intoned posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006
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0 comments
As an amateur violinist, I want to point out that violinists differ from other musicians, for example pianists.
Firstly, after eight years of playing the violin, I realise that good intonation is most important for a violinist. That basically means playing in tune as opposed to out of tune. The violin is one of the hardest instruments to play in tune. The piano, on the other hand, never goes out of tune if it's tuned properly from the start.
For good intonation, a violinist relies on his hands and ears. His left hand is required to control the pitch, while his ears check whether the notes are in tune. This sounds easy, but I will attempt to explain how difficult it actually is, and how NS may damage the fine tools of the musician (ie his hands and ears).
The ears of a violinist must be extremely sharp, able to discern between two notes which are 1/10 of a semitone apart at least. Mozart was able to do so for 1/24 of a semitone. The mathematician Euler had proved that even if the violinist goes out of tune by a fraction, the dissonance produced will shoot up to almost infinity.
In fact, experiments have shown that professional violinists are often more accurate than machines in discerning pitch.
Recently, reports have been going around on how Ipods and other MP3 players can cause permanent damage to the ears. In fact, science has shown that sounds above 120 decibels cause permanent, irreversible harm to the ears. If Ipods can harm ears, I am sure the sound of rifles, grenades and heavy machinery will not be beneficial to the ears.
Secondly, the fingers of a violinist, as opposed to a pianist's, must be very accurate in pressing the strings, as even 1mm of difference will cause a huge difference in pitch. Piano keys, on the other hand, are quite wide so where a pianist hits a key with his finger won't make that much of a difference to its pitch.
Hands that become rough from exposure to the elements and field work will cause distress to the violinist, as his notes will be permanently out of tune.
Ike is destined to hold a bow. But whether he will carry a bow and arrow and fight in the battlefield or hold a bow and violin and enthral audiences with his playing, that remains to be seen. Dawn Goh Noi Swee (Ms)
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http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,5562,395733,00.html
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- posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006 | 0 comments
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tomorrow posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006 | 0 comments
But that has not stopped a group of students from getting involved in Singapore politics. In fact, the group of 15 is already looking ahead to the next decade, and the possibility of standing for public office and even forming their own political party.
The group, which is made up of junior college students who either met online or through mutual friends, has one overarching aim: To see changes in the civic and civil life in Singapore.
Over the past few months, they have been noticed at public forums on politics, asking thought-provoking questions, seemingly unafraid of the more seasoned politicians they were debating with.
Some of them, such as ex-Raffles Girls School students Sabrina Szeto and Ellen Kan, gained public exposure earlier this year when they and their ex-classmates tried to sell "Save the White Elephants" T-shirts.
However, it was the General Election (GE) that led to a group of mutual friends, augmented by online networking, to eventually decide that entering the political arena is one of the ways to go.
But what exactly do these English-educated students from some of Singapore's top schools, such as Raffles Junior College and Hwa Chong Institution, want to change?
Well, for one, the upgrading policy.
At a political dialogue session last month, Arhshath Kaleni took on People's Action Party (PAP) MP Indranee Rajah and argued that since upgrading comes under the Housing Development Board, it was wrong to blur the line between political parties and Government agencies, as it would distort civic needs.
On Tuesday night, at another dialogue session on the GE, he quizzed PAP MP-elect Denise Phua on whether there could be balanced views in Singapore society without media liberalisation.
Sabrina, who also attended the session, chose to debate with Ms Phua about checks and balances.
However, despite focusing their line of fire on the ruling party, the teenagers firmly believe they are "not anti-PAP, just anti-PAP domination" because "a dominant voice is unhealthy".
"We are motivated by issues and policies, not parties," said Sabrina yesterday, in an interview with four of the politically-inclined teenagers.
Now that some of them have attended several forums, they believe the next step would be to hold forums of their own so they can further the discourse on important "macro issues" and to increase their numbers.
"What we want are feasible, concrete ideas to turn into action that can benefit the people and we are looking at how all of us, young people are able to materialise the ideals that we have," said Soh Yi Da, stressing the importance of community work.
After that, though, the youths are less sure about what might come next, or how long all of them will stay the course.
