Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Selective Memory

Second Home Affairs Minister S Iswaran was there at the 2am press conference with Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Teo Chee Hean when latter said the Little India flare-up was the first case of street rioting in three or four decades. If it was too early in the morning to be fully conscious, Iswaran can count on two others flanking Teo to bear witness to what was said, namely Police Commissioner Ng Joo Hee and Deputy Police Commissioner T Raja Kumar.

One year on, Iswaran is claiming that there were 47 cases of rioting last year, all linked to alcohol consumption. Since the knee-jerk clamp down on alcoholic beverages started right after 8 December 2013, the number of riots must be higher in the preceding years, when alcohol was in abundant free flow. As in at least more than once in three or four decades.

But we have seen how the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and Housing and Development Board (HDB) can disagree with minister Khaw Boon Wan on whether the tender for a place-of-worship site can be awarded to a company that is not affiliated to a religious organisation. Note also the significant qualification of timing when Khaw said, "for a quarter of a century we never had a for-profit company taking part in such temple tenders". Who knows, when the final flip-flop is effected on the U-turn to the Eternal Pure Life undertaking, something that happened earlier before the aforementioned quarter of a century will be quoted to justify the inevitable - a commercial columbarium built at Fernvale Link.

Most of us have terminated our subscription to the local papers because of the crap printed. But we need a score card to keep tab on how the politicians twist and squirm to camouflage their incompetence, and outright lies. Maybe we should write more to Huffington Post and the like.

23 comments:

  1. Yup, I was astonished to know that Singapore has been turned into a country with riots every week. What has this country become? From first world to third world with this current batch of high-paid incompetents.

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  2. Fernvalegate is getting curiouser and curiouser, as Alice would say. Life Corp has stated to the ASX that it had complied with the tender documents and had never concealed the fact that it was a commercial undertaking. Why then would the URA and HDB officials have to assume that it was so or otherwise 'affiliated' to a religious organisation? Was it the case that the land was, expressly or otherwise, intended to be tendered for by religious organisations as was the condition for columbarium sites since 1998? That they had lied or not told the whole truth to Dr. Lam bring to mind the Brompton bike affair, in which one official was charged for misleading the authorities to shield another person. An Committee on Inquiry has to be set up to get to the bottom of things. In the meantime could someone get a copy of the tender documents to see what conditions were required?

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    1. The Minister should have presented the Tender Analysis Report to support the fact that HDB made the blunder as alleged. Otherwise it is just his own version of the truth making HDB the scapegoat, isn'it?

      History has told us that our PAP leaders was got away with a lot of unverifiable hard truths. We should demand the same level of accountability as what our PM demanded from Roy, otherwise it does square off with the type of obscene pay they demand for themselves.

      Like that any Tom, Dick or Harry can be a Minister, isn'it if they think they can get away by telling some ancient chinese story. What more when it is only based on a fictional novel, not some historical facts?

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    2. Can I also assume he is lying since there are no facts to support his explanation? In other words, can I also assume he is a liar, no need to beat around the bush?

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    3. Won't be surprised if behind the deal is Temasek Holding manipulating it all along. See how fast they try to close the case without investigation. That tell you someone in the government is the mastermind.

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  3. "One year on, Iswaran is claiming that there were 47 cases of rioting last year, all linked to alcohol consumption."

    ONE person causing a disturbance is a riot.
    You never heard of this definition meh?
    ONE person protesting is also an illegal assembly.
    You also never heard of this meh?

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  4. I am a senior citizen, like to drink at coffee shop at night with friends for chit-chat. Now this also cannot do. They are criminalising us by passing these stupid laws. And this won't be the last. F...k them! They are turning this country into a police state. F...k them! Vote the whole blardy lot of them out!

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    1. They created the problem by opening the flood gates to mass immigration from 3rd world countries.
      And now they punish a Singaporean senior citizen as part of their attempt to fix their policy problem.
      F*CK them indeed.
      Vote them out in GE 2016.

