TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent One day after The Temasek Review published an article castigating the Romanian embassy for its nonchalant attitude towards the families of the victims of the fatal road accident at Bukit Panjang three weeks ago caused by a black Audi A6 belonging to it, a staff from the embassy has contacted Ms Yenny Young to offer condolences and help, according to a report from Romanian online newspaper click.ro. Ms Young is the wife of Mr Tong Kok Wai, one of the accident victims who has since died from his injuries. He was crossing the road with his friend Mr Bong Hwee Haw before they were knocked down by the vehicle from the Romanian embassy. In an earlier interview with The Temasek Review, Ms Young described her life as "ruined" by the accident and questioned why Dr Silviu Ionescu, the Romanian diplomat and prime suspect in the case had decided to leave Singapore on 18th December, the day Mr Tong was declared brain dead. Despite all evidence pointing to Dr Silviu Ionescu as the driver of the vehicle, he was allowed to leave Singapore 3 days after the accident. Currently in Romania, Dr Silviu Ionescu had told the local press that he had no "connection" with the case and promised to return to Singapore at the end of January to aid in the investigations. The Singapore police refused to divulge any details on the matter except that investigations are still "ongoing". They have submitted the findings to the Attorney-General Chambers to decide if further action should be taken. Three weeks after the accident, Foreign Minister George Yeo said that what happened was "very bad". He did not reveal if his ministry has submitted a waiver for Dr Silviu's diplomatic immunity to the Romanian government. There is no extradition treaty between Singapore and Romania though the latter is a member of the European Union. In the event that Dr Silviu refused to return to Singapore, the Romanian authorities will have to decide whether to take action against him. In a similar case which happened 5 years ago in Romania, a rock musician Teo Peter was knocked down by a vehicle driven by a U.S. Marine who was immediately whisked out of the country back to the United States. He was subsequently charged in the U.S. military court for "adultery" and "obstruction of justice" before being given a letter of "reprimand". Dr Silviu Ionescu knows that he is likely to get away from his heinous crime courtesy of the Singapore authorities which had allowed him to leave in the first place. 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. Investigating or procrastinating: Dr Silviu Ionescu still holidaying in Romania 2. George Yeo on Romanian embassy car crash: What happened is “very bad” 3. Online petition calls on Romanian govt to make ex gratias payment 4. Dr Silviu Ionescu: I took cab to notify car theft 5. Eye witness saw driver quarreling with a young girl in the car 6. Dr Silviu Ionescu: I have no connection with the case 7. Dr Silviu Ionescu flagged taxi at Sungei Kadut 8. From Romania with love: The Great Singapore escape of Dr Silviu Ionescu 9. Singapore police has not ruled out Dr Silviu Ionescu as a suspect in its investigations 10. Romanian diplomat suspected to be driver of Audi in hit and run accident at Bukit Panjang  Read More →

Mr Tan Boon Huat Chief Executive Officer People's Association Dear Mr Tan, RE: MM LEE'S REMARKS ON GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS BEING PART OF PAP We refer to the following remarks made by the Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew which were published in the Straits Times on 30 December 2009: “They discover that the People’s Action Party (PAP) has only a small office in Bedok. But everywhere they go, they see the PAP – in the RCs (residents’ committees), CCCs (citizens’ consultative committees), and the CCs (community clubs).” [Source: Straits Times, 30 December 2009] MM Lee was commenting on the Chinese officials who have been sent to Singapore to study how he ran his country. The above statement seems to imply that the PAP is in control of all the grassroots organizations in Singapore - the RCs, CCCs and CCs. According to information posted on its website, the People’s Association (PA) was established as a statutory board on 1 July 1960 to promote racial harmony and social cohesion. Nowhere was it mentioned that the PA is somewhat involved with the PAP, a political party. As the PA is supposedly a non-partisan and apolitical organization, MM Lee's words are befuddling. Since it is impossible to get MM Lee to clarify his statement, we have to trouble you to clarify the following questions: 1. Are the RCs, CCCs and CCs open to all Singaporeans or only PAP members? 2. Are they funded by taxpayers' monies or the PAP itself? 3. Is there an unwritten rule within the PA that most, if not all heads of these grassroots organizations should be card-carrying members of the PAP? 4. Are personnel from grassroots organizations mobilized for PAP events such as its ministerial meetings with residents? 5. Are they also roped in to help the PAP's campaign in the community during the general elections? 