TR EMERITUS

Everyone wants to be a success. If you look through any given book shop, you’ll find that the section on how to be a success takes up a good portion of the store. An entire industry has grown around telling people how to be successful. I remember having a former client who gave up an electronics store that had been in the family for generations so that they could move into the “Holistic Books Business.” The reason for this change was, as one of the members of this family explained – “Have you noticed that every motivational speaker is a multimillionaire?” Having success is wonderful and that’s not just in the material sense of the word. Successful people are inevitably happy because success does bring a sense of achievement. People who are “failures” tend to be miserable because there’s sense of “screwing up.” Having said all that, there is a caveat, which motivational speakers inevitably fail to tell you about. Success produces a unique set of problems. These problems are most visible in family businesses where a “successful” patriarch screws up by hanging onto long or failing to prepare the heirs for the reality of life. Recent history has shown that there are businesses that become so great at what they’re doing that they “own” the space they’re in and then the next day they’re gone. One only has to think of Kodak, which was the by-word for film and Nokia, which was effectively “THE TELCO.” Kodak had to reinvent itself after emerging from bankruptcy in 2013 and Nokia sold its once dominant handphone business to Microsoft for a mere five billion dollars (which was a fraction of what it was once worth). Kodak didn’t see people moving away from film to digital and Nokia didn’t think smart phones would catch on. What is true in business also happens in politics. Long standing political parties that have become a by word for the government end have ended up losing power to “opposition” that was more in tune with what the electorate wanted. The examples that come to mind are the PRI in Mexico and the Kuomintang in Taiwan. In a way, these were the lucky parties. Defeat allowed them to reinvent themselves and make a come-back. What’s worse are the parties that have become so successful that they simply rot away internally. The most prominent example that comes to mind is the African National Congress (ANC), which came to power in 1994 as the “heroic” party of Nelson Mandela. Two presidents later, the ANC under Jacob Zuma became the party that gave us the term “state-capture.” Like it or not, we’ve started seeing lots of “successful problems” in Singapore. In the business world, we had Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), which once collected over 80 percent of all spending on advertising in Singapore, having to reinvent itself as a property company, then having to spin-off the media business into a “non-profit” chaired by a former minister and the non-media business is the subject of a potential takeover battle. How did this happen? The answer is pretty straight forward. SPH was so comfortable in its market leading position that it assumed that people would always read the Straits Times and advertisers would never have an alternative. The heads of SPH and MediaCorp used to enjoy arguing over whether readership or viewership was more important without realizing that people were not reading the Straits Times or viewing ChannelNews Asia and the advertisers noticed. If you look closely enough, the problems at SPH are not isolated. Fact remains, the source of our “mandate of heaven” culture – notably the PAP lead government. Whilst the PAP has not seen anything resembling the “State Capture” under the ANC lead Zuma government in South Africa, it’s been showing a certain level of “tone-deafness” to the needs to the electorate. This is particularly strange when you consider the fact that this is a year after an election that saw the PAP lose a further four seats (one GRC). Unlike the first time it lost a GRC in the 2011 election, the government seems to be getting less responsive to what the electorate is trying to say. Covid-19 has amplified this. First you have the constant imposing and lifting of restrictions, which hurt retailers and restaurants. Then you have the Prime Minister’s wife taking to social media to tell her husband’s employers to “quit bitching.” The only time the government seems to have acted in the decisive manner has been in the introduction of the Protection of Online False Hoods Act (POFOMA) and the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (FICA), which give the government an uncomfortable amount of power. Then, after all that, we got the news that delegates at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum (NEF) would be allowed to dine in groups of five, whilst the rest of the nation was only allowed to dine in groups of two. [LINK] The government said a lot about how hosting the Bloomberg NEF was a wonderful boost of confidence for Singapore’s economy. However, people thought otherwise and memes of Orwell’s Animal Farm “All Animals are Equal but Some are More Equal” started circulating. The response from the government was that the delegates of the NEF had to go through stricter testing measures than the Average Beng (Singapore’s Answer to the Average Joe.) [LINK] Whilst that may be true, it was undoubtedly the wrong thing to say and demonstrates a lack of understanding of the electorate. If you sit in coffee shops (where most non-politicians gather) and trawl through cyberspace, there is one common complaint – namely the perception that there is a set of rules for those in power. This messaging confirmed that. I look back at an insolvency conference organized by Asian Legal Business (ALB, part of Thomson Reuters) in March of this year, when cases were significantly lower. We were not allowed to mingle between tables (which defeats the purpose of a networking event). The only difference between the ALB event in March and the upcoming NEF event is that the delegates are of a higher profile (global CEOs vs regional heads of law firms). How tone deaf do you need to be to prove a negative perception correct? Former Worker’s Party Secretary General Low Thia Khiang once talked about having a co-driver to slap the driver when the driver sleeps. However, this is clearly a situation where the driver has been slapped but remains sleeping at the wheel. What can one do about that?   Tang Li *Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able meet people who have crossed borders and cultures. I’ve befriended ministers and ambassadors and worked on projects involving a former head of state. Yet, at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of befriending migrant labourers and former convicts. All of them have a story to tell. All of them add to the fabric of life. I hope to express the stories that inspire us to create life as it should be.      Read More →

