TR EMERITUS

By Adib Zalkapli from The Malaysian Insider DAP’s Lim Kit Siang today urged Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to address the problem of the country’s brain drain at an early stage, citing the high number of top scholars being enticed to go across the Causeway — as exemplified by the case of a Malaysian being Singapore’s top O-Level student this year. “The question Muhyiddin must answer is, why go all the way to the United Kingdom to urge [for] the return of the ‘best brains’ while he is completely blind, unconcerned and insensitive to the loss of the ‘best brains’ to neighbouring Singapore, or the 300,000 Malaysians who emigrated since the last general election?” asked Lim in a statement. The deputy prime minister was reported to have urged the “best brains” working abroad to return to Malaysia to help drive the country’s new economic model, at a dialogue with Malaysian students in London. Lim said the government appeared to be insensitive over the report on the success of Malaysian Lai Kai Rou, 16, who emerged tops in the island republic, scoring 10 A1s in the recent O-Level examinations. “The question Muhyiddin, who is also Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Human Resources, should  address is why Malaysia continues to be helpless, unconcerned and even insensitive to the brain drain of the best and most talented young Malaysians to Singapore, right from the start of secondary education,” said Lim. “Can the Cabinet Committee on Human Resources headed by Muhyiddin come out with a master plan to stop such a brain drain by not only ensuring that there is a quality education system in the country but that all talented Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, would be assured of equal opportunities both in education and employment, as well as full respect of the constitutional rights of all Malaysians?” he added. He also said that addressing the brain drain issue should be made the Key Performance Index (KPI) and one of the National Key Results Area (NKRA) for the Education Ministry. - The Malaysian Insider  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Singapore's octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew showed who is really in charge of the government by being the first PAP leader to pay a visit to Resorts World Sentosa on Wednesday, a week ahead of the opening of its first phase on Jan 20. He was hosted by Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, chairman of the Genting group which owns the resort, and Mr Tan Hee Teck, chief executive officer of Resorts World Sentosa. Such an important symbolic visit should be undertaken by the Minister of Trade and Industry or the Prime Minister himself. It is strange that MM Lee, who admitted in a speech to a Japanese audience recently that he is "not doing much work except doing forecasting" felt fit to make the trip in person in spite of his advanced age. In fact, his son the Prime Minister has not appeared much in news lately except a New Year's day message to Singaporeans that they remain a "priority" for his government. Mr Lee's press secretary Yeong Yoon Ying said that during the visit, which lasted two hours, MM Lee toured the Universal Studios and had a brief visit to its four theme parks, some of its hotels, as well as the WaterWorld amphitheatre. The two Integrated Resorts were part of the ruling party's grandiose plans to diversify and expand Singapore's economy in the hope of bring much needed foreign capital and talent into the island state. They were implemented swiftly without much of a consultation with the people despite staunch opposition from religious groups. While the state media has been busy of late trying to generate positive publicity for the two IRs, others are more guarded about their future prospects. An analyst from Citicorp Anil Daswani expressed doubts about the profitability of Singapore’s two integrated resorts in September last year. In a report on the prospects of Las Vegas Sands (LVS), which owns Marina Bay Sands (MBS) here, Citi said that assuming MBS contributes 20 per cent of LVS’s total Ebitdar in its first full year, every eligible Singaporean will have to go to the casino five times a year and spend more then the average visitor to Macau. ‘We liken the current sentiment towards the integrated resort to the Macau gaming boom in 2006/07 and urge investors to not be left holding this parcel when the music stops,’ he added. According to Mr Anil, Singapore needs to attract locals to gamble regularly if it wants its casinos to succeed. However, a hefty entry fee of $100 is likely to put off some Singaporeans. Furthermore, unlike Las Vegas or Melbourne, Singapore has a small population of only 5 million people. Ronnie Chan, chairman of Hang Lung Properties Ltd., Hong Kong’s fifth-biggest developer by market value, said recently in a Bloomberg Forum in Hong Kong that the two casino-resorts in Singapore will fail because they won’t be able to attract high-rollers: “The big rollers are what make money in casinos, they will never come to Singapore, it’s a family entertainment” location. You think big-rollers will go to Singapore where they have teeth and fangs coming out sideways? There are too many rules. I was in Sentosa island, I really think that it’s going to be a flop…..The whole integrated entertainment industry, I’m worried for them. The good thing about Singapore is that if you flop, you’re given a second chance,” he said. Despite all the hype and buzz from the media, MM Lee must be feeling anxious about the PAP's pet project which is tied to its political fortunes. Fortunately for him, even if both flop, he will be given a second chance to redeem himself as there is no opposition in parliament to hold him and his colleagues accountable and neither are Singaporeans brave enough to register their displeasure publicly. In the event that the two IRs fail to bring in the visitors and generate sufficient revenue as promised, Singapore will end up with two white elephants in the its CBD, like the now defunct Tang dynasty village in Jurong.    Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Foreign Minister George Yeo is one of the few PAP ministers and MPs to maintain a Facebook to reach out to ordinary Singaporeans, but it appears that he is more interested to boast about his frequent overseas trips and meetings with foreign dignitaries than to listen to the genuine concerns of Singaporeans on his Facebook. An irate netizen tipped us off on an exchange between George Yeo and a young lady by the name of Miss Ang on 11 January 2010: [Source: George Yeo's Facebook, 11 January 2010 ] Miss Ang reported a case of molest in November last year to the police and has not received a reply from them yet. Out of desperation, she asked Mr Yeo (and other people) on his Facebook for assistance. Instead of showing some empathy to the victim, Mr Yeo gave a curt reply in a one-liner: "Please see your MP." Miss Ang did not bother to continue the conversation and rightly so. Put yourself in the position of the victim. You were badly affected, hurt and traumatized by the incident and after nearly two months you made a police report, there is still no reply from the police officer investigating your complaint who promised to call you. You feel dejected, helpless and lost and not knowing where to seek help, you post a comment on a minister's Facebook hoping that somehow he will be able to help you and this is the answer you get from him without a single word of consolation as if you do not exist. How will you feel? Miss Ang had already indicated that she is "at a loss  of what to do" when she was typing the comment. Any decent fellow human being would have offered some words of concern and support if not assistance to her, let alone an elected minister who is supposed to serve Singaporeans and take care of their interests. Where is your empathy, Mr George Yeo? You sound as if molest is such a trivial affair that doesn't deserve your time and attention. Your reply is absolutely disgusting, callous and insulting, an indirect way brushing Miss Ang's concerns aside and telling her to "get lost" and stop disturbing you. And how will Miss Ang's MP be in a position to help her directly and immediately other than to write a letter to the police to ask them to expedite their investigations? As the highest paid Foreign Affairs Minister in the world, it is appalling that Mr Yeo failed to comprehend the simple meaning of empathy - to put oneself in the shoes of others, to understand how they are feeling and most importantly, to show that you CARE. Miss Ang is not really expecting you to help her as she even apologized in her comment that she is "sorry" if she is using the "wrong channel" to seek for help. What she needed most is a word of consolation from you and that will suffice. You could have said something like: "Oh dear, what happened? It must be a traumatic experience for you. Why don't you drop me an email so that I can find out more about your problem?" OR "I am not really in charge of the police, but let me see if I can pull some strings and make a few phone calls to help you. Please email me and I will see what I can do for you." OR "You must be feeling pretty anxious, upset and even angry right now. I am sure the police officer remembers your case, perhaps he is too busy to give you a call. Just drop me an email and I will try to contact the relevant authorities to attend to you immediately." Mr George Yeo, are these few simple words beyond you? Do you know what a world of difference you will make by typing any of the above sentences in your reply to Miss Ang? She will feel so much relieved, relaxed and refreshed upon hearing you, a minister in a position of power giving her a few minutes of your precious time. In fact, she may not even email you and will just wait patiently for the police officer to get back to her. It appears that Mr Yeo has been fraternalizing too often with "higher mortals" that he has completely lost touch with "lesser mortals" like Miss Ang, you and me. Three weeks after a fatal road traffic accident at Bukit Panjang involving a vehicle from the Romanian embassy which robbed the life of an innocent young man, he had only this to say to the families of the victims and the public: "What happened was very bad." Oh, a woman lost her newly-wed husband of only one month, the culprit had fled the country and his identity remained unknown to this very day and that's all you can say - "very bad". What will be considered a "disaster" to you, Mr Yeo? Only when you are booted out of your office in the next general election? To be fair to Mr Yeo, he is not the only PAP leader to be guilty of such blatant arrogance, insensitivity and callousness. The word "empathy" does not exist in the PAP's dictionary at all as its ministers and MPs are living too high up in their own ivory towers that they are completely dissociated from the reality on the ground, to borrow the words of Law Minister Shanmugam. In the aftermath of the fiasco involving PAP MP Denise Phua who was "threatened" by her constituent, a Singaporean by the name of Lawrence Loh wrote a letter to TODAY relating his own personal experience with a PAP MP: "In February 2001, my older son died in a naval accident whilst serving National Service. In that year, my younger son was due for enlistment. A friend, a very active grassroots member, suggested that I approach my MP, for help in exploring the possibility of getting an exemption for my younger son. I was reluctant but he went ahead to fix an appointment for me at the Meet-The-People Session (MPS). I subsequently relented and he accompanied me there. .. It was in March 2001. That was my first appearance at a MPS, and it was to be my last.I waited until midnight before I could meet the MP. Prior to this, he was given the case paper which detailed the objective of the meeting and the circumstances of my case. When I entered the room, his first remark was “Yes, what can I do for you?”