High cost of living – what the government can do
April 30, 2008
TOC is happy to welcome Mr Tan Kin Lian on board as the latest addition to our writing team. He is the former chief executive of NTUC Income, an insurance cooperative in Singapore.
Lessons from the general election in Malaysia
The Malaysian general election held in March 2008 produced results that surprised not only the politicians but ordinary voters as well. A Malaysian friend told me that the ordinary people wanted to send a message to the ruling Barisan National, which had governed the country for over 50 years, about their unhappiness with the current situation. They did not expect to see a change in five state governments to the Pakatan Rakyat.
One key issue that contributed to this unexpected election results appears to be the high cost of living. It is not sufficient for the Government to explain that the higher prices are due to external factors. The people expect the Government to find effective ways to deal with this problem. This is what they elected the Government to do.
This election result has lessons for Singapore. What can the Government do about the high cost of living in Singapore?
Putting Singaporeans first - The Workers’ Party press release
April 30, 2008
The following is The Workers’ Party press release for May Day received by theonlinecitizen.
Press Release (1st May 2008)
Putting Singaporeans First
The top down tripartite collaboration amongst the Government, employers and a pro-government labour union is a sure recipe for potential compromises for the Singaporean worker.
Overall employment creation in Singapore for the whole of 2007 is 236,600, surpassing 176,000 in 2006. However foreign employment rose to a new high of 144,500 in 2007. This means only 38.9% in 236,600 jobs created last year truly benefited Singaporeans.
Singaporeans will be none the better off, even if more jobs are created, when more than 60% of the jobs created go to foreigners. Although Singaporeans may participate in skills upgrading programs, many realize that promotional prospects are limited.
The fat lady hasn’t sung
April 29, 2008
A primer on the possibility of a game-changing Pakatan Rakyat government in Malaysia.
Sonia Randhawa
TOC is happy to welcome Sonia onto the TOC team. She is TOC’s first Malaysian writer. She is also the former Executive Director for Malaysia’s Centre for Independent Journalism.
Fear has shaped the politics of Malaysia for a long time, at least since, and possibly before, 1969. Fear has been a carefully-crafted constant. What there is to be feared has been dynamic, ranging from our economically-powerful, overly-Chinese southern neighbours, to the Americans, the Indonesians, the Jews, the Communists and, most consistently, each other. This is what ended in Malaysia on 8 March.
Not everyone in Malaysia realises that. The Crown Prince of Kelantan made a call for “Malay unity” just last week. Sorry, but that is just sooo 2007.
$3 billion benefits to cope with inflation?
April 28, 2008
Uniquely Singapore
With headlines in our local papers screaming “S’poreans in line for $3b payouts” (TODAY, April 15), “$3b payout over the next six months” (Straits Times), “2.4m S’poreans to get $3b in benefits this year” (Straits Times), one would be hard pressed to find anything amiss.
The Ministry of Finance’s (MOF) press release that some 2.4 million Singaporeans stand to get $3 billion in benefits this year, to help them cope with the rising cost of living, is laudable.
Until you sieve through the $3 billion help package itself.
Demonising the Internet – and bloggers
April 28, 2008
Andrew Loh
With so many shenanigans and so much bad press, is it any wonder that bloggers here are gaining a reputation as irresponsible netizens?
The above quote is from Clarence Chang of The New Paper in an article titled, “Why are S’pore bloggers clueless and careless?” (2005).
Also in that article, Chang says:
They slime, ‘flame’ and take potshots at others. The more outrageous the comments, it seems, the better. In Singapore, bloggers appear to think that anything goes.
Three years on, it seems that the attacks by the mainstream media (MSM) on the Internet, and bloggers in particular, haven’t let up.
No voting NO: Burmese embassy staff contrive to disenfranchise voters
April 27, 2008
Selene Cheng
Burmese national desperate to vote goes topless, but still no vote
A sea of red greeted me as I made my way up the road to the Burmese embassy at St Martin’s Drive. Burmese lined both sides of the road, the rows of people in red standing three abreast along a pavement sporadically broken by blue uniformed policemen.
The crowd was gathered to vote early in a referendum to approve a new constitution for Burma.The constitution, drawn up by the military junta, is seen by many Burmese as a bald attempt by the junta to cement its grip on power. It disqualifies opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from holding key political positions as she is married to a foreigner. Miss Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won an election in a landslide in 1990. To this day, her election victory remains unrecognised.
Breaking News: Burmese nationals throng embassy in S’pore
April 27, 2008
Developing news story
Latest update:
15.50 hours
A group of six Singapore Special Ops forces were seen moving up the slope of St Martin’s in full riot gear. A contingent of female police officers were also seen.
15.14 hours
Embassy staff slow voting to a trickle as almost 2500 Burmese throng embassy.
TOC thanks all eyewitnesses for their continued updates from the ground. Pictures and a fuller report will be forthcoming on TOC from our writers on scene.
Around 2500 Burmese nationals are thronging the Burmese embassy to vote in a referendum for their new constitution. Many were wearing red t-shirts and caps that said NO, in opposition to the referendum.
The Mas Selamat Scandal: Its Impact on the Government-People Relationship
April 25, 2008
The following piece is by writer Catherine Lim. We thank Ms Lim for allowing us to reproduce it here.
Do visit her website for more of her writings.
The following article, like previous ones, was turned down for publication by the Straits Times. It looks like I should stop being thick-skinned and give up sending my commentaries to them!
‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.’ Something could get rotten in the state of Singapore as a result of the very unfortunate Mas Selamat scandal.
Scandal it is, in terms not only of its shocking nature—the most dangerous political prisoner and terrorist operative in Singapore makes a laughably easy escape in a super efficient, technologically advanced city state—but also of the serious doubts it is raising in the public’s perception of government accountability, and the damage that these doubts could do to the government-people relationship.
The government’s great getaway
April 25, 2008
Farquhar
The government’s mishandling of the Mas Selamat case reveals a worrying lack of political acumen
The release of the key findings of the Committee of Inquiry’s (COI) report into the escape of Jemaah Islamiyah member and alleged terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari on 21st April 2008 was awaited in Singapore with the kind of anticipation normally reserved only for major football matches.
Thus it comes as no surprise that many people - outside of the mainstream news media, of course - were disappointed by the report as well as the subsequent speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on the matter.
The report showed up some real complacency and systemic failures in Singapore’s security agencies. Yet this was partly overlooked as the mainstream media elevated the question of whether Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng should stay in his job into a saga about the government’s stoic determination to stand firm against a mob which it imagined was baying for blood.
TOC Editorial: ST’s Mas Selamat coverage bad for the ST, worse for Singapore
April 24, 2008
Editorial
“If it is determined there was only one weak link, at junior escort level, then the people should stop carping about why it is usually small fish that get fried.”
- Straits Times, April 24, Page 23, “Were failings systemic?”.
The term ‘wag the dog’ was introduced into popular political discourse by a 1997 American film starring Robert DeNiro. In it, he plays a Washington Hollywood director turned spin doctor charged with rehabilitating the flagging ratings of a President caught in the midst of a sex scandal. To do this, our protagonist manufactures a fake war with Albania.
Our national newspaper, the Straits Times (ST), seems to have taken a page out of DeNiro’s book of tricks.
Before the dust has settled on one of the most shocking security oversights and incompetent post-debacle information bottlenecks in our nation’s history, the ST has chosen to banish their coverage of the Mas Selamat backlash to the inner pages of the Home page. The front page story: a resurgence in hand, foot and mouth disease.