According to Kaleni, though, if in the years to come they still feel there is a lack of "genuine engagement" by the Government, a lack of alternative voices, and a lack of change, that plan to stand for elections or form a party might come closer to reality.
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http://www.todayonline.com/articles/120459.asp
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the principle of equity posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006 | 0 comments
I refer to the letters 'Give Ike a chance to pursue his dreams' and 'Mindef should grant teen violinist NS deferment' (ST, May 17).
Under the Enlistment Act, all male Singaporeans and Permanent Residents are liable to serve National Service upon reaching 18 years of age. However, Mindef has exercised flexibility by not insisting that all NS-liable males enlist immediately upon turning 18.
In determining when a person is to be enlisted, Mindef considers two main factors: the need to preserve equity in terms of educational attainment before NS, and the need to enlist NS-liable males for rigorous military training while they are young and fit.
Mindef has therefore allowed students to attain educational qualifications up to 'A' level, polytechnic diploma or their equivalent before requiring them to serve NS.
Students taking up such courses may be granted deferment from NS for a reasonable amount of time until the completion of their courses.
NS-liable males will therefore be enlisted at the earliest opportunity after turning 18 or when they have finished such courses.
Mindef is prepared to grant deferment to pursue university studies under very exceptional circumstances. Such cases are rare and can only be considered when there are exceptionally strong reasons.
Mindef has to ensure that the principle of equity is upheld when considering applications for deferment so as to uphold the commitment of the vast majority who dutifully fulfill their NS obligations before pursuing university studies.
This issue was thoroughly debated in Parliament in March and the principles under which equity is maintained for national service were reaffirmed.
In the case of See Ian Ike, Mindef has given due consideration to his appeal. However, we are unable to accede to his request for deferment to pursue his university studies before NS.
To do so would be unfair to others who have put their personal aspirations and goals on hold to serve NS when called upon to do so.
Mr See may wish to consider applying to enlist for NS earlier, under Mindef's Voluntary Early Enlistment Scheme (VEES).
This will allow him to complete his full-time NS earlier and proceed for further studies thereafter. He may contact the Central Manpower Base at 63733120.
Col Benedict Lim
Director, Public Affairs
Ministry of Defence
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awake. posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | 0 comments
There used to be a television but it was removed a few years ago. In February, I saw a sign put up at the residents' corner by the Residents' Committee. It states that no wakes are allowed to be held at the residents' corner. Now that's strange to me.
If the residents' corner does not serve the needs of residents, such as holding a wake, I do not know what the corner is for.
From the explanation given by the RC's head, it is an official rule that no wakes are allowed at any residents' corner. If that's the rule, fine.
Last Saturday I returned home to find that the RC members were having a karaoke-cum-dinner celebration at the residents' corner. Now I get it. No wakes for residents, but yes to karaoke for RC members.
Why care that the bereaved residents with a deceased family member need to seek an alternative place to hold the wake?
The sad thing was that while the RC's karaoke and merry-making was in progress, there was a wake at the opposite block which was one-third the size of the residents' corner.
The family in mourning did not have adequate space to put tables and chairs for their relatives and friends who came to pay their last respects to the deceased.
The HDB block in question? Block 289E Bukit Batok Street 25
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http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,5562,394945,00.html
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smutocracy posted on Sunday, May 21, 2006 | 0 comments
Last week, Lee admonished the younger generation for not fully supporting the People's Action Party at the elections the weekend before. It's a usual claim: young Singaporeans are insufficiently grateful for all that the older PAP leaders have done for them in developing the economy. It's as if a country's progress should be measured only by material comfort. The problem for Lee is that young people in other developed countries have money and freedom of expression. But in Singapore, all they have is money. Young Singaporeans are beginning to see that a gilded cage is a cage, nonetheless.
To combat this growing restiveness, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong — Lee's son — talks of political regeneration in his efforts to make the PAP appeal to younger people. But it's the same old tricks, if last week's elections are anything to go by. The ruling PAP won two-thirds of the votes. The real surprise is that it didn't win by more, given all the petty restrictions designed to head off opposition.
The PAP faced two main opposition parties: the Singapore Democratic Party and the Workers' Party. The SDP's leadership was hit with a series of defamation writs from the two Lees soon after the elections were called. It managed to win one of the two seats not won by the PAP.