. There was no attempt at offering a word of sympathy or condolence. I then related my situation and said that both my wife and I were very traumatised. His next remark was: “What traumatic? After two months, you won’t be traumatic.”. With that, I decided to end the meeting. And with that, my respect for him hit ground zero. I was too stunned and grief-stricken to react." Now back to the Denise Phua case. Her constituent, 49 year old Ng Kim Ngweng was jailed for six months for criminal intimidation when he called up the REACH hotline to complain about her attitude. During his trial, the father of two told the juge that on the day he waited four hours to see Denise Phua, she was smiling and 'looked proud'. After complaining to her that the aid he got was paltry, he told her: 'Don't forget, you just care that you have eaten enough and don't bother whether other people are alive or dead.' Not only are PAP MPs known for their utter lack of empathy, even small-fry PAP members think of themselves as "mini-LKYs". A YPAP member by the name of Eric How whose father is a prominent grassroots leader in Kampung Kembangan constituency posted a rather caustic comment on the YPAP Facebook attacking online critics of the PAP: “Do not be bitter and go on slapping on the Government senselessly because you did not get any fruits or benefits from your forefather. You will have to blame on your karma or your forefathers for not getting all the paths right for their off springs.” Mr How also boasted unashamedly that his “folks” get him a personal car so that he does not need to “squeeze into public transport” like other netizens: “My folks did the right thing by getting all the stuffs ready for us and we will never ever need to nag about the Government giving jobs to foreigners instead of locals. In fact, we create jobs for others. Our folks even make sure that we guys do not need to squeeze into public transport by getting each of us a personal car.” As if being insulted by fellow Singaporeans is not bad enough, we have one new citizen from India and YPAP member Fredric Fanthome who sneered at online critics of the PAP as "anonymous hordes who sprayed venom at the government at every single opportunity." Wow, since when did we locals, the true, blue Singaporeans who have risked two years of our life in National Service need to be lectured by a former Indian national who is only able to come here and leech on us thanks to the PAP? There is a Chinese saying which goes - "When the upper beam is not straight, the lower beam will be crooked". These PAP MPs are merely emulating their seniors who treat Singaporeans as no more than "digits" in the economy which can be easily replaced by their new pets elsewhere as exemplified by this most outrageous remark to date by the PAP's founder Lee Kuan Yew. In a recent interview with National Geographic magazine, Lee 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 in a time when many Singaporeans are struggling to make ends meet in the face of the relentless influx of cheap foreign labor into Singapore which depresses their wages directly leading to a lower quality of life. [Source: National Geographic] Is empathy an important attribute of a MP? As a matter of fact, it is more important than other qualities such as intelligence, capability and passion for the job. As public servants, ministers and MPs have the heavy responsiblity on their shoulders to formulate and implement policies which will affect the lives of millions of people on the ground. How can we expect them to take our interests into consideration when they are unable to empathize with our concerns, worries and fears? The root cause of the problem lies in our obsolete, archaic and repressive political system which allows the PAP to parachute outsiders with little grassroots experience or interest to serve fellow Singaporeans into parliament directly either through walkovers or by hiding under the skirts of a heavy-weight minister to steam-roll over the perenially weak opposition in the elections which have become no more than a farce to masquerade Singapore as a "democracy" to the world. One may excel academically, but that doesn't automatically make one a good MP or minister. The ingrained elitist mindset of the PAP to select its candidates based largely on academic and professional qualifications alone coupled with the lack of a solid opposition in parliament to exert political pressure on its MPs to perform has led to the untenable situation we have today where the "great affective divide" (first coined by writer Dr Catherine Lim in 1994) between the government and the citizens is widening with each passing day to the detriment of our nation. Singaporeans are already paying the ultimate price for the lack of empathy from the PAP leaders - we are finding ourselves increasingly being squeezed into a corner by the relentless influx of foreigners who have threatened to take away our jobs, our homes and our futures and nobody within the PAP seems to realize that. But then again, if molest is considered a trivial matter by a minister, what makes you think they will care about our life and death? When the next election comes, please don't be deceived by the goodies they dangle in front of you again. Let us recite the PAP mantra to Singaporeans starting from today: “YOU DIE, YOUR BUSINESS!” Related articles: 1. From PAP to Singaporeans: You die your business! 2. Singapore is more like Zimbabwe than Malaysia ever is under the PAP 3. MM Lee slammed by netizens for callous remarks 4. MM Lee: good to welcome Chinese immigrants as Singaporeans have become less “hard-driving” 5. The Singapore Solution  Read More →