TR EMERITUS

A relative of a passenger on Flight MH370 shouting at journalists during the MH370 incident. -- PHOTO: REUTERS The mistake in letting PRC nationals into Singapore as potential citizens is the thinking that they will easily integrate with Singapore’s majority Chinese population. This is unlikely to be the case. Maybe if it is a case of a PRC national who has married a Singaporean, but otherwise I think integration with Singaporean Chinese population, let alone other ethnic groups in Singapore is very difficult. Instead of opening the doors to PRC nationals, we should have a revolving door sending back the vast majority of PRC nationals – maybe after a short work stint of 2-3 years if we need to let them in to work in the first place. Permanent settlement is a different issue, and if we are talking about East Asians to bring in, be they Chinese or whatever ethnic group, then instead of PRC nationals, consider instead: Malaysians, Bruneians, Indonesians, Hong Kongers & Macau counterparts, even of South Asian origin, Taiwanese even aboriginals Further afield, consider: ABCs from US and Australia BBCs from UK CBCs from Canada and Caribbean Ethnic Chinese from countries like Japan, Korea, South Africa, Peru The mentality of overseas Chinese is just different from PRC nationals and more in tune with 3rd, 4th and 5th generation ethnic Chinese Singaporeans. PRC nationals are born and live through either into a undemocratic Communist system or a undemocratic Communist-turned-corporatist system that is difficult to fathom. Beyond that, there is the spitting, the non-queuing, the bad toilet habits, the reckless driving, the territorial games played and so on. The government here might want the ‘hunger’ of PRC nationals for its economy. It is not worth it. Other immigrants have ‘hunger’ too, but not quite in the way the ‘hunger’ of some PRC nationals can manifest like this fighting and kicking incident. I am not trying to say all PRC nationals turn out this way. I’m saying we have enough PRC nationals already and there could be more balance. The balance can be achieved by considering other nationals – some of the same ethnic background as majority Chinese – but that means basically drastically reducing the number of nationals from PRC in favour of these other nationals. Some on this forum might say ‘no more from anywhere’ but so long as there’s an open door, let it be a revolving door, and let’s send back PRC nationals after 2-3 years rather than letting them have a Singapore passport & use Singapore as a stepping stone to the West. For the PRC nationals keen to become Singaporeans incl. those already here, it should be 10 years to get a Singapore passport & not anything less, & there should be some proof of English speaking ability and proof of their effort to understand and connect with other ethnic groups in Singapore. So I am not saying no to all PRC nationals, just that there has to be a serious rethink in having so many & now re-balance things out, logically by looking to other nationalities including overseas Chinese.   Dinners are just dinners * Comment first appeared in: 6 PRC women charged for beating up girl at K-Box    Read More →

"Is our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong the right person to lead Singapore?" Venue: Hong Lim Park Date: 5th July, Sat Time: 4 to 7 pm We would like to inform that we will be having an event on Saturday, 5th July at Hong Lim Park from 4 to 7pm. Subject of the event is titled - "Is our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong the right person to lead Singapore?" For this event, we have invited 10 speakers from all walks of life to talk about the subject matter. As we know, the prime minister has recently launch a defamation suit against its own citizen, Mr Roy Ngerng. There are legitimate calls from certain sections of the community for our Prime Minister to step down from office. Most of the speakers on that day will be ordinary Singaporeans who are either frustrated with the policies in place or are personally affected by it. Hence, the event will showcase arguments on whether the prime minister is the right person to lead the nation. Link to the event page can be found in FB - https://www.facebook.com/events/657651847623510/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming&source=1 Our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has shown to be incompetent in running a country. During his watch: 1) Our press freedom ranking slides to an all-time low of 149th position. 2) Allowing HDB flat prices to sky rocket 3) Bottom 20% of working Singaporeans saw their pay stagnant 4) Singapore becomes the world’s most expensive city 5) Record suicide rate 6) Planning to squeeze 6.9million people in Singapore 7) Having liberal immigration policies 8 ) Little India riot. 1st in over 40 years 9) Bus driver strike. 1st in 25 years 10) The most expensive country to buy a car 11) Singapore has one of the lowest wages and domestic purchasing power 12) Placing further hardship by increasing GST from 5% to 7% 13) Withholding CPF monies longer and keep on increasing minimum sum 14) Approve the building of casinos much to the disapproval of the citizens 15) Spends the lowest on healthcare as proportion to GDP among developed countries The above list is certainly not exhaustive. He also gerrymanders the boundaries in every election in order to entrench his power base to remain as prime minister despite his unpopular rule. We cannot allow a leader who has no competency and heart to lead the country. We cannot allow a leader who is devoid of compassion to continue and pile on miseries towards citizens any longer. It's time for him to step down from office and allow a true leader with the appropriate skills, knowledge, competency and foresight to take over and lead Singapore to the next era. Join us to air your views. We welcome those who are also a keen supporter of our PM to contact us if you would like to speak on that day. Thanks & Warmest Regards. Hosted by William Lim and Osman Sulaiman.  Read More →

