TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent Deputy Secretary-General of NTUC and PAP MP Madam Halimah Yacob was praised by netizens for engaging them in cyberspace. Madam Yacob had written a letter to The Temasek Review which was published in full without editing on its site in response to an earlier article about her views on underemployment in Singapore. In her letter, Madam Halimah explained that underemployment is unavoidable in Singapore due to the poor economic situation which resulted in less job opportunities for Singapore workers. She urged Singaporeans to remain "focused and in solidarity so that each and everyone of us can do our part to provide support and understanding to all who need our help." Madam Halimah's letter brought a deluge of comments from netizens with many lauding her for taking the time and effort to draft a well-written reply to The Temasek Review. Zero wrote: "I note that this is the first time a PAP leader of her stature had humbled down to speak to mortals like the rest of us here, and I salute her honesty. We would like to see more of her views, if Madame is kindly enough to avail herself of the opportunity to explain some numerous things which make many Singaporeans agitated, bloggers would be most delighted." Toratoratora concurred: "We ought to give Hamilah Yacob our due respects for clarifying her stand via writing to Temasek Review. How many MPs will bother to do that? I hope she is not in the list of 25. Stay on, Hamilah. We want you maintain this channel of engagement with us." southchinasea wanted to see more such online interactions with PAP MPs: "TR should truely write a thank you letter to Halimah Yacob and encourage her to participate more and also invite her to ask her fellow PAP MPs to engage comments, views and opinions in TR positively like her. didn't she talk about solidarity in difficult times." Sinkapore even said he would cast a vote for her based on her "gesture": "Having said that, here we see one ‘responsible leader’ who is willing to engage and correct, which is a good sign, as opposed to the ‘other bunch’ of arrogant so-called elites.......Disregarding bias blogs elsewhere, the ruling elites should seriously consider engaging Sinkaporeans on TR, where what you see is what you get. I have never in my life voted for ANY PAPies candidate but if I have a choice to vote, here’s one MP I would gladly TICK just based on this little but milestone gesture of hers." While is it unavoidable that some netizens have hurled brickbats at Madam Halimah's reply and dismissed it as another "empty talk" from the PAP, it is nevertheless a positive development in Singapore's new media landscape. In Malaysia, the ministers and MPs take questions from netizens and answer them directly either on their own blogs on in popular news sites. Even China's Premier Wen Jiabao held a free-for-all "question and answer" session for netizens without demanding they shed their cloak of anonymity. At the present moment, the PAP is contented using only government portal REACH to engage netizens which will miss the majority of the online community in Singapore. Furthermore, REACH provides only a one-way communication to the government and suffers from public perception that most, if not all of the "feedback" given will end up in a "black hole". PAP ministers and MPs need to get out of their comfort zone and engage netizens directly on their own turfs instead of waiting for them to express their views on feedback on government sites. With more and more young IT-savvy Singaporeans becoming eligible voters each year, it is pertinent that the government stays engaged and not lose touch with them. As the example of Madam Halimah has shown, a simple gesture like writing a reply will go a long way towards winning the hearts and minds of netizens, many of whom are peeved at the ruling party for not listening to them and addressing their genuine concerns. Despite numerous attempts from some quarters to bring down Temasek Review, our traffic has doubled in the last few weeks alone. Our weekly traffic is now more than three times our nearest rival, 65 times that of REACH and only one quarter of the Straits Times. Articles published here are often disseminated throughout the internet forums in Singapore and quoted by external news agencies as well. Though our articles may appear to be slanted against the ruling party, we shall strive to remain neutral politically. PAP MPs and members need not be afraid of using our site to engage the online community. We have received numerous complaints from PAP members and supporters that our articles are "anti-PAP" whose intention is to make the party "look bad", but we are never a mouthpiece of the PAP in the first place and so why should we care about its public image? PAP MPs, members and supporters are most welcomed to post their comments on our site or write in to us like what Madam Halimah did. If you don't bother to rebuke what is posted here or engage our readers directly, then you can't blame us for not giving you the opportunity to do so. To borrow a quote from Voltaire: "We may disapprove of what you say, but we will defend to the death your right to say it." You can rest assured that other some other blog, we will respect your right of reply as well as privacy. We will allow you to refute anything which is published on our site without any editing or moderation and we will never publish your correspondences with us unless you give us explicit permission to do so.  Read More →

