More Transparency! Great!

by Perry Tong

TODAY, page 7, 28th December 2006 ….. Somebody gotta teach me how to put pictures into my blog.

Anyhow, there was a ‘full’ page ad taken out in today’s TODAY. Where Singapore Power announced a surprising drop in electricity surcharges. Great news to kick of the new year if any!!

What was more amazing was that the full page ad listed the historical (back to 2001) prices and how there were pegged relatived to raw fuel prices.

The level of transparency is great. Applause!! Credit given where it is due.

WP Youth Wing Press Statement

22 Dec 2006

Half Frozen Half Helpful

The article “Govt to freeze fees for one year after GST hike” (ST 1 December 2006) gave much hope for the people that costs will remain affordable. The first paragraph of the article wrote:

“ALL government fees will stay frozen and not be raised for one year when the goods and services tax (GST) goes up from 5 to 7 percent”

These hopes were changed when the article “Government spells out fees to be frozen” (ST 13 December 2006) produced non-exhaustive lists of inclusions and exclusions to the fee freeze.

The Workers’ Party Youth Wing would like to express its disappointment with the government having failed to take into account the need to freeze fees for basic amenities such as transport, utilities fees and polytechnic and university fees.

Shape WP 50th Anniversary Magazine Publication!

By Yaw Shin Leong

Make Your Mark in History

Shape the Milestone Publication of The Workers’ Party

As it Progresses Towards its 50th Anniversary

Play Your Part to Create an Empowered Society

Where Singaporeans Enjoy Freedom, Choices and Equality

Click here for more details.

Refining The GST Mechanism

By National Solidarity Party

A blanket application of GST affects the poor more than the rich. Fortunately, the measure has rooms for refinement. But will the lazy minds of the government, too used to taking the easy way out, figure out the way to improve the scheme, or will they predictably bully their way through?

The signs are discouraging.

Second Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam dismissed the notion of GST exemption as flawed by citing the experience of “other countries” and how “it leads to all kinds of distortions.” The Minister was guilty of distortion by omitting to differentiate the plan (GST exemption) from the implementation.

Tharman further added that GST exemption would benefit the well-off who spend more on basic goods than the poor. This again was an exercise in perversion to argue the government’s case without stating the obvious truth – The poor spend a higher proportion of their income on basic goods than the rich.

Point-by-Point rebuttal to Ministry of Home Affairs’ statement

By the Singapore Democratic Party

Below is a reply by Dr Chee Soon Juan to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ statement dated 20 December 2006.

Point 1: Marking of food trays.

MHA: It is normal Prisons procedure to record the food consumption of inmates under close watch. This procedure applies not just to Chee Soon Juan but to all such inmates.

CSJ: When the question of the marking was first raised by my wife, Ms Huang Chih Mei, and sister, Ms Chee Siok Chin, on 4/12/2006, Monday, both Mr Chandra Kumar (MHA official) and Queenstown Remand Prison (QRP) Superintendent Hoon categorically denied that prisoners’ trays were marked, unless it’s for vegetarian food. I am not a vegetarian. If it is the “normal” practice to mark the food trays of inmates under close watch, why did Mr Chandra Kumar and Mr Hoon say they had no knowledge of the marking?

My first 100 days in office

By Mr Zaqy Mohamad

POLITICS has not only changed my life, it has also changed my perspectives and created lasting impressions. They say first impressions last and I share mine through my first 100 days in office – Mr Zaqy Mohamad

THE CONSTITUENCY

I was in a business meeting overseas. My mobile phone buzzed : a phone call that I hoped I’d never receive. A resident, his spouse and four children were stranded outside of their flat. Their HDB flat had been repossessed by a commercial bank. They were now homeless, with only five hours left to nightfall. The family was in distress.

Immediate calls were made to my parliamentary colleagues, Mohamad Maliki Osman and Teo Ser Luck, from the Ministry of National Development and Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports respectively to inform them we needed immediate attention from their agencies.

Coordinated out of our PAP branch, we had the Residents’ Committee on the ground within the hour, together with government officials, to work out various options. By nightfall, we had a resolution: the family had a place to stay and a long-term housing solution was in the works. This experience manifested a fear I had for residents in the constituency.On the surface, we had new estates that were eight to 16 years old. Most residents were in the middle income group, residing in 4-room, 5-room, executive flats and condominiums. The ward seemed “peaceful” for a new MP to learn the ropes.

Singapore flames ‘uncaring elite’ – really ar? But 66% says otherwise methinks ….

By Perry Tong

{me in blue}

SINGAPORE (Reuters) — When Wee Shu Min, the teenage daughter of a Singapore member of parliament stumbled across the blog of a Singaporean who wrote that he was worried about losing his job, she thought she’d give him a piece of her mind.

She called him “one of many wretched, undermotivated, overassuming leeches in our country” on her own blog and signed off with “please, get out of my elite uncaring face”.

Wee was flamed by hundreds of fellow bloggers, but when her father Wee Siew Kim — an MP in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s constituency — told a Singapore newspaper that “her basic point is reasonable”, the row moved well beyond the blogosphere.

