TR EMERITUS

From our Correspondent These photos were taken on 4 August 2009 at the Lorong 5 Toa Payoh hawker center:   [imagebrowser id=43]   As we can see from the above photos, the entire market and the sheltered walkways leading to it are lined with the national flags. In stark contrast, few flags are seen hanging from the HDB flats (both new and old) in the vicinity. There is one remarkable photo we took of an old lady pushing a cart full of cardboard slowly past two national flags hung along a walkway. We caught up with her and asked a few questions: TR: Hello aunty, how are you? Do you know what day is 9 August? Ah Moi (in Hokkien): Huh? What day? I don't know, don't disturb me. TR: It's our country's national day! Ah Moi: So? Doesn't concern me at all! TR: Have you hung the national flag outside your home? Ah Moi: (pointing to her cart): You look at what I have collected today, I don't even know if I have money to have dinner.... TR: But aunty, look at the flags around, everybody is celebrating National Day... Ah Moi: (waving her hands off at us): Go away lah, don't come and disturb me..... Well, it seems that it's far more easier to decorate a place with the national flags than to instill a real sense of belonging and patriotism in the hearts and minds of the people. Appearances can be deceiving. How long have we been deceived?  Read More →

From our Correspondent At the inaugural Asia-Middle East Media Roundtable held in Singapore on 6th August 2009, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said that "Singapore’s fourth Prime Minister could be among the new faces fielded in the next General Election due by early 2012". (read report here) Mr Lee himself had said last year after a Cabinet reshuffle that he was hoping to bring in someone in his 30s or early 40s at the next GE who would eventually succeed him. This means that Mr Lee's successor is not found in any of the present PAP cabinet ministers of MPs, many of them in their mid 30s and 40s. It is strange that Mr Lee is encountering "difficulties" in searching for a potential successor to take over him. After all, the ministers in his "A team" are considered the "best talents" available to Singapore. In other modern democracies like the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister is usually selected either by a vote or consensus among lawmakers of the ruling party instead of being "appointed" by the incumbent. Even by the opaque standards of the inner politics of Singapore, SM Goh's remarks doesn't quite fit into the usual modus operandi of the ruling party which is to give a potential ministerial candidate a "trial run" first under various ministeries before assuming the portfolio. Hardly any PAP MPS are promoted to a full-fledged minister after just one general election, let alone a Prime Minister. Prime Minister Lee himself served in various ministries before taking over Mr Goh Chok Tong in 2003. It is most unusual that the next Prime Minister will be "parachuted" almost immediately into such an important position of power without familiarizing himself/herself with the other ministries. If Mr Lee is looking for a candidate in his 30s to take over him, he will probably be in his mid to late 20s when field in the next general election in 3 to 4 years' time. Mr Lee's second eldest son Li Hongyi is only 22 years old this year and there is a good chance he may follow the footsteps of his father and grandfather and enters politics upon his graduation from MIT next year. Given Singapore's "unique" succession plan for its senior leaders, it is not inconceivable that Singapore may have another Lee as Prime Minister in the future. As SM Goh admitted himself: "They (The Lees) are an exceptional family." The ruling party chooses its leaders based solely on "merit". How it does so has remained a mystery for the last 50 years.  Read More →

