Parliament is not the right place to settle family disputes.
It is an institution to make laws and debate national issues.
Family disputes should be settled in courts.In parliament MPs have no details of the case and only hear PM telling his side of the case.
Wrong platform.
Source: Dr Tan Cheng Bock
Those who say to Lee Hsien Yang and Lee Wei Ling: “Please don’t make your spat public, the world is laughing at us, I feel embarrassed when I have to explain to my overseas friends what is going on”, are you for realz?
I think you’re either being disingenuous or hypocritical if the Oxley saga makes you feel embarrassed and awkward, but not these other questions, which I regularly get from my foreign friends:
– How come your prime minister is the son of a former prime minister?
– Meritocracy, really?
– How come your prime minister’s wife is the director of the national wealth fund?
– Meritocracy?
– What does meritocracy mean in your country?
– Why do you ban chewing gum?
– Why do you cane people who spray graffiti?
– How come you’re supposed to be a ‘developed country’ but your press freedom ranking is so low?
– Why do you hang people people who sell drugs but not people who take them?
– How come your country isn’t ready for a non-Chinese Prime Minister?
– Why do you criminalise what consensual adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms?
– Why are there so many incidents of domestic worker abuse and suicides from your country?
– Why do people from your country visit ours and do things they wouldn’t do in yours, like littering, speeding, and shouting ‘so cheap!’ at everything?
Really, what is this selective shame? I can tell you that I don’t feel embarrassed at all explaining what’s happening with 38 Oxley Road. So here are a few things you can tell your foreign inquisitors: It’s a dispute over a will. There are serious questions to be asked about whether there has been an abuse of power. Like every other political system all over the world that emphasises checks and balances, we need to enforce safeguards that ensure our politicians do not act with impunity, and do not use state organs to further their personal interests.
You know how Trump is being investigated for potential obstruction of justice, or all those conflict of interest lawsuits regarding his business holdings and the emoluments clause, not to mention the ostensibly nepotistic practice of putting Ivanka and Jared in politically influential positions? Same thing in our country: if there’s any wrongdoing, the media has an obligation to expose it, and the law must take its course.
And lastly, I don’t feel embarrassed because I have never thought that our Prime Minister, or the PAP for that matter, ever represented the best of what my country has produced. (Can I interest you, instead, in some of our brilliant sportspeople, our filmmakers, our artists, our tenacious and courageous activists?) There are many other Singaporean things I am fiercely and passionately proud of and well…Lee Hsien Loong and his party are not on that list.
Source: Alfian Sa’at
Perdana Menteri Lee Hsien Loong meminta maaf kepada rakyat Singapura di atas pertikaian keluarga antara beliau dengan adik beradiknya, Dr. Lee Wei Ling dan Lee Hsien Yang, dan melahirkan rasa sangat kesal bahawa peristiwa itu menjejas reputasi Singapura dan keyakinan rakyat terhadap Pemerintah. PM Lee juga menyatakan, beliau mahu meyakinkan rakyat Singapura bahawa perkara ini tidak akan mengganggu beliau dan rakan-rakan Kabinetnya daripada tanggungjawab memerintah Singapura. Ini juga tambah beliau tidak akan mengganggu beliau dan Pemerintah dalam menghuraikan isu-isu nasional yang lebih penting, termasuk cabaran-cabaran ekonomi dan keselamatan yang sedang dihadapi Singapura.
Semasa menyampaikan permohonan maaf kepada rakyat Singapura, PM Lee akur bahawa rakyat Singapura terganggu dan bingung dengan berita pertikaian antara beliau dengan adik beradiknya sejak seminggu lalu. PM Lee seterusnya menyatakan, beliau sudah melakukan segala yang terdaya untuk mengelakkan peristiwa tersebut. PM Lee menjelaskan, beliau cuba menghuraikan perasaan kurang senang mereka secara privet. Ini termasuklah menawarkan untuk memindahkan 38 Oxley Road kepada adiknya, Dr Lee Wei Ling, dengan harga nominal $1.
PM Lee menyatakan, beliau berharap langkah-langkah tersebut akan memuaskan adik beradiknya itu dan seharusnya tiada lagi percakaran lanjut kerana beliau tidak lagi memiliki rumah tersebut, serta tidak mengambil bahagian dalam sebarang keputusan Pemerintah mengenai rumah tersebut. Perdana Menteri selanjutnya menyatakan, beliau mahu melupakan peristiwa ini. Namun tuduhan-tuduhan tersebut, yang disifatkannya sebagai tidak berasas terhadap Pemerintah, “tidak boleh dibiarkan tidak terjawab”. Sebagai kakitangan awam, tulisnya lagi, beliau dan para Menterinya akan terus melindungi integriti institusi-institusinya dan menegakkan piawai yang tinggi – iaitu membezakan antara ehwal privet daripada tugas-tugas awam.
Source: Berita Mediacorp
Presidential hopeful and CEO of Second Chance Properties Mohd Salleh Marican said he is taking Malay lessons ahead of the upcoming presidential election after he was criticised for his poor grasp of the language during an interview.
In an exclusive interview with Yahoo Singapore, Salleh, 67, said the weekly lessons would enable him to converse in Malay fluently about his candidacy during media interviews and interactions with the electorate. Salleh was talking to Yahoo Singapore on Monday (19 June) at the house of his eldest daughter Nadia Marican in the eastern part of Singapore.
On 5 June 2017, Salleh struggled to answer in Malay during an interview with a group of reporters outside the Elections Department after he collected his presidential election forms. The incident prompted criticisms online about his inability to speak the language well given that the September presidential election is reserved for Malay candidates.
Instead of being affected by the criticisms, Salleh said he is taking firm steps to address the issue. The father of four added that while he is able to converse in “everyday Malay” currently, he wants to improve his conversational skills by taking lessons from a Malay newspaper and television media veteran.
“You don’t need to be good in Malay to carry out your duties as a president because the official language is English.
“Now that this has happened, I have to do my best to improve my mastery of the language and I am taking it as a challenge. I am taking several Malay lessons a week and I am challenging myself that on Nomination Day, I will make an off the cuff public speech in the language,” he added.
Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com
The NS50 nationwide campaign has revived painful memories to many Malays of my generation.
How do we take part in this campaign to show our appreciation of National Servicemen when many of us were not called up; and of the small minority that were selectively called up, many also faced all kinds of invisible barriers during their service!
Some were shunted to the cook house, others diverted to the transport section and became drivers, while a handful were deployed as physical instructors, as meritocracy and equality were thrown overboard..
The first ten years were the worst as tens of thousands were left in limbo, in the twilight zone, unwanted by NS and because of that, they were not able to get jobs, leading to widespread unemployment within the Malay-Muslim community.
I know so many of these people had to go to Mindef and begged to be taken into NS or to get a letter of exemption; most of their requests were ignored as callousness towards the community was then the order of the day.
Those were the cruel days for the community until the top leaders see the light and gradually adjusted policies to make life easier for the community.
But the discrimination against the community in NS and in the uniformed services, both subtle and otherwise, continues till today.
To dismiss all this pain as just a perception, as a Malay Minister did recently in Parliament, is perhaps the unkindest cut of all.
It is tantamount to rubbing chilly on wounds – despite the passage of 50 years – that have not yet completely healed.
The current appreciation campaign, however, gives the government a golden opportunity to make amends.
Surely it is not beyond the ability of the present star-studded scholar-leaders to think of some way to assuage the hurt of the past.
Source: Ismail Kassim