PMO has announced that Mr Hri Kumar, former PAP MP, will be appointed Deputy Attorney-General with effect from March 2017.
I was asked by a local paper whether I had any concerns about partisanship, given that Mr Kumar was such a strong critic of AHPETC, our WP-run Town Council.
I gave my response as follows (which I was just told would not be published due to lack of space):
“It is critical that persons entrusted with vast prosecutorial discretion act in the public interest, and not for partisan political gain. The appointment of a former PAP MP to such a post is not ideal. Whether my concerns prove to be founded or otherwise – remains to be seen”.
February 15 is the day when the British surrender to the invading Japanese forces in Singapore, and this year marks the 75th anniversary of one of the darkest period in our island nation’s history — the Japanese Occupation (1942 to 1945).
Many of S’pore’s past leaders, such as Lee Kuan Yew and David Marshall, were young men during that period. They experienced the hardships, felt the hunger brought on during that period, and lived through the uncertainties with some narrow escapes.
Recording his Japanese Occupation experience in his memoirs, The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew, Lee wrote that a few days into the Occupation, the Japanese carried out the Sook Ching operation to cleanse the local Chinese population of anti-Japanese elements. He reported to Jalan Besar stadium together with his family friend and helper, Koh Teong Koo, for registration and screening. He narrowly escaped being one of the many Chinese rounded to be massacred in the operation.
“Soon after the Japanese soldiers left my house, word went around that all Chinese had to go to a registration centre at the Jalan Besar stadium for examination. I saw my neighbour and his family leave and decided it would be wiser for me to go also, for if I were later caught at home the Japanese military police, the Kempeitai, would punish me. So I headed for Jalan Besar with Teong Koo.
As it turned out, his cubicle in his coolie-keng, the dormitory he shared with other rickshaw pullers, was within the perimeter enclosed by barbed wire. Tens of thousands of Chinese families were packed into this small area. All exit points were manned by the Kempeitai. There were several civilians with them, locals or Taiwanese. I was told later that many of them were hooded, though I do not remember noticing any.
“After spending a night in Teong Koo’s cubicle, I decided to check out through the exit point, but instead of allowing me to pass, the soldier on duty signalled me to join a group of young Chinese. I felt instinctively that this was ominous, so I asked for permission to return to the cubicle to collect my belongings.
He gave it. I went back and lay low in Teong Koo’s cubicle for another day and a half. Then I tried the same exit again. This time, for some inexplicable reason, I got through the checkpoint. I was given a “chop” on my left upper arm and on the front of my shirt with a rubber stamp. The kanji or Chinese character jian, meaning “examined”, printed on me in indelible ink, was proof that I was cleared. I walked home with Teong Koo, greatly relieved.”
Images of Sook Ching screening centres, taken at the Syonan Gallery.
During the war my late father, who was then an officer in the Civil Defence was busy risking his life evacuating people from buildings bombed by the Japanese warplanes.
Compare this with what the father of someone in the ruling party did, collaborating with the Japanese invaders while many of our countrymen were being tortured and executed. For what my father did he was honoured by the Queen, head of the government of the day, with a medal (MBE) while the father of that person was posthumously honoured by the Japanese government for his services.
And I am a Malay and they dare question my and my community’s loyalty to this nation.
Stomper Patsy was trekking at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve this morning (Feb 16) with her friend when she spotted what looked like a log floating in the wetland.
Upon closer inspection, the Stomper realised it was a crocodile after she noticed that the ‘log’ had a tail.
According to the Stomper, the crocodile was roughly 1.5m in length and it looked like it was having a snapping good time just floating around.
The Ministry of Manpower has a “feedback” system which allows an employer to recommend that a worker not be employed here if s/he is undesirable or “bad”. I have always been opposed to this because MOM’s decision to accept such feedback is based on the employer’s story only without any proper investigation.
I don’t think such a feedback system should exist, whether it is a complaint by an employer or a worker. Claims and complaints need to be investigated properly. But now I have decided to turn the tables and write negative feedback about abusive employers to MOM.
What triggered this? This afternoon, despite acknowledgement by MOM that an employer (who is an SMU professor with a Phd from MIT) had pressured a domestic worker to kneel on the floor to say sorry for mistakes made, and had to write 500 times “I will follow what grandma tells me to” as punishment, she was still unfairly terminated by the employer and had to return home.
Another domestic worker was threatened and had a knife pointed in her direction by the employer. Despite filing a complaint at MOM, she was told she had “no case” and had to return home.
Why should migrant workers have to suffer in silence when such injustice happens? Why should you have to lose your job when your employer points a knife at you, humiliates and tortures you mentally? We need to take action.
If abusive employers can submit negative feedback about you for no good reason and MOM blacklists you without thorough investigations, it is time to fight back. I don’t like this feedback system. But it looks like we have no choice because too many migrant workers have been unfairly punished by it.
You can feedback an abusive employer and recommend that s/he be barred from hiring workers to the following email: [email protected]. If you are a domestic worker and need help with this, I’m happy to assist you. HOME Singapore
