TR EMERITUS

The difference in treatment of NSFs has caused serious social divide between the haves and haves-not, or in this case, stay-in and stay-out. I have used a pseudonym for my friend's son to protect his identity but I am sure his story will sound familiar to many of us. A colleague of mine was very worried for his son, as his son is a 2nd gen PR who is the first in his family to serve NS. His son J, was assigned to a combat unit after BMT, despite coming from a polytechnic. He was shocked as he thought it will be a better use of his son's time to serve in an office environment, so he can learn some skills that will be better for his career. After all, his son had graduated with a business diploma and will be equipped to handle the camp's finances and administrative work. J could not adapt to the strict regimentation expected of him and requested to be post out to a stay-out camp but his request was not entertained. On weekends, he was even required to do guard duties while the security troopers could stay-out everyday and had their weekends free. J's warrant officers accused J of trying to "keng" when J claimed he needed to stay out, and accused him of being a liar when he expressed his desire to be a clerk as it was a better use of his skills. As J was unable to fulfill his desire to be a clerk, he subsequently dropped out of the riflemen course and failed the assessments required. However, his warrant officers continued to keep him in the unit and refused to let him book out after 5 everyday, effectively making him stay in. His frustrations was exacerbated by the fact that he was given extra duties for trying to "keng" and dropping out of course, even after he repeatedly expressed his lack of interest in being trained as a rifleman. Meanwhile, he says many clerks and storemen in his unit have little interest in their jobs and skive all day before booking out. I am sure many Singaporeans are used to this but this system has got to change. Why is SAF so inflexible with its soldiers? Shouldn't poly grads be prioritised for administrative roles, and let them serve as aides and clerks, instead of using them as riflemen? Poly graduates are already trained in project work, business administrative skills and communication skills. They should be used as aides to generals, and serve their country in a different capacity more befitting of their qualifications. This will also help their career as it shows they have relevant work experience, rather than a simple riflemen role. Physically demanding roles such as riflemen vocations should be given to other soldiers who are not interested in administrative role instead. Overall, the unfair treatment needs to stop. J should have an option to choose his vocation so he will be interested in the work he is doing. There is no point in letting uninterested soldiers be trained for a role they feel is useless. Disappointed Singaporean    Read More →

