TR EMERITUS

By Damon Yeo As the year draws to an end, Temasek Review recaps the year in local sports, highlighting the major events which had shaped the local sporting calendar this year. Football For our Lions, it can be said that the team had started the calendar in a low but had ended it with a flourish. In their first competitive game of the year, our national football team travelled to Tehran in Iran and was thrashed 6-0 in 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification game. Spirits were lifted after a 2-1 win over Jordan later in January, only for hopes to be dashed again when Thailand came to the Kallang National Stadium and walked away 3-1 winners. However, in their last competitive match of 2009, the Lions upset the odds after Aleksandar Duric headed in the winner over Thailand in Bangkok, ending a barren spell of 34 years in the Thai capital. The six points amassed from four matches in this tight Group now put the team in a favourable position to qualify for the actual tournament – and if the Lions do make it, it will be their first participation since 1984 (when we qualified as hosts). Domestically, SAFFC won their fourth S-League title in a row, finishing 11 points clear of their nearest rivals. However, the 2009 season was tinted by expulsion of Bruneian club side DPMM from the competition when five games left to go by FIFA. DPMM had already made a good impression in the S-league, winning the Singapore League Cup in June and registering good crowds for their home games in Bandar Seri Bengawan. The league organisers will now find it difficult to find a replacement of similar quality for the 2010 season. On a more positive note, SAFFC made history by being the first local club to participate in the Group Stages of the revamped AFC Champions League. The gap in standard between them and the Chinese/Korean/Japanese clubs was evident, but the Warriors did manage to earn one point from their six outings.   Inaugural Asian Youth Games Singapore made history by hosting the inaugural Asian Youth Games over a period of nine days straddling June and July. The event did not get off the best of starts as a footballer from the Filipino football team was diagnosed with swine flu and all his team had to be quarantined, missing out on the competition as a result. Because of this, our neighbours Malaysia withdrew most of their athletes from the event. Attendances for the games were generally poor and it failed to generate much media interest. However, this event had no doubt provided the organisers with the best possible experience as they gear themselves up for the hosting of 2010 Youth Olympics. Our team fared well in terms of medals, winning nine gold medals in all, a majority of them from swimming and bowling as China topped the table as expected with 25 gold medals.   The Singapore Slingers The Singapore Slingers took local basketball standards to the next level as they became one of the six teams to play in the first season of the ASEAN Basketball League. Each of the teams could only register four foreigners, meaning that local players would provide the core of the 12-men roster. The Philippines Patriots were expected to dominate the league, but the Slingers proved to be no pushovers. At time of writing, our boys sit third in the table, with every chance of making the play-offs (top four). They also produced one of the shocks of the season thus far, a convincing 74-69 victory over the hot favourites Patriots at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 18 October.   