The Workers' Party won the other seat. James Gomez, one of its leading candidates, blamed the elections department for losing one of his required polling forms at the start of the campaign. He moderately chastised a member of the department's staff for the apparent loss. But it turned out he had put the form in his brief case and had left the building without lodging it. He claimed this was an oversight — he was distracted — and he publicly apologised. But the PAP accused him of attempting to set up the elections commission.
The incident dominated the nine-day campaign. The Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, other ministers and the Government-controlled media raised it repeatedly. The highly litigious Lee Kuan Yew publicly labelled Gomez a liar.
The day after the election, Gomez was detained at Changi Airport. His boarding pass and passport were confiscated and police questioned him for eight hours. The next day he was questioned for five hours. A day later he was questioned for another three hours. That's 16 hours of police questioning over whether or not he intentionally put something in his brief case. The Public Prosecutor announced on Friday Gomez would not be charged but would be let off with a "stern warning".
Certainly, it's true that integrity is important in politics. That's why so many people were surprised back in 1996 when it was revealed that Lee Kuan Yew and many family members had accepted large discounts on a series of expensive apartments in Singapore from a local property developer, on whose board sat one of Lee's brothers. Lee and Lee Hsien Loong received more than $S1 million ($A829,000) in discounts, discounts that were in excess of the usual discounts offered in the market.
The company was later censured by the local stock exchange for not seeking shareholder approval for favourable transactions with related parties.
Lee has claimed that the election result demonstrates to foreign investors that Singapore is politically stable, which is good for business.
But his argument is simplistic. North Korea is politically stable but who wants to invest there? And Australia periodically changes government, has a free media and attracts plenty of investors, including many from Singapore.
But how good is Singapore, really? As every expatriate in Singapore knows, Singapore's media is appalling. Sex is covered endlessly. Rape and incest cases are described in unnecessary minutiae, as are instances of alleged sexual deviance ("Oh, isn't it dreadful?" is the line usually taken before the incident is recounted in slavish detail.) In essence, Singaporeans are fed a regular diet of soft porn, perhaps as compensation for precious little political debate. That's not democracy. It's smutocracy.
Academic freedom is also stunted. Daniel Bell, a prominent writer and academic who has taught at universities in Singapore and Beijing, writes in the latest issue of the respected intellectual journal Dissent that for him, "China is a paradise of academic freedom" after Singapore. The governments of both countries practise media censorship but after a newspaper in China ran some of his comments in an interview, but not others, the editor rang him to apologise. Not so in Singapore, where according to Bell, "public humiliation is a more common tactic for dealing with those who do not toe the party line". Singapore might be rich but it is out of step.
Meanwhile, Thailand faces fresh elections after the Thai courts declared invalid those that were held last month. Prime Minister Thaksin had called the elections due to huge public disapproval of the sale of his family's massive telecommunications assets to an arm of the Singapore Government. Tax changes meant that his family saved millions on the sale.
And this weekend there are elections in the wealthy Malaysian state of Sarawak. The family of Chief Minister Abu Taib Mahmud has accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in timber concessions and public works contracts while he has been in office. No doubt he is heading for a landslide win. Stability is indeed good for business.
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http://www.michaelbackman.com
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moving on posted on Sunday, May 21, 2006 | 0 comments
I am not sure why Mr Phan thinks I am making a 'serious and derogatory claim' when I stated the fact that the opposition's ultimate aim is to replace the ruling party.
The opposition itself has stated that this is its aim. The simple fact is that, if an opposition party were to form the government one day, all of us will have to live with the consequences. Much is at stake. In the end, politics is about our lives and our future as a people. The PAP's unwavering aim, since it became the ruling party in 1959, has been to improve the lives of the people.
Now that the General Election is over, let us move on and work together as one people to build a better home and a brighter future for all.
Irene Ng (Miss) Member of Parliament-elect
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http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,5562,393558,00.html
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the benefit of law posted on Sunday, May 21, 2006 | 0 comments
She was subsequently arrested, tried and found guilty of a crime. At her trial she said in her defense; "I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did not know what to do because no one came to our help." Her appeals have failed and without severe pressure from outside sources she will die for this "crime".
