TR EMERITUS

Tan Cheng Bock and Tan Jee Say were seen out on walkabout with Tan Kin Lian this morning and both of them endorsed him. As neither of them are elected representatives it’s perfectly acceptable for them to make personal endorsements. However at the same walkabout TCB also described the criticism of Tan’s “pretty girls” Facebook posts as “gutter politics”, to quote AsiaOne. I want to be clear here. Calling TKL out for public posts he made is not gutter politics. Women having a voice of their own and voicing out what they feel is also not gutter politics. I would describe gutter politics as the surreptitious surveillance video of Nicole Seah and Leon Perera that mysteriously surfaced at a convenient time for the PAP as gutter politics. Their affair had been over for a year at that stage. TKL had posted these photos by himself. He clearly saw nothing wrong in taking photos of women in shorts and singlets and drawing people’s attention to them. Many of the Opposition parties, including Reform Party, have active and vocal Women’s Wings. He disenfranchised them in one stroke when he doubled down on his posts. It is the commentators saying that the women who objected were ugly or jealous that really dragged our into the gutter and showed us to be a backward nation out of step with the modern world that only pays lip service to its national pledge. However this could have been and should have been a learning moment for TKL. He apologised shortly after his nomination but his apology was also a form of doubling down. “I did say there are some pretty girls, but the pretty girls take the effort to dress up to be attractive. When I say that they are attractive, most of them actually feel quite happy,” “But in case some other ladies, after reading this, think that they are uncomfortable, I want to apologise to them,” And he then went into a long spiel about the timing and the number of people who had seen his post over the last ten years. I’ve got news for him. In the last ten years he hasn’t stood for President and people thought he had retired in the interim. It’s now that the interest is intense. In the time since 2011 also the PAP have started to fracture, the PM’s grip is weak, he hasn’t yet secured the succession for his son and the citizens have much greater access to the internet and the experience from travel abroad and are unafraid to use it. In other countries such as the UK, during a candidate’s selection process candidates are asked to give permission to a third party agency to trawl through a candidate’s internet history and see if there is anything that raises flags. You can’t delete anything on the internet but this way they can at least get ahead of any negative publicity if they decided to proceed with the candidate. I believe that the PEC should also do this but if Tharman wasn’t disqualified for breaching the Official Secrets Act then clearly their scrutiny leaves a lot to be desired. Here’s what TKL could have done. Before going into this arena he should have put together a team of advisers and that should have included women, or at least one woman not his direct blood relative. It should have also included reputable people with gravitas from at least the two main ethnic minority communities. He didn’t do that and the fact that he applied last minute is no excuse. Once these posts had become a public issue he should have requested a meet with AWARE. I also feel that AWARE could have asked to meet him first before this blew up to explain how his behaviour impacts on all of our women and given him a chance to make a proper informed apology, put it behind him and move on with a new “AWAREness”. In an ideal world a joint statement would have been issued. Thus Singapore comes together and moves forward rather that gets bogged down in division. Instead of that today we have this car crash commentary by TCB today. Dr Tan said that he’s sad that the “political landscape is in such turmoil and, despite saying that Singaporeans want transparency, described the criticism of Tan’s “pretty girls” Facebook posts as “gutter politics”. Clearly he seems in favour of censoring the internet. The reason Singapore’s political landscape is in turmoil is mostly because of the lack of a new generation of leaders. TCB’s comments today have shown me beyond doubt that he and PSP are mired in the past. What he wants is a PAP in his image from some imagined halcyon days. PSP has always been and will never be anything other than PAP 2.0, but one that looks backwards not forwards. Despite this I do hope that they take a couple of GRCs at the next election and that in combination with the other parties on the Opposition benches they can deprive the PAP of a two-thirds majority. Ng Kok Song made a comment along the lines that political parties shouldn’t endorse candidates. He should know about not mixing up politics. When he was at MAS he made sure I couldn’t have a career there and that was purely a political decision. This was proven when in a blind test my cv was selected, I was interviewed and I was employed by a financial institution, because the CEO being from England didn’t know what my name meant. Meanwhile Ho Ching, who has no business commenting, as she remains an active executive with Temasek at the moment, has put up a comment by The Kritical Spectator calling Singaporeans who vote for TKL insane. Nothing could be dragged further into the gutter than calling the supporters of eligible political opponents insane. This shows that the PAP has nothing but contempt for a large swathe and probably the majority of the electorate. Her ties to two of the candidates are as well hidden as PSP’s ties to the other. She should be made ‘aware’ of FICA and get sanctioned for spreading the Polish PAP IB. We’ve had a long history of this in Singapore. Many of my supporters are aware that her father-in-law called my father mad. I can assure you he was compos mentis