There are several methods used by the PAP to stay in power forever:- 1. No estate upgrading for opposition wards The government has being using this upgrading fear to dissuade many voters from voting the opposition though it is their preferred choice of vote. In 1992, then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong announced that wards that voted for the PAP would be given priority for upgrading programmes. This was revived again at the 1997 General Election. On the eve of Polling Day, Mr Goh went one step further: The Government would drill down to the voting patterns at the precinct level (clusters of around 10 blocks) in determining which neighbours to upgrade first. The strategy was employed in both the 1997 and 2001 elections, helping the PAP clinch 65 per cent and 75 per cent of the votes respectively (Sunday Times, 23 Sep 2018) Pragmatic Singaporeans – used to reap a considerable amount of profit from selling their BTO flats – succumbed to this ungentlemantly tactic and either vote for the PAP or spoil their vote in order to ensure that their estate will enjoy upgrading. Nevertheless, this tactic may not work so much now as the new BTO flats are priced so high that any profit made from the sales proceed is seldom more than $100,000. Moreover, the HDB leasehold of 99 years is a more pressing issue now than any upgrading withdrawal as many flats that have less than 60 years of lease struggle to get any potential buyers in the market – with or without upgrading work. Used virally by the second Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 1990s, this upgrading fear tactic is almost unheard of in GE 2015 and probably in this coming GE. The Main Upgrading Programme (MUP) is a town council-initiated estate upgrading project aims to restore many of our ageing flats and usually announced months before the GE with significant threats made of the upgrading withdrawal during campaigning if certain wards are to fall to the opposition. This is usually targetted at hotly-contested wards such as Marine Parade,  Tampines or Moulmein. To this day, no one can ascertain how successful the estate upgrading fear has worked in the favour of the incumbent but the fall of Aljunied GRC in 2011 showed that any GRC can still gold given the right opposition party and candidates involved. 2. Serial numbers on voting card About 7 to 8 days before voting, each voter will receive a polling card stating his constituency and where his voting station will be. On the right hand side of the card is a serial number which till today nobody at the Election Department can truly verify it’s legitimacy. The Election Department on it’s website has this to say: “The serial number on the ballot paper is to protect the integrity of the democratic process. It enables strict accounting of all ballot papers issued and cast, and guards against counterfeiting and voter impersonation. ” This serial number has created much fear among the older Merdeka Generation who is worried that voting is not secret and that their votes can be traced which incidentally is true if the government wanted to. Moreover, on polling day itself, the Presiding officer will call out the names and identity card number of the voter before he casts his vote at the station, intensifying the fear he has of the whole voting experience. I have spoken to one particular Presiding Officer who has such a booming voice while reading out the voter’s particulars during my candidacy at Tampines GRC in 2011, whether he could lower his voice as I could hear him clearly across the carpark. He told me that they were instructed to read out loudly and audibly so that there won’t be any mistaken identity! I doubt this audible public pronouncement of the voter’s name and identity is used anywhere in the world during election. However, it has worked well as I witnessed many jittery elderly voters quickly vote and get out of the chilling polling station. I am sure many who have wanted to vote in the opposition would have changed their mind on that fateful day and voted otherwise. 3. Persecution and law suit against opposition candidates Lee Kuan Yew perfected the art of persecuting and suing opposition candidates in his reign. Workers’ Party candidates such as late Jb Jeyeretnam, late Francis Seow and even the current  crop of WP stewards Low Thia Kiang, Sylvia Lim and Pritam Singh could not escape the famed PAP persecution. The suit tactic works so well that many opposition parties could not gather any candidates to contest in general election. Those who joined as candidates then were also dubious characters with one independent candidate even wearing slippers to file in his candidacy nomination papers and never hold any campaigning nor give a single speech before the election. It was only in GE 2011 that the opposition mustered enough resources to contest 82 of the 87 seats offered giving many Singaporeans the chance to vote – many for the first times especially in PAP-favoured wards such as Tanjung Pagar, Jurong and Sembawang. There has not being a single suit filed against any opposition party or candidate since 2011 less the WP town council one and this impasse has sparked off a frantic rise of interest especially among the young millennial generation to join the opposition parties. 4. Group Representation Constituency The Group Representation Constituency (GRC) was proposed in GE 1988 with many critics saying that it highly favoured the incumbent. It’s main purpose is to have a minority race representing the population in a certain constituency so that power is not focused on one main race. Forced to locate a minority race candidate in a group of 3 to 6 candidates contesting a GRC, many opposition parties have cried foul that the contest disadvantaged them as they have lesser resources to select from. However, the loss of Aljunied GRC in 2011 and two ministers consequently showed that given the right circumstances and candidates, a GRC can be won and is even seen as a vulnerable weakness of the whole Singapore electorate system. All it takes is two to three heavyweights in the mould of Dr Tan Cheng Bock and Lee Hsien Yang and the GRC veil looks less invincible and fallible. The GRC is likely to favour the incumbent and any strong opposition party up to the task of grooming 5 to 6 abled candidates for the contest of representing the people in Parliament. 5. Media The government has being able to control the mass media so far till the internet revolution makes its mark in the 2000s. Alternative news sites such as The Online Citizen, The Independent Sg and TR Emeritus have came under intense government’s scrutiny especially before the election but the recent Fake News legislation has intensified the noose among the few independent news media. The strong hold of the public media has also lessened somewhat of late as people flock to a more balanced free media which promises independence and minimal censorship. It is unforeseeable how the government can regain the monopoly on media again unless it autocratically closes down all the alternative news media making it seen like a communist regime. It can merely harass and threaten them but they are virtually untouchable and depending on how courageous the editors of these independent media are – they can change the course of the whole election. The Malaysian election was thought to be widely shaped by independent news sites such as Malaysiakini, The Malaysian Insider, Malaysia Today and Sarawak Report though some were forced to close down briefly during the former PM Najib’s reign. The Malaysian Insider has gone defunct since 2016 amid financial losses and a government’s clampdown. Across the causeway, Singapore also witnessed the loss of a independent news media The Real Singapore when two of the three editors were convicted and jailed for spreading fake news via a sedition charge in 2016. Unless the independent news media report accurately and responsibly, the authorities will probably not hesitant to clamp down on our alternative media and that will be a shame for the country. 6. New citizens The new citizen votes seem to be the master winning card of the incumbent as each year close to 6000 new citizens will be included into the electorate building up to a strong credible pool of 20,000 to 25,000 loyal voters before each election. It is perceived that at least for the first time of voting, this huge increasing pool of new citizens will vote for the incumbent more out of loyalty than anything else. This is understandable especially if most of the new citizens hail from third world countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, India, Vietnam or China. Of course, over the years, some will vote against the government as they too have suffered the same fate as most native Singaporeans. As the Election Department falls under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister’s office, the re-drawing of boundaries before each election tends to favour the incumbent as they know where these new loyal voters reside and people living as far away as Sengkang are noted to have come under the AMK GRC. Of the six reasons listed here, new citizens are probably the ones that will ensure the PAP stays in power perpetually even though they may lose a GRC or two.    Gilbert Goh      Read More →

At a National Day speech in Tanjong Pagar, minister Chan Chun Sing said that accountability means not passing debts to children. I don't know where he got this definition. I would use the term "financial responsibility" to mean not passing debts to the next generation. Accountability means to take responsibility for your own actions, e.g a government has accountability for decisions and laws affecting its citizens. Sometimes, taking accountability means admitting you made a mistake. If the government is accountable, it has to explain why it spend $4.85 billion to build the last 3 stations of the Circle Line, which is 5 times of the average cost per km for the earlier stages. It is not sufficient to say - because of difficult ground conditions. Even allowing for ground conditions, the price tag is excessive. There is also the question - can we do without this expensive segment? What about the cost of $21 billion to build the Downtown Line. The cost per km increased from $160 million (adjusted for inflation) for the North South Line to $490 million for the Downtown Line. While part of the higher cost is due to the Downtown Line being completely underground, it should not account for the price tag being 3 times. To be accountable, the government has to answer the following questions: a) Has the standard of financial control slacked over the years? b) Is the tendering system still reliable in produce acceptable prices? c) Could alternative designs be considered for segments that are too expensive? I do not accept that the current government has acted in an accountable manner in these two big decisions. There are many other decisions taken by the government that raise many questions. I am referring to decisions that affect billions of dollars, such as infrastructure works and defense spending. We have also seen many decisions, such as training death of National Servicemen, handled in a manner that does not measure up to the standard of accountability. In other countries, the minister or top commanders in charge would resign to take responsibility for the deaths. In Singapore, the lower down soldiers take the rap. I wonder if the current ministers understand the meaning of accountability. If they don't, they cannot act in an accountable manner. It does not help when a minister coins up a new definition for this word.   Tan Kin Lian      Read More →