The girls' only alternative would have been to submit to the rape and not report it. Why? because if they reported it and could not produce enough male witnesses to confirm that it had indeed been a rape, then the Sharia Court would treat it as a case of adultery and the girls would have been severely punished, especially if a child had been conceived through the rape. The punishment for women or girls who have premarital sex is 100 lashes. Since it was a rape, the real (mental) punishment would have been much more severe than that, and lasted for the rest of the victims' lives.
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http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/05/17/170310.php
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expediency posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 | 0 comments
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`The Americans were deluded, it doesn’t mean we supported them because we thought it would work. I believe the question you are too polite to ask is, did we suck up to the U.S? Well, yes, our basic interest was to show support for the USA, you are right. But what did we really commit to it? How much of our assets did we lend to Iraq? We put one plane in the air and one ship in the sea. And were we more of a target because of it? To which I reply ..we were already a target before the invasion`
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http://i-speak.blogdrive.com/archive/158.html
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Disneyland with the Death Penalty posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 | 0 comments
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060404/1038233.shtml
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meritocracy posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 | 0 comments
The PAP not only recruits its future leaders from the civil service or the army; it also scouts doctors, lawyers and business people -- as long as they're successful.
During deputy prime minister Wong's presentation of one such bunch of achievers, they were asked whether the PAP's attempts to clone its successful leadership did not carry a risk of falling out of touch with a rapidly changing world.
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http://in.today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-05-05T160816Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-247865-1.xml
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the 7th day posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 | 0 comments
In a statement, police said they were investigating after receiving a complaint against Mr Gomez from the Elections Department.
Mr Gomez was stopped at Changi Airport on Sunday afternoon and prevented from leaving for Sweden.
Channel NewsAsia understands his passport and boarding pass have been confiscated.
Mr Gomez was taken to the Police Cantonment Complex at 4pm to have his statement taken.
During the hustings, Mr Gomez was embroiled in a controversy over his application for a minority candidate certificate.
He claimed to have submitted an application at the Elections Department, but security camera footage showed otherwise.
People's Action Party leaders later accused Mr Gomez of trying to discredit the Elections Department by claiming its staff had misplaced his form.
In a statement, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng had charged that Mr Gomez stage-managed the entire episode from the start.
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew called Mr Gomez a liar, a charge he repeated on Sunday before police confirmed they had detained the Workers' Party candidate.
Said Mr Lee, "When I call a man openly, you're a liar, you're dishonest, and you do not dare to sue me, there's something basically wrong. And I will repeat it anywhere and you can't go and say, oh, I have apologised; let's move on. Can you commit a dishonourable -- maybe even one which is against the law -- an illegal act and say, let's move on because I've apologised? You may move on but you're going to move on out of politics in time."
Mr Lee said that whether other Workers' Party members connived at Mr Gomez's doings was a matter still to be determined.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was asked to comment on Mr Gomez's detention during his victory parade in Ang Mo Kio.
Mr Lee said he was not aware of what had happened, since the Elections Department filed a police report against Mr Gomez.
He said the matter was now in the hands of police.
At about 8pm, Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim was seen entering the police headquarters.
It is believed she is helping with investigations. - CNA /ct
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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/207083/1/.html
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I wish to comment on the issue of the deferment of national service for violinist Ike See.
As an amateur violinist, I want to point out that violinists differ from other musicians, for example pianists.
Firstly, after eight years of playing the violin, I realise that good intonation is most important for a violinist. That basically means playing in tune as opposed to out of tune. The violin is one of the hardest instruments to play in tune. The piano, on the other hand, never goes out of tune if it's tuned properly from the start.
For good intonation, a violinist relies on his hands and ears. His left hand is required to control the pitch, while his ears check whether the notes are in tune. This sounds easy, but I will attempt to explain how difficult it actually is, and how NS may damage the fine tools of the musician (ie his hands and ears).
The ears of a violinist must be extremely sharp, able to discern between two notes which are 1/10 of a semitone apart at least. Mozart was able to do so for 1/24 of a semitone. The mathematician Euler had proved that even if the violinist goes out of tune by a fraction, the dissonance produced will shoot up to almost infinity.