By David See Leong Kit [The following letter was rejected by TODAY for publication and emailed to us by the author himself this morning for publication on our site.] Your report  "Asset that keeps growing"  (TODAY Dec 30) highlighted Minister Mah Bow Tan's simplistic and optimistic  view that HDB flat values will always go up. Home prices in Singapore have become "ridiculously-high" for private property and  "sky-high" for HDB flats. Is it financially prudent for our young couples to start their marriage saddled with huge housing debts for something as basic as a roof over their heads? The broader issue is that land-scarce Singapore must have proper policies to promote an "orderly" property market that is sustainable by economic growth, real demand and especially rising incomes.  Such a market with gradual capital appreciation will benefit many Singaporeans from successive generations. Whereas a "speculative" property market of sky-high prices is largely driven by speculators out to make a quick buck by  "flipping a property".  But when the Property Bubble finally burst, both speculators and genuine home owners will be hurt by rapidly falling property values. During our 1994 Property Bull Run, prices of both private and HDB properties were rising at 30% per annum for three years in a row.  But since when has our economy as well as our salaries grow at such a phenomenal rate? Our  2007 Property Bull Run lasted only nine months, cut short by the US sub-prime housing bubble turning into a Global Financial Crisis that brought recession and job losses to Singapore.  But during that nine months, average freehold property value in our East Coast area  doubled from $700 psf to $1400 psf. A property may be  "an asset that can be monetised",  but it can also end up as a millstone around one's neck.  High property prices will affect the average Singaporean as follows: >  As a home-buyer.  Is it wise to sink so much of your hard-earned monies in a brick-and-cement house with little left over for your children's upbringing, your own healthcare and retirement needs in old age? >  As an employee.  If your employer has to pay high office rent out of its operating budget, can it afford to pay you a better salary,increment and bonus? >  As a consumer.  If a shopkeeper or supermarket operator has to pay high commercial rent, will it not charge you higher prices for goods and services? Finally, two pertinent questions for HDB flat-owners: Are there not more important things in life, such as good health, close family ties and well brought-up children than this materialistic addiction to "HDB Upgrading Carrots" and "my HDB flat is worth a lot"? Should you die suddenly from an accident or heart attack, can you take  your high-valuation upgraded HDB flat along with you to the next world?  Read More →

Hotnews.ro, 4 January 2009 [Translated from Romanian into English using Google Translator] An online petition was launched in Singapore which requires the government to cooperate with authorities in Asia to investigate the accident twice, resulting in one dead and two wounded, whose production is suspected of a Romanian diplomat, tells The Temasek Review. Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of Romania in Singapore, Dr Silviu Ionescu, is suspected by local police that three weeks ago, three people hit by car and fled the accident scene. More than 400 people signed the petition requested that the Romanian Government Silviu Ionescu be surrendered if the Singapore authorities will be found responsible for the accident. Petition signers also require the payment of compensations to families of three victims of the accident. According to local media on December 15, a black Audi A6 car, registered in the name of the Romanian Embassy in Singapore, hit three people at two intersections in Bukit Panjang. The driver did not stop the car. One of the victims, Tan Kok Wai, suffered serious wounds to the head and died after 10 days at a local hospital. A taxi driver in Singapore recently said that the car was led by Silviu Ionescu, charge d'affaires of the Embassy of Romania in the Asian country, the night it is suspected that the car struck three people. The driver, named Neo, said that the Romanian diplomacy has requested for a ride on the Sungai Kadut, where police later found the car involved in accident embassy. Ionescu told police that he and the driver discovered that the car was stolen at around 3 and have lodged a complaint. The driver's statements contradicted but Ionescu, saying that sleeping at that time as charge d'affaires and informed that the car was "stolen". Neo said he saw "a white man, dressed in a jacket, at the intersection of Boulevard and Sungai Kadut Woodlands Road. He made a sign to stop. A few minutes after you got on the taxi, Ionescu asked how the Neo Contact the police. Ionescu called the emergency number 999 and told police that the car was stolen. Local Press May notes that two other witnesses had seen the Audi car driver who caused the accident. Contacted by journalists, said police still investigating the case. "With all the evidence that it indicates that the guilty Ionescu is strange that he was allowed to leave Singapore after three days", writes The Temasek Review. Silviu Ionescu is Charge d'Affaires A.I the Romanian Embassy in Singapore. Ionescu is diplomat highest in rank of diplomatic missions, he having immunity under the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations related. Between Romania and Singapore no extradition treaty. Romanian MFA said it had started an internal investigation regarding this case. - hotnews.ro  Read More →