TR EMERITUS

My sister got married to her partner yesterday in an outdoor ceremony. It was a beautiful ceremony. Our patchwork family came together from as far as Australia, Singapore and the USA. On her partner’s side, they came as far as Sierra Leone in West Africa. This was an event filled with plenty of laughter and not to mention good food. I bring up my sister’s wedding because in Singapore finally managed to repeal that most pointless of laws, 377A at the end of 2022. The law, which criminalises sexual relations between men had been something of a controversial topic and it took several years before the Government agreed to remove this colonial era law. You could, I guess, argue that it was a tough act for the government to carry out. While the LGBTQ community in Singapore had argued that the law was discriminatory, there were also the voices of the shrill “conservatives” who argued that allowing homosexual behaviour would lead to the collapse of society. I’ve argued that no matter what one thinks of the LGBTQ community, the law was clearly pointless. It didn’t protect anyone except repressed homosexuals who needed the law to protect them from being themselves. I believe a former Chief Justice and two former Attorney-Generals have said as much even if they expressed it in much better terms. So, I am happy that the Singapore Government has finally seen the obvious – that every argument made in favour of keeping the law has been proven to be nonsensical. However, there was a compromise. In return for lifting 377A, marriage is enshrined in the Singapore constitution as being between a man and a woman. Hence, while the LGBTQ can legally have sex with their chosen partners, their rights to have their relationships protected still does not exist. Should this matter? The Nordic countries for example, are filled with couples who happily live together and have children but do so without that contract called marriage. Surely our LGBTQ community can do the same. Ironically, it was Ms. Stephanie Thio of TSMP Law (Ms. Thio is the sister-in-law of Professor Thio Li-Ann, Singapore’s most prominent anti-gay activist) who argued that we need to start thinking of the protections that LGBTQ couples have. As my youngest brother’s girlfriend said, “If anything happens to him, the hospital isn’t going to let me do anything as his girlfriend. It’s a different story if I am his wife.” In a heterosexual relationship, a wife is legally allowed to take care of a husband should anything happen to him and visa-versa. By refusing to grant legal recognition to LGBTQ relationships, you actually deny an individual the right to be cared for by the person who is likely to know them best. I go back to the example of my sister. When she first came out and told me, I was a little taken back. However, she was still the same person after she told as she was before she told me. Nothing changed because of her admission. She remains the sister I grew up loving. Once the proverbial cat was out of the bag, she seemed happier. From what little I got to see of her relationships, it seemed that she was happier in her “girl-girl” relationships than in her “boy-girl” relationships. She was initially a bit apprehensive about coming out to my mother but everything turned out cool. My step-father, who grew up in the 1950s in the USA (not exactly a LGBTQ-Friendly era), said it best at last night’s wedding. In his speech he said, “I didn’t lose a daughter tonight. I gained one.” I know that the argument is that it’s argued that same-sex relationships are not “normal.” However, what defines normal? My sister’s marriage to another woman involved letting families know. It planning an event and by extension a life together. She wanted everybody to know. My first marriage, which was a “normal” heterosexual marriage between a man and a woman wasn’t like that. I literally shuddered at the idea of planning a life together and I made it clear that I didn’t want my family to know that I was getting legally bound to her. I acknowledged to her that whilst I would try and make it work with her, I didn’t see my life with her as being filled with happiness. So, what’s normal here? You could say that my sister’s marriage is not normal because it was with someone with the “wrong” gender. You could say mine was with someone of the “right” gender. However, if you leave that aside, my sister actually got it right. Her marriage made everyone in the family happy because she was happy. As my step-dad said, he gained a daughter and I gained a sister. In my first marriage, I actually risked losing my family. My mother actually made me promise I’d get out of the marriage if I was unhappy and the family celebrated the day, I took out a Protection Order against her and when she actually saw the light and divorced me. We are often obsessed with the wrong things. In marriage we get obsessed with gender, social status and prospects. We don’t think enough about the things that count like love. If there’s anything that made my trip worthwhile is the fact that my sister’s wedding showed me that love wins and I managed to gain an entire family in the process.   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 →