In fact, experiments have shown that professional violinists are often more accurate than machines in discerning pitch.
Recently, reports have been going around on how Ipods and other MP3 players can cause permanent damage to the ears. In fact, science has shown that sounds above 120 decibels cause permanent, irreversible harm to the ears. If Ipods can harm ears, I am sure the sound of rifles, grenades and heavy machinery will not be beneficial to the ears.
Secondly, the fingers of a violinist, as opposed to a pianist's, must be very accurate in pressing the strings, as even 1mm of difference will cause a huge difference in pitch. Piano keys, on the other hand, are quite wide so where a pianist hits a key with his finger won't make that much of a difference to its pitch.
Hands that become rough from exposure to the elements and field work will cause distress to the violinist, as his notes will be permanently out of tune.
Ike is destined to hold a bow. But whether he will carry a bow and arrow and fight in the battlefield or hold a bow and violin and enthral audiences with his playing, that remains to be seen. Dawn Goh Noi Swee (Ms)
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http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,5562,395733,00.html
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- posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006 | 0 comments
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tomorrow posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006 | 0 comments
They are 17 years old and four years shy of even voting in an election.
But that has not stopped a group of students from getting involved in Singapore politics. In fact, the group of 15 is already looking ahead to the next decade, and the possibility of standing for public office and even forming their own political party.
The group, which is made up of junior college students who either met online or through mutual friends, has one overarching aim: To see changes in the civic and civil life in Singapore.
Over the past few months, they have been noticed at public forums on politics, asking thought-provoking questions, seemingly unafraid of the more seasoned politicians they were debating with.
Some of them, such as ex-Raffles Girls School students Sabrina Szeto and Ellen Kan, gained public exposure earlier this year when they and their ex-classmates tried to sell "Save the White Elephants" T-shirts.
However, it was the General Election (GE) that led to a group of mutual friends, augmented by online networking, to eventually decide that entering the political arena is one of the ways to go.
But what exactly do these English-educated students from some of Singapore's top schools, such as Raffles Junior College and Hwa Chong Institution, want to change?
Well, for one, the upgrading policy.
At a political dialogue session last month, Arhshath Kaleni took on People's Action Party (PAP) MP Indranee Rajah and argued that since upgrading comes under the Housing Development Board, it was wrong to blur the line between political parties and Government agencies, as it would distort civic needs.
On Tuesday night, at another dialogue session on the GE, he quizzed PAP MP-elect Denise Phua on whether there could be balanced views in Singapore society without media liberalisation.
Sabrina, who also attended the session, chose to debate with Ms Phua about checks and balances.
However, despite focusing their line of fire on the ruling party, the teenagers firmly believe they are "not anti-PAP, just anti-PAP domination" because "a dominant voice is unhealthy".
"We are motivated by issues and policies, not parties," said Sabrina yesterday, in an interview with four of the politically-inclined teenagers.
Now that some of them have attended several forums, they believe the next step would be to hold forums of their own so they can further the discourse on important "macro issues" and to increase their numbers.
"What we want are feasible, concrete ideas to turn into action that can benefit the people and we are looking at how all of us, young people are able to materialise the ideals that we have," said Soh Yi Da, stressing the importance of community work.
After that, though, the youths are less sure about what might come next, or how long all of them will stay the course.
According to Kaleni, though, if in the years to come they still feel there is a lack of "genuine engagement" by the Government, a lack of alternative voices, and a lack of change, that plan to stand for elections or form a party might come closer to reality.
-
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/120459.asp
--
the principle of equity posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006 | 0 comments
May 25, 2006, The Straits Times
I refer to the letters 'Give Ike a chance to pursue his dreams' and 'Mindef should grant teen violinist NS deferment' (ST, May 17).
Under the Enlistment Act, all male Singaporeans and Permanent Residents are liable to serve National Service upon reaching 18 years of age. However, Mindef has exercised flexibility by not insisting that all NS-liable males enlist immediately upon turning 18.
In determining when a person is to be enlisted, Mindef considers two main factors: the need to preserve equity in terms of educational attainment before NS, and the need to enlist NS-liable males for rigorous military training while they are young and fit.