From The Asian Sentinel The political aspirations of Malaysia’s ethnic minorities are rising uncomfortably, threatening the country’s delicate racial balance, analysts in Kuala Lumpur say. The minority communities’ political discontent over 40 years of entitlement programs given to ethnic Malays helped fuel the results of the 2008 national elections that saw the opposition gain power in five states and the federal territory of Selangor. Existing tensions have been exacerbated in recent weeks by a number of issues, including the suspicious death on July 16 of Teoh Beng Hock, an aide to a top opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) leader, whose body was found atop a building next to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters. He had been taken there to be questioned over allegations of wrongdoing by his boss but his death was ruled a suicide.  The incident is only one of many unexplained deaths at the hands of law enforcement officials in Malaysia over recent years, but since the victim was Chinese, racial overtones have become unavoidable.  In addition, the MACC is believed to be investigating an unknown number of DAP lawmakers on corruption charges, leading to allegations that the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition is using law enforcement agencies for political purposes. Barisan figures, however, argue that the MACC is after their people as well. At the same time, the umbrella Pakatan Rakyat coalition, which made stunning gains against the ruling coalition in 2008, is fraying at the edges due to squabbling between the Malay fundamentalist Parti Islam se-Malaysia and the DAP, which is dominated by Chinese, over a variety of issues including an attempt by a DAP councilor to stop a PAS raid on beer supplies at a 7-Eleven, and the destruction of a pig slaughterhouse in the northern state of Kedah.  The infighting has become so intense that Lim Kit Siang, the venerable leader of the DAP, issued a statement warning that the alliance could become a “one-term wonder” if the spat isn’t settled. Malaysia has existed in an uneasy racial mix since July 1969, when hundreds were believed killed in pitched battles between Malays, who make up more than half the population, and the Chinese, who make up about 25 percent. The Chinese continue to control most of the country’s economic wealth despite the 1971 imposition of an affirmative action program for ethnic Malays called the New Economic Policy.  Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition leader, has called for an end to the NEP, charging that it has only enriched a handful of rent-seekers and cronies of the United Malays National Organisation. “Overlaid with the current problems is rising ethnic awareness,” said a longtime political analyst with a Kuala Lumpur think tank. “Hope that a multi-racial opposition would dilute ethnicity in politics hasn’t happened. Instead, the opposite has happened. A group in PAS feels ignored, or slighted, or exasperated and is now flexing its muscles in Pakatan. And this group finds common ground with UMNO, which is prompting growing rapprochement between the two political parties.” Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who came to power in March, is attempting to pull together what one longtime political analyst called a “Singapore model” — economic liberalization coupled with political authoritarianism. Opposition rallies have been raided or declared illegal on a regular basis, even down to busting up a birthday party. The latest occurrence was an announcement Friday by Rais Yatim, the information, communications and culture minister, that the country is considering a “green dam”style Internet filter to stop access to undesirable websites, particularly pornography. Even the Chinese government has backed away from instituting such a policy in the face of international criticism. Najib’s tactics appeared to be working at first. He came into office even less popular than his predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, tarred by a wide range of scandals ranging from allegations of bribery during his stint as defense minister to questions over his involvement in the murder of a Mongolian woman jilted by his best friend. However, his economic policies pulled up public approval sharply for UMNO, the leading ethnic party in the Barisan. However, continuing public fury over Teoh’s purported suicide cut into Najib’s good news, especially after the water cannons and truncheons came out at a massive (by Malaysian standards) demonstration on July 31 to protest the government’s continued use of the colonial-era Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without habeas corpus. The demonstration drew as many as 20,000 participants; some 600 were arrested amid a haze of tear gas in the crackdown. “If you’re Chinese you’d like to believe the Malays killed him,” says a lawyer connected to UMNO. “But so many Malays die in police custody. Prior to this, the MACC investigated 22 UMNO MPs and 12 were charged.  But as soon as the MACC investigates five Chinese, it’s the MACC targeting Chinese. The DAP has made this into a race issue. No, we have a serious race problem in this country. Perhaps that’s what everybody wanted – push the envelope to see what happens.” Certainly, there is plenty of envelope-pushing on all sides.  In a flamethrowing article earlier this week in the UMNO-owned Malay-language Utusan Malaysia last week, journalist Noor Azam called on ethnic Malays “not to be cowards anymore and rise up to face the challenges being posed by the Chinese and Indians in Malaysia.” The article accused the DAP of manipulating Malay leaders in the Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition and warned that should it come to power, “Malay special rights and the NEP are no more.”  He accused the opposition of stirring race hatred and called ethnic Malays “a race of stupid cowards, and people who are cowards will die before even their deaths.” The temperature is set to rise higher during expected annual district and regional conclaves for UMNO, when the rhetorical pitch grows more intense. There is spreading anger among Malays over a remark by Jeff Ooi, a blogger and popular DAP activist from Penang, who called Jemaah Islah Malaysia, an Islamic missionary organization, extremist for advocating shariah, or religious law. “That’s an insult to all Malays,” said the UMNO lawyer. “It’s an insult to all of Islam.  All of us Malays would like shariah law.” The question is whether the anger will play itself out in yet another by-election.  The Pakatan Rakyat coalition has won five of six by-elections since the March 2008 national polls eliminated the Barisan’s longstanding two-thirds majority in the parliament. On July 31, a PAS assemblyman from the Permatang Pasir district in Penang died of a heart attack. The lawmaker was PAS’s only representative in the Penang state. The by-election, for which the date has yet to be set, will determine whether the Pakatan coalition’s political strength is still rising. In the most recent by-election, in the heart of opposition territory, the Pakatan candidate won by only 65 votes. Permatang Pasir is part of Anwar’s stronghold. If the opposition loses the seat, or even does badly, it will be an indication that its popularity is declining. Source: Asia Sentinel  Read More →