Road congestions are caused by usage not ownership. As an illustration, a person owns five cars but he can only drive one at any one point in time as opposed to five individuals owning the same five cars, all driving at the same time. That being the case, traffic control should be directed at usage rather than ownership. With limited land and growing population, COE, which controls car ownership has outlived its usefulness. It should give way to a distance usage based road pricing system. Technology should not be an issue. It should be less complex than the mobile phone billing system. The distance based road pricing system has several advantages. It provides flexibility; allowing fine-tuning to achieve the targeted and desired effects. It can also act as a moderator to balance the wide disparity in energy taxes between internal combustion engine and electric cars. However, most importantly, it will change the driving habits of people. High cost of cars do not discourage owners from driving. In fact, the opposite is true. This is to be expected as most owners view their cars as sunk costs and not driving often enough is deemed a waste. Things will be different if they have to pay for road usage. Driving aimlessly, changing destinations at every whim and fancy will be things of the past. Road usage will be optimal and more efficient as more people feeling the impact, plan their routes or take public transports. Two basic options can be considered for the implementation. For a clean, neat and free from encumbrances cutover, LTA can refund all remaining balance in the existing, valid COEs and start off with the new distance based road pricing system with immediate effect. The other option is to phase in the new system over a period of 10 years. New cars sold without COE will be subjected to the new road pricing system while existing cars with COEs will be exempted. Cars with expiring COEs can continue to be driven even after the COE expiry dates but they will be subjected to higher rates, escalating progressively under the new road pricing system to discourage retention. In the grand scheme of things, distance based road pricing can be a better system and is certainly worthy of consideration.   PY Wong      Read More →

Is the current 4G PAP-led government being jinxed by some very bad karma? You see, the People’s Action Party (PAP) has obviously been trying very hard to exploit this year’s National Day Celebration as it does not want to be reminded or embarrassed by the endless socio-economic malice that have been plaguing Singapore these past years. From the rapid decline in Fair Employment Opportunities for core Singaporeans, to the failure in managing the affordability of our public housing policy; from the high cost of living, aggravated not just by rising inflation but also by poorly-timed increases in taxes, COEs, and basic charges for essential services; to the inability to safeguard our once successful socio-economic story and an increasing list of unfulfilled promises, such as the failure to deliver a Swiss standard of living by 1999 or to qualify Singapore for the 2010 FIFA World Cup — there is no question that Singapore’s future is being gravely compromised by the incompetency of the 4G PAP politicians. Instead of addressing the socio-economic malices that they had created, it is looking like they are more interested in politically propagating “Shine Your Light” to be the theme song for this year’s NDP Celebration, to “paint” the impression that all is well in Singapore with our “impressionable” youths. That is, until karma came along to rattle their political craftiness. FAS’s Colossal Failure At The Recent SEA Game: Let us start with just how embarrassing it was when our national football team got thrashed 7-0 by Malaysia in this year’s SEA Game. After putting the blame on the players, where then is Edwin Tong and his audacity to “rehash” the PAP’s earlier broken promise by again promising that he can bring Singapore to the finals of the FIFA World Cup by 2034 when we cannot even win a single game at the recent SEA Game? With just 11 years to restore our current National Football Team to a World Cup standard is pure delusion on the part of Edwin and it shows that they have yet to figure out why our football standard was so good in the 60s and the 70s. Can Singapore afford to continue to allow Edwin and his mediocre team of political minions at the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) a “Blank Cheque” to throw good money down the drain, again and again? Are they trying to take Singaporeans for a fool, or are they just “acronymically” jinxed to consistently “Fail At