TR EMERITUS

By Anita Lam from South China Morning Post The government may have won a pyrrhic victory yesterday over funding for the HK$66.9 billion express rail link, as thousands of young protesters angered by its approval laid siege to the Legco building and repeatedly clashed with police. Transport chief Eva Cheng and her officials were trapped inside for hours as the protesters demanded to speak to her and tried to force their way into the building. At one point, riot police and uniformed officers had to repel the crowds with pepper spray. The project - believed to be the world's costliest rail line per kilometre - has sparked disputes in and out of the Legislative Council chamber for the past four weeks. Professional groups sparked a war in the media with adverts for and against the line, and several lawmakers traded insults during the funding debate, which ran for 25 hours. On Friday hundreds of young protesters disputed the turf outside Legco with the project's supporters, then swarmed Government House's gates. The government refused to retract its funding application and pressed ahead amid criticism and delaying tactics from pan-democratic lawmakers. Backed by pro-government lawmakers who form a majority in the legislature, the funding was approved 31 votes to 21. The government's HK$2 billion compensation for affected residents was approved 30-0, as pan-democratic lawmakers stormed out in protest. Construction work on the link - which will tie up with the 16,000 kilometre high-speed national rail network when completed in 2015 - will begin this month. But its problems are far from over: officials are bound to face a new round of protests later this year when they evict the 150 households in Tsoi Yuen village to make way for the railway. Some commentators predict the government will pay a high price for taking a high-handed approach. Veteran political observer Johnny Lau Yui-siu believes the government will face more, and worse, social unrest over infrastructure developments in future if it doesn't change its attitude. "From protests against the demolition of the Star Ferry Pier and Queen's Pier, to the opposition to this link, the turnout gets bigger every time," Lau said. "But the government is still resolved to follow its traditional way of thinking: it doesn't seek to pacify the noises, but to overcome challenges." By that, he meant the government's ability to force its policies through the legislature because of an electoral system that packs the chamber with loyal members. This status quo may help the government in critical moments, he said, but maintaining it will only spark bigger challenges in future. Speaking before passage of the funding, Secretary for Transport and Housing Eva Cheng said: "It took 10 years of discussion for us to come to this step. If we go back to the discussions again it might take another 10 years. How many 10 years do we have?" She pledged to extend by another month the deadline for Tsoi Yuen villagers to accept the compensation package, and promised the government would improve how it engages the public in consultations. "Taking this as a lesson, we will use multiple channels and multimedia in future to allow a wider participation by the community [in public consultation]." The express rail link did not attract so much public attention when Legco debated it over the three years to 2008. Lawmakers discussed whether it should share West Rail's track or have its own dedicated corridor, and picked the latter because it offered greater economic benefits. Villagers in Tsoi Yuen, who must vacate their homes to make way for the project, have been protesting against the link since the government sought funding for the detailed design in early 2008. But their voice remained weak, as a majority of Hongkongers supported the project at the time, despite knowing little about it. All that began to change in October, when rail experts from a group called Professional Commons - a think tank affiliated with the Civic Party - linked up with activists supporting the villagers. They started a campaign exposing flaws in the project including its choice of West Kowloon for its terminus, which, they said, would lead to traffic congestion. The protests over the line grew amid other controversies - on the course of Hong Kong political reform and the resignation of five pan-democratic lawmakers to trigger what they call a referendum on universal suffrage. Amid that welter of dissent, the rail link's price tag provided the best platform for politicians and opponents to challenge the government's authority and credibility. Read rest of article on SCMP  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent A Singapore taxi driver by the name of Mr Tan claimed that he was sacked by his taxi company after an unhappy PRC lady customer filed a complaint against him as well as a report to the police. In an interview with Chinese tabloid Shin Min Daily, Mr Tan said he picked up the 30 plus year old passenger along Bukit Timah Road on the morning of 26 November 2009. She sounded that she is from China from her accent. The lady wanted Mr Tan to drive her to Tech Point along Ang Mo Kio Street 65 who informed her that he