The role of a good government is not to waste time defining what type politics PAP want, but what Singaporeans want. A good government will define what Singaporeans want. Whether it is the type of politics and the type of politicians. It has to be centered around Singapore and Singaporeans, not a party. The good government does not debate on political definitions, but on policies. A good government should be proactive and debates on upcoming issues. After being lambasted on their lackluster performance in last year haze [link], they have learnt to improve their handling of the haze. In fact, PAP improvements have nothing to take pride in as the link article had prescribed the recommended actions. It is $ad for such a highly paid PAP to fail in the first place, which they should NOT! However, it is good that a portion of time is spend on the haze. This should be the way a good government is, without prompting and suggestions from Singaporeans. It shows that they are not sincere and proactive. Simple introduction of WP’s concern results in a long debate? In the recent opening speech by our President[link], WP’s leader LTK had the unenvied task of looking into the term of constructive politics[link].  It was less than a 5 minute speech. This resulted in PAP MP Indranee’s  first rebuttal[link]. As it is wasn’t time wasting, PM Lee took on the same issue for a whole of 15 minutes [link]. WP’s stand as a responsible opposition: check and balance. There is nothing wrong with this stand. WP has stated their stand very clearly, they are not ready in GE2011 to be the government[link]. Hence with only 7 MPs, they are here to check and balance the current 80 PAP MPs [link]. How can 7 MPs take over 80 MPs? If LHL can do better than WP’s, why not be the next opposition and show us! LHL expects WP to be better than Check and Balance. They want WP’s to come up with alternative policies [Where-ever the PAP is standing, ask them to do better. That’s easy, I can do that too-LHL.]. It seemed that LHL thinks he can do a better job at check and balance. If PAP feels so strongly that they can do better, what not show us that they can do so being an opposition? Or will they have a shift in view and stay in power? Could you still trust PAP to have such strong views on being able to be a good opposition, but declined to carry them out? What other correct things they should do but wasn’t carried out? Paid $o much to wa$te time on useless debates. It seemed that LTK, preempted that PAP will waste time debating on the type of politics that PAP wanted. Perhaps it was a trap. Whatever it is, PAP took the bait and sends not only Indranee, but also PM himself to confront WP. The debate reflects the true nature of PAP. Imagine 87MPs, which all PAP Ministers are paid millions$ annually to debate on what PAP wants for politics? Is this the government that PAP is? True nature of PAP: want to stay in power? Is that PAP’s politics? What does this show? A PAP that wants their own way?  A PAP that wants to define their own terms of contact?  A PAP that wants to stay in power? Whatever it is, the recommended way is for a government to define terms in reference to what Singaporeans want, not what PAP wants. When PAP learns this and present themselves better at upcoming parliament sessions, I hope Singaporeans note that PAP is just paid million$ to learn from articles on the net. Fulfill LHL’s Wish-let them be opposition next GE 2015/16. Since LHL has said that they can performed better as an opposition, I hope all Singaporeans could unite to fulfill his wish. Come GE2015/16, please help to tell one and all to vote PAP out. This will help LHL fulfilled his statement. If not , what kind of prime minister is he? A highly paid Mini$ter that says things for granted? If that is the case, all the more Singaporeans should vote him and PAP out. Singaporeans, unite in GE2015/16 to vote PAP out!   Anson Be * Submitted by TRE reader    Read More →