TR EMERITUS

Today the SDP is proud to unveil our manifesto, The Way Forward. A manifesto is a declaration of a political party’s vision and policies for the country. This is exactly what The Way Forward is – a document that lays out the SDP’s plans on what Singapore needs to do to secure a bright and democratic future, and how the SDP will go about it to fulfill this vision. Foremost is our guiding principle “people before profit, rights before riches, wisdom before wealth” which is etched on the back cover. It is more than a slogan; it undergirds our policies which occupy the centre of our manifesto. In other words, we put our people first, we uphold democracy, and we eschew short-term fixes for our nation’s problems – an approach that is diametrically opposite to what the PAP does. Chairman Paul Tambyah welcomed guests and highlighted the SDP's mission to build a Singapore where all Singaporeans have the equal opportunity to progress and succeed. He also talked about the 3Cs of being competent, constructive and compassionate. Young Democrat (YD) Naresh Subramaniam (pictured above) also spoke. He told the audience that he joined the SDP because he believed in the party's values and philosophy of speaking up for the underdog and our emphasis on putting people first. He also highlighted the fact that he and his fellow YDs are proud of the work they are doing and helping to build the SDP into a party of and for the future. Mr Ben Pwee, who joined the SDP earlier this year, then spoke about the SDP's policies. Our ideas and proposals in the key areas such as cost of living, healthcare, housing, population, the economy, education, the Malay community, ministerial salaries offer Singaporeans a viable set of policies to take Singapore forward. Many of our ideas have been adopted by the government and echoed by PAP MPs. An important segment in the manifesto is our plans for running of town councils in the eventuality that we win our contests. We have spelt out in detail how we are going to effect a smooth and seamless takeover of the running of the estates as well as described how we are going to be transparent and accountable in running town council operations. We make explicit our policies and plans because this is what voters expect from parties asking for their votes. It is the least that a responsible and constructive party can and should do. In short, we want to give Singaporeans a reason to vote for the SDP, not just against the PAP. We want to paint a clear picture of the alternative Singapore that we are calling the people to vote for. These alternative policies will form the thrust of our message in the coming GE and The Way Forward forges that clear path that we are taking in our campaign. Singapore Democrats      Read More →

I received a request from an employment agency in Canada to provide information on their background check of a former employee. I was able to answer several questions in a reply to a form, embedded in the email. They were answers that I was able to give easily based on my knowledge of the former employee. I find the questions to be relevant. My reply took less than 10 minutes as promised in their email. I find their approach to be considerate and very good, compared to the troublesome method that is usually adopted by employment agencies in Singapore. Here are the faults of the methods adopted in Singapore: a) Difficult to open their encrypted questionnaire b) Difficult to answer their questions which ask for detailed scores to issues that are hard to measure c) Too many questions, many of which are irrelevant. I tried to be helpful by giving references on former employees. After a few frustrating experiences, I now refuse to respond to any question for employment references that are stored in an encrypted form or adopt the "Singapore method". Tan Kin Lian      Read More →

I have been using the Tuas Checkpoint frequently over the last few years. Of late, it seems like the Certis Security staff manning the scanning X-ray machines are getting increasingly lazy and brazen with their sheer tardiness. The episode I encountered on Friday, 27 September at 10.10pm bordered on the absurd. On disembarking from a Causeway Link bus entering the x-ray scanning zone during off peak period where few people are around, one would often be greeted by chatter amongst the Certis Cisco staff who would be louder than markets. Upon being directed to the particular x-ray scanner (goodness knows why you even need a staff to direct travellers to a particular X-ray machine in the first place - so much for productivity), one would then often be greeted by another staff who would insist that one empties everything (handphones/wallets, etc) into other bags/belongings in possession (including grocery bags). It does not seem to occur to these idiots that electronic devices and wallets are not compatible with being placed in grocery bags with wet items. On enquiring what were the blue trays for, I would often be told they were "only for travellers without any bags". As if that wasn't laughable enough, when I cleared the security scanner on the night of 27 September, the staff reviewing the x-ray items had the audacity to yell "pick up the tray" after I retrieved my bags from the blue trays (this guy was manning the second scanner from the left who was presumably more interested in me retrieving the tray for him so he had less work to do than actually ensuring I wasn't carrying any contraband items). Interestingly, this snobbish officer of yours was also wearing a jacket well placed to cover his name tag who incidentally also refused to identify himself when requested. Ostensibly, given tray retrievals (or discouragement from using trays in the first place insisting travellers placed all their items into some other bags (including wet grocery bags) are not a feature at Changi Airport or the Woodlands Checkpoint, the nonsense at Tuas cannot be a standard SOP of either ICA's or Certis Cisco. Given the fact that you often have more staff manning the x-ray machines (vis-a-vis the crowd size commuting through the respective checkpoints) at Tuas than Woodlands or Changi Airport, this also makes little sense to justify such diabolical behaviour from the lot of lazy morons at Tuas who are hell bent on having a peaceful night to enjoy as much chatter as possible with as little work done as possible (including tray retrievals after travellers use them). It's high time you looked into such shananigans and come back with a satisfactory explanation on how such abysmally tardy attitude can come to pass. How ironic a certain "Shanmugam" has also run as a candidate in my constituency in the last 2 General Elections - maybe, it's high time I let you lot know at the ballot box if the public should be in service of the lazy and rude overlords who are supposedly "public servants". If you are thinking of derailing looking into this through requesting for my personal particulars (including a contact number in lieu of writing a written response), that also will not be forthcoming as this episode (and presumably many others like these that go unreported when you see passengers stuffing wallets/mobile phones into inappropriate bags to avoid using a tray or having need to retrieve the tray after using them) can be easily verified on CCTV. For good measure, I have included both TREmeritus and The Online Citizen in this email's distribution list just so you can get a good dose of publicity for such nonsense. Nevertheless, I still look forward to hearing any flagrant excuses you can come up with for the conduct of the lazy and belligerent "security screening officers" who are actually more interested in doing everything else bar security screening. Or perhaps, how one day I should expect one of these lazy sods to bark at me to clean my footprints on the floor after passing the security scanners.   Terrence Wong      Read More →