may need to find the exact place upon arrival there and she was agreeable. Half an hour later, Mr Tan turned into Ang Mo Kio Street 62 from Yio Chu Kang Road and was stopped immediately by the lady who kept scolding him for not knowing the way. Mr Tan was very angry at that time and blurted out: "You PRC women only come to Singapore to cheat Singapore men of their CPF monies!!!" She retaliated immediately by scolding him a "bastard". [Source: Shin Min Daily, 16 January 2010] After Mr Tan drove her to the intended destination, she hopped off his taxi without paying a single cent. Mr Tan followed her to ask for the $11.40 fare, but the PRC lady lodged a police report against him instead. When Mr Tan tried to take a photo of her face with his handphone camera, she used her umbrella to block him and in the ensuing scuffle, Mr Tan damaged her umbrella and had to pay her $10 in compensation. The fiasco was later settled by two policemen. However, the PRC lady still went ahead and filed a complaint against Mr Tan to his taxi company which terminated his services on 4 December 2009. Due to the ruling party's liberal immigration policies, an increasingly number of foreigners, especially those from mainland China are flocking to study, work and live in Singapore. Despite Singapore opening its doors to the PRCs, it is not even featured among the top five destinations of Chinese college students who prefer to emigrate to France, U.S.A, South Korea, Australia and Canada in a survey done by Gallup in July 2009. Many of the PRCs who came to Singapore are uncouth peasants hailing from the poorer inland provinces of China and not highly educated and trained professionals. Even then, there were media reports of PRC construction workers, masseurs and cleaners being given Singapore PRs and citizenships though they cannot speak a single word of English, the linga franca of most Singaporeans. It appears that it is a conscious policy of the ruling party to "flood" Singapore with PRCs in order to increase the population of the ethnic Chinese in Singapore. In an interview last year with National Geographic magazine, Singapore’s octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew said it is a “good idea” that Singapore has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants as they are more “hard-driving” and “hard-striving” than the locals. “If native Singaporeans are falling behind because “the spurs are not stuck into the hide,” that is their problem,” he was quoted as saying in the article “The Singapore Solution.” by Mark Jacobson. [Source: National Geographic] News source: Shin Min Daily  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent In a speech made yesterday to graduates of the first batch of youth leaders from a leadership programme in Marine Parade GRC, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong says it "is important to have good leaders in four sectors of the country - political, public service, business sector and the people sector." He quoted an ancient saying on the importance of leadership: "(The ancient saying is) 'an army of sheep led by a lion is stronger than an army of lions led by a sheep'. In other words, leadership is critical in battles; the leadership qualities, the courage and the ability and getting the team to follow you is crucial." SM Goh also said that leadership is important in generating economic growth for the country: "If you track the performance of a country in the last 30 years, you will come to the conclusion that there is a co-relationship between the leadership of a country and economic performance of the country. The better the leadership, the better the government, more enlightened, more visionary. The more honest the government, the better the economic performance," he added.  Singapore's ruling party has the propensity of linking its performance to economic indicators like GDP growth - a certain percentage of their multi-million annual pay is pegged to the nation's growth rates. However, economic performance does not necessarily translate into a higher standard of living for its citizens. Many prominent economists including Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz has spoken out on the limitations of GDP which fails to take into consideration the welfare of the people. Singapore is the second richest nation in Asia after Japan, but its people do not live the life befitting of a first world nation. While Japan has the lowest income gap between the rich and the poor among developed countries, Singapore has the highest. A key reason is that we are a flock of hapless sheeps led by a small group of greedy lions for far too long. Being predators by nature, lions are perenially obsessed with keeping their stomachs full all the time and the poor sheeps will have little choice but to serve as fodder for them. We need a people-orientated government - an army of sheep led by leaders within its flocks instead of lions from elsewhere. Only then will we be able to reclaim our rights as citizens of this country we call home. As for SM Goh, he should not forget the fact that he is not a lion too, but a sheep like us being led around by the only real lion in Singapore.  Read More →