TR EMERITUS

These days, I see a lot of feedbacks on social media, WSG and job related social media that a lot of local graduates from local schools are finding it very hard to land even interviews. Abundance of PMETs who lost their jobs during the pandemic have failed to land any interviews after thousand of applications. The age of PMETs being unemployed due to pandemic or lost their jobs is getting younger. An article quoting 36 year old diploma sending over 1000 applications to look for clerical job found nothing. But you see the establishment created some stories about PMETs wanting $10,000 job and waited for three years and downgrade to $3000 but still waiting. You see abundance of Internet Brigades using this story to persuade public that Singaporeans are choosy bypassing the actual issue that there is not enough jobs for 9.9M population nor 5.6M population. The reality is more and more locals are downgrading or encourage to downgrade after 30s to self employed jobs like PHV, Food Delivery and self employed like hawker, insurance and real estate. The establishment even promoted a new Diploma in hawking, isn't it? From many years, the ministers kept saying, "Don't study degree if you cant eat it!". Do you think they did not see this coming? Or we are the only ones who refused to heed their advice? From population of 3M to 5.6M today, the population has grown almost doubled. Did the jobs grow in tandem? The open legs of immigration has invited all kind of third world migrants to come for better life, they are given jobs under the "Foreign Talent" brand. These days, even a bank selling insurance is a foreign talent from Myanmar who is probably a PR or new citizen, this is a job that Singaporean can't do. This is why the establishment needs to fund their studies in Singapore and help them to land jobs. The second point is one migrant moves to this island, he or she would bring the whole village. And foreigners hire foreigners, irregardless that they are PRs or new citizens, this is the truth of things. This explains why now more half the working population or population are foreign born. The funny part is you see all the parents are fighting for their kids to be sent to a good school, do well and get a degree to ensure a good life in Singapore. But if they look carefully, most of the local grads from our top ranked universities are now relegated to driving PHV or doing food delivery. After 30s, their chances of being relegated or replaced by migrants are high. The migrants need jobs to settle in Singapore, so surely jobs are heavily competed and tilted since more than half the population are foreign born. So if you look at the future, your children have high chance of becoming PHV or taxi driver when they grow older. So why do you push them so hard when you know their future could be such? You are believing your children will go to RI and then be a multi million minister? Wake up lah bodo....   Mdm Tan      Read More →

Not going to happen. There is no way to bring sense to this madness - that we would first incarcerate a low IQ person in solitary confinement on death row for a decade, and then still hang him by a rope, from his neck, till he dies. And then after that, proudly say and boast to the world: such deaths deter others! And then we drag out the next person in this never-ending madness, and declare the same. Again. Over and over. Deluding ourselves. We have some 30+ people on death row, the last I heard. "We are social animals. Without that interaction with people, you are isolated. The worst punishment you can give a person is the isolation ward. You get hallucinations. Four walls, no books, no nothing." - Lee Kuan Yew, 2010.   Andrew Loh      Read More →

