TR EMERITUS

[Letter sent to Janadas Devan, Ministry of Communication & Information, Gerald Giam, WP, and copied to TRE] 8 Jun 2014 Dear Mr Devan, Please refer to my unresponded email to your organisation below. I am disappointed that to date, the government has chosen to ignore citizens' genuine concerns of bread & butter coupled with pressing issues of ever rising medical costs instead of addressing them or coming out with policy alternatives (without fine prints) to assist. I seldom deal or liaise with governmental departments and this experience will no doubt leave me with not only a bad impression but also thoughts of changes, as I have not received, in good faith, any assurances that my future and that of my children can be secure or protected. Yours faithfully, Adam Lim --- First email to REACH --- From:  Adam Lim Date:  20 May 2014 Subject:  Tax Invoice To:  REACH Dear Panel, Pls refer to the billing by KKH dated 15.5.14, Case number xxxxxxx500E. I am much appalled that the outstanding amount after deduction of government grant, was directly taken out of my scarce CPF when both my wife and I are in possession of a valid NTUC Incomeshield plan. I am unable to comprehend the rationale for double deductions to our CPF, once for paying the Incomeshield and the other for the actual full amount as charged by KKH. My family have also been trying unsuccessfully to apply for the CHAS card after it was granted only once in 2005-07 despite our heavy financial burdens. The government simply brushes off our plea by stating categorically that it is a policy matter which is unbending. Now that my wife is expecting our second child, I am still unsure as a Singaporean, whether this is a cause for joy with not much subsidies to expect coupled with a 80 year old ailing mother and primary school going kid to care for, bearing in mind the mortgages. Hence I hope that as a forum genuinely interested in the vested well being and welfare of citizens, you will do the right thing by levelling up the imbalances of our soon to be torn apart society. *  Submitted by TRE reader.  Read More →

Photographer: Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images Activist hacker group Anonymous is seen on the website for the prime minister's office in Singapore, on November 7, 2013. (Jun 23, 2014) - Singapore’s ability to fight a rising threat from hackers is hindered by a skills shortage and lack of awareness among companies, according to the computer security firm that runs a state-supported training center. “We do see a lack of capability and capacity in skilled professionals, and that’s partly due to massive demand across the world that stretches an already small, existing pool of people,” Bryce Boland, Asia Pacific chief technology officer at Milpitas, California-based FireEye Inc. (FEYE), a cybersecurity firm, said in an interview in Singapore last week. Singapore, a global financial center which relies on its image as a safe and stable location to lure business, has suffered high-profile online attacks on government websites and security breaches involving companies’ client data in recent months. Cybersecurity risks pose a challenge as the government steps up efforts to link public facilities and infrastructure for real-time data in Southeast Asia’s only developed nation.   Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-22/cybersecurity-skills-shortage-looms-in-singapore-southeast-asia.html    Read More →

Spot the difference The linguistically challenged minister cried foul when Channel Newsasia quoted him saying: “The best way for Singaporeans to prepare for retirement is to use less of their Central Provident Fund (CPF) money when they are young.” It sounds so perfectly logical until Lim Swee Say insisted he was misquoted, and provided his original intended text: "... the less you make use of your money when you are young, the more money you will have for retirement." For the less devious, this may look like a version of the old kids' game of trying to spot the differences in two seemingly identical representations. Lim highlighted his unique mind set when he expanded: "It is clear in this context that ‘young’ refers to those who are aged 55." Maybe the minister feels rejuvenated each time he sees his CPF statement, but only a nonagenarian will consider age 55 as "young". Or the Brad Pitt character in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". But there must be method in his madness. Lim, like the rest of his crowd, seems determined that senior citizens should not be allowed to withdraw their retirement savings at the original promised age of 55 years. Even if Toh Chin Chye had deemed that a breach of contract, and an abuse of the trust placed in a government. Lim also conveniently ignores how many a retirement nest egg has been eroded by the ravages of overpriced public housing, inflated health care costs and ever escalating education charges.   Tattler * The writer blogs at http://singaporedesk.blogspot.com    Read More →