The poll to vote for our domain name is closed. Here is the result.

Thank you to all of you who have voted! We have registered civicadvocator.net as our domain name. We are now sorting out the technical issues of using this domain name properly.

We thought it was interesting that sgvoices came in second in your choice. We suppose we do represent one of the voices of Singapore.

We had 32 votes. Not discounting the possibility that people could have voted more than once from different location, it represents about 20% of our 150 plus unique visitors (see diagram below).

Source: Get Clicky

We are optimistic that more of you will switch from being spectators to become participants as we continue to expand this website.

Hi Guys,

After attending to some of MR TAN public Speeches and Forum, I admire and salute to him as he pointed out he prefer using “Alternative Party” instead of “Opposition Party”.

I think that really sounds good as “Opposition Party” in majority of Singaporean’s impression are just known in opposing government policy but offer no constructive alternate policy.

Anyway, MR TAN had highlighted a good point on educational efforts in educating the Singaporean their role and responsibilities and the rights as a Citizens.

Well let me introduce myself, I am Mr S at age of 40+ and I’m in printing business for many years.

If there is anythings that I can help in your volunteering jobs scope, you may contact me and I hope one way or another I can assist MR TAN.

Best Regards.

Mr S

WASHINGTON — From front to back and on nearly every page, President Barak Obama’s new budget plan delivers a message that’s seldom been heard in American politics for more than three decades: It’s time for the rich to pay their fair share and lighten the load on the middle class.

It’s not just Obama’s long-promised middle-class tax cuts. In education, health care and an array of other proposals, the new budget strategy would focus more benefits on ordinary Americans and look to the affluent for more help in paying for them.

The change is meant to reverse a long-running trend in the opposite direction.

Source:  Chicago Tribune

Since the 1980s, when President Reagan began an era of tax-cutting that continued for more than two decades, lower-class incomes have stagnated, middle-class incomes have increased only slightly, but the incomes of the richest Americans have skyrocketed.

Obama believes that if the country is going to recover from this economic crisis, the middle income earners must get help. “Throughout our history, the United States has grown and prospered when all Americans have shared in the opportunities created by our economy.”

Currently, the top 20 percent of taxpayers pay 80 percent of all taxes and 40 percent pay no income tax.  Under Obama’s plan, the top 20 percent of tax filers would pay 90 percent of all taxes; the number of families that owe no tax would climb to near 50 percent. 

Obama will face resistance from the Republicans and probably from many wealthy Americans, I’m sure.  While we can’t be sure if his plan will succeed, we must hand it to him – he is not afraid of change and he has the courage and will to carry it through. 

Credit should also go the American public.  Many would have anticipated fundamental changes to public policies when they voted Obama in (’change’ was his campaign theme after all).  It takes courage to step out of our comfort zones, to try out new things and challenge existing structures and mindsets. 

How do Singaporeans fare in this department?  Let us know.

The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) said on Friday it will convert its Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) preferred shares into common stock in a bid to shore up the troubled U.S. lender.
GIC said it will exchange its convertible preferred notes for common stock at a price of $3.25 a share, which compares with a conversion price of $26.35 under the terms of the original investment.

Source: Reuters

Our government is averaging down and increasing exposure on a single bet. If Citi survives, this will be great. If Citi goes down the pit, there goes our money. Sigh.

Gerald Gaim wrote this on his blog:

I got into an interesting exchange with one of my readers in my last post, regarding whether Singapore bloggers should blog anonymously or use their real names.
The reader and fellow blogger thought I was criticising bloggers who don’t use their real names on their blogs, and argued that some bloggers (like himself/herself) choose to use a pseudonym, but not out of fear. I clarified that it is a blogger’s right to use a pseudonym, and that it’s better to use a pseudonym and speak out than to remain silent.

Read more

In December, Asean signed a landmark charter which includes a commitment to human rights and humanitarian principles. The document made Asean a legal entity and moves it a step closer toward the goal of establishing a single market by 2015 and creating a European Union-like community.

Rights groups say they fear the global economic downturn will provide Asean with an excuse for putting sensitive rights issues on the back burner, at a time when the need to address these issues is more urgent than ever.

