TR EMERITUS

The late Dr Toh Chin Chye Dear TRE readers, Thanks to the efforts of readers over at Han Hui Hui facebook who did a CSI on what the old guard Dr Toh Chin Chye had said about the CPF. Hats off to them. And I am doing my part to help spread the message. Thanks to the Internet, we now can find what our founding fathers said from the archives. In case you don't know, Dr Toh Chin Chye was the Minister for Health from 1975 to 1981 until he stepped down from the Cabinet in 1981 to make way for younger ministers. He remained as a backbencher MP till 1988 when he retired from politics completely while his compatriot LKY continued to remain in politics up till even today. This was what Dr Toh said 30 years ago in a 30 Jun 1984 report: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19840630-1.2.26.8.11.aspx As you can see, Dr Toh was vehemently against deferring the withdrawal of CPF to beyond 60 years old. He said that it was a breach of the fundamental principle on which CPF had been set up. At the time, even other PAP MPs applauded Dr Toh at the end of his impassioned speech. Dr Toh accused the Govt of setting a precedent with the Medisave scheme, which affects people's CPF savings. He said the civil servants who came up with the Medisave scheme were people who got pensions themselves. "It was easy for them to handle other people's problems. Pensions do not come from savings," he said of the civil servants. He said what was irksome was that "the government was using people's savings and telling them how to spend it". Unfortunately, we don't have Dr Toh with us today to help defend us. It is very important the we spread what the PAP old guard had said about the CPF to as wide an audience as possible, especially the uncles and aunties. See you all at the "Return Our CPF" event at Hong Lim Park on 7 June, 4pm. Hopefully, the organizer will observe a minute of silence in remembrance of this honest and upright statesman Dr Toh Chin Chye as well as Ong Teng Cheong. P.S. I've created the following poster. Please help spread this message to as many people as possible. An awakened Singaporean * Submitted by TRE reader.  Read More →

Paul Krugman (23 May)   A century ago, Europe tore itself apart in what was, for a time, known as the Great War – four years of death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. Later, of course, the conflict was renamed World War I – because a quarter-century later Europe did it all over again. But that was a long time ago. It’s hard to imagine war in today’s Europe, which has coalesced around democratic values and even taken its first steps toward political union. Indeed, as I write this, elections are being held all across Europe, not to choose national governments, but to select members of the European Parliament. To be sure, the Parliament has very limited powers, but its mere existence is a triumph for the European idea. But here’s the thing: An alarmingly high fraction of the vote is expected to go to right-wing extremists hostile to the very values that made the election possible. Put it this way: Some of the biggest winners in Europe’s election will probably be people taking Vladimir Putin’s side in the Ukraine crisis. The truth is that the European project – peace guaranteed by democracy and prosperity – is in deep trouble; the Continent still has peace, but its falling short on prosperity and, in a subtler way, democracy. And, if Europe stumbles, it will be a very bad thing not just for Europe itself but for the world as a whole. Read more: www.sacbee.com/2014/05/23/6428055/paul-krugman-the-growing-crisis.html  Read More →

