Dr Tony Tan righteously claimed, "I regret that, for the first time since this page's inception, I have had to delete a post." He adds, "This page's criteria for civility is not whether the posts are favourable to me. ... I started this page with the intention to create a place of genuine, honest and respectful debate."
Yeah, but not when the debate is about his son's special deal to serve his NS obligation as a "defence research scientist" while lesser mortals end up with less exotic vocations like Combat Medic. Or worse. Puthucheary for one would have loved to learn about this option during the election hustings. His declaration that "I've spent the last 10 years saving kids' lives" in lieu of serving NS would certainly have drawn fewer brickbats from patriotic netizens.
The cowardly deletion, plus phony affirmation of "genuine, honest and respectful debate", is significant. It is concrete evidence that cronyism is rampant in certain quarters. Intent is nine tenths of the law, but the missing bit will always jump up and bite you, more so when the race for $4 million is now on. Revelations like the one below strike a resonant chord with the outraged when we are supposed to be living in a country that subscribes to meritocracy.
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Tony Tan is becoming quite a divisive figure, which is not what a President is meant to be. Perhaps, he might wish to consider withdraw his candidacy, which, ironically, would be a move that many Singaporeans would support. That would be the most unifying action he could take.
ReplyDeleteIt is as clear as daylight that there is preferential treatment, notwithstanding, everything is above board and within regulatory guidelines. I can't really fault a father for wanting his son to do well in life.
ReplyDeleteThis is the so-called Asian Value in practice. It makes one think of why Chairman Mao abandoned Asian Value and sent his own son to Korean War in 1950s to be killed. When he knew his son was killed, he said it is because he is his son. Communists do not really respect Confucius if it is the so-called Asian Value that some one is promoting for some hidden agenda. White Horse Policy is indeed created from the so-called Asian Value. There are far too many cases to be revealed only if the secret book of history is open to the public.
ReplyDeleteSo is the lie being exposed when someone is brave enough to come forward to challenge his clarification ?
ReplyDeleteSo why did our Presidential hopeful need to delete the post if it was the truth from the bottom of his heart ?
By the way, how come his son need a scholarship in the first place ? You mean as a Minister, he can't even afford to pay for his son's education on his own ?
What a mess created by a President hopeful ?
The Chinese saying of "yue miao yue hei"(the more you aim at something, the blacker it gets) is probably true here. To begin with, if things are really as fair, then such a case would not even have begun. Will the Tan family sue any of the ones asking those questions for defamation, or are they going to actually keep quiet and go on the "no comments" track now?
ReplyDeleteSo now the truth is out. White hair = white horse treatment. What else is new under the sun/son? TonyTan cannot and will never be able to give a straight answer. Everyday as more truths are uncovered, singaporeans will then wake up to realize why PAP first/2nd-gen leaders were ""supposedly good" are because they are "extremely good" at covering it up. The MSM only cover and repot the good stuff..and so they are the perfect crooks all these years..none the wiser. Just imagine, what else have we not uncovered in the reserves?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you daft Singaporeans expect from an unaccountable and opaque government since 1965? People today are more educated and wiser even though they have gone through all those obscurantist policies. Surely because of these policies 40% of the people manage to wake up only after 45 years being fool around. The other 60% are still daft. How could Singaporeans tolerated 45 years of unaccountable and opaque governance?
ReplyDeleteThe problem is the majority of the people are not so smart. They won't be able to tell the difference between black and white. The way Straits Times present the article is appalling:
ReplyDelete"Tony Tan rebuts online rumours about son"
"All his sons did NS fully"
"he didn't intervene in their postings"
"meliodosis was a serious concern to Mindef"
"research was originally planned to be carried out at the Defence Medical and Environmental Research Institute"
"Patrick's posting was done according to vocational guidelines"
Is he the only one accorded such treatment to serve NS as a defense scientist?
What was his A-level results to be given a President's scholarship?
What are the vocational guidelines?
Are they trying to redefine the meaning of military service?
If Singaporeans are savvy enough, they would be able to see through the smoke screen and reject Dr Tan's candidacy. Unfortunately, many are not. I'm truly disappointed.
ReplyDeleteAnyone still thinks all new citizens are pro-PAP? Ask Raj Mohan and his family.
ReplyDeleteYou won't exactly know if new citizens are exactly pro-PAP. It depends on their background. The ones who come from poorer countries like Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, and so on, and who did not get enough of chances back where they were from vote for the PAP out of gratitude. That is however very anecdotal and what I heard from opposition party volunteers when they went along with opposition party members during walkabouts. Voting is secret, whether or not a person believes in it, and you cannot get down to the exact detail(s) of who voted for who or what, until he or she says it out directly, or until any of the election officers or polling agents do even break the rule to STARE across to see what people vote for.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I don't think it is possible to assume that a large proportion of Indians and Malays vote for the incumbent PAP too. I know many who actually voted for the opposition, among my friends or associates, and also, the Singaporean Chinese I knew seem to be in fact more concerned about abetting the status quo than anyone else. These anecdotal pieces of experience is more than enough to suggest at least that race has little to do with voting for the opposition or for the PAP.
ReplyDeleteThe Straits Times even attempt to cover up for its ex-boss's son but leaving out the fact that PT said in his own statement that he got TWO scholarships - the President's and Loke Chen Kim (no bond). A minster's son and a family background of banking, yet the greed. It never occurred to him and his father that by taking TWO scholarship he has deprived another Singaporean of an opportunity to study with the help of a scholarship.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly don need it, but took it nevertheless. Also, isn't there a rule AGAINST one person having TWO scholarship. I believe it is a condition of the LCK scholarship that a recipient cannot be holding another scholarship concurrently. I am sure it would be the same with the PSC. Can someone please check on this.