Soccer”? Dramatic Sequel To The Oxley-Gate Scandal: Just when the Oxley-Gate Scandal was about to simmer down, a dramatic new sequel came into play when Lee Hsien Yang and his family left Singapore, claiming that “his family is being persecuted” and lamented that “he has been made a fugitive by his own country”. What was earth-shattering was when he shared that “Wei Ling and I originally believed, in 2017, that Singapore had checks and balances and rule of law. While they thought that there were still men and women of integrity in the PAP, they rapidly learned otherwise.” With further allegations that his prosecution was “politically-motivated” and that his brother, PM Le Hsien Loong, has “misused state resources to pursue his private agenda”, it is natural for Singaporeans to react strongly against Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the PAP for being so vindictive against Hsien Yang and his family. This was followed by calls for PM Lee to step down as Singaporeans are getting tired and embarrassed by the open squabbles between the children of Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) as the Chinese believe that LKY’s legacy is being ruined prematurely by the growing unpopularity of PM Lee and his wife, Ho Ching, who heads Temasek. With Lee Wei Ling’s health deteriorating and without assurance that her younger brother and his family will be safe, are the children of LKY paying the high price for some unresolved karma? Keppel’s Corruption Scandal: Then came the high-profile corruption scandal at Keppel Offshore & Marine that resulted in our Government Linked Company (GLC) US$422 million in a “leniency” settlement to the US Department of Justice and the Brazilian authorities. That was when Indranee Rajah, a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, tried to brush Singaporeans off for “making speculative assertions” against Keppel, Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) based on “inadequate understanding of the facts”, only to admit later in parliament that her short answer is – she herself does not know if the six executives had authorized the bribery payment or had knowledge of them. By citing that there is no basis to prosecute those involved in the corruption, nor do they see any need to convene any investigation to find out as to how those executives could so easily siphoned out US$72.8 million out of Keppel, a listed conglomerate, and use them for the alleged bribery, it was looking like someone desperately wanted the case to close and be forgotten. Is that why nobody even bothers to ask if any of those executives could have “conveniently” pocketed some loose change along the way? Or was Lee Boon Yang, the Chairman of Keppel Corporation, sleeping all these while or did he actually seek approval from his boss? As Lee Boon Yang was a former Cabinet Minister, and as Chairman of a major GLC, he is obliged to at least keep the leadership at Temasek posted, or report directly to the PMO if his “political rank” is deemed higher than that of the CEO of Temasek. Well, someone from the establishment did come up with a brilliant plan – to arrange for Semcorp Marine, a small fish, to speedily swallow up Keppel Offshore & Marine (KOM) so that this scandal can be eased from the memory of Singaporeans. Guess what – Seatrium, the firm that was formed after the merger of Semcorp Marine and KOM is back in the news for alleged corruption in Brazil, yet again. So is Temasek really that jinxed or has karma simply returned to taunt Indranee for her previous haughtiness in parliament? Is karma really a bitch? Crazy Rich Politicians – The Great RIDOUT’s Hypocrisy: Just when you think that things cannot get worse, out pop the Great RIDOUT Hypocrisy that got Singaporeans exceedingly worked up. You see, the PAP has been constantly telling Singaporeans that Singapore is land-scare, and as such, a good government must always exact the true market price for all its land assets without exception and that Singaporeans must accept that our public flats will get smaller over time. That was how the PAP has managed to price the new BTO flat at more than half a million dollar and continue to shrink the size of our public housing to look like a shoe-box while Singaporeans obediently accept these absurdities as if it is the Whole Truth. So can you imagine when K. Shanmugam, the Law & Home Affairs minister and Vivian Balakrishnan, the Foreign Affairs Minister, were found to be renting spawning Good Class Bungalows at an undisclosed rental rate, like some “Crazy Rich Politicians”? Were these two ministers simply jinxed to be caught with their pants down? Truth be told, these are the consequences of money-politics that is being perpetuated by the PAP in paying themselves millions while the average Singaporeans struggle with putting food on their table. To make matter worse, many Singaporeans were furious that both Shanmugam and Vivian show no sense of remorse