SEA Games 2009 Team Singapore arrived in Laos for the 25th SEA Games without a huge expectation in terms of medals. After all, the organisers had included several non-Olympic events where Singapore did not field any competitors at all. Some of these events included Muay Thai, Shuttlecock Kicking and Fin Swimming. Otherwise, Singapore performed more or less to expectation. There was no official medal target, but the media had projected 30 Gold medals for the team. All in all, the haul was 33 Gold medals and the team finished sixth in table of eleven participating nations. Badminton was one sport where the team disappointed, returning with only one silver in the women’s doubles. Our Under-23 football team also failed to shine, finishing with just a bronze medal. With defending champion and perennial powerhouse Thailand eliminated from the Group Stage, Singapore produced an unconvincing performance in the semi-finals to lose 4-1 to Vietnam. The nation’s wait for the first ever SEA Games gold medal in football continues. On a brighter note, our national water-polo team won gold again, their 23rd consecutive victory. In table-tennis, our paddlers won six of the seven gold medals at stake and 40-year-old veteran James Wong claimed his eighth SEA Games gold in discus. Our swimmers maintained their regional dominance, winning 14 Gold medals. 19-year-old Tao Li capped a great outing with five gold medals to her name.   The Other Bits The Sports Hub saga continues as delays drag on. At time of writing, construction work at the proposed Kallang site has yet to begin. The nation’s worst fears were confirmed when the government suggested that the Hub is unlikely to be completed before 2013 or even 2015. Singapore will thus miss out on hosting the SEA Games perhaps until the decade after next. However, with the International Rugby Board (IRB awarding the rights to host the 2019 Rugby World Cup to Japan, Singapore is scheduled to host a couple of games then. That will be the first time our nation will host a truly international sport event. Hopefully by then we will have a Sports Hub that we can be proud of.  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Singapore's latest foray into China, led by the Ministry of National Development to develop an eco-city in the northern metropolis of Tianjing is turning into another Suzhou nightmare for the island state. The China-Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) was set up in 1994 at the outskirts of the Suzhou City in Jiangsu province with the help of Singapore funds and expertise. Singapore owned a 65% stake in the park. Even as the park was being constructed, the Suzhou City government set up Suzhou New District Industrial Park (SND) right next to SIP. It was the exact replica of the Singapore model. As the Suzhou City government had a majority stake in SND, it largely ignored the SIP and concentrated on promoting the SND instead. After incurring losses of some US$90 million over 5 years, the Singapore consortium lowered its stake to 35 percent, raising the Chinese consortium’s stake to 65 percent from 35 percent and reducing the Singaporean share from a planned 70 sq.km. to just 8 sq.km (source: wikipedia) According to a report in the Sunday Times, tension appears to be building up in the joint Sino-Singapore team as Singaporean and Chinese officials often do not see eye to eye on such things as work priorities and timing. A Singaporean, who has lived in China for over a decade and works for a company with close dealings with the Eco-City was quoted as saying: "We may have another Suzhou Industrial Park tangle on our hands." One problem which continues to plague the project as in Suzhou is the difference in priorities between local officials and the Singaporeans. Though the project has received strong support from the central government in Beijing, it is the provincial officials the Singapore team have to liaise with and many do not share the vision of their Singapore counter-parts. To the Tianjin officials who are there only for a short stint, they are desperate to produce quick results which will earn them promotions elsewhere. For example, while Singapore would like to have Housing Board-style public housing that will cater to low-income Chinese, Tianjin officials have been lukewarm to the idea because they worry over who will stump up the cash to subsidise the apartments. A Tianjin official apparently told his Singaporean colleague: "By the time the public housing project is completed, many of us Tianjin officials would likely be promoted elsewhere. Who would still be around to ensure