Friday, June 8, 2012

What Political Will Achieves

When you are told to "get a room", the implication is that you should book a motel room because you're practically doing it in full view of the public. In the closing scenes of Iron Man 2, Tony Stark was asked to "get a roof" because he was getting hot and heavy with Pepper Potts. Someone must have advised former chief of the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Commissioner Peter Lim Sin Pang to "get a carpark", because he had his amorous trysts in one near Marina Bay Golf Course, one near East Coast Big Splash and one in the vicinity of the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Apparently the sex for IT-related contracts arrangement started in May 2010, less than a year after he was appointed to the top job at SCDF, which goes to show that promotion to high office has its privileges. Why a 52 year old would want to rut in the confines of a automobile like a horny teenager is beyond comprehension. Maybe he's too cheapskate to queue online for the expensive services of the underage whore who landed 80 men in hot soup.

The press is billing this case as the biggest corruption scandal since:
  • 1992, when Commercial Affairs Department director Glenn Knight was convicted of graft involving a government vehicle loan of $65,000;
  • 1995, when Public Utilities Board deputy chief Choy Hon Tim was convicted of taking nearly S$14 million in kickbacks;  
  • 2002, when former Economic Development Board officer Andrew Goh Keng Guan  took S$380,000 in bribes from Chinese nationals to help them process their applications for permanent residency. 
Somehow the other prominent cases are not added to the list:
  • Tan Kia Gan, Minister for National Development, offered his services for a consideration in the purchase of Boeing aircraft;
  • Wee Toon Boon, Minister of State in the Ministry of the Environment, accepted a bungalow worth $500,000 from a housing developer and took two overdrafts totalling $300,000;
  • Phey Yew Kok, President of the NTUC and a PAP MP, charged on four counts of criminal breach of trust involving a total sum of S$83,000;
  • Teh Cheang Wan, Minister for National Development, accepted two cash payments of $400,000 each, in one case to allow a development company to retain part of its land which had been earmarked for compulsory government acquisition.

Mr Chua Cher Yak, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau's (CPIB) chief who retired on 1 July 2005 after more than 11 years on the job, made this parting remark: "Our job is driven by political will. We can only be as effective as the Government wants us to be."

[Interesting factoid: In 1993, a few months after Chee Soon Juan joined the Singapore Democratic Party, he was fired from his position at the National University of Singapore by the Head of the Psychology Department, Dr S Vasoo, an MP for the PAP, for allegedly using research funds to send his wife's doctoral thesis to the United States. The courier charges amounted to the princely sum of $10.]

30 comments:

  1. Absence of corruption in Singapore, my foot! Even when corruption is legalized and made to look normal, that is when people have to worry.

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  2. Its time we Singaporean come down to earth. We are after all not much different from others. The pride that we have avoided all the vices and that our civil servants are clean as a sheet have crumbled. Lets be humble. We fare slightly better than our neighbouring countries at best. Swiss Standards? My foot!

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    Replies
    1. Since the Casinos and Millionaires are here, is more like SIN standards. That is their new normal. When you look back 5 years from now, watershed is mild. Buckle up for tsunami.

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  3. What about that political power to appoint preferred cronies to lucrative positions who in return for that favour, returns that favour by appointing one's spouse or offspring to some senior govt or GLC appointments ? Is this not another form of leegalised corruption ?

    Is that the reason why when in some spoilt cases where the damned ones are not selected or promoted, cases start appearing to be exposed and rear their ugly head ?

    It's no small matter when we have 2 Chiefs of Depts being exposed at about the same time, it just makes one wonder just how wipespread is the rot within ?

    Just imagine the contrasting ambiguity when our Ministers say their sky-high salaries are for them to remain uncorrupt while it doesn't matter the least bit to our Ministers when some of our police detectives at the forefront of temptation are so desperate that they evev have to resort to taking less than S$1000 bribes ?

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, that 'nepotism' is a very real and another form of corruption too. Very prevalent here. But the exposure will come. Sit tight.

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  4. "We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.": Aesop - (c. 550 B.C.) legendary Greek fabulist

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    Replies
    1. i don't think the ex mentor read Aesop to Lee Jr for bedtime stories and even then i doubt the father and son including their stooges will ever understand the wisdom in Aesop's fables.

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  5. What I want to know is this :- Did he go on the paris trip on taxpayers money? Looks like our Civil Servants have a penchant not only for french culinary classes, but also french sexcapades.

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    1. How did the case come to light? Internal/external whistleblower?
      Routine checks when lapses were found out?
      Were all the past procurements given out consistently involved sex-favours or/and with same 3 vendors?
      How did he 'obtained' them? Was it through threats, coercion or an overt quid-pro-quo understanding.
      How did it happened several times over without being discovered? What was the lapses?
      How did the sexcapades happened in his own apt? Where was his wife/children?
      Looks like the press is still doing a shitty job.

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    2. http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120412-339256.html

      Indeed. There was no mention how much of taxpayers money went "unrecovered" because of shitty press and shitty lapses.