or shame and came across as some “self-entitled” spoilt brats when they publicly shared that they had asked PM Lee to conduct an independent review regarding this matter, as if he is not aware of where they are residing or that he has nothing better to do but to obediently listen to this ministers. Based on “comparative market rates” of between S$4.67 to S$8.24 per sq/ft, the 306,930 ft/sq property at 26 Ridout Road would have yield a monthly rent of between S$1,433,363 to S$2,529,103 while the 136,101 ft/sq property at 31 Ridout Road would have yield a monthly rent of between S$635,591 to S$1,121,472. If the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has indeed been diligent with the management of our state assets, protect our National Reserve, and if these two ministers are indeed paying the Real Market Rates for these properties, then the PAP-led government ought to boldly and swiftly convene a “Real” Public Inquiry by inviting the Leader of the Opposition to sit on the investigating panel so that PM Lee can then use the final findings to silence all his political critics, no? Better still, why not ask Dr Tan Cheng Bock, a former PAP loyalist, to chair this inquiry since it is clear that he remains popular with Singaporeans and can still win the next Presidential Election if granted the right to contest in the upcoming Presidential Election? Or why not ask SLA to furnish a list of its 50 or 100 of its largest properties and indicate who are renting these properties and at what rate they are being rented out so that PM Lee can further assured concerned Singaporeans that his government has been diligently exacting Real Market Rate for all our land assets, without prejudice and without exception, and be seen to be doing what is right by the people. Otherwise, one has to ask if PM Lee has lost control over his ministers or are there some merits in those allegations against his ministers. Out of curiosity, is there any reason for PM Lee or his PAP politicians to fear an 83 years old Cheng Bock, and if so, what exactly are they afraid this old man who was once a cadre of theirs? Are The PAP Politicians Jumping Ship? Then came Halimah Yacob sharing publicly that she has no intention to run for next Presidential Election “PE” just when PM Lee was directing the Election Department to revise the registers of electors and to complete the revision by end of July 2023. Is there something that she, Vivian and Shanmugam know that the rest of us are unaware of or are they all simply trying to get out of a sinking ship? Chances are, she is likely to obediently listen to her boss and stay on as the PAP clearly prefers a “no-contest” since he is aware that Cheng Bock is still popular and is actively campaigning for a more progressive Singapore, and that is why Shanmugam remains indispensable to PM Lee as PE 2023 approaches. As such, is it even realistic to be expecting PM Lee to fire Shanmugam and Vivian outright for their RIDOUT Fiascos? More Bad News For PM Lee: With the Shangri-La Dialogue currently taking place in Singapore until Sunday, was it just “bad timing” for PM Lee to be tested Covid-positive yet again? You see, PM Lee would have loved to meet with visiting world leaders and their defence chiefs by taking centre stage and glowing in the limelight of this event. But as luck would have it, he has to step aside to allow his supposed successor, DPM Lawrence Wong, to shine. Guess some “potential candidates” who are still hoping to replace PM Lee as the next Prime Minister must be jumping mad as karma make a mockery of them yet again, no? Looking Forward: With a large segment of Singaporeans still struggling with the high cost of living and runaway inflation, unemployment & under-employment that are forcing our children to struggle with the high cost of owning public housing, its mortgage interest charges, and a torn socio-economic fabric that can no longer shield us from economic storms, Singaporeans can expect more scandals & fiascos oozing out from the “out of control” PAP-led government. That is why Singaporeans must stay patriotic and continue to “Shine Our Light” to expose more hypocrisy and help restore our country from the arrogance and dictates of mediocre politicians who think too highly of themselves and their cronies. So if the Big Karma is true and some PAP politicians are indeed planning to jump ship, then it is imperative for us to take this Big Karma more seriously and find ways to keep ourselves safe from its destructive forces. In the interim, we must be grateful to those who are actively praying and offering penances for a better Singapore, and also for those who are helping to shape the consciousness of our voters so that they will take their votes more seriously. Yes, we all need to pray more fervently and also do what is right if we still believe that Singapore deserves better…   Joseph Nathan   * The writer blogs on Facebook.      Read More →