Source: irrawaddy.org

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch has urged ASEAN to improve treatment of refugees and asylum seekers and strengthen protection for migrants through its new human rights body, which is to be discussed at the summit taking place from February 27 to March 1 in Hua Hin, Thailand.

Burma was singled out as an area of special concern to rights groups.  AI and HRW have accused the country’s ruling military regime of committing some of the most egregious abuses in the region (the most recent being the regime’s Hitler-styled de-humanisation of the Rohingya peoples).  Thailand has also been pushed into the limelight for their abuse of Rohingya refugees.

And what about Singapore?  According to HRW, many migrants are deceived about their working conditions, cheated out of their wages, abused by their employers, and deported without access to redress.  Of late, we have indeed read about the plight of foreign workers in Singapore suffering similar fates.  Many had had to seek redress from our Manpower Ministry.  Suffice it to say, the economic downturn places migrants at heightened risk—desperation and gaps in legal protections provide a recipe for exploitation.

We hope ASEAN will heed this call and focus on human rights issues.  Its track record isn’t exactly reassuring but so long as we continue to affirm our solidarity in human rights and convey our charter to government leaders, these less fortunate communities will have a ray of hope.

Ultimately, it would do the judiciary good to be mindful of the fact that this incident doesn’t just show that there are people who are willing to question the judiciary’s independence, but that a portion of society possibly agrees with these views. If the judiciary is truly concerned about the respect it commands, it has to do something about this lack of respect that it currently commands.

Source: secretpoliticalblog

We believe that a head-on confrontational approach is not sensible. The rich and powerful are understandably sensitive people. Use that knowledge to work for the cause, not against the cause.

To: chen_hwai_liang@mica.gov.sg
Subject: Your reply to Financial Times

Dear Mr Chen

We came across your recent letter to Financial Times (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/56d61200-02de-11de-b58b-000077b07658.html).

We assure you that there are other Singaporeans who are unhappy about the Singapore government which is, in our view, totally controlled by PAP. Therefore, we voice our discontent publicly, although we are not sure if our language falls under your definition of “invective”.

By sending our letter to you directly, we can now tell the whole world that you cannot tell your boss that you don’t know the existence of people like us.

We agree with you that GIC and Temasek may not have performed badly compared to market benchmarks. However, if we are paying millions of tax payer money to Singapore government officials to manage Singapore reserves, then we expect top notch performance. If you cannot deliver high absolute return, then you do not deserve the top dollars. You should be fired.

You mentioned that “over the 20-year period up to March 31 2008, GIC earned annualised US dollar returns of 7.8 per cent, while Temasek earned 19 per cent”. We would like to remind you that past performance does not guarantee future results.

As voters, we certainly look forward to the next general elections, provided we get the opportunity to vote.

Yours sincerely,
Civic Advocator

We help ourselves. Don’t expect others to help

Tom Wright painted a bleak picture of Singapore’s property sector going forward at The Wall Street Journal. His article ended with the following:
“I’m yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel [for Singapore],” says Mr. Tan, the high-end broker.
We would expect people to continue to dig the dirt and tell it to [...]



Our skin isn’t as thick as it should be

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) organised a seminar on March 4 to discuss Singapore’s political blogosphere.  Tan Tarn How, Senior Research Fellow and Research Assistant Tan Simin presented their paper on trends observed in the blogosphere.  As reported in the TOC, the researchers identified the following limitations:

The online-offline firewall, while somewhat alleviated by offline [...]



Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew – The answer to the African problem?

Recently, I followed a thread “Democracy and Economic Growth” which started in PoliticsForum.org.   Apparently, members there often question the role of democracy in a developing nation. “During the wave of democratization in Africa during the 90s, many people had renewed hope for the continent, immediately equating newly established democracies to economic growth. Are these democracies [...]



Tell Singapore government: Ask them a question or give a suggestion

We informed people about the “Tell Singapore Government” subsite and have received some interesting reaction at some forums.
See: 3in1 Kopitiam, Sam’s Alfresco Coffee, Singapore Kopitiam, SgForums
Our responses to some of the comments are listed below. If we are not answering some other specific questions, that is because we do not know how.
 

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I don’t know

Our Singapore

As seen by people

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• Purpose

To observe, analyse, present our position, and call for action. Read our articles, give your views, and learn together with us.