I have chosen not to judge Raeesah Khan harshly. Several people have already said this, but the power imbalance in Singapore is unequal. The opposition is held to the highest standards but the PAP is not. Because of what has been drummed into us, that the PAP is the best of the best, the elites, they can thus do no wrong, and we need to respect that. But when it comes to the opposition, every of their actions are held up to the microscope. While criticisms have been made against Raeesah, when Lee Kuan Yew said in 2001 that "there is no direct link between the GIC and the CPF", is this a lie? When the PAP ministers used POFMA to accuse the opposition and activists of falsehoods, the PAP ministers used falsehoods themselves to do so. But how often do the majority of Singaporeans criticize the PAP ministers for it? We hide behind the veneer of power, in fear and cowardice, but when the time appears for us to attack the weak, we leap at the chance to do it. The power imbalance exists because Singapore is not a normal country. Singapore is run by a group of people who mascarade as a democracy, but function as royalty. For is it not that after I was sued, the person who sued me himself said that there needs to be a "certain, natural aristocracy" in Singapore? But this post isn't just about the power imbalance that exists in Singapore. I want a Singapore where, when we know someone made a false claim, where someone did something wrong, where we can reflect about what happened, how the system can be made better, to allow people to feel less stressed or helpless, so that they can make less mistakes. I want a system where we try to be understanding of another, so that when mistakes are made, we think about how to support them further, instead of judging them at the first instance. Such a system does not exist in Singapore — not yet. As of now, when the PAP makes mistakes, some senior minister will come out to apologize or try to explain it away. However, when the opposition or activists does it, they are immediately persecuted. When POFMA was used on the opposition and activists, it was used without hesitation and the PAP used it by creating falsehoods to attack the opposition. When Subhas calls out the racism ethnic minorities face, he is charged for inciting ill will among the races and religions. When a PAP MP or member makes racist remarks, nothing happens to them. Well, this is still an issue of the imbalance in power. The PAP gets to go away scot-free but the opposition and activists gets punished for sometimes doing nothing wrong. I think this is perhaps why I deeply admire the actions of Pritam Singh. He recognizes this imbalance and the weight of the responsibility on his shoulders, and he walks the honest, righteous path. As a leader, he decides to take action, but in his words, neither shames or embarrasses. Have we seen the PAP do the same? It is just really unfortunate that in the Singapore that has been created under the PAP's image, we have learnt to be similarly judgemental, where we treat those in power like gods while judge those without. We lose a certain compassion or dignity as a society, we forget to think about the whys of why people take certain actions, the hows of how the structures in our society contributes to it, and the hows we can make the system better to support every single individual. Why must a person with an IQ of 69 be executed for drug trafficking when the government itself continues to have relations with countries where drug lords ply their trade freely? Why this hypocrisy? Until we rid the system of such inequality and power imbalance, we cannot achieve a state where we can learn to respect one another, where we can learn to be less judgemental, and to show more understanding. When that time comes, we can have a proper conversation to understand the actions Raeesah made, the find out why it took place, penalize her with the appropriate amount of censure, while letting her continue to live her life, and to keep improving. And this will be the same action that will be accorded the PAP, or anyone else. In a fairer and more equal society, POFMA (or FICA) would not exist as a tool by the ruling party to unfairly wield at the opposition or activists, and the ruling party will not have carte blanche powers to tell lies about others and get away with it. When that time comes, we can hold each and every member in our society to the same fair, equal, just and ethical standards. But this is not the Singapore today, and it is truly admirable that Pritam and the Workers' Party wants to show how that path looks like by setting up a disciplinary panel, even as this path is a difficult one to walk. But more so, I am sympathetic to Raeesah because of what she went through. For whatever reason, the PAP singled out Raeesah last year to attack her during the election. She became their number one prime target. Perhaps she is an easy target because she is young, or perhaps it is an issue of gender. But during the election, a lot of attention was focused on smearing Raeesah, police reports were made about her comments on the racism in Singapore — again why are we persecuting ethnic minorities for speaking up on racism, instead of having a conversation on it? I cannot imagine what Raeesah had to go through. What happened to her during this period was deeply unfair and stressful. But have we reflected on how wrong and unjust it was of the PAP to heap such attacks on her? After I was sued, and about a year before I left Singapore, and after being crestfallen that the PAP has been voted into power yet again, I collapsed. I sank into depression, because I felt so hopeless, that after the advocacy, things were not going to change. After I was sued, the PAP had ran more than a year of smear campaigns against me, and state media also fabricated words I never said. It was a difficult time. But have we questioned the steps that were taken that hurts a person so deeply, it makes it difficult for them, or the actions they take subsequently due to the hurt that was laid on them? For the actions Raeesah took, she would have to answer to those personally affected who felt the trust in the stories they shared were taken away. But as society on the whole, I want to know how we can emerge from this to understand how we can learn to understand an individual's experience and how it is shaped by their various experiences and past, and how it led them to be who they are, and how we can continue to support them — this is what I am more interested in. But as long as the PAP remains in power and perpetuates a power imbalance where they protect their own members but leave others out to dry, our society will continue to be divided. When the PAP continues to act in such protectionist and elitist ways while using falsehoods against others, it prevents our society from moving forward to one that is more mutually understanding. It prevents us from assessing this episode using fair and equal lens, because it compels us to take sides. It compels us to take a simplistic attitude to address things, instead of understand issues from a more holistic and structural perspective. The power imbalance that exists prevents Singapore from being able to take a more constructive and meaningful approach to appraise and understand issues.   Roy Ngerng      Read More →