Mindef has therefore allowed students to attain educational qualifications up to 'A' level, polytechnic diploma or their equivalent before requiring them to serve NS.
Students taking up such courses may be granted deferment from NS for a reasonable amount of time until the completion of their courses.
NS-liable males will therefore be enlisted at the earliest opportunity after turning 18 or when they have finished such courses.
Mindef is prepared to grant deferment to pursue university studies under very exceptional circumstances. Such cases are rare and can only be considered when there are exceptionally strong reasons.
Mindef has to ensure that the principle of equity is upheld when considering applications for deferment so as to uphold the commitment of the vast majority who dutifully fulfill their NS obligations before pursuing university studies.
This issue was thoroughly debated in Parliament in March and the principles under which equity is maintained for national service were reaffirmed.
In the case of See Ian Ike, Mindef has given due consideration to his appeal. However, we are unable to accede to his request for deferment to pursue his university studies before NS.
To do so would be unfair to others who have put their personal aspirations and goals on hold to serve NS when called upon to do so.
Mr See may wish to consider applying to enlist for NS earlier, under Mindef's Voluntary Early Enlistment Scheme (VEES).
This will allow him to complete his full-time NS earlier and proceed for further studies thereafter. He may contact the Central Manpower Base at 63733120.
Col Benedict Lim
Director, Public Affairs
Ministry of Defence
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awake. posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | 0 comments
I live in a HDB block that has a residents' corner. It has a tiled floor with benches and tables.
There used to be a television but it was removed a few years ago. In February, I saw a sign put up at the residents' corner by the Residents' Committee. It states that no wakes are allowed to be held at the residents' corner. Now that's strange to me.
If the residents' corner does not serve the needs of residents, such as holding a wake, I do not know what the corner is for.
From the explanation given by the RC's head, it is an official rule that no wakes are allowed at any residents' corner. If that's the rule, fine.
Last Saturday I returned home to find that the RC members were having a karaoke-cum-dinner celebration at the residents' corner. Now I get it. No wakes for residents, but yes to karaoke for RC members.
Why care that the bereaved residents with a deceased family member need to seek an alternative place to hold the wake?
The sad thing was that while the RC's karaoke and merry-making was in progress, there was a wake at the opposite block which was one-third the size of the residents' corner.
The family in mourning did not have adequate space to put tables and chairs for their relatives and friends who came to pay their last respects to the deceased.
The HDB block in question? Block 289E Bukit Batok Street 25
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http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,5562,394945,00.html
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smutocracy posted on Sunday, May 21, 2006 | 0 comments
When will Lee Kuan Yew die? Sadly, that is the question now on the minds of many Singaporeans. At 82, Lee retains a cabinet post, with the title Minister Mentor, continues to dominate the Government and shows no sign of quitting. But many believe that although he has done much for Singapore, he is now the greatest impediment to reform, and that little can change until after he is gone
Last week, Lee admonished the younger generation for not fully supporting the People's Action Party at the elections the weekend before. It's a usual claim: young Singaporeans are insufficiently grateful for all that the older PAP leaders have done for them in developing the economy. It's as if a country's progress should be measured only by material comfort. The problem for Lee is that young people in other developed countries have money and freedom of expression. But in Singapore, all they have is money. Young Singaporeans are beginning to see that a gilded cage is a cage, nonetheless.
To combat this growing restiveness, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong — Lee's son — talks of political regeneration in his efforts to make the PAP appeal to younger people. But it's the same old tricks, if last week's elections are anything to go by. The ruling PAP won two-thirds of the votes. The real surprise is that it didn't win by more, given all the petty restrictions designed to head off opposition.
The PAP faced two main opposition parties: the Singapore Democratic Party and the Workers' Party. The SDP's leadership was hit with a series of defamation writs from the two Lees soon after the elections were called. It managed to win one of the two seats not won by the PAP.
The Workers' Party won the other seat. James Gomez, one of its leading candidates, blamed the elections department for losing one of his required polling forms at the start of the campaign. He moderately chastised a member of the department's staff for the apparent loss. But it turned out he had put the form in his brief case and had left the building without lodging it. He claimed this was an oversight — he was distracted — and he publicly apologised. But the PAP accused him of attempting to set up the elections commission.