The episode highlighted a deep rift in Singapore society and was an embarrassment for the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) and prime minister Lee, who has made the reduction of the income gap one of the priorities of his new government.

“Coming from an MP in the prime minister’s constituency, these comments really were political dynamite,” political commentator Seah Chiang Nee told Reuters. “If the political arrogance and elitism get any worse, the PAP will lose more electoral ground,” he added.

[A Bhora Wedding] 1. My wife and kids accompani…

By George Yeo

[A Bhora Wedding]
1. My wife and kids accompanied me for the wedding celebration of a Dawoodi Bhora couple at the Bhora Mosque at Hill Street. The bride is the daughter of Mrs Basrai, an RC member from Lengkong Tiga, Kampong Kembangan. My wife and I knew the bride since she was a little girl. For dinner, the men and women ate separately. For all of us, eating from a communal dish with our fingers while sitting with knees bent was a very interesting experience. The food was yummy. I and my sons put on the Bhora cap while my wife and daughter wore shawls.

2. The Bhoras are a particularly talented community. The great majority are engaged in business. The community in Singapore numbers less than a thousand but many of its members are very successful. They are Shiites but different from the twelfers of Iran and Lebanon. They are in fact twenty-firsters, meaning that there were 21 Imams, ending with the last one going into hiding. Their headquarters is in Surat in the state of Gujerat. They were originally from Yemen with links going back to the Fatimids who established Al Azhar University in Cairo a thousand years ago.

3. Not many Singaporeans are familiar with the Bhoras but they are one of a number of small communities in Singapore who contribute greatly to our country particularly in the economic field including the Jews, Parsees, Sindhis, Chettiars, Jains, Khojas and Marwaris. Because each of these communities has a thriving international diaspora, they source their brides and groom worldwide. In Mrs Bhasrai’s case, the groom is from Sri Lanka where there is a sizeable Bhora community. They were the original worldwide web.

4. The Singapore fabric is strong and valuable precisely because there are many threads woven into it which are unique and special. The important thing is to ensure that they are well knotted here so that we stay together despite the occasional stresses pulling the fabric in different directions. Like a good Persian carpet, the more knots per inch, the better.

[Christmas] 1. It is interesting how Christmas …

By George Yeo

1. It is interesting how Christmas has become a festive occasion for everyone, not just Christians. Whether it is China, Vietnam or Indonesia, Christmas is being celebrated on a growing scale. An important reason is commercial of course. Some Christians object to Christmas being commercialised but I think this is too narrow a view.

2. There is a parallel with Chinese New Year and Deepavali. For many Chinese, there is a religious aspect to Chinese New Year which calls for burning of joss and visits to the temple. But there is a cultural aspect which is not religious at all. It is the same with Deepavali, the festival of light, which is both a religious and a cultural celebration. I believe Christmas is becoming the same. Still, it seems odd that Christmas decorations should become increasingly commonplace in Chinese cities. But then China has become a major supplier of the objects and decorations used during Deepavali (like the oil lamps) and the Muslim Id (like twinkling lights and lanterns).

3. I attended Christmas Midnight Mass at the Carmelite Monastery with my family. This is a family tradition. This year, the Risen Christ Choir sang the hymns and carols. The Carmelite nuns dedicate themselves to a life of prayer. They are a contemplative order and do not leave the monastery except when they need to see a doctor or vote at elections. There is always some disappointment when the constituency is uncontested because they don’t get to come out to vote. (Opposition: please note.) They see visitors only on special occasions (like Christmas Eve) but separated by bars.

4. To all readers of Ephraim’s and Harold’s blogsites: Merry Christmas!

Something Seriously Wrong with Singapore

By Chia Ti Lik

Dear All

As of this afternoon. Another letter to the straits times forum page. he he

Don’t think they will publish this though. It is far too hard hitting.

Happy reading! PAPpies and its supporters are invited to attack this posting with unrestrained fervour.

Regards

Ti Lik

 

What do we make out of this? 

We have a Government who promised the people immediately after the election that they will implement policies to stay together and move ahead with the people.

 

Shortly thereafter we had a Minister Mr. Mah Bow Tan deciding to keep opposition wards out of the upgrading queue because “the people had rejected the upgrading program”.

 

We have seen ERP charges increased, utility charges increased, public transport fare increased to silence from the 82 PAP MPs who claim to speak for the people.

 

We had a dozen post 65 PAP MPs who were happy to spend time training for a few months to dance hip hop at the coming Chingay procession.

 

We also have a Government telling us just days ago (with the accompanying articles of support from ST) that the GST needs to be increased to 7% because there is Government expenditure that needs to be financed.

 

Today, we have the ST attempting to explain that 40% of our bursaries go to foreign students is a justifiable policy which we should accept.

 

Today, we have the Government announcing a bigger bonus for the civil service of a total of 2.7 months for the entire year.

 

Given this little summary, we don’t need even a primary six education to tell us that there is something seriously wrong with this country is it not? Time to think.

 

Chia Ti Lik