MP Indranee Rajah (Photo: Asiaone) The purpose behind this "new" PAP idea of "constructive politics" is quite obvious: to try and stem the tide of criticisms of the party's poor and directionless leadership. It's to define what is "acceptable" in the political arena; and thus anything which does not fall within this definition of being "constructive" is to be seen as "destructive", and hence dangerous to society. And who gets to define what is "constructive"? No prizes for guessing correctly. It's like "constructive criticism", a meaningless term but used to define what is acceptable to the ruling party. Whether it is "constructive criticism" or "constructive politics", it has nothing to do with society but everything to do with the PAP's attempt to shield its members from valid criticism. As Low Thia Khiang said, it is nothing but political rhetoric. Indranee Rajah's speech in Parliament is quite awful - she was doing the very thing she was accusing the WP of doing, digging up issues which WP had already answered and explained several times. Her snide and unsubstantiated insinuations about WP's town council dealings were already explained by Sylvia Lim at least three times in three different years (if I recall). Indranee Rajah said WP TC did not call for a tender for its managing agent contract in 2011. But Sylvia explained why this was so in 2011 in a letter to its residents, and again in 2012 and 2013 when the issue came up because of the PAP's AIM affair. WP did not call a tender for this first contract because the PAP had suddenly terminated the town council's computer system contract and left WP to have to start from scratch. It thus felt the best way to protect residents' interest was to appoint a managing agent, instead of calling for a tender, because of time constraints. And this is entirely legal under the Town Council's Act, under the Town Council Financial Rules. This is why, I suspect, no one from the HDB, which oversees town council matters, has made any noise about it. Instead, it is those trying to score political points through engaging in destructive partisan politicking who are beating their chests and pulling their hair out over it. Let's not forget that WP did in fact call an open tender after one year had passed on the first contract. So, what rubbish is Indranee Rajah saying? [See below for WP's statement on the matter which the party issued in 2011 and 2013.] And she also accused the WP of not providing "constructive alternatives" to policies or solutions to problems. But Indranee Rajah conveniently forgets that just a few days ago, the Ministry of Transport announced what was effectively the nationalisation of the bus sector - a call or suggestion which WP made in its 2006 and 2011 election manifestos. So what gives? It is quite clear that either Indranee Rajah is ill-informed, or is engaging in cheap and destructive politicking - on the one hand, talking about "constructive politics" (in boring and sleepy monotone, by the way); while on the other, being entirely irresponsible in not stating the facts clearly about the matter. As WP had said, and others have said as well, if the PAP or Indranee Rajah, find that WP has been corrupt in any way, please go ahead and make a report to the CPIB. Stop being irresponsible MPs droning on and on like some spoilt brat whining like a broken record. Is using residents' money to create a computer system, and then later to sell the same system to its own PAP-owned company - which has no physical office, no equipment, no hardware, not even a website for its business - and then terminating its services to the new WP town council, leaving residents in the lurch, is this "constructive politics"? Or destructive politicking? And oh, by the way, the PM is frothing at the mouth trying to demolish a blogger over a blog post about alleged "misappropriation" of CPF funds - while his own MP in Parliament seems to be alleging similar financial impropriety of the WP. Constructive politics, indeed. Don't be fooled by self-serving political rhetoric, people. We've seen and heard all this before. WP Statements 2011 - WP Statement on managing agent http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2011/08/aljunied-hougang-town-council-appoints-new-managing-agent/ "Given the urgency of the timelines above, and the overriding concern that Town Council services should not be disrupted to the detriment of the Aljunied-Hougang residents, AHTC determined that the best course of action was not to call a tender for MA services for the transitional period, as there was insufficient time. Instead, AHTC decided to identify a service provider who was qualified and in a position to commence work immediately on taking over all aspects of MA services."   2013 - WP Statement on managing agent http://wp.sg/2013/05/clarifications-by-wp-mps-on-fmss-during-town-councils-debate-in-parliament/ Managing agent contract tendering process: "In 2011, Ms Lim exercised her rights as Chairman of the TC to waive a tender for the MA contract when it was first awarded after the GE. The Town Council Financial Rules provide for tender process to be waived in certain circumstances. The reason for the waiver was the urgency in the public interest to put in place a Managing Agent to handle the handover in time. "In 2012, Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) issued an open tender for a new MA contract. There were three companies that picked up the tender documents, but only FMSS submitted a tender. AHTC was aware of its duties when dealing with a sole tenderer, and that the TC needed to ensure value for money for its residents. AHTC had also commissioned a special external audit of the tender award as an additional assurance of compliance and good governace practices, and that steps had been taken to ensure value for money." Andrew Loh Source: www.facebook.com/andrewlohhp/posts/811924288832522  Read More →