Category: Singapuraku

SDP In Retreat

No, don’t get all excited, PAP. We’re just taking the opportunity to get away and spend some time re-charging our batteries, getting ready to make the big push for the coming GE.

Retreat 2015 was held over this weekend in Desaru in Johor and participants got into the swing of things as we headed outdoors and enjoyed some of the sea, surf and sun.

It’s a great way for the SDP family to come together and get to know one another better. More than 60 delegates attended this year’s event. It is the first time since 2007 that the retreat is held away from Singapore.

Team-building (see photo as participants built a human pyramid) took centre stage. It is only when members work together as a single unit that success is possible.

The day saw a volleyball match that pitted our Women Democrats against their male counterparts. For the record, the women won.

There was also a belly flop contest in the pool – the identity of the winner will not be revealed.

The retreat was also an occasion for us to sharpen our plans for the elections. Discussion sessions were held to identify weaknesses in our operations and processes drawn up to address these areas of deficit.

One major point that emerged from the discussion was the plan to expand and deepen our grassroots campaign.

The coming weeks and months will see the party reach out even more to Singaporeans and involve them more in our push for victory.

It is the passion of our members and volunteers that enable the various units to operate effectively and bring our message home to the electorate. This commitment will only intensify in the lead up to the GE.

But for this weekend, it was a time to relax and re-charge. It was a great weekend made better great comradeship.

GE 2015, here we come!

Source: http://yoursdp.org

May 25, 2015
Ng Kok Lim: Don’t Give Thanks To Lee Kuan Yew

MC First wrote:

To me, the thing is simple. No ah gong means no today’s Singapore.

Hong Kong progressed just as well without Lee Kuan Yew but with British governors. Is MC First going to say no British governor means no today’s Hong Kong? Then we can turn things around and say without Lee Kuan Yew, we would still have today’s Singapore because a British governed Singapore would have turned out just as well.

MC First wrote:

This is something that we can never take away from him and it is a legacy he has left behind. Ah gong is like our parents, a lot of times they dish out very good advice, but we just don’t want to listen.

There is no legacy to take away from Lee Kuan Yew because the legacy of Singapore is not Lee Kuan Yew’s but that of past British governors and generations of Singaporeans past and present.

Lee Kuan Yew’s advice was always about highlighting the 10 cents of good for you leaving you to figure out for yourself the $100 of good for him and his party.

MC First wrote:

Without a single doubt, ah gong was a man of integrity.

Without a doubt, Lee Kuan Yew wasn’t a man of integrity. As an opposition MP in the 1950s, he championed for press freedom only to turn his back on it once he cemented his power. Back in 1965, he pointed to the people as the ultimate determinant of the nation’s success. Many decades down the road, he pointed to his own party as behind Singapore’s success.

MC First wrote:

He ate and breathed Singapore.

LKY consumed the soul of Singapore to such an extent that more than half are left with either no balls or no brains.

MC First wrote:

YES, he was utterly ruthless against opposing politicians. But which politician is ever benevolent?! Politics is a dirty, dirty game. For instance, even the supposed enlightened Tang Emperor Li Shi Ming. He too had to kill his own brothers in order to become the Emperor. What you and me – people on the street, should really be concerned about is whether the power taken has been used to do GOOD or do EVIL?

There is a big difference between Lee Kuan Yew and Li Shi Ming. Lee Kuan Yew continued to do evil even after he has won power whereas Li Shi Ming did not. Why did Lee Kuan Yew have to detain Dr Chia Thye Poh and Dr Lim Hock Siew for 32 years and 19 years respectively? Surely the struggle to survive had long passed after 32 years and 19 years respectively?

MC First wrote:

From kampong to metropolis in less than FIFTY years, you think this is an easy feat?

Bullshit. Lee Kuan Yew himself boasted to businessmen in Chicago that Singapore was already a metropolis back in 1968. There’s no way Singapore could have transformed from kampong to metropolis in three years. Singapore was already a metropolis or nearly so by the time Lee Kuan Yew took power.

MC First wrote:

Just go across the Causeway and take a look at JB, and you can easily tell the difference.

But that difference had already existed long before Lee Kuan Yew took power. Singapore was already much better developed than JB during colonial times as one of three Straits Settlements and as a British Crown Colony.

MC First wrote:

In a land that is surrounded all over by Muslims, we are effectively a mini-Israel, but who has ever dared to challenge our sovereignty?

Our law minister Shanmugam has made it clear that that is largely due to US military presence in the region, not due to Lee Kuan Yew.

MC First wrote:

The SINGAPORE passport today is one of the few passports that allows you to travel uninhibited to any part of the world. Ah gong’s international diplomacy is the result for this convenience.

That’s nothing to boast about. Malaysian passport is not far behind with a Visa Restrictions Index of 163 compared to Singapore’s 167 (Straits Times, “Which passports are most accepted around the world?”, 18 Apr 2014).

By comparing Singapore’s score of 167 with Malaysia’s score of 163, MC First can at most say that Lee Kuan Yew diplomacy resulted in a measly 4 extra points compared to Malaysia’s 163 points or 2.5% extra convenience only.

MC First wrote:

My dad was a taxi-driver and my mum a housewife, yet they managed to buy a flat for $8,000 so that my family could have a roof over our head. All these were made possible by ah gong and his generation of pioneers!

You look at the advertisements all over MRT trains asking people to sell their flats back to the government for retirement funds. Hopefully, MC First can see that having a roof for two, three decades only to sell the roof back to the government means no roof at the end of the day. So at the end of the day, that was what Lee Kuan Yew gave many of the pioneer generation, the illusion of a roof over their heads.

MC First wrote:

They had integrity and were SELFLESS!!

If Lee Kuan Yew had integrity, how come he never admitted to his mistake of killing Singapore’s birth rate? If he had been selfless, how come he didn’t volunteer to fight the Japanese like Lim Bo Seng did?

That’s why ah gong deserved a grand send-off.

For all those reasons, Lee Kuan Yew did not deserve a grand send off.

So, we must give credit when it is due.

If credit due must be given, then credit must be given to Dr Albert Winsemius, not to Lee Kuan Yew as it was Dr Winsemius who masterminded our industrialization, not Lee Kuan Yew.

Ah gong did his very best to shape Singapore and we must ALWAYS be grateful for that.

Lee Kuan Yew did his best to consolidate his power. Instead, it was Dr Winsemius who gave us the plan and the ideas to shape Singapore’s post independence economy. MC First must not forget that Lee Kuan Yew himself said that both he and Singapore are indebted to Dr Winsemius. Thus, MC First should listen to his Ah gong Lee Kuan Yew and be grateful to Dr Winsemius instead.

Thank you

Ng Kok