The scholarship system in Singapore is outdated and is abused by many people. The scholarship should reward those poor youths who excel in study so as to level the playing field. This is meritocracy and equality in action. For those rich smart youths, the scholarship should be just partial and proportional to his/her family income and assets level. It can be called 'Graduate Award' like other countries do. It makes it an honor to receive such Award/Scholarship. One size fits all approach is inequality in play. It is also against diversity. Diversity is a key to next level of excellence in all fields, not just in biology, ecology or corporation but also society and country.
ReplyDeleteSingapore needs to revamp this abused and outdated scholarship scheme to ensure real meritocracy and equality among its people. Given the many 'talents' in the government as claimed, it is sad that NO ONE has thought of this and do something about it. The opposition in parliament should move to revamp the scholarship scheme. It is easily justified on grounds of meritocracy and equality.
TT spoke on the need to change the scholarship system in the wake after the naming of bond breakers. Now it appears to have been a smoke screen considering nothing was done and his family were actually recipients of it. What will poor families do? Education is NO longer a level playing field, don't try to bullshit us about those cheap bursary awards.
ReplyDeleteTattler,
ReplyDeletei am inclined to believe SinCity has a very high proportion of phonies put in place to run various institutions on this island... courtesy of LeeConYou and his system.
Does anyone doubt if i say there are 81 phonies in parliament who are suppose to represent the people, suppose to serve them ? How about phonies in the justice system, phonies in the MSM ? etc, etc.
Most obvious of all, the phoney put in place as PM.
And to complement him, another phoney as president becomes imperative...for the PAP
After more than 30 years ruling the country, what has TT achieved?
ReplyDeleteThe poor gets poorer and the rich richer, OCBC opened and continue to open branches all over this little red dot.
Cronyism is even a mild word to describe his defence of his son's NS. He got 2 (TWO) scholarships, for goodness sake! while those deserving, didn't even have one!
He's a white horse; all others are shades of grey and black.
Giving multiple scholarships to a single student defeats the primary purpose of the scholarship whose objective is to enable a student to study without financial strain. Scholarships are not meant to enrich any candidate however outstanding he may be. If you stretch the case for giving multiple scholarships, then you might as well end up with only one student winning all the available scholarships of the land, and no other student, not even the second best, will get any scholarship. This multiple scholarship award for Patrick Tan is even more abhorent especially because his father Dr Tony Tan was strongly advocating the scrapping of all scholarships in 1999 when he was DPM, until the then PM Goh had to come out to overrule him. See the page 1 ST article of 25 Apr 1999:
ReplyDelete"PM SAYS: Scholarships won't be scrapped. GOVERNMENT scholarships are here to stay. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said yesterday that he does not favour the replacement of scholarships with loans for bright Singaporean students."
Then, not satisfied with PM's overruling, Dr Tan again reiterated his proposal in The Straits Times, 20 July 2000, Page 1.
//The scholarship system in Singapore is outdated and is abused by many people. The scholarship should reward those poor youths who excel in study so as to level the playing field. This is meritocracy and equality in action. //
ReplyDeleteBut why stop there. In fact, if it's a true meritocracy, we should even scrap away the primary school allocation priorities such as (1) living near school (2) priority given to alumnus parents. Both of these are true discrimination against poor students/families who can't move house to expensive neighborhood, and parents who didn't have past privilege of going to such good school. That's like saying any potential candidates who wish to run for political office will be given priority if they live near to Istana house & their parents were ex-MPs would have express-lane to the gravy train.
How do you like that?
Internet is causing havoc/revolutions in many previously "stable" regimes/countries. In time, we will find out how the Lee family end up controlling ALL key posts (politics, defense, finance, media) in the country.
ReplyDeleteThe Internet will nurture some intellectual revolutionaries that will certainly empty the entire closet for examination in due course. All those skeletons inside will be burnt. Oh no, it is all those who hide the skeletons who will be burnt.
ReplyDeleteHi fellow Singaporean, and have served NS as well as my fair share of ICT. I am not sure what is all about the Dr Tony Tan’s issue about, especially about the type of service/ vocation his son was in during his NSF days.
ReplyDeleteBack in the 90’s, I have peers, who are not white horse, did finished their degree before serving NS too. Those with good grades, and have their scholarship, after serving some time in their OCS, depending on starting of their school term, they can be release for their studies. There is nothing special about it, and not uncommon.
I also have seen, a operation SGT, who had his MDDS, been sent to his OCS to do his conversion, and continue his ICT in air-com room. That is better use of the manpower, what so special about it?
In my humble opinion, what is most special is, LTA Lee been charged for insubordination, can still have his scholarship, and went on for his study.
What Patrick Tan did was very normal. Any one from OCS will probably hear one or two such cases in every batch. Nothing special at all.
BTW, all those who served NS will know, the hardest part is the BMT and first few weeks of OCS (when the cadets have to put on white lanyard). So what is the issue of him working in air-con room?
ReplyDeleteIn my frank opinion, Patrick did served his due, and he is not something lesser than any other NSmen.
Previous method of appointing President can garvanise the community. The Government can rotate such appointment based on four main races in Singapre. Every community is happy. With the introduction of EP, certain race will see their chances diminished. Not so because of the entry requirement but the backing required from the whole population. Therefore some minority group will not vote for TT (not becuase they don't like him) to show their displeasure. EP in theory is an obstacle to reserves but think agian. If the government is bent to dig in their hands to the reserves, how much can EP resist? Are we sure he can withstand the whole machinary alone?
ReplyDelete