TR EMERITUS

By Richard Lu "You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative and you'll never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put together again...and your asset values will be in peril, your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers.'"   (Lee Kuan Yew justifying pay hikes for Singapore ministers, The Straits Times, 5 April 2007)   Singaporeans are an apathetic lot, always afraid to express an opinion or to take risk, preferring others to make the first move.  They are afraid that the vote is not secret and fear losing their jobs if found out they voted the opposition. They are afraid to express the truth about someone in power.  They are even afraid to speak up about things that effecting them directly e.g. the high cost of living, unemployment and poor quality life.   This is because they are quite unaware about their rights to free, fair and honest expression.  The ISA inherited from the British and perfected by the PAP has a lot to do with this “Politics of Fear” resulting in PAP getting away with intimidations and threats.  Consider these coercions:   a.  Lee Kuan Yew (2006): “Please don’t assume that you can change governments. Young people don’t understand this.” b.  Lee Kuan Yew (2006):“Without the elected President and if there is a freak (election) result, within two or three years, the army would have to come in and stop it.”    If we dare to dream and we live our dreams…….. then imagine this:       Singaporeans get an opposition government and as promised, they reverse some of these past bad policies e.g.   1.      Revise ministerial and civil service pay to a realistic level; 2.      Revert to the original constitution and strengthen citizen rights and abolish ISA, EP, GRC and NCMP; 3.      Abolish the following appointments – Minister Mentor, Senior Minister, Ministry Without Portfolio, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Minister of State and Parliamentary Secretary; and 4.      Repeal Newspaper and Printing Presses Act of 1974 (NPPA) with all its attendant amendments permitting state control of the media, Legal Profession (Amendment) Act of 1987 (LP(A)A of1987), Public Order Act 2009 (POA), Official Secrets Acts (OSA).   To prevent collusion, corruption and nepotism, the opposition government then presses into law the following:   5.     Limiting to one (1) Deputy Prime Minister;          Limiting the number of ministries and appointments to minister and deputy minister only;          Limiting Prime Minister and Ministers to a maximum two terms;          Limiting the age of MPs to 65 years; and          Limiting MPs to a maximum services life of 15 years; 6.      Preventing MPs and civil servants from sitting on boards of listed companies; and 7.      Preventing PM and Ministers from appointing their family members and relatives to GLC companies, Temasek and GIC.   To assist Singaporeans and attain a good standard of living, the opposition institute and implement the following:   8.      Minimum wage; 9.      Freedom of Information rules; 10.   Policies to regulate and limit foreigners workers and new citizens into Singapore; 11.    Polices to safeguard Singaporeans' interests – good housing, health, education etc.; 12.    Independent panels to oversee judicial appointments, ministerial pay, civil service & military appointments, election boundaries; and 13.    Independent panels to oversee our sovereign wealth – GIC, Temasek and CPF;   To liberalize the political landscape and level the playing field for all political parties: 14.    Free the local media from Govt. and PAP control; 15.    Establish permanent Judicial Commission to hear complaints of political nature; 16.    Reduce Govt.’s participation in commerce and de-couple GLCs from Govt.; 17.    De-couple the PA and NUTC from the PAP and Govt. and passes law to prevent NTUC and PA from being associated or controlled by any Government of any political parties; 18.    De-couple the Police and the Military from the Government and PAP; and 19.    Ensure real competition on open and fair basis for the telecom, electricity, power and gas industries;   Finally, to heal the country from years of political and mental abuses, the opposition government should:   20.    Apologize to all ex-political detainees and political exiles; 21.    Revoke all charges against all political detainees and annul all judgments pronounced against them and reimburse their losses (even if the Govt. has to compensate them); 22.    Ask all political exiles to return and enjoin Singaporeans in the re-building of our political landscape; 24.    Pay a one-time token compensation for the hardships, pain and sufferings caused to political detainees and exiles by the previous government;  25.    Allow and encourage all forms of open and honest debates and discussions; and 26.    Set up a Truth and Re-conciliation Commission to enable the country bring closures and heal wounds caused by the past government misdeeds.   Are we dreaming?  Do we dare to live our dreams?  It is not time for us to move away from this politics of fear?   Singaporeans, I ask and urge you search your innermost conscience and heart of hearts and see if the above are not what you have always want, prayed for and wished for our beloved Singapore?   Yes, if we have the courage we can together rebuild a nation – a nation free of fear and one that to be proud of.    If so, Singapore really deserves immediately nothing less than a huge dose of “bad” and “incompetent” government and we Singaporeans must send to the PAP Government in no unintelligible terms  (and in the MM's words) a “good dose of election signal” by not voting PAP in the next election.