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    2. It's not just opening the flood gates -- which will need to be opened even Wider with all the many major construction projects in the pipeline, all at the same time. With the growing number of angmohs, who also enjoy a drink, coming to town.

      They also did nothing to accommodate the construction workers -- as in a place to stay, actually being paid their salary, off time, places to hang out etc. These fellows now wont be able to even drink in their dorms or construction sites to chill and relax their weary bodies, and sit around and chat to get their unhappiness off their chests.

      Heeeeyyy, thats lot of stress that's going to build up.

      On the local scene, the senior citizen who enjoys a quiet drink and chit chat with friends late at night is not alone. I see many such small groups. Their socialising is over.

      Whhooaaa more stress. Loneliness. Health problems. Arguments over even smaller things than are upsetting people now.

      Sounds like a great recipe for unhappiness. In fact, it's a Fantastic one for more than 47 ''riots'' in a year....

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  5. This could have been easily solved by sending more police patrols to the problem areas (Little India, Clarke Quay), there's no need for such a stupid draconian law with absolutely grey areas that are impossible to control.

    And please do not insult our intelligence claiming that the law only deals with trouble makers... first of all, I'm quite sure there are people who make alcohol-induced trouble BEFORE 10.30pm. Secondly, you mean to tell me that the existing set of laws cannot deal with alcohol-induced trouble after 10.30pm? That boggles the mind.

    Also, I don't buy the narrative that drunkedness caused the Little India riots. I think the foreign workers who flipped a police car and smashed the bus were utterly sober and knew what they were doing.

    The day following the riot, Lui Tuck Yew was there on ground zero, telling the reporters how alcohol was the culprit. Conclusion drawn in one day by the Transport Minister. That was quite amazing, to say the least.

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    Replies
    1. Oil price drop by 50% in 2015.
      Public transport fare increase by 3.2%
      Singaporeans cannot smell the alcohol.
      Singaporeans can't even smell a rat.
      Incredible.

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  6. Selective memory or selective amnesia

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  7. Govt agencies have selective truth. To the MP, they tell some truth. To the bigger shot like Minister, they tell more truth.
    To the people who pay their salaries, the Government agencies said every thing but the truth.

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  8. They live in an imaginary world, they create whatever stories (including facts & figures) they like to justify whatever they want. Liars, Bullies, Cheats.

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  9. Those selective memories and amnesia explain why they are acting all that goat by drumming up the celebratory SG50 with pretext that they have changed ! Why else would DPM headlined "We need consensus to move ahead". In PAP's speak, that means election lai liao .

    http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2015/02/spores-trust-in-government-continues-to-fall-edelman/

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  10. Haha....

    Sweet talk by a man that even students despised.

    patriot

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  11. I am thinking I must be watching a circus right now. Why pay these acrobats, clowns and jugglers such a high salary?

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  12. //"for a quarter of a century we never had a for-profit company taking part in such temple tenders"//

    As Head of HDB/MND , he ought to know better.

    http://www.singaporelaw.sg/sglaw/laws-of-singapore/case-law/free-law/high-court-judgments/13759-poh-lian-development-pte-ltd-v-hok-mee-property-pte-ltd-and-others-2009-sghc-153


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  13. Is this another riot???

    https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=934961016549066

    http://therealsingapore.com/content/fight-breaks-out-between-malaysians-and-prcs-woodlands-koufu-foodcourt

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  14. At the Same Blogsite, an Article complaining about Police Brutality, two videos attached with the Article shows near full bloom riot almost took place too.

    patriot

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  15. More riots?

    https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=934964853215349

    https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=934900199888481

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  16. LIke what old Prez Abe Lincoln use to say...u can always find the wrong kind of politicians thick as ticks/fleas on a good hardworking dog any day and anytime....truest words of real wisdom that...lol

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  17. yak yak yak that's all bitchy Singaporeans do. But we are still the 2nd safest city in the world, assholes.

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