TR EMERITUS

Now that she hopes domestic critics have been silenced with the PAP’s new weapon, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation (POFMA) law, Josephine Teo, Minister for Manpower, is taking advantage of this with the PAP’s usual tricks of fake statistics to bamboozle Singaporeans and gullible or venal foreign media. She claims that 63,000 jobs were created in 2019 but fails to differentiate between resident workers and foreign workers. Looking at MOM’s numbers it appears that while the resident labour force grew by 36,000 employed residents only grew by 27,000, which is far short of the 63,000 jobs created. Clearly over 50% of the jobs created went to foreign workers. Ms Teo also failed to provide any breakdown between Singaporeans and PRs in the total. PRs are deliberately advantaged by the PAP compared to Singaporeans as male PRs do not have to do NS and seem to be able to keep their children out of NS, despite the PAP’s claims, especially if the PRs are from Europe, Australia, the UK or North America. Rather than boasting that the Government created 63,000 jobs Ms Teo should be made to explain why resident unemployment rose to 3.1% in 2019 from 2.9% the previous year. This number again fails to distinguish between Singaporean citizens and PRs. Given the greater advantages PRs enjoy, the unemployment rate is likely to be significantly higher for citizens. The unemployment rate is also artificially low because all male Singaporeans doing NS are counted as employed and the Government subsidizes courses of dubious value through the SkillsFuture Credit which keeps people out of the unemployment figures. Given these factors the unemployment rate for Singaporeans is probably significantly higher than in the US or the UK, certainly compared with cities like London or New York. It is also curious that total employment apparently only grew by some 19,000 between December 2018 and December 2019, which is at odds with Ms Teo’s claim that 63,000 jobs were created. So was she using a net or gross figure, which did not take account of jobs lost, or is it because she deliberately used a time period which suited her case, just as SDP were accused of doing when they were hit with a POFMA. Lee Hsien Loong has yet to explain how he managed to spend $3.5 billion allocated to the Productivity Fund over several Budgets and administered by his office. It is interesting that his Government keeps very quiet about productivity these days after having made a song and dance about their productivity initiatives. In the latest Manpower Ministry release, value added per worker is shown as declining by 0.8% in 2019 over 2018, a decline that will only accelerate as output falls sharply this year and with the Government’s Jobs Support Scheme and Wage Credit Scheme. Much of this money may be wasted as the workers would not have been let go anyway. The money would be better spent if it was placed directly in the hands of Singaporeans so that it could be spent on boosting the economy and directly improving their welfare. Given the fear that POFMA has instilled, the PAP feel very free to put out their own fake news to convince Singaporeans to blindly trust them for another five years. It is time to call them out.   Kenneth Jeyaretnam * The author blogs at https://kenjeyaretnam.com/.      Read More →

Lim Chin Siong Lim Chin Siong was a prominent figure at the height of the Communist United Front (CUF) campaign in the fifties and sixties in the last century. Lim Chin Siong was born in Singapore but grew up in Pontian, Johore and was educated at the Chinese High School in Singapore. The Chinese HIgh School was a hotbed of communist activities and Lim Chin Siong was actively involved as a Anti-British League (ABL) cell leader. He was not an outstanding student. Special Branch officers visited the school in 1951 to arrest him but by some mysterious turn of event he evaded arrest. He was also not found at his home. So for all intents and purposes he had gone underground and was not traceable. He was believed to have gone underground for training by the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) to prepare him to lead the CUF but he claimed after his arrest in Operation Coldstore in 1963 that he was working at one of the branches of the Singapore Bus Workers'Union but later events were to discredit this. Special Branch had the SBWU and its branches well covered and there was no report of him although he was a wanted person. When in 1953/1954 the Communist United Front blazed forth in Singapore like a titan overnight and Lim Chin Siong emerged as the undisputed leader of the CUF out of nowhere. It was the start of a long journey by the Communists through the CUF to seize power and establish a Communist government. It begs the question that any sensible person especially a discerning one could believe that Lim Chin Siong could become the CUF leader without the imprimatur of the Communist Party of Malaya. The CUF was formed as a result of the direction of a 1951 October Resolution of the Central Executive Committee of the CPM to complement the armed struggle to overthrow the government and establish a Communist state, the declared aim of the CPM. Any denial by the CUF that they were directed by the CPM flew in the face of the October Resolution. Special Branch had sight of the October Resolution long before but the gigantic phenomenon was something there they did not expect and greatly alarmed them. They were resilent enough to recover quickly to fight the communist monster with experienced personnel with the necessary experties. Tere was no question about the leadership quality of Lim Chin Siong as otherwise highly intellectual pro-communists like Devan Nair, James Puthucheary, Sydney Woodhull and unionist Fong Swee Suan would not have condescended to serve under Lim. The fact that their legal adviser Lee Kuan Yew ingratiated himself into Lim's favour was a example of Lim Chin Siong's pre-eminence. The two had subsequently become undeclared adversaries and the subtleties of their internecine interplay could not be observed by veteran Special Branch officers and some members of their inner circle. Lim Chin Siong was Chinese educated and had a political advantage over Lee Kuan Yew among the Chinese masses. And Lim Chin Siong's mastery of the Hokkien dialect was something that endeared him to the Chinese masses which Lee Kuan Yew cannot match and could only gape in amazement. Lee Kuan Yew had even introduced Lim Chin Siong to his guests as the future prime minister of Singapore which may not be authentic but neverthless it showed the condition of his mind which was perpetually in a sublimnal preoccupied existential threat. If not for Special Branch Lim Chin Siong could easily have become prime minister of Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew his prisoner. Lim Chin Siong may not be as competent as Lee Kuan Yew in affairs of state but he could be more humanitarian. Special Branch, with the approval of Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock, decided that Lim Chin Siong and his fellow activitists be put away at the appropriate time to make way for a democratic government. Lee Kuan Yew was a titan in bringing prosperity to Singapore and in raising the status of Singapore to a first world country. But at the same time he could not escape the odium of being inhuman in the treatment of his political opponents like Lim Chin Siong, Dr. Lim Hock Siew and Chia Thye Poh. Lim Chin Siong's end was pathetic. After his return from exile in the UK he was at a loose end and I think his affluent younger brother helped him in the livelihood of him and his family. He died in 1996 from myscardial infarction. In a more revolutionised circumstances his name could be immortalised in history.   Yoong Siew Wah * Mr Yoong Siew Wah was the director of Singapore’s Internal Security Department from 1971 to 1974. Before that, he was the director of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB). Mr Yoong is now retired and blogs at Singapore Recalcitrant.      Read More →

Many people have asked for our schools to be closed temporary to stop the spread of the corona virus. They pointed out to the decision adopted in some countries, such as Japan, South Korea and Italy to close their schools. The education minister Ong Ye Kung has explained why his ministry had decided to keep the schools open for the time being. He said: a) The schools had taken measures to keep the premises clean and reduce the risk of infection. b) Asking the children to stay at home can carry its own set of risk of infection c) Working parents will have to take leave to stay at home and look after the children. His views are reported here. I agree with the minister. I find his approach to be sensible. The spread of the infection and its severity is lower in Singapore, compared to the other countries. This could be due to our warm weather. There is no need for us to be alarmed at this time. We can monitor our situation to see the spread and the severity, before we decide on stronger measures. Tan Kin Lian      Read More →