The incident dominated the nine-day campaign. The Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, other ministers and the Government-controlled media raised it repeatedly. The highly litigious Lee Kuan Yew publicly labelled Gomez a liar.
The day after the election, Gomez was detained at Changi Airport. His boarding pass and passport were confiscated and police questioned him for eight hours. The next day he was questioned for five hours. A day later he was questioned for another three hours. That's 16 hours of police questioning over whether or not he intentionally put something in his brief case. The Public Prosecutor announced on Friday Gomez would not be charged but would be let off with a "stern warning".
Certainly, it's true that integrity is important in politics. That's why so many people were surprised back in 1996 when it was revealed that Lee Kuan Yew and many family members had accepted large discounts on a series of expensive apartments in Singapore from a local property developer, on whose board sat one of Lee's brothers. Lee and Lee Hsien Loong received more than $S1 million ($A829,000) in discounts, discounts that were in excess of the usual discounts offered in the market.
The company was later censured by the local stock exchange for not seeking shareholder approval for favourable transactions with related parties.
Lee has claimed that the election result demonstrates to foreign investors that Singapore is politically stable, which is good for business.
But his argument is simplistic. North Korea is politically stable but who wants to invest there? And Australia periodically changes government, has a free media and attracts plenty of investors, including many from Singapore.
But how good is Singapore, really? As every expatriate in Singapore knows, Singapore's media is appalling. Sex is covered endlessly. Rape and incest cases are described in unnecessary minutiae, as are instances of alleged sexual deviance ("Oh, isn't it dreadful?" is the line usually taken before the incident is recounted in slavish detail.) In essence, Singaporeans are fed a regular diet of soft porn, perhaps as compensation for precious little political debate. That's not democracy. It's smutocracy.
Academic freedom is also stunted. Daniel Bell, a prominent writer and academic who has taught at universities in Singapore and Beijing, writes in the latest issue of the respected intellectual journal Dissent that for him, "China is a paradise of academic freedom" after Singapore. The governments of both countries practise media censorship but after a newspaper in China ran some of his comments in an interview, but not others, the editor rang him to apologise. Not so in Singapore, where according to Bell, "public humiliation is a more common tactic for dealing with those who do not toe the party line". Singapore might be rich but it is out of step.
Meanwhile, Thailand faces fresh elections after the Thai courts declared invalid those that were held last month. Prime Minister Thaksin had called the elections due to huge public disapproval of the sale of his family's massive telecommunications assets to an arm of the Singapore Government. Tax changes meant that his family saved millions on the sale.
And this weekend there are elections in the wealthy Malaysian state of Sarawak. The family of Chief Minister Abu Taib Mahmud has accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in timber concessions and public works contracts while he has been in office. No doubt he is heading for a landslide win. Stability is indeed good for business.
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http://www.michaelbackman.com
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moving on posted on Sunday, May 21, 2006 | 0 comments
I refer to the letter, 'Is politics all about pursuit of party interests?' (ST, May 16), by Mr Jason Phan Shiaw Hwa.
I am not sure why Mr Phan thinks I am making a 'serious and derogatory claim' when I stated the fact that the opposition's ultimate aim is to replace the ruling party.
The opposition itself has stated that this is its aim. The simple fact is that, if an opposition party were to form the government one day, all of us will have to live with the consequences. Much is at stake. In the end, politics is about our lives and our future as a people. The PAP's unwavering aim, since it became the ruling party in 1959, has been to improve the lives of the people.
Now that the General Election is over, let us move on and work together as one people to build a better home and a brighter future for all.
Irene Ng (Miss) Member of Parliament-elect
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http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,5562,393558,00.html
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the benefit of law posted on Sunday, May 21, 2006 | 0 comments
In Iran an 18-year-old named Nazanin is sentenced to be put to death by hanging. Her crime? Defending herself and her 16-year-old niece from being raped by three men. During the attack she drew a knife and stabbed one of the attackers. In doing so she succeeded in driving the attackers off and saved the two of them from whatever fate awaited them at the hands of the three men.