6. Are volunteers spending their time to help the community or to promote the PAP to the community? We noticed that the PA's board of directors consist of a few ministers such as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Mr Lim Boon Heng. Is it therefore correct to say that the People's Association is controlled by the PAP and cannot be trusted to discharge its manifold duties impartially to all Singaporeans without prejudice to the PAP's own partisan interest? It is pertinent that you answer the six questions we pose to you so that Singapore taxpayers will have a better idea where their contributions to the PA are going to. At the same time, new volunteers should be aware of what they are in for when they sign up to join a grassroots organization. Are they really serving the community or end up providing free manpower to the PAP unwittingly? With warm regards, The Temasek Review Team  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent On 2 January 2010, The Temasek Review published a letter from PAP MP and Deputy Secretary-General of NTUC, Madam Halimah Yacob to clarify her earlier stance on underemployment in Singapore. Her gesture was hailed by many of our readers as a "positive" one since it is one of the few instances that MPs have bothered to reach out to netizens directly. Mr Tan Tarn How, a senior research fellow on the New Media at the Institute of Policy Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy called it a "significant" step for the alternative media: "In the past, the government has addressed issues brought up without necessarily making a link with specific websites. For instance, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew addressed concerns expressed online, but did so via the mainstream media than by engaging directly with individual websites," he said. Madam Halimah is not the first MP to engage us. A year ago, another PAP MP Charles Chong wrote to us to clarify his infamous statement on "lesser mortals" which was published in TODAY. We published Mr Chong's letter in full here without any editing. When interviewed by TODAY, Assistant professor Eugene Tan of the Singapore Management University said: "On when to seek clarifications, the priority would be to seek corrections from the more prominent websites, blogs or portals......The inaccuracy in question, even if perceived to be minor by some, is deemed to be significant and important enough for Mdm Halimah to clarify her position." There are only two major socio-political websites in Singapore, the other being a SPH-endorsed blog. Despite being constantly promoted by the Straits Times as a "credible" alternative news site in Singapore, its readership is barely a third of The Temasek Review now. Both TODAY and Channel News Asia gave prominent coverage on Madam Halimah's unusual move to engage The Temasek Review with an article titled "Netizens hail MP for engaging blog after being misquoted". (read article here) (We shall leave it to our readers to decide if Madam Halimah is really "misquoted") It appears that certain quarters within the mainstream media are encouraging PAP MPs to engage netizens directly instead of relying solely on official channels like the REACH feedback portal which is widely decried as a "black hole" for netizens. At last check, the REACH portal has a traffic of only 10 per cent of The Temasek Review. Though Mdm Halimah did not "interact" directly with netizens in a sense, her letter has brought her much public goodwill and support. We also published another article subsequently to applaud her gesture which boosted her public image and standing among the online community literally overnight. With the new media becoming an increasingly important and influential medium of communication for politicians to reach out to the voters, the PAP will risk alienating a significant proportion of the online community if it persists in its obsolete strategy of engaging netizens only in official channels. In Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan, many MPs keep a personal blog which is updated frequently to reach out to the young IT-savvy population. They also have no qualms posting their thoughts and views directly on alternative news websites and socio-political blogs, some of which are run by anonymous bloggers. Even China's premier Wen Jiabao found fit to answer questions lobbied at him by anonymous Chinese netizens in an online "dialogue session" organized by CCTV last year. The old school thought that one's identity must be known and one's articles must be perfectly "accurate" is outdated in today's new media landscape where speed, content and readership count above everything else. The Temasek Review will always welcome letters and feedback from PAP MPs and members. While our editorial policy may be slanted slightly towards the opposition, we will ensure that all PAP MPs be given the opportunity to get their intended message out to netizens. Unlike some YPAP members who resorted to hitting below the belt to fix their opponents, they can rest assured that their letters and comments will be posted on our site in full without any editing, moderation or distortion by us.  Read More →