till his last breath. I think they did something similar to Chee Soon Juan. TCB is throwing his weight behind TKL because he’s hoping to capture some supporters for the PSP. I haven’t yet thrown my weight behind anyone in my individual capacity. It’s not for me to speak for Reform Party and as a party we wouldn’t endorse. But I have had negative personal interaction with two of the other candidates and knew one well at university and I wouldn’t trust them to look after the jar of coins I keep on a back shelf in the kitchen. The PAP is being brought dragging and screaming into conflict with the modern world’s demands as it struggles to keep on doing business as usual, censoring citizens with rule by law, insisting ownself check oneself isn’t a travesty of good governance whilst defending its status as a haven for banking secrecy and dirty money. Have we all got a little overexcited? The EP is a sham brought in by the PAP out of fear. It’s not worth this much comment. At least TKL has said he would call for a Commission of Inquiry which is a better response to calls for transparency and accountability than I’ve ever had from Tharman or previous EPs. Whatever you think TKL embodies, electing him would send a clear signal to the PAP that they are living on borrowed time as far as the electorate is concerned. It might be too much to hope for but a TKL Presidency might finally force the Government to reveal more about the size of the reserves and the justification for not being able to spend more on investing in the people. So a vote for TKL is a vote against PAP arrogance and being taken for granted and treated like fools.   Kenneth Jeyaretnam   About the author: I’m a Singaporean economist who became an opposition activist. I blog to provide an alternative to the porkies that the Pinkies tell. It just so happens that my alternative is the truth. That’s why I’ve never been sued in any civil or criminal court no matter how hard hitting my criticism. I’m quoted and interviewed and asked to speak across the world but largely censored in Singapore in an effort to silence my political opinions. The left hate me because they think I split their vote and because I eschew their outmoded economic models. Models that don’t work. The Right and the Conservatives hate me because I’m a liberal. I’m not sure what the middle think of me. I don’t think there are more than a handful of people in the middle, here in Singapore. I’m a Singaporean born and bred, dual heritage, my parents Singaporean established here before the State of Singapore was created. I’m not Eurasian. I read economics at Cambridge and could be broadly described as from the Keynesian school but I believe in interventions. I was formerly a successful hedge fund manager. After economics and politics my greatest interests are history, film and Makan. I run but I run so I can eat like a Singaporean.      Read More →

One of the biggest issues facing Singapore these days is a proliferation of scams. Although we’re not having babies, we are clearly getting screwed left, right, centre and sideways. Some of the scams are really sophisticated. With today’s technology, its easy for you to fake official documents. However, while large sophisticate scams make sexy headlines, the truth is that a good number of scams actually involve the telling of impossible tales. I think of a group which asked my small firm if they could liquidate a company. When I interviewed the guy, he said he was told that if he lent the company money, they would lend it to the banks who would then pay a higher interest rate than what they were paying on deposits. The company would then split the difference. I then probed and asked if the company was regulated by the central bank or any other regulatory authority. The answer was no. Made the guy repeat the story several times, where upon he said “that sounds really bad.” The story on its own would not have been so bad had it been left to the group of professionals who invested. The tragedy was that scam artist managed to get their initial investors to get their elderly relatives to sell their assets to invest. Hence, not only did a group of educated professionals get scammed, a group of pensioners ended up getting screwed too. Scam artist operate on the same rationale that most businesses run on – which is, why stop it when it’s generating money. So, when you get a call from a US number claiming to be from this or that government agency and wonder “who the hell would fall for this. “– the answer is obviously enough people. Another example of a scam was best summed up by the Old Rogue (bless his soul). It was called “Buy a job.” The Old Rogue’s idea was simple – pay me a sum of money and then you go out and make us much money as you can. Again, you might ask – who falls for this? The answer as is shown, is obviously plenty of people: Why do otherwise intelligent people fall for tall tales? I guess the answer is greed and an inability to look beyond the glitz. I’ve had to stress to my mentee on more than one occasion that he needs to look less at the glamorous condos or the flashy cars and how they so and so managed to afford the glamorous condo and/ or the flashy car. As a rule of thumb, scammers know that they have to look good and make it a point to make you think that they are credible. Let’s face it, a man who has the appearance of doing well, always sounds that bit more credible. So, they key is to never get caught up with the outward appearances of success. So, when you look at a flashy car, ask yourself how it was paid for. Is the person in that flashy car asking you to pay for it?   Tang Li *Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able to meet people who have crossed borders and cultures. I’ve befriended ministers and ambassadors and worked on projects involving a former head of state. Yet, at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of befriending migrant labourers and former convicts. All of them have a story to tell. All of them add to the fabric of life. I hope to express the stories that inspire us to create life as it should be.      Read More →

