Shoddy Journalism

During a Q&A exchange of the ''Leadership Renewal The Fourth Generation and Beyond" Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum at NUS in April 2007, a second year sociology major was trying to complete his question, "... we are doing absolutely badly and this is exacerbated by the fact that although Singapore is a First World country, it has a Third World wage structure - and this is according to the Straits Times, not from anywhere else. And even Professor Tommy Koh ..."
PM Lee cut him off with : "Do you believe everything you read in the Straits Times?"

Low Thia Khiang has made it clear he doesn't, but he's probably more upset about the political innocents who might be mortified by misleading headlines or picture captions. After all, Francis Seow's book "The Media Enthralled: Singapore Revisited" is not easily available at the book shelves here.

The newspaper that was once ranked 154th out of 195 in the "2007 Freedom of the Press World Ranking" by "Freedom House" is crying foul. Never mind if a United States diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks once quoted Chua Chin Hon, the Straits Times' U.S. bureau chief, saying that the paper's "editors have all been groomed as pro-government supporters and are careful to ensure that reporting of local events adheres closely to the official line", and that "the government exerts significant pressure on ST editors to ensure that published articles follow the government's line".

Thanks to the exchange of letters in the Forum page we now know that the Secret Squirrel was in direct email communication with the Straits Times, and not any other publication. We also know that they chose the date of publication, which opens up another can of worms - was the timing intended to inflict maximum collateral damage? Low said in the post election conference his party did not have the resources to investigate the matter, but SPH has. All they need to do is to check the mail header, and lots of interesting things can be found, such as the source of posting. If the Tin Pei Ling example is anything to go by, even the law enforcement folks may not have the political will to complete the detective work. Last time we checked, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein do not work in the shitty times.

Toilet Tales

Chairman of the Foundation of Rotary Clubs, David Tong, has boldly stepped forward to clarify that its constitution bans members from taking part in any political activity in the name of the clubs. He was probably responding to former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bok's Facebook posting, questioning the $100,000 offer to support PAP candidate Desmond Choo's scheme to upgrade old toilets in Hougang. Tan had commented the cause was noble, "However the reason and timing for the donation is misplaced."


Click to read the fine print

 Note the letter of offer was dated 22nd May 2012, at the height of the epic Battle for Hougang. Choo's campaign team said 50 more toilets can be retrofitted with the extra money, on top of the 11 already upgraded, and 19 in the pipeline. The letter is addressed specifically to "Dear Mr. Desmond Choo Pey Ching, Hougang", and yet we are told Tapan Kumar Rao had not even met Choo before - how many strangers know him as Pey Ching? The last line reads emphatically, "I am sure, together we can make a difference." He must have crossed out "Always Here For You," that would be too obvious.

Acting like the saint he is obviously not, Tapan Rao maintains "the political dimension had not crossed his mind" when he penned the missive with a grandiose stroke of generosity. Now he wants to make it crystal clear that "the Rotary Club is not making any donation to any political party." Which happens to be quite true, since the letter spells out clearly that the "Rotary Club of Singapore will be happy to work with you and your team" to "raise funds necessary to retrofit toilets." If Desmond had expected a fat check for $100K to land on his desk ("Choo's toilet upgrade project gets $100,000 donation", ST Breaking News, 24 May 2012), he will be in for another rude surprise. Coming so soon right after his dashed hopes of May 26th, that should be enough make a grown man cry.

Tan demanded to know, "Now that PAP Desmond lost to WP Png in the election, what is the Rotary Stand?" Sorry, Mr Former Presidential Candidate, the offer was good only for "work with you and your team", as in Desmond, not Png. As an ex-PAP backbencher, surely he knows how the game is played.

Guys in black supporting the men in white

They Outsource Babies, Don't They?

Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing was quoting ex-DPM Wong Kan Seng when he said Singapore could turn its dismal total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.2 around, as Nordic countries managed to do, if it accepts women having children out of wedlock. That should make him popular in those countries, children born out of wedlock are usually associated with the "b" word.

In March 2011, Wong had quoted OECD figures to show that Sweden, Denmark and Norway have a high TFR because many people there are having babies out of wedlock as much as they are within marriage. What the keechiu general conveniently skipped was the qualification by Dr Yap Mui Teng, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, "although parents may not officially get married, they are more or less in stable cohabitating relationships... Sometimes they go on to marry after a child is born." Something Brad Pitt and Angelina Joline planned to do, after having 3 biological and 3 adopted kids.

Dr Yap cited research published in 2005 to state, "Where they start from is a pro-individual approach - where individuals are supported in pursuing their aims and lifestyles - it didn't start out as a policy to encourage child bearing." In other words, they had children of their own volition, not simply to feed the state with economic fodder.