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent YPAP member Sear Hock Rong must be having sleepless nights of late over the complaint lodged by Alex Tan to the People's Association on his business dealings with Eunos grassroots organizations. At 4.41am in the morning, Mr Sear posted a comment on our site expressing his disappointment (as usual) against our article on the Lianhe Wanbao report. Mr Sear asked us "how has the YPAP shown it was “unable” to clarify matters and “has to resort to the usual dirty underhanded tactics”?" Netizens have been questioning Mr Sear and Mr Fong for the past two weeks if there are any conflicts of interest between their business and grassroots volunteer work, but both has declined to clarify the matter. Neither has the YPAP issue any official statement on their behalfs. A YPAP member Eric How then tried to get posts unfavorable to the PAP deleted on the 3in1kopitiam delphi forum by repeatedly complaining to the delphi. Coincidentally, an unknown person by the name of "Desmond Quek" called our hosts up last week to get our site shut down on flimsy grounds of revealing "sensitive" personal information of individuals on our site. A day later, an anonymous poster threatened Alex to stop "harrassing" YPAP members and that a "report" made against him. If these tactics employed by the YPAP to shut its online critics up are not considered "dirty" and "underhanded", then what else can they be? Mr Sear also claimed that "many" Singaporeans are already very disappointed in our articles without substantiating it: "As much as Temasek Review is supporting Mr Alex Tan in his campaign against the PAP, Temasek Review is also accountable to the majority of Singaporeans who voted for the PAP. Although Temasek Review needs to increase your readership to survive, it is important to write balanced and factual articles. Many Singaporeans are already very disappointed in your articles." The Temasek Review is accountable to the majority of netizens who are going to vote against the PAP in the next election and not PAP members and supporters who are well "served" by the mainstream media anyway. We have received a barrage of criticisms recently from PAP supporters that our articles are biased against the PAP, but it is never our responsibility to make the PAP look good or care about its image in cyberspace. Unlike some other blogs, we are already very generous and fair to the PAP by giving its MPs, members and supporters a platform to defend themselves and to express their views. Mr Sear should be able to attest to the fact that we have been publishing his comments without moderation on our site. We understand that PAP members loathe to give a site run by anonymous bloggers credibility by engaging it. However the reality is: you need us more than we need you. The Temasek Review can afford to peeve off all the PAP members and supporters in cyberspace and our readership will still continue to grow. On the other hand, the PAP has no blogs with a sizable readership to compete with the cacophony of voices in blogosphere. As for Mr Sear, we advised him to come straight to the point and answer the ten questions we have posed to him instead of beating around the bush.   Copyright © 2009 – 2010 The Temasek Review (If you are going to reproduce this article on your blog or forum, please provide a link back to ours) Related articles: 1. Demolishing the lies in Lianhe Wanbao article to smear Alex Tan 2. Alex Tan thanked Lianhe Wanbao for free publicity 3. Complaint against Sear Hock Rong reported in Lianhe Wanbao 4. Sear Hock Rong berates TR for “associating” with Alex Tan 5. PA’s operating guidelines for acquisition of services 6. Netizen questions if there is a conflict of interest between Mr Sear Hock Rong’s job and grassroots work 7. YPAP member demands Temasek Review apologize for “putting PAP in a bad light” 8. Identity of YPAP member who leaked Alex Tan’s DB record on Facebook 9. Alex Tan to YPAP members: Don’t be cowards on Facebook 10. Alex Tan challenges YPAP to public debate at Speaker’s corner 11. YPAP member slammed by netizens for revealing critic’s detention record 12. YPAP member resorts to smearing critic’s character to silence him 13. PAP MP De Souza: More robust debate from PAP than opposition MPs  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean has exhorted Singaporeans to donate generously to those in need to ensure that nobody is left behind as the economy picks up. Mr Teo was speaking at a charity show organised by MediaCorp's Suria and Tabung Amal Aidilfitri Trust Fundon Friday night which managed to raise only $500,000. Such events usually raise more than $1 million dollars. Public donations to charities have dropped drastically in the face of the scandals embroiling NKF and Ren Ci hospital, the two largest charities in Singapore. Both their CEOs were convicted for misappropriation of the charities' funds. Singapore's charities are heavily dependent on public donations though the government does offer them limited financial assistance. Despite being the second richest nation in Asia after Japan, Singapore citizens enjoy few social welfare benefits. While its two giant sovereign wealth funds were able to lose billions of dollars in failed overseas investments, the ruling party is unwilling to do more to help needy Singaporeans. Mr Teo seemed to forget the role of the government when he asked Singaporeans to continue their support to charities: “There are many charitable organisations which do good work. I would encourage Singaporeans to continue to open their hearts, open their wallets and give generously because its only through the support of the community that these organisations are able to do the work that they do.” Perhaps he would like to walk his talk first by donating part of his multi-million dollar salary to these charities. Singapore leaders are highest paid in the world. As deputy prime minister, Mr Teo receives an annual salary in excess of SGD$2 million, more than 4 times that of U.S. President Barack Obama. In the aftermath of the 2006 general election, GST was raised from 5 to 7 per cent ostensibly to "help the poor." Till today, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had not explained to Singaporeans how the additional revenue collected from GST has gone to needy Singaporeans. While the salaries of ordinary Singaporeans have remained stagnant in the last few years due to the relentless influx of cheap foreign workers, the income gap between the poor and the rich has widened. Singapore has the largest income-gap among developed nations after Hong Kong. Instead of asking Singaporeans to donate their hard-earned money to charities all the time, the ruling party should consider spending more of Singapore's budget surpluses to provide a comprehensive social safety net for needy Singaporeans. For a nation with billions of dollars in reserves, it can well afford to treat its citizens better.  Read More →