Tan Kin Lian (TKL) has a formidable endorser: Dr Tan Cheng Bock. He stood by the presidential hopeful yesterday greeting the crowd at People’s Park Food Centre. His reason? independence. This is why he has thrown his weight behind TKL. “(We) are comrades who share a common vision (of) an independent president.” He then added cryptically: “Somebody who’s with the establishment, I always suspect that this collusion, together with the establishment people, maybe makes them very uncomfortable if they choose to take decisions that are contrary to what the establishment people want.” The mutuality of views was strengthened when TKL said that his one-time competitors (including Tan Jee Say) “share the same vision of an effective independent president.” And when asked whether they will be appointed into the Council of Presidential Advisors, he replied: “They will be excellent candidates to the council.” I guess TKL has all his chess pieces lined up for the compaign trail. At this stage, I won’t be surprised if the PM’s brother throw his weight in too, in support of TKL. While Tharman was quiet about it, Ng Kok Song has this to say. “(It’s) a very unhealthy and worrisome development. They are dragging the presidential election into gutter politics. I think that’s quite shameful. How can you dishonour the presidency by making this presidential election into gutter politics? We should not dishonour the office of the president.” This is the part that caught my attention. “Fellow candidate and former senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam is endorsed by the Government, by the People’s Action Party. It is very important for us to safeguard the integrity of the public service because you do not want a president who is beholden to any political party, you do not want a president who can be manipulated to serve the political agenda of any political party.” Tharman had said he is not endorsed by PAP. He said it would be “a pity if former President Ong Teng Cheong and Dr Tan Cheng Bock, who were both PAP members, were ruled out from consideration because of past affiliation.” Tbh, as a fellow voter this Friday, it can be quite confusing. What does independence means anyway? Do we throw it around and hope that someone would bite? Do we really care what it means? Will the majority of the voters bother to discern the difference? Can they? Because, trust me, out of desperation, someone (or even the masses) may just bite it hard, with gritted teeth, regardless of whether the chosen one is truly independent. Or, it may be a case where the popular presidential hopeful is riding on the masses’ misguided sentiments, as long as they cast the vote their way. You scratch my back and I scratch yours, right? I trust the rising hot air that fills the mirage of independence often comes from the fanning of the populist fire. Anyway, if you line all three up, none of them is independent, in the way it is defined. I call it the lowest hanging fruit definition - simply by political association or affiliation with the ruling party. Next is by degree. NKS stands the furthest. He is a civil servant, thru and true. Tharman is closest; he is cabinet. He is a high ranking minister. He ran policies. You can even say he was PM’s confidant when it comes to running the government. And TKL is somewhere in the middle. He was a PAP member. But aren’t all these considerations more a play on one’s emotion at this time rather than an exercise of critical thinking, whereby we put all bias, paranoia and insecurities aside for the big picture in the long haul? I believe what is so gratifying about instant gratification is not just that the pleasure savoured is immediate, it also leaves less time for serious reflection, even if we bother to engage it. At times like this, the arousal of the collective emotions is so much more satisfying than the tedious process of standing outside of it to consider the gravity of our vote. Where then does all that leaves us as voters, enjoying a well-deserved holiday with family, on election day? Well, this is the curse of the status quo and it may turn out to be the curse of populism too. They are the opposite sides of the same democratic coin. When you rule for so long, dominating every nook and cranny of society and economy, your perceived inscrutability becomes a liability. Democracy is about individual right to choose their leaders. It is also about individual disgruntlement too. And when they reach critical mass, the ruling class is often the easy target for utopian ideation. The flip side is the curse of populism. We become disillusioned (or anti-politics) with the promises of the perceived elitists, and we see everything as an attempt to keep us sedated and pliable, real or imagined. This is where a self-scheming leader weaponises votes, not so much for the greater good in the long run, but as a power play for his extractive ascension. Power hunger is the lust for democracy at its most vulnerable. Let me end with this observation by scholar Moises Naim. “…democracy at its best is about cobbling together solutions that leave everyone grumpy but no one murderous. At its best, it is a system that demands a certain level of world-weary resignation - a clear-eyed understanding that ideal candidates don’t exist, that perfect victories are never on offer, and that the system promises nothing beyond a reasonable mechanism for managing disagreement on an ongoing basis.” “It is an eminently reasonable system, which is another way of saying it is an endlessly unsatisfying one.” So, vote wisely this Friday, because you can’t guarantee others will.   Michael Han * The author is a Director at Hoh Law Corporation and blogs on Facebook.        Read More →