TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent The Temasek Review has sent a letter of demand to YPAP member Eric How to retract the defamatory statements he made about it on the YPAP Facebook on 25 January 2010 and to apologize for it: To this Eric How of YPAP: On 25 January 2010, you posted the following remarks on the YPAP Facebook Network: In your post, you insinuated that we have fabricated the snapshot of the post by "Eric How" because it does not contain a snapshot of the "Mercedes Benz" avatar belonging to the "Eric How" who made disparaging remarks about netizens on the YPAP Facebook on 1 January 2010 and 19 January 2010. This is an OUTRIGHT LIE. There is actually a simple explanation for the above inconsistency. If you access any discussions on Facebook without logging into Facebook itself, some of the avatars belonging to private accounts will show up as blanks and you will not be able to access their Facebook accounts. Only when you log into Facebook can you see the avatars of these users. Now try the experiment yourself to verify what we said: Click on here to access the original Facebook discussion without logging in, go to post #8 and the "Eric How" avatar will show up as a blank: Now log into your Facebook account and try accessing the same page and the "mercedes benz" avatar will show up: We have consulted two lawyers in our team who are of the view that your statement is completely baseless, malicious and defamatory which serves the nefarious purpose of casting doubts on the authenticity and credibility of articles posted on our site. As such, we are demanding you to: 1. Remove the entire post on the YPAP Facebook Network. 2. Issue a formal apology on your Facebook, YPAP Facebook and our site. 3. Make a promise never to repeat these defamatory statements about us again in the future. If you do not comply with our request within 24 hours, we will escalate the matter all the way up to the YPAP Facebook moderators, YPAP, PAP Headquarters and Facebook itself and you alone shall have to bear the blame for the consequences of your irresponsible, careless and reckless words. Editor Temasek Review  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent The truth is finally out: It was YPAP Chairman Teo Ser Luck who asked Eric How to make the police report which was subsequently blown up in the press. The "Eric How" who has been playing the sympathy card to divert public attention from the "Eric How" fiasco has finally admitted on his Facebook that he was simply following the instructions of Teo Ser Luck to make the police report: Mr Eric How claimed he wanted to "close the episode as soon as possible and moves on with his life" and yet he had been trying to justify his actions on his Facebook while trying to implicate us as well. He wrote that he saw a snapshot of his Facebook on our site linking him to the remarks on 5 January 2010, but strangely enough, we did not receive any email from him to clarify matters. As a matter of fact, it is pretty obvious that the "Eric How" who posted the disparaging remarks on 1 January 2010 is the one with the mercedes benz as the avatar. There are so many "Eric Hows" in Singapore. All the he needs to do is to post a message on his Facebook to clarify that he is not the one posting the comments and that alone will more than suffice. Furthermore, on closer examination, it is pretty obvious that there is no impersonation or identity theft. Anybody with a modicum of common sense will not make a police report and somemore go to the press with the story and announce it to the entire world. Mr Eric How wrote that he is a "nobody in society" who wishes to "lead a normal existence". Now, if he really wants to keep a low profile, will he still allow himself to be interviewed by the media? In his latest posting on YPAP Facebook, Mr Eric How tried to malign us by insinuating that we had "changed" the mercedes benz Eric How's avatar: There is actually a simple explanation for the above inconsistency. If you access any discussions on Facebook without logging into Facebook itself, some of the avatars (private accounts) will show up as blanks and you will not be able to access their Facebook accounts. Only when you log into Facebook can you see the avatars of these users. Now try the experiment yourself to verify what we said: Click on here to access the original Facebook discussion without logging in, go to post #8 and the "Eric How" avatar will show up as a blank: Now log into your Facebook account and try accessing the same page and the "mercedes benz" avatar will show up: [We hereby demand that Eric How withdraw the potentially defamatory statements about us from the YPAP Facebook and apologize for it or we will consider taking further action against him and the YPAP Facebook.] It is quite clear from the above that this Eric How is a decoy used by the YPAP to limit the negative publicity from the fallout and to implicate us in the process. At the same time, it is appalling that Teo Ser Luck seems clueless on what is going on. Does Mr Teo know that there are many "Eric Hows" in Singapore and they may be posting on Facebook using the same name at the same time except that their Facebook ID is different? The Facebook ID of the mercedes benz Eric How is 1781835973 while that of the Eric How he spoke to is 565479027. How can Mr Teo jump to the conclusion immediately that there is an identity theft or impersonation and ask Eric How to make a police report without first investigating the matter? It seems that Mr Teo is not aware of the significance of the Facebook ID at all. As a leader, he should have kept his cool and study the situation thoroughly first and ponder carefully over the most suitable course of action to take. If he had asked around, he would have realized that one moderator of the YPAP Facebook Edgar Kieu is on the Facebook of the "Eric How with the mercedes benz as his avatar. He could have found out his identity from Edgar Kieu and settle the matter internally. It is reckless of Teo Ser Luck to ask Eric How to make a police report over such a trivial matter without considering the repercussions for the YPAP. Is this how he is going to lead Singapore? By running to the authorities for everything big and small? Eric How must be shocked when he realized how he had just displayed his naivete to the whole of Singapore and is now busy throwing all sorts of smoke bombs to confuse the online community and to "redeem" himself. With the bare facts laid out for all netizen to see, please judge for yourselves if this Eric How deserves any sympathy from anybody. If anybody has any background information about this Eric How including his activities with the YPAP, please contact us at [email protected]  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Obviously taken aback at two former government scholars joining the opposition, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is now singing a different tune from the PAP's usual elitist stance. The Straits Times reported last week of a former SAF scholar Tony Tan joining the Reform Party led by Cambridge-educated Kenneth Jeyaretnam. His wife, a former PSC scholar, will consider joining the party in the next few weeks. In response to a question at the Singapore Perspectives Forum, on recent reports about ex-government scholars joining the opposition, PM Lee said: "For the opposition it's a change - one scholar or two you think "wow" this is a luminous transformation. Well it is a significant development we will look, but finally let's look at the person. Not what degrees he has, but what he is he able to do for Singapore." The PAP loves to boast about the academic qualifications of its candidates during every election which the opposition is having difficulties attracting though the gap appears to be narrowing in recent years. Judging from his tone, PM Lee doesn't seem to think much of the two former government scholars in the Reform Party: “We hope that anybody who enters politics is somebody of not just ability but integrity and commitment. These are young people who have got good records academically and been in the civil service. We wish them well but we hope Singaporeans will judge individuals like that as rigorously as they would judge individuals who join the PAP side. In other words, it’s not just what degree you have but what sort of person are you and what can you do. That is a matter you can scrutinise before they come in and the PAP scrutinise very hard before they can come in. But it has to be scrutinised by the voters after they have come in and make a wise choice whom to commit." Prime Minister Lee must have forgotten what his father said during the 1984 election rally at Potong Pasir. Then the Prime Minister, Lee revealed the "O" level results of PAP candidate Mah Bow Tan and SDP candidate Chiam See Tong and sneered at the latter for scoring "Cs" while Mah is a straight "A" student. Chiam eventually won the seat by garnering 60 per cent of the valid votes while Mah had to enter Parliament via a GRC in the next election. Regardless of how hard the PAP "scrutinize" their candidates, it is ultimately up to the voters to access their performance and judging from the PM Lee's "accomplishments" since the last election, it will very hard to convince Singaporeans to give him and his team another "overwhelming" mandate again.  Read More →