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    3. There were three blowers alright, just not the kind you were referring to. My guess is his enemies in the organisation took him out. A fine deed

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  6. There were also 2 other defrauding cases that involved SLA & MHA earlier last year with millions of dollars. One of them even drove a Lambhorgini fast car.
    And I still remember that big one from SIA eons ago.
    Those who argue high pay can deter corruption, need to look no further than the dozens of cases coming up past years. And those were the only ones that were exposed so far. Not only a fact of life, perhaps starting to become a way of life. I say we put in mandatory death sentence like we believe it will deter drugs offenders!

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    Replies
    1. Agreed.
      But then again, the Govt is going to point out that SIA & the other big case involving a drink company are "public Companies".....
      It is kind of comical, some wanted free sexual services, others were more forthright but did not do enough due-diligence and ended up with underaged commercial sex!

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  7. All in all, an accurate reflection of the state of affairs under the father, the son and the holey goh.

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  8. //..Dr S Vasoo, an MP for the PAP, for allegedly using research funds to send his wife's doctoral thesis to the United States. The courier charges amounted to the princely sum of $10.]//

    LOL In today's context, it makes that Dr Vasoo even more of a stooge of PAP, carrying out his execution order by his pay master. What credibility does he have now? That $10 is just a freaking joke. Anyone can see through it's a total set up for petty extermination of a political kind.

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    Replies
    1. Ask anyone that has not "misused" office equipment/fund (amount not important here) and I bet nobody dares to put up their hands. Same as which drivers in Singapore have not violate a traffic rule, no driver will have the guts to raise their hands.

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    2. That's why SKLO is trying to say it is NOT "MY Grandfather Road"!!
      If the Police force has appropriately "deploy the substantial amount of resources" to go after demonic speedsters and traffic violators, we wouldn't have unnecessary deaths such as ferrari and lexus crashes!! And boy, don't get me going with those bus drivers!!

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  9. Lust and Greed are two of the seven deadly sins.

    It is said that Lust is ruled by the celestial sign of Venus. How appropriate, as we have just witnessed the transit of Venus across the Sun.

    Greed is linked with the Frog and the colour yellow.
    Union Chief Lim Swee Say: "We are like a little deaf frog, deaf to all criticisms." A deaf and greedy frog.

    When you pay high salaries to "prevent corruption", remember these words of Socrates: “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”

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  10. "The biggest corruption scandal since... "?!

    How so? How does one quantify it as the biggest scandal by dollar & sense in sex favors? What is the total tenders amounted to?

    If I go search for CPIB website, the amount of information is so pathetic.
    But when I go see the NSW australia CPIB home site, I get all the current and past investigations. Even in an April 2011 report released by HK CDIC i can see the following data :-

    Of the 108 389 corruption complaints received between 1974 and 2010, the Operations Department carried out 70 511 investigations. Among the 13 808 persons prosecuted within the period, 2 105 were government servants, 3 858 were civilians involved in public sector corruption cases, and 406 were from public bodies. The remaining 7 439 persons were involved in private sector cases, with 88% conviction rate. What/where is Singapore's data? Like GIC & Temasek, also must be very secretive huh? Why? Why this country and this important organization has no transparency like every decisions in Singapore here is? Tell me Why?

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    Replies
    1. you want answers?
      vote the pap out, wholesale
      you get your answers.

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  11. So why is SCDF chief not charged under the penal code 377A.
    It is illegal to have oral sex in the public place. Tio bo?

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    Replies
    1. The legal reforms passed in parliament on Tuesday, 23 Oct 2007, mean that oral and anal sex between consenting heterosexual adults is no longer an offense, but section 377A, which deals with oral and anal sex between consenting men, remains in force. If the car is privately owned, and not public transportation like a taxi, it's not considered public space, I think.

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  12. Mr Chua Cher Yak, ex-CPIB chief says: "Our job is driven by political will. We can only be as effective as the Government wants us to be."

    Huh? So this another case of "at the discretion of the PM", because the CPIB comes under the PMO, and the director reports to the PM. What happens in a hypothetical case of a future PM involved in corruption or some criminal activities - everyone is human, and nobody is as clean as the driven snow? Where is the political will?

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    Replies
    1. Wonder why Mr Chua Cher Yak would say such a thing all of a sudden?

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    2. Does Mr Chua's statement amount to saying that the PM can cherry-pick who he wants, or does not want, investigated by the CPIB, with political connotations? Or am I reading too much into it?

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    3. Nope. You are reading right on the lines!
      That's what most people already think and feel anyway.

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    4. Responding to Workers' Party's Sylvia Lim's question in parliament sitting of 14 Feb 2012, on the available channels for whistleblowers and how many times the channels have been used in the last 5 years against superiors, Teo Chee Hean said 59 cases of wrongful behaviour of uniformed officers were reported by whistleblowers. Of these cases, 44 were anonymous and of the 15 which were not anonymous, 8 were against a superior officer. There are more skeletons in the cardboard due for airing.

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    5. I recall one ex ISD director making some unflattering statements not too long ago.

      Can it be the skeletons are beginning to crawl out from one oldman's cupboard ?

      Delete
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