that it is really the poor people who are relocated to this public housing estate?" Singapore appears not to have learnt its previous lessons from Suzhou - that written contracts count for little in business transactions in China and local officials are often more interested in securing promotions for themselves than the welfare of the people. There is an ancient Chinese saying: "The mountains are tall and the Emperor resides far away". The Tianjin provincial government runs autonomously on its own and even the central government in Beijing has to "kowtow" to it in order to get things done there. Like in Suzhou, the project was supposed to be a joint collaboration between two national governments, but end up being hijacked by the provincial government instead. For some inexplicable reasons, a state agency - the Ministry of National Development, which is funded entirely by taxpayers' monies, is directly involved in the Tianjin Eco City. Asked why it was picked as the lead agency, the MND told The Sunday Times that its 'expertise in township development is essential, especially in areas such as master planning...and the provision of housing and green spaces'. It is not revealed how much money that MND has pumped into Tianjin so far. There is no opposition in parliament to hold the ruling party accountable which gives it the freedom to do anything as it wishes without answering to the people. In China, the officials and  businessmen are frequently decried as being in "cahoots" with one another to cheat the people. In Singapore, the officials and businessmen are together in one single "class". An earlier Straits Times report in August this year described Singapore's Minister of National Development Mah Bow Tan as a "key player"  in the development of the Tianjin eco-city, which China and Singapore formally agreed to develop in Nov 2007. He co-chair a joint business council on cooperation between Singapore and Tianjin. With due respect to Mr Mah, he is hardly the ideal person to fill such a position. An engineer by training, he worked in the civil service during his entire career before he was plucked to stand in the elections and becoming a minister. He never had any experience working in China before. The government should never be involved in business at all which should be left to the private sector with the necessary drive, experience and expertise. Fortunately for Mah, he would never be asked to answer for any mistakes made just like in Suzhou when the Singapore consortium reportedly lost more than USD$90 million dollars in 5 years.   Related articles: >> Singapore continues to pour money into Suzhou >> Suzhou Industrial Park becomes model of Singapore-China cooperation >> Why there was zero “foresight” in investing in Suzhou Industrial Park by The Brotherhood Press  Read More →

作者:费言 很巧，就在安华和民联领袖在KL召开团结大会那天，我和一位支持民联的马国朋友在茨场街的咖啡店喝黑狗啤。 他总是没有信心，认为哪些“污桶分子”太坏了，“他们什么肮脏的手段都搞得出来，“赵明福 (Teoh Beng Hock) 都这样被害死了，为保住权位，杀人放火，他们还有什么事做不出来。。。” 他说：就像“敦马”那个无耻政客说的，要让沙巴那150万菲律宾非法移民取得公民权，他背后的坏主意是什么，所有人都很清楚。 我就没有他那么悲观，我觉得，许多时候，坏招奥步出得越多，许多致命要害也就暴露得越明显，许多也会变成害自己的死招。我三杯黑啤下肚，开始和他吹起大话，对下届大选，我说有必胜的绝招，就16字真言：“破釜沉舟、借力打力、一鼓作气、哀兵必胜”。 我说： “ 你既然是民联支持者，还不赶快写建议给安华，林吉祥和聂阿兹那几个老狐狸，让他们从今天起，死死捉住国阵的这个死穴，宣称告诉全马人民，告诉全体民联的支持者；如果这届大选，我们没办法一口气把国阵干掉换政府，下一届大选，他们就会让200万非法移民取得公民权，并收买他们投国阵的票，民联要取得政权的时机就遥遥无期了。。。。。” “从今天开始，直到18个月后的大选，每天都要唱衰国阵的移民政策，把非法移民的社会危害天天提醒全体人民，不 惜一切代价也要把移民妖化成魔鬼，把国阵政府不惜社会付出代价，企图把非法移民合法化来赚取选票的丑陋恶劣败行公诸于世，这样，不就借力打力，把国阵的奥 步变成作茧自缚致命的死步。。。。也借此凝聚社会的所有不满力量，一鼓作气把国阵干掉。。。？” 他不服地说：你有这么多“坏”主意，你为什么不提供给新加坡的反对党让他们获胜？ 唉。。。此一地，彼一地，此一时，彼一时也。。。！ 我们新加坡和大马政治状态差远啦，据风水先生算过，PAP的气数要等李老仙师驾返瑶池之后才会开始颓败，估计还得等多两届大选。 他 们现在也在一个两个慢慢招进中国的所谓人才移民，这些中国跑来的“饿鬼”移民，除了抢新加坡人的饭碗，而且都是“100%无LP”的赚吃家伙，他们已经很 习惯和适应于那种共产专制、个人权力很下贱的社会，根本不知民主、民权和公平宪政选举为何物，他们有限的人格认识只能简单认为，人活在社会下来，就永远只 能像野狗那样不顾一切争抢吃屎，只要可以到新加坡来混口饭吃，他们才不管什么社会正义、选举公正、公民权利和责任，大选时候，他们绝对不敢投反对党的票。 所以，这等于说，每招进一个新移民，就等于给执政党制造一张选票，当10年后，新加坡人口达到600万时，已经有200万张“绝对不敢投反对党”的铁票， 新加坡的反对党要拉倒执政PAP，那简直是遥遥无期，痴人梦想啦。。。！ 哪。。。你们还能有什么希望。。。？ 对呀！还能有什么希望。。。？ 只能苦等李老仙师仙逝啰，到时PAP里面的人就可能按耐不住开始大肆抢钱抢权，肯定会分赃不均，大打出手，自动分裂陷入大混乱。。。那时，反对党才可能有机可乘，新加坡就有希望啦。。。。！ 来源：大马论坛  Read More →