TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent In another sign that elections will be called anytime soon next year, the ruling party has allocated one additional ballot for Singaporeans to apply for places in primary schools for their children to "sweeten" the ground. The new rule will take effect from 2010. As of now, Signaporeans and PRs both have one chance to ballot which had caused considerable unhappiness among some Singapore citizens whose children are unable to get into the primary school of their choice. Balloting is done when the number of applications is more than the available vacancies. In popular schools, Singapore citizens often have to compete with PRs for a place which led many to vent their frustration on the government for not looking after the interests of citizens first. The issue sparked an outcry in August this year when a Mr Eduard Tay wrote in to the Straits Times Forum complaining about his son’s unsuccessful application for a place in a neighborhood school as he has to vie with children registered under Phase 1A, 2A1, 2A2, 2B and first-generation permanent residents’ (PRs) children under Phase 2C. His letter prompted an almost immediate response from an Indian PR Mrs Sweta Agarwal who justified the equal chance given to PRs because they “pay taxes and abide by Singapore’s laws”.  She also issued a veiled threat that PRs may consider leaving Singapore if their children cannot get into the schools of their choice. Mrs Agarwal’s insensitive letter triggered a massive furore among Singaporeans. Mr Jimmy Loke replied a day letter castigating Mrs Agarwal for not taking up citizenship after a lengthy six years as a PR. “Mrs Agarwal has the option of returning to her country to find a good school for her daughter. Mr Tay’s child does not enjoy that luxury. As a Singaporean, Mr Tay served national service for 21/2 years and spent 13 more years as a reservist. Should any government not take care of its citizens first?”, he added. The deluge of letters published in the Straits Times Forum showed that the equal chance enjoyed by PRs in primary school application is becoming a point of contention among Singaporeans, especially those from the middle class. Besides having two chances to ballot, school fees for PRs and foreign students will also be increased by between $36.50 and $73 per month and between $100 and $400 per month respectively from 2011, while school fees for Singaporeans will remain unchanged. According to the state media, "these changes were announced by Minister of Education Ng Eng Hen on Sunday during a community visit and is part of the Government's move to sharpen differentiation between Singaporeans and non-citizens." With more and more foreigners and PRs working and living in Singapore, the additional ballot does not increase the chances of Singaporeans getting their children into a preferred school since they now have to compete with a larger pool of applicants. Furthermore, the token increase in school fees is of scant consolation to Singaporeans since foreigners and PRs who are able to enrol their children in Singapore schools should be pretty well to do in the first place. Despite widespread resentment and anger at the ruling party's pro-foreigner policy, it continues to insist that immigration is "essential" for Singapore. In a recent speech, MM Lee Kuan Yew ticked off Japanese leaders publicly for not "adopting" Singapore's open-door policy to replenish its declining population via immigration. Unless the ruling party makes wholesale changes to its current policy and limit the influx of foreigners into Singapore, even two or three ballots may not be sufficient for Singaporeans in the future.   Related articles: >> Sweta Agarwal proud to be Indian citizen and Singapore PR at the same time  >> PRs get equal chance in Primary 1 registration >> MM Lee defends need for foreign talent >> PRC student supports government’s plan for more foreign scholars    Read More →

By Laurence Chung from South China Morning Post Some 100,000 pro-independence supporters are expected to rally in the central Taiwanese city of Taichung today to denounce what they view as the pro-mainland policy of President Ma Ying-jeou and his government. It is a test of the leadership ability of Dr Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party. Can she control an emotional crowd? If she can't, her failure could disqualify her as a candidate to contest the presidential election two years from now. The holding of the protest on the eve of the fourth Beijing-Taipei summit is well calculated because it will give the DPP a much-needed political stage after its victory two weeks ago in local elections, which has been widely ascribed to Tsai's leadership. "It can drum up support for the DPP in its campaigning in the legislative by-elections next month, and the five municipal elections in December next year," said Chang Ling-cheng, a former professor of political science at National Taiwan University. But if the protest gets out of control or turns violent, that would hurt Tsai badly, Chang said. However, a confidante of Tsai has no worries. "The DPP absolutely has the ability to control whatever activities it holds," she said on Friday. Tsai, 53, who served as vice- premier and head of the island's Mainland Affairs Council under former president Chen Shui-bian, is known for her calm but insistent character. She says the protest is not directed against Chen Yunlin, the mainland's top negotiator, who will fly to Taichung today for the summit with his Taiwanese counterpart, Chiang Pin-kung. "Rather it is aimed at opposing the 'under-the-table' practices of Ma Ying-jeou in his cross-strait policy and China's suppression of the survival room of Taiwan," she said. Tsai said the public expected the DPP to act as a strong check on the government, but at the same time to uphold social order. "The DPP will act as a well-disciplined party, and only with discipline will it be able to gain power." The former law professor, who was educated in Britain and the US, has stressed discipline and rationality - quite a change from the unruly, grass-roots quality of the DPP, a party born of the wildcat pro-democracy protests that began in 1986. In the elections two weeks ago, Tsai led the party to an impressive victory in her own way - without the noisy and sentimental campaign tactics of the past, and without the graft-tainted former president. Chen, who left office in May last year, had been an active campaigner until he was jailed in December for corruption. Not only did the party's three local magistrates retain their seats, the DPP took back the northeastern county of Ilan, a traditional stronghold that it lost to Ma's Kuomintang in 2005. The DPP also narrowed the gap between its share of the total vote and that of the KMT to less than 3 percentage points, compared with 17 points in May's presidential election. Read rest of article on SCMP  Read More →

By James Oh To build wealth, you need to know where to begin  and how to work towards your ultimate goals. As inflationary pressure increases  yearly, you need constant and lasting efforts to review your strategies to sustain it. However, if you opt to grow your wealth speedily, you have to take pro-active strategic plans to explore all possibilities to obtain the highest yields from your investments. You also need to make use of all your resources to generate highest wealth possible. In reality, you not only need to think fast, but also to act fast, to reap the highest returns as the market is getting more and more transparent. In this article, I have laid down some of the tips which you may find useful as a guide in creating your wealth. 1 Constantly review and evaluate your resources To build wealth, you must constantly review and evaluate all resources you already have. Make full use of existing resources to enhance your wealth, but at the same time,  enlarge your resources  to create new wealth and expand existing wealth. The double effect growth will accelerate growth much faster than the inflation rate and it will enhance your real wealth. If the rate you generated is equal to the rate of inflation, then, the absolute increase in your wealth is not a true increase in wealth. It is just a trade off against  losses due to increase of inflation rate. Resources here does not necessarily represent just financial means, but may refer to your talents, skills, experiences, ideas, and network. You may turn all these non financial means into monetary terms. You can not afford to underestimate all these non financial resources especially in today's Information and knowledge world. For you to reap maximum return, you need to constantly explore all  possibilities to ensure that all these resources give you the highest yields possible. You must also be aware that the higher the yield, the higher the risk. 2 Strategic Plan After you have an indepth knowledge of your position, you have to work out your best strategies that suit the current market conditions in order to move to the next higher wealth level. You need this plan to navigate yourself towards your ultimate objectives. Without such a plan, you will navigate a ship without direction. However, no matter how good the plan is, it will not guarantee  success. To achieve  success, you need to constantly monitor performance of each resource and make  necessary adjustments due to changes in external factors.  To be effective, such adjustments or alternations need to be taken as soon as possible. 3. Priority lead to Prosperity You must set creating wealth your priority.  You need to presevere and be persistent in working towards the ultimate objective, no matter what happened to you. For example,  if you need to have  fixed monthly savings, then you must issue your first cheque towards that fund no matter what happened to you. You have to try all possible means to obtain such fixed amount. If not, you have to recoup double the amount the following month and you have to increase the duration  of time to be on track with your original plan. 4.  Persistence and consistence To ensure its sustainability, you need to work towards your ultimate goals persistently and consistently. As such, you need to stay focus on your goal at all times so that you are not side track by other matters that may cause you stumble. To do so, you need a convinced and convicted heart to carry out your commitment persistently and consistently in accordance to your belief. 5. Have faith in it Building wealth is just like the ordinary and prudent builder. To have a strong and unshakeable house, you need to build it on strong foundation. Similarly, for wealth builder you need to have a strong faith which will serve as the foundation for you to build your wealth on it. Once you have faith in it, you will stay focus on your goals and concentrate all your energies and efforts in building it. Of course, you may face some barriers, but these barriers are placed to strengthen your faith. Through all the trials and adversities, you will sharpen your skills and use this adversity to lead you to the way of success. It is operating exactly like the ship captain, who need to confront the waves and storms to become skillful. You must be able to see clearly how faith works and directs you to look at thing from the right perspective at all times. In reality, it is always much easier said than done. 6. Stay in control To build wealth steadily, you must be able to stay in control of yourself. Otherwise, you will be easily tempted by greed or be entrapped by your rivals. Stay in control here mean you must not let your emotions  control you directly or indirectly. You need to know precisely what action to take and its implication to your ultimate objectives. In other words, you need to know what risks you are taking and how much you can afford to lose and how you can cover such losses so that it will not seriously affect your ultimate goal. If not, do not be surprised that you may  follow the foot steps of those billionaires who have committed suicide in the recent global financial crisis. Always bear in mind the wealthier you are, more people will prey on you. Thanks for your precious time and hope that the above tips are useful to you. Wish you a success, James Oh Other articles by James Oh: >> Priority leads to prosperity >> How to get faster results >> How to retire gracefully >> Steps to overcome major obstacles of staying healthy (Part 2) About the Author: James Oh is an accountant by profession and he works as a Financial Controller for more than 10 years with several companies in Singapore and Malaysia. He is a full member of the Singapore Institute of Director and he also obtained a LLB (Law degree) from the University of London in 2003. He is happily married with 3 loving kids. James blog at http://liftyouup.blogspot.com  Read More →