TR EMERITUS

President Tony Tan President Tony Tan addressed Parliament at the opening of the 2nd parliamentary session on Friday (16 May) ('President’s Address for Opening of 2nd Session of Parliament'). In his address, President Tony Tan said that Singapore will continue to "build a fair and just society, regardless of race, language or religion; to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation". He said that in the second half of the current Parliament, the government pledges to work with all Singaporeans to address their concerns and aspirations and to build a better future, specifically in 6 areas: strengthen safety nets to help the vulnerable and elderly cope with the vicissitudes of life enhance retirement adequacy to give greater assurance and peace of mind to all Singaporeans support strong families and communities, so that values such as empathy, filial piety, respect and mutual help continue to be part of our lives create the conditions for every Singaporean to enjoy a better quality of life, with improved transport options, more recreational spaces and rejuvenated neighbourhoods for all to enjoy create more opportunities for working adults to have a fulfilling career, to keep learning all their life, and to realise their dreams and aspirations enable young Singaporeans to fulfill their potential, pursue their dreams, and follow their interests in diverse fields The Singapore People's Party (SPP) responded to Dr Tan's address yesterday (17 May). In his address, Dr Tan talked about inculcating empathy and respect from one's youth. SPP replied, "We agree with the President that empathy should be a core value of Singapore. But we face a tough uphill task in this. How do we help youths develop empathy in the face of tougher job competition internationally and in their homeland? This is in a context of a more protectionist world." SPP questioned Dr Tan on how the government is going to create more opportunities for Singaporeans to realise their dreams and aspirations. SPP was of the opinion that perhaps the government should focus on solving current problems first before talking about enabling Singaporeans to fulfill their dreams and follow their interests in diverse fields. "Currently, many Singaporeans feel that they are priced out of their aspirations for cars, houses and higher education. Let’s tackle this one step at a time. Perhaps we can first think about better and fairer ways to allocate scarce resources such as car licenses," SPP suggested. "The international environment has indeed changed. Global economic competition has transformed. No longer can we sustain our economic competitiveness through resource-heavy projects. How do we address the transformation of our economy? How can we measure the effectiveness of our economic tools? These are the SPP’s concerns," SPP added. "We are less concerned about GDP growth per se – we believe the quality of growth for Singapore is more important at this stage of our development." On the issue of enhancing retirement adequacy for Singaporeans, SPP pointed out that raising the CPF Minimum Sum is not the only way. "It makes retirement tougher. Many Singaporeans are also deeply unhappy about the compulsory annuity CPF scheme. We need alternative retirement schemes to build an inclusive society. Singapore needs a complex mix of policies, such as alternative investment options to ensure a sufficient pool of funds in CPF," SPP said. SPP also brought up the point that more than 50% of jobs in Singapore are not held by Singaporeans. "Tougher questions regarding the localisation of our workforce need to be addressed soon," it said. Government's sincerity to hear the people's voices Finally, SPP questioned whether the government was sincere about hearing the voices of Singaporeans. Dr Tan said in his address that the government would "give substance" to public voices. He said: My Government will pursue new strategies to achieve these goals. Our environment has changed, and so must our approach to nation building. We will chart this journey together with all Singaporeans. We have heard from the many citizens who participated in the OSC (i.e. Our Singapore Conversation). We will give substance to these voices, and set out a new way forward for ourselves and our nation. SPP replied that after OSC, the government should continue with nationwide conversations regardless of the participants' political affiliation. However, SPP also noted that the government erected new internet regulations last year in an attempt to put a lid on cyberspace in Singapore. Last year, the Media Development Authority (MDA) announced that websites which regularly report Singapore news and have significant reach will require individual licences to operate. It requires websites to be individually licensed once they meet 2 criteria: Report an average of 1 article per week on Singapore over a period of 2 months Have at least 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore each month over a period of 2 months The individual licenses have to be renewed every year. Furthermore, these sites must also put up a performance bond of $50,000. MDA said the move is to place such sites on a "more consistent regulatory framework" with traditional news platforms like newspapers and television stations, which are already individually licensed. The MDA regulations incurred the wrath of many Singaporeans with activists and bloggers calling on MDA to withdraw the licensing scheme [Link]. In this regard, SPP remarked that the government's attempt to control online discourse is counter-productive and self-defeating. SPP said, "After all, we are all working for a better Singapore. Controlling the discourse online, such as through the new MDA internet regulations last year, is counter-productive and self-defeating." SPP then challenged the Government, "If the government is sincere about hearing people’s voices, the SPP urges them to take an even-handed approach in reviewing the Broadcasting Act in the remaining term of Parliament before the next General Election, as they have slated."  Read More →

(14 May)   The Australian government's plan to raise the state pension age to 70 has been criticized as unfair for those in physically demanding jobs, the poor and indigenous people. Increasing the pension eligibility age to 70 by 2035 was one of the measures in a budget announced Tuesday to help Australia cope with the costs of an aging population. The opposition Labor Party has vowed to oppose the change in Parliament. The current pension age is 65. "I don't think it's something that passes the sensible test," opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said Wednesday. Read more: www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/11341090  Read More →

Dear readers, Due to the planned upgrading of our website and a minor bug in our Android app, we are asking our readers to uninstall all versions of our TRE Android app as they will no longer be supported. We will be launching a new version of the Android app once the planned upgrading of our website has been completed. Meanwhile, we have for the time being successfully recovered from the recent attacks to our servers. A new server with anti-ddos capability is being configured and is expected to be deployed within 48 hours. We will tell you more once our techie has received more information from our dedicated server provider. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.   Team@TR Emeritus   Related: More servers planned for TRE  Read More →