaining power. The report also revealed that the number of "economically inactive" workers have increased, including some 11,000 "discouraged workers" who have given up searching for a job altogether. These workers without a proper job are not included in the statistics for Singapore's unemployment rate of 3 per cent which paints a rosy picture of the real situation on the ground. The Manpower Ministry should reveal the complete statistics for the number of Singapore citizens who are technically without a job across all age groups for the public to judge for themselves if its labor policies are indeed having a detrimental impact on the livelihoods of Singaporeans. EDITORS' NOTE: Readers may encounter problems posting comments today. We are currently working on the problem and we appeal for your kind understanding and patience.  Read More →

By Ng Kok Lim I refer to the letter by Dr Yik Keng Yeong dated 9 Feb 2010. (read below)   Dr Yik points to the unequal scaling of the economic peak by countries in the region to suggest that work ethic is not the same across countries.  By extension, places that have scaled the same peak must necesssarily share the same work ethics.  This is consistent with the observation that East Asian societies like Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan have scaled the same peaks as Singapore while sharing similar cultures and work ethics.  Since the majority of Singaporeans originated from East Asia, it helps explain why Singapore is able to scale the same peaks scaled by other East Asians.  Hence, Dr Yik's ethnicity argument gives greater credence to the idea that a country's fate lies more with its people than with its government.   Dr Yik's assertion that sterling governance in Singapore has not diminished holds no water as Singapore lost billions in some recent transactions and experienced sky high inflation in property prices.   The countries Dr Yik refers to where governments have lost the trust of their electorates and which have then degenerated into inefficiency and depravity bear little semblance to Singapore in terms of social fabric and the ethical makeup of its people.  We can always find other countries like those of the Western democracies where governments change regularly without their countries falling apart.  Therefore, the countries we compare ourselves to must be appropriate in order for the comparison to make sense.  Comparing ourselves against countries with similar work ethics like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and even Thailand suggests that government change is no cause for worry for Singaporeans.   Dr Yik assets that the PAP's venal sin is steadfastly implementing unpopular policies.  But the PAP never has need to commit venal sins as it writes its own paycheck.  The idea that short term pain must necessarily bring about long term gain is too often used to justify policies that have become inappropriate and not feasible both in the short term and in the long term.   Moral probity becomes obscured when the PAP pays itself better than what Chen Shui Bian could stash away over eight years.  The description of the PAP charting through mine laden waters omits the many knee jerk reactions along the way.   Make no mistake Dr Yik, we are not changing horses midstream for the sake of changing horses.  We are changing horse because the horse has decided to call the shots and take its owner for a ride.   The antics and noise that we see in foreign parliaments such as that of Taiwan's should not detract us from the fact that their economies continue to pull ahead full steam.  We should therefore not assume that the opposition is necessarily non-constructive and pernicious to our country let alone paralysing to it.   When a nation chooses to brush aside the grievances of its people as mere rhetoric, that is when the danger of totalitarianism is at its greatest.  For when we surrender our independent judgement of what is right and what is wrong to supposedly firm and decisive leadership, that firmness and decisiveness can lead our country to total ruin and destruction.  The most famous case in point being the surrender of the collective judgments of the German people to the firmness and decisiveness of Hitler and his Nazi government.  History always repeats itself.  Let it not repeat on us.   While the competition between Starhub and Singtel is indeed unhealthy, the solution isn't no competition but perfect competition instead.  When the nation wide broadband network is in place and many more internet / television companies come on board, the competitive power of each company will diminish along with their ability to engage in destructive bidding.  If this doesn't work, we can make use of anti-trust proceedings to break Starhub and Singtel into many smaller units.   Conventional wisdom has its virtues, we just need to be able to recognise them.     Thank you     Ng Kok Lim   EDITORS' NOTE: The title of Mr Ng's article was given by Temasek Review as he did not give us a title in his email.   Mandate assured.....as long PAP remains incorruptible IN HIS letter last Saturday, 'Life after PAP', Mr Ng Kok Lim asserts that Singaporeans have the inherent and innate ability to prosper and flourish, no matter who leads the country. In support of his argument, he mentions how various changes of government in the region have not been detrimental to the countries involved. Separately, in his letter also last Saturday, 'Politically vibrant Singapore', Mr Albert Tay advocates competition in the political arena, which he says can only facilitate advancement. Ethnically, Singaporeans are no different from the countries they migrated from. If, indeed, all work ethic is equal, every country in the region would have scaled the same peaks as Singapore. That we have achieved a standing in the world beyond expectations says as much about our resourcefulness to overcome hardship as it does about the quality of our leadership in our country's formative years. Sterling governance in Singapore has not diminished over the decades. Long- serving governments of other countries lost the trust of their electorates as the dominant political parties degenerated into inefficiency, racked by moral turpitude and roiled by scandal. This is not the case with the People's Action Party (PAP), whose venal sin lies in steadfastly implementing unpopular policies with short-term pain while making long-term gains which only patience will see bear fruit. As long as the PAP maintains its moral probity while charting a clear course through the mine-laden future, it should retain a handsome mandate to rule, as changing horses in midstream simply for the sake of change is insensate. The rules of the market seemingly dictate that competition brings efficiency and advancement. Yet, a look at the filibustering in various foreign Parliaments should tell us that non-constructive opposition to government policies is pernicious to a country, paralysing it with worthless rhetoric when firm and decisive leadership is needed. One need only look at the unhealthy competition between StarHub and SingTel and the ongoing World Cup� telecast imbroglio to confirm that conventional wisdom has its limits. Dr Yik Keng Yeong Source: Straits Times Forum, 9 February 2010    Read More →