She was subsequently arrested, tried and found guilty of a crime. At her trial she said in her defense; "I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did not know what to do because no one came to our help." Her appeals have failed and without severe pressure from outside sources she will die for this "crime".
The girls' only alternative would have been to submit to the rape and not report it. Why? because if they reported it and could not produce enough male witnesses to confirm that it had indeed been a rape, then the Sharia Court would treat it as a case of adultery and the girls would have been severely punished, especially if a child had been conceived through the rape. The punishment for women or girls who have premarital sex is 100 lashes. Since it was a rape, the real (mental) punishment would have been much more severe than that, and lasted for the rest of the victims' lives.
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http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/05/17/170310.php
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expediency posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 | 0 comments
`We have to be realistic. There is a limit to how much re-training we can do for some workers, so we have to look overseas. Look at my generation, more than half of them didn’t even complete primary school education. What are we going to do? They are not going to conveniently die off`
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`The Americans were deluded, it doesn’t mean we supported them because we thought it would work. I believe the question you are too polite to ask is, did we suck up to the U.S? Well, yes, our basic interest was to show support for the USA, you are right. But what did we really commit to it? How much of our assets did we lend to Iraq? We put one plane in the air and one ship in the sea. And were we more of a target because of it? To which I reply ..we were already a target before the invasion`
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http://i-speak.blogdrive.com/archive/158.html
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Disneyland with the Death Penalty posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 | 0 comments
People will be allowed to occasionally mention the election -- but do it too often and they'll be required to register and then abide by laws that ban any kind of political advertising by the media. The reasoning is pretty straightforward: "In a free-for-all internet environment where there are no rules, political debates could easily degenerate into an unhealthy, unreliable and dangerous discourse flush with rumors and distortions to mislead and confuse the public." That's funny, since it's always seemed like that's exactly what politics was all about
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060404/1038233.shtml
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meritocracy posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 | 0 comments
Despite the system's meritocracy, top schools are filled with children of the Chinese middle class who can afford to pay the extra tuition, he said.
The PAP not only recruits its future leaders from the civil service or the army; it also scouts doctors, lawyers and business people -- as long as they're successful.
During deputy prime minister Wong's presentation of one such bunch of achievers, they were asked whether the PAP's attempts to clone its successful leadership did not carry a risk of falling out of touch with a rapidly changing world.
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http://in.today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-05-05T160816Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-247865-1.xml
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the 7th day posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 | 0 comments
SINGAPORE : James Gomez, the man at the centre of a controversy with the Elections Department over a minority candidate certificate, has been detained by police.
In a statement, police said they were investigating after receiving a complaint against Mr Gomez from the Elections Department.
Mr Gomez was stopped at Changi Airport on Sunday afternoon and prevented from leaving for Sweden.
Channel NewsAsia understands his passport and boarding pass have been confiscated.
Mr Gomez was taken to the Police Cantonment Complex at 4pm to have his statement taken.
During the hustings, Mr Gomez was embroiled in a controversy over his application for a minority candidate certificate.
He claimed to have submitted an application at the Elections Department, but security camera footage showed otherwise.
People's Action Party leaders later accused Mr Gomez of trying to discredit the Elections Department by claiming its staff had misplaced his form.
In a statement, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng had charged that Mr Gomez stage-managed the entire episode from the start.
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew called Mr Gomez a liar, a charge he repeated on Sunday before police confirmed they had detained the Workers' Party candidate.
Said Mr Lee, "When I call a man openly, you're a liar, you're dishonest, and you do not dare to sue me, there's something basically wrong. And I will repeat it anywhere and you can't go and say, oh, I have apologised; let's move on. Can you commit a dishonourable -- maybe even one which is against the law -- an illegal act and say, let's move on because I've apologised? You may move on but you're going to move on out of politics in time."
Mr Lee said that whether other Workers' Party members connived at Mr Gomez's doings was a matter still to be determined.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was asked to comment on Mr Gomez's detention during his victory parade in Ang Mo Kio.
Mr Lee said he was not aware of what had happened, since the Elections Department filed a police report against Mr Gomez.
He said the matter was now in the hands of police.
At about 8pm, Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim was seen entering the police headquarters.
It is believed she is helping with investigations. - CNA /ct
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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/207083/1/.html
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