This is a gentle reminder that TR Emeritus (TRE) is currently assisting in the collection, collaboration and corroboration of information of potential litigants for the planned Judicial Review challenge against the discriminatory policies slapped on the unvaccinated. We are now able to confirm that there are at least 19 (NINETEEN)* potential litigants who are very seriously wanting to mount the Judicial Review challenge, to be assisted and advised by lawyers from Carson Law Chambers, namely Ms Thya and Mr Lim Tean. The legal cost (including incidentals) for the action has been estimated to be about S$50,000 to S$80,000, which could/would be crowdfunded, depending on the number of litigants that are in this action (with more litigants, the legal cost would be very negligible). At 100 litigants, the cost per litigant is roughly S$500.00 and at 500 litigants, the average cost per litigant is only S$100. Per the lawyers' recommendation, not all the litigants would need to meet the lawyers personally, except for the initial signing of the Warrant To Act (WTA), a legally required procedure. After the WTAs have been signed, the litigants will be represented by 2 agreed leaders, who would be directly involved with giving instructions to the lawyers on behalf of the other litigants. The leaders will then lias with the litigants via Zoom or Signal, whichever is more convenient. Currently, TRE understands that: Last Sunday about 1,400 were on a zoom meeting about unvax organised by Iris Koh - many gave testimony and were in tears. People are very very angry now - today govt announced public officers  put on no-pay leave, contracts not renewed, pay for tests to enter work place! If you are one of those affected by the alleged discriminatory policies slapped against the unvaccinated, you could be part of the action by contacting us with your basic information. It is clear as crystal that just making noise on social media and shedding tears on Zoom is not going to change anything, seeking legal recourse is the proper way forward. For those interested, only your name, a contactable mobile number and a simple and short description of how you are affected will do, for example: “cannot go to work”. Please note that you do not need to be un-vaccinated to be a litigant in this action, if any of your family members is un-vaccinated and affected, that should suffice. To facilitate the planned action, TRE has setup a special email address ([email protected]) only for those intending to join the action or have further questions. It will be functional only up till 17th November 2021 @ 2359 hrs ***, after which it will be disabled. Initial information we require are your name, mobile contact and a brief description of how you are/would be affected. All information received will be kept fully private and confidential and only released to the originator litigants and lawyers concerned. Should the action not proceed, we will shred all the information received on this email address. To cut to the chase, we leave our readers with the following comment from one of our readers who has expressed strong support for the planned Judicial Review. It is important to make a point that as a Nation, there are people who disagree with such persecution of the minority group of our fellow citizens and let it be recorded in history that no matter how small our numbers are, we uphold the principles of Basic Human Rights to human life. To corner and push a group of people who refused to take the vaccine which technically could not pass the stringent criteria of approval for mass inoculation, to the extent of persecution and losing their jobs, is immoral, unethical and totally unacceptable for any decent human beings with dignity. Please help to share this post on your social media pages and channels. Thank you for your continued support and do stay safe. . * The number of potential litigants will be updated on a as and when basis, when TRE has received confirmation of an intention to join the action. ** TRE is also on FaceBook at  and Twitter. *** Cut-off date for those wanting to join the action has been extended by another 10 days as a group of litigants have expressed interest to join and their representative would need time to collect all the information needed.   TRE’s servers do not run on free air and there are charges incurred in the thousands of dollars per year. If you believe in what we do, please consider signing up for our membership or making a small donation here.      Read More →

Had I been an elected an MP & got myself into a similar position that Raeesah Khan has put herself in, I would have been sacked by Lim Tean (People's Voice). Workers Party keeps asking PAP for accountability but now they have put themselves in a awkward position in the eyes of the public. Despite being a very hardcore alternative, non-PAP campaigner I cannot bring myself to support what Raeesah Khan did, as well as LOTA Leader Of The Opposition Pritam Singh's statement on the issue. Just read comments and messages online from not the PAP supporters or the silent majority neutral middleground public but even the alternative, opposition and most ardent WP supporters are asking for accountability on this issue of lying in parliament on multiple occasions. PAP could, would and might use this incident, as a broad brush to paint every and all opposition members and candidates as probable, potential liars...   Prabu * Article first appeared on Real Issues in Singapore.      Read More →