Singapore women, like the men, are resigned to being pawns in the GDP game. Nine months of labour are nine months of economic loss. That's worse then the opportunity cost of Reservist Training. Some women are even given the pink slip for getting in the family way. And there is always the possibility that the slim waistline will go to pot.

The Daily Telegraph ("Half of India's surrogate babies for UK" reported that British bankers, senior civil servants, executives at MNCs and even National Health Service doctors are having babies through surrogates to avoid pregnancy and child birth. Women in India are being paid up to US$9,000 to donate eggs and carry babies to term. And since most Singapore kids are raised by Filipina domestics anyway (whose maternal roles have extended to carrying the NSmen's backpacks), mom won't have to miss a single day of work. Wong, before he lost his million dollar paycheck, had said that a solution (to the TFR issue) was not just a matter of taking what works elsewhere and trying to apply it here, societal context mattered. Well, it looks like we have something workable here. After all, we have extensive experience outsourcing to India. Why stop at babies?

It's A Fine Mess

Way back in December 2009, many Singaporeans who were retrenched during the global financial crisis were still unable to find a job commensurate with their experience and qualifications. NTUC promised to tackle the "under-employment" issue which was common among older Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs). Halimah Yacob, Deputy Secretary-General, NTUC, said then, “He may be very qualified, very skilled, but the jobs that he wants to do and is willing to do is not available. He ends up doing a job that does not make full capacity, productive use of his capabilities. It also involves the case where jobs are not paying them the kind of salary or earning that they feel is commensurate with their qualifications and skills.” They are obviously still working on the problem.

Once upon a time, only highly qualified expatriates or blue collar workers with specialist trades are granted permits to work in Singapore. Operating under the radar, the liberalised foreign intake policy has flooded the Singapore labor market with foreign PMETs, some with shady paper credentials, leading to intense competition with locals for jobs which otherwise would have been available to them. The threat was no longer the lowly road sweeper or the traditional shipyard worker. The gamut runs from IT engineers, service technicians, supermarket supervisors, front desk personnel, bank officers to physiotherapists in the healthcare sector. The excuse used to be the need to fuel the economy, now the slant is on the declining birthrate. Guess what - the foreigners ain't producing any more babies than the locals.

Whether it is the TFR or the silver tsunami, the planners seem to ignore the tinderbox that is the volatile mix of an economically insecure population and the ad hoc infusion of outsiders, especially those flaunting obscene wealth of doubtful origins. One writer has stated that the "anxiety over having too many foreigners needs to be genuinely respected, and addressed sensitively and holistically." The failure to do so will erode the trust between the people and government. Unlike a city hotel that may rent its rooms by the hour, a country worth defending has an innate DNA crying out for enhancing the well-being of its occupiers (called citizens) and nurturing a liveable and inclusive, not polarised, society. It would be sad day when the outflow matches, or even exceed, the influx of human traffic. How many of your neighbors' kids are opting to study overseas, with or without the justification that they could not secure a place in the local universities? Those who cannot afford this costly opt out alternative will add to the simmering disgruntled. The threshold of pain is sorely tested over the surge in foreign workers, soaring housing and transport costs and stagnant salaries for low-wage earners. In the grand scheme of things, Hougang was just a speeding fine.

Hougang Wins

"they know what they want"

Never has journalism sunk so low.

There was Teo Chee Hean on the televison screen, calling out again if there were any more questions, obviously desperate to end the humiliation of facing the reporters after a landslide defeat. Candidate Choo, probably still trying hard to tear up one last time for the aunties, was just as anxious to get it over with. There was Low Thia Khiang at the victor's press conference, getting warmed up as the questions built up, only to be interrupted mid-sentence for a special cut back to Teo and Choo to respond to Low's annunciation of what is open knowledge: a campaign stained with old style tactics of character assassination, veiled threats and baseless attacks. Even the supporters from outside Hougang were not spared - traffic directions were warped to prevent them from reaching the political rally of their choice.

"I was hoping to see that as a society, we would move closer to our vision in our national pledge to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality.

But I feel disappointed that there were several calculated moves to discredit the candidate and attack the Workers' Party (WP). This by-election was characterised by baseless attacks, distractions, character assassinations, and veiled threats of using government resources as a carrot and stick to coerce voters."

Low rightfully credited the Hougang voters, who gave Png Eng Huat a convincing 62.1% majority, to "have a clear mind and they know what they want." Despite PM Lee Hsien Loong's professing the embrace of an inclusive society, the ward has been denied upgrading for the past 21 years. It is time the government approves the WP's improvement plans under the Neighborhood Renewal Programme and the Home Improvement Programme - both are funded by the taxpayers, not from money raised by two-time loser Demond Choo or the Rotary Club. Grasping at straws, Teo says he doesn't think Hougang is representative of Singapore as a whole. Oh yeah, so what is it about "inclusive" that the scholar Minister doesn't understand?