Human rights groups say Singapore uses criminal defamation laws to silence critics. “Free speech is an endangered species in Singapore,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “It’s sadly predictable that the government did not hesitate to threaten prosecution, fines, and imprisonment against an author whose views run contrary to its own.” Singapore applies capital punishment by hanging for offenses such as murder, drug trafficking and unlawful use of a firearm. The island nation at the southern tip of the Malay peninsula is one of the world’s richest and has a very low violent crime rate.  The People’s Action Party has held power since 1959.  “I would never apologize and I would never say sorry,” Shadrake told reporters as he left court Friday. “I didn’t do this to grovel to them like Singaporeans mostly have to do to lead a normal life.”

Source: AP

 

linbei:  Aiya, nowadays ang mo really pathetic . Jobless and unable to surivive in their own countries, so they have to come singpaore to write “stories”.  How cum so stupid? Publish this kind of stories also must go neighbour countries mah? Purposely one, cos his stories no body will buy, and he know PeeAndPee will help him on this…

 

 

grov·el  (grvl, grv-)
intr.v. grov·eled also grov·elled, grov·el·ing also grov·el·ling, grov·els also grov·els

 

It’s interesting that Westerners like Robertson and Shadrake should be so concerned for us.  That is why lawyer M Ravi is helping Shadrake in return, I suppose.  

We must be clear though, that these foreigners are not family.  Some of them use our predictaments to claim credit or brownie points for their respective organisations.  They operate like private enterprises – no results, no funding.

Alan Shadrake must have been referring to the 66.6% of Singaporeans as ‘grovellers’.  That is an insult to our fellow Singaporeans.  They made their decision at the ballot box in 2006 and we respect them for it.  We who seek alternative voices in parliament still see them as our fellow-countryfolk and will continue to work to impress them on the values of having a more robust check and balance for the ruling Party.

His comments shows how opportunistic foreigners are and we cannot depend on them.  Shadrake can say what he wants as we value free speech too.  But it pays for us to be aware of where his loyalties lie – predictably on his book, his career, his name.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong chided Singaporeans lately for having “unrealistic” expectations. According to him, it is “impossible” to expect Singapore to be completely flood-free, yet the floods have been occurring on a weekly basis for the last two months or so.  In Singapore, political leaders and senior civil leaders expect and demand to be paid astronomical salaries pegged at market rates, but refused to accept the same level of scrutiny and accountability.

Source: Temasek Review

These floodings are serious, they cost businesses money and many households too.  The impact is no less serious than that of the escape of Mas Selamat Kastari.  The peoples of Singapore need to know what has happened – has anyone been negligent, what has been done and what more will be done.  And no, we do not want a Commission headed by civil servants.  Unlike the MSK incident, there is nothing confidential in our drainage systems and plans.  Let private individuals helm this Commission.  If the government truly believes that it has done all it can, it shouldn’t hide.   Make this a People’s Commission of Inquiry.  PUB and its Ministry are accountable to us.  Convince us that spending $387 million on the YOG (it’s not even the Olympics) makes more sense than using it to improve what really matters to Singaporean businesses and residents.

Aung San Suu Kyi turns 65 today.  Civic Advocator wishes her health and strength to fight the junta.

Singapore’s High Court on Thursday overturned a ruling acquitting a group of pro-democracy activists of taking part in an illegal march.  The five, who include members of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), were cleared last year of taking part in the September 2007 protest.  But the High Court accepted an appeal by the public prosecutor and ordered the court which made the original ruling to sentence the group.   High Court judge Choo Han Teck said that “evidence on record shows that the respondents had a political purpose for what they called a ‘walk’“.  “This appeal is therefore allowed and the orders for acquittal against all five respondents are set aside,” Choo wrote in his ruling.

Source: AFP

Last year’s acquittal had been a rare legal victory for Singapore’s small group of pro-democracy activists who had in the past been jailed or fined for flouting the city-state’s strict laws on public assembly.  The five defendants had been charged for walking together wearing T-shirts with the words “Democracy Now” and “Freedom Now” in order to circumvent a law that barred public assemblies of more than four people without a police permit.

I wonder if Choo knows how ridiculous his sentence reads – “evidence on record shows that the respondents had a political purpose for what they called a ‘walk’”.  Yes, in modern Singapore, we cannot walk around in a group of 5 if we have a political cause. 

And the government wonders why former Romanian diplomat Dr Silviu Ionescu doesn’t believe that he’ll receive a fair trial in Singapore.  Contacted by ST yesterday, he rubbished the outcome of the inquest and dismissed the verdict as ‘bull****’.  ‘Honestly, I don’t believe in the court of Singapore,’ he declared.

Given the reputation of our courts, I won’t be surprised if the EU community and leaders elect to protect Ionescu.

AN ONLINE petition has been set up calling on the Romanian government and its embassy here to cooperate with the Singapore authorities to investigate a recent hit-and-run accident which left one man dead. The petition also called for payouts to be made to the families of the three victims of the Dec 15 incident. There were 269 signatures at press time last night. Research engineer William Teo, 31, who was the fifth person to sign the petition, told The Sunday Times: ‘There is a need for the common Singaporean to express outrage at the entire incident to put pressure on parties on both sides. At times, things can get too clinical if we leave it merely to the respective governments.’ The petition, first signed by a Mr Terence Sim, also called for Dr Silviu Ionescu, the charge d’affaires at the Romania Embassy and a suspect in the incident, to be handed over to the authorities here if he is found to be responsible. He is believed to be in Romania.

Source: ST

‘There is a need for the common Singaporean to express outrage at the entire incident to put pressure on parties on both sides. At times, things can get too clinical if we leave it merely to the respective governments.’ Well said. The political and diplomatic courtesies that PAP is indulging in brings the bereaved families no closer to any resolution. We demand accountability NOW. On both governments and also Dr Silviu Ionescu. This petition would have been totally unecessary if the government had demonstrated more urgency in sorting out this affair. If a Singaporean knocked down just 1 pedestrian, he/she would probably be charged in court the next working day.

Sign the petition now. There are already close to 900 signatures.

You can run but you can’t hide. The statement is especially true with the rise of social media. We talk behind the back of the government offline; but these buzz aren’t recorded, aren’t searchable and aren’t amplified. With Facebook, things are very different.

The People’s Action Party (PAP) is the leading political party in Singapore. Despite holding a majority of seats in the Parliament of Singapore, the PAP has been criticized for limiting free speech amongst other issues. These criticisms have been flicked off many times by the PAP, and many disgruntled users have started voicing their opinions on a Facebook page, titled “Vote The PAP Out“. Just a week since its launch date, the page has gathered more than a thousand fans.

Mr Alex Tan, creator of the page took time to list out all the concerns that bother him.
1. Over-influx of foreigners

2. National Service disadvantages

3. Sky-rocketing property prices(average 30 years mortgage loan)

4. High medical costs(CPF’s Medishield cover no shit)

5. Low dispensable income(thanks to CPF)

6. Low CPF’s interest rate(2.5%) leaking value to inflation

7. Inflation due to GST 7%

8. CPF unable to provide retirement(a bulk of the fund is spent servicing a housing loan)

9. Singaporeans unemployment rate not declared(could be higher than gov’s data which is mixed with PRs)

10. No heads rolled when Temasek Holdings and GIC lost billions of our national reserves

11. Heavy shortage of subsidized university places for qualified Singapore students

Source: Pen Olson

More than a thousand members within a week!    That’s much more impressive than “Friends of SDP”, which has been around for a while and to date has only 360 members.  It suggests how the man-on-the-street can play a major role in local political activism.  Further, a “lay person’s” gripe may resonate more with the public than an opposition figure’s manifesto.  An opposition member has inherent political agendas while the man-on-the-street only wants to live.

SINGAPORE: Foreign integration, the AWARE saga and the controversy about not nominating the national table tennis coach for an award were just some issues which topped the list of subjects Singaporeans sent in as feedback to REACH.  Singaporeans had a different view of events, which generated much feedback. One woman in the street, Nurdiyana Irnajaya, said: “The hot topic this year was Ris Low and the controversy and criticism that surrounded her.”  Another Singaporean, Shawn Ho said: “The feeling I get from PM and MM is that we still want to encourage a lot of international students from a diversity of backgrounds to come to Singapore to study.”  Kenny Tan said: “I disagree with the way the AWARE saga was played out. It’s not what they do, but how they do that matters.”   But it was the AWARE saga which topped the list of topics Singaporeans responded to on the REACH website. That subject received 1,904 inputs from Singaporeans.

Source: CNA

Looks like the PAP Times has chosen to ignore netizens’ negative about governance and transparency.  What about the concerns about foreign workers and the social worries they bring to us etc?  Even in its street survey, the PAP reporters chose to only report the humless issues. 

REACH is NOT the barometer of the virtual ground sentiments.  Period.  Take REACH’s statistics against Temasek Review (below, as reported by TR):

Site                                          Global ranking                   Singapore ranking

Temasek Review                   106,549                                        650

REACH                                  667,268                                      2,624

And that’s only for 1 site.  Factor in the others like TheOnlineCitizen and the numerous forums that facilitate freedom of expression and we can see how pathetic REACH is.  Alas, it is merely a facility for PAP to kid itself.

BEIJING — A veteran dissident was sentenced to three years in prison after casting a spotlight on poorly built schools that collapsed and killed thousands of children during China’s massive earthquake last year — an apparent government attempt to squelch such information. Huang Qi, founder of a human rights Web site, had been charged with illegally possessing state secrets, his wife Zeng Li said Monday by telephone. His detention in June 2008 came after several posts on his blog that criticized the government’s response to the massive earthquake that struck Sichuan province a month earlier and killed about 90,000 people. Huang, 46, had alleged that state-controlled media provided skewed reports on relief efforts and accused the government of obstructing the work of non-governmental organizations responding to the disaster, according to reports at the time by Paris-based monitoring group Reporters Without Borders.

Source: AP

In a statement, Amnesty International called for Huang’s immediate release, saying he was being punished merely for helping illuminate the tribulations of families whose children died in the earthquake. Amnesty said several supporters who asked to attend the sentencing were turned away and beaten by police who ringed the courthouse. It gave no details, and their identities were not immediately known.

The sentence could give grist to critics of President Barack Obama, who faulted him for not being more outspoken on human rights during his visit to China last week. While Obama raised the topics of universal rights and Internet freedom, he largely avoided the appearance of lecturing his hosts over such issues, something Beijing has responded to in past with indignation.

If the world’s greatest superpower could do nothing, can Singapore do anything? Well, maybe not for China but we could at least take care of our own backyard by speaking out against any injustice, negligence, incompetence or abuse of basic human rights.

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