TR EMERITUS

From our Correspondent During a PAP event yesterday, party Chairman Lim Boon Heng said that the party's continued success depended on identifying committed leaders to stand for elections, maintaining its core values and staying in touch with the ground. Mr Lim is also a minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Minister of Aging. He said the party must continue to reach out to the public through dialogue sessions and new media platforms. The PAP has tried to revamp its previously dour PAP and YPAP websites with limited success. A blog started by the post-1965 MPs in 2006 has floundered from the lack of readership and the site is not "passed over" to YPAP members. The PAP celebrates its 50th anniversary in power this year. It formed Singapore's first self-government in 1959 under then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew when Singapore was still under British Colonial rule by winning 43 out of 51 seats in the legislative council elections. In 1961, the PAP suffered a schism within its ranks when 13 "leftist" members left the party to form the opposition Barisan Sosialist. A series of arrests under the ISD's "Operation Coldstore" in 1962 decimated and weakened the Barisan Sosialist which then made the fatal mistake of boycotting the 1968 general elections giving the PAP a clean sweep of all the seats. The PAP completely controlled the parliament with no opposition between 1968 till 1981 before the late J.B. Jeyaretnam won a seat in the Anson by-election. During this period of time, the PAP used its incumbency to entrench themselves in all state institutions as well as pass laws such as the Newspaper Press and Printing Act in 1974 to control the media. It is unsure what Mr Lim meant exactly by "strong" leaders. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had mentioned that Singapore needs a "strong" government in order to suceed.  Read More →

From our Correspondent Prominent political blogger Kelvin Teo had left NUS independent student daily Kent Ridge Common to join the Temasek Review team. Kelvin had conducted interviews with many politicians including Dr Chee Soon Juan, Kenneth Jeyaretnam and Sylvia Lim. Kelvin is a Life Sciences graduate who considers himself fortunate enough to enjoy a liberal-arts style education, which includes graduate-level training in the field of policy studies. He loves to deal with a wide range of topics ranging from the Life Sciences, sociopolitical issues to the realm of arts and literature. As part of our ongoing efforts to become more professional, the Temasek Review team will be subdivided into three separate bureaus - political, social and economics which will be run autonomously on their own, led by their respective chief editors. Kelvin will helm the political bureau. We welcome Kelvin on board and we believe his intimate knowledge and experience of the Singapore socio-political scene will bring Temasek Review to greater heights. At the same time, Kelvin will also be tasked with running the Kent Ridge Review, a news site catering to NUS students and the alumni which will be launched soon. Kelvin will transfer all his old articles from Kent Ridge Common to Kent Ridge Review in due course. Plans are also in the pipeline to set up similar sites in NTU and SMU. They will all be owned, run and funded by the new media company we are setting up soon. Attached below is an email from Kelvin announcing his departure from Kent Ridge Common and joining our team:  Dear friends and members of the Kent Ridge Common and regular readers of the Temasek Review: "My role as a writer at the Kent Ridge Common has come to an end. It is an end brought about my desire to move on to seek challenges else where. It has been a thrilling ride for me at the Kent Ridge Common thus far, and I have learnt many things along the way. I enjoyed contributing in my own way to Kent Ridge Common's cause, but I am sure this current team will definitely bring the publication to greater heights.   However, my restless nature has me itching for challenges elsewhere, and I am glad to be given the opportunity to join the Temasek Review team as well as to spear-head its new site - the Kent Ridge Review. I will leave the Kent Ridge Common with a box of happy memories and I will look forward to future challenges with my new role at the Temasek Review and Kent Ridge Review." Kelvin Teo EDITORS’ NOTE: The Temasek Review had a cordial meeting with members of the Kent Ridge Common a week ago and had reached a basic understanding on possible future collaboration. We are more than happy to fund KRC and its team of excellent writers. A few days later, Kelvin dropped us a bombshell that he would be leaving Kent Ridge Common for personal reasons which left us in a fix. We did try to persuade him to stay on with Kent Ridge Common to no avail. Kelvin is a key writer of Kent Ridge Common contributing ninety per cent of its content.  He is a well known political blogger who has conducted interviews with many politicians in Singapore, a department which we are grossly lacking. As Temasek Review is chiefly a socio-political site, we are more interested in the political section of Kent Ridge Common. Without Kelvin in the team, there are no other writers who can helm the section. Kelvin told us that he will be transferring all his old articles from Kent Ridge Common to our site, but since most of his readers are NUS students, we propose that we set up a separate site for him based in NUS and that’s how Kent Ridge Review come into being. Temasek Review has never poached Kelvin. Kelvin joined us on his own accord. Our intention is just to support KRC financially with Kelvin writing hard-hitting articles which are not suitable for publication on KRC. Kelvin left KRC for reasons better known to themselves. We are NOT INVOLVED in any of KRC’s internal matters. KRC is already well established with its own readership. It doesn’t make good business sense to start a new site all over again. However, we do realize that a site is only as good as its content and that’s why we have decided to make the switch to Kelvin’s new site. We will like to reiterate that we are not withdrawing support from KRC in anyway. However, as our forte is still politics, we will be investing more time and resources on Kent Ridge Review. The Kent Ridge Common site is presently not available as Kelvin, who is the owner of the server, has linked the file server to the new site. We are willing to sponsor KRC a new server which has more memory and bandwidth on a long-term basis. We are sorry for what has transpired between Kelvin and his fellow writers at Kent Ridge Common. We are still willing to support Kent Ridge Common on an informal basis. In the meantime, we will welcome writers from Kent Ridge Common to write non-political articles for us on a freelance basis. The terms which we offer will continue to stand.  Read More →

From our Correspondent Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong has urged companies that are doing well and enjoying good business prospects should consider reversing the wage cuts made during the recession. They should 'take this opportunity to recognise the efforts and sacrifices that workers have put in',  he told the state media after attending an awards ceremony organised by the Chinese Development Assistance Council. However, Mr Gan cautioned that companies should strive to be flexible and responsive to economic changes at the same time as the Singapore's economic outlook for 2010 But he cautioned that in doing so, companies should still remain flexible and responsive to economic changes, as the outlook for next year remains uncertain and grim. Earlier last week, Mr Gan had rejected calls to remove the employers' legal option to cut a worker's pay at 60 because he wants bosses to show "fairness" and "flexibility". Mr Gan did not elaborate on what he meant exactly. If an employee is still paid according to a seniority-based wage system and has achieved a high salary simply because of his age, there may be reason for a cut at age 60, he said. Singapore's employment rates have shown signs of improving following release of data from the Manpower Ministry that 15,400 jobs were added from July to September, compared to the 13,900 lost in the first half of the year. According to NTUC, seven in 10 unionised companies froze or cut wages in the first six months of the year. Basic wages in unionised companies fell by 0.42 per cent in the second quarter of this year, compared to the figure in the previous quarter. National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) deputy secretary-general Halimah Yacob reminded companies of the sacrifices workers had made: 'In bad times, workers had supported tough measures such as wage cuts and shorter work weeks, and overtime was zero in most cases.' By rewarding them when times are better, companies would build trust, a critical factor in weathering future uncertainties, she added. However, it is unsure whether employers will pay heed to Madam Halimah and Minister Gan's words and give their workers a well deserved pay rise which will erode their profit margins. Singapore's labor laws are largely in favor of big businesses and employers who are given the complete liberty to determine the wages of workers according to market rates. There is no minimum wage or minimum working hours per week in Singapore. NTUC is the largest trade union in Singapore and is affiliated to the ruling party. Its Secretary-General is always a PAP minister by tradition. The current head of NTUC is Mr Lim Swee Say, a minister in the Prime Minister's Office. Under Singapore's unique "tripartite" arrangement, the government and NTUC act as intermediaries to resolve labor differences and disputes between workers and their bosses. Rallies, strikes and protests are outlawed in Singapore which leave workers with no choice but to rely heavily on the government to defend their interests. The relentless influx of foreigners in recent years had also led to the stagnation of wages among the low income workers exacerbating the worsening income divide between the rich and the poor. Semi-skilled workers and professionals are not left unscathed either. Due to the availability of cheap foreigners working as assistant engineers and technicians, the starting pay of fresh engineering graduates has not increased by much over the years. The Singapore government is adamant that foreigners are crucial to keep Singapore's economy competitive which contributes to GDP growth. A variable percentage of Singapore ministers' multi-million salary is pegged to GDP growth rates. MM Lee Kuan Yew said during a recent ministerial forum that he is not concerned with the widening income-gap as long the government continues to create jobs for Singaporeans (never mind if their wages are sufficient for them to maintain a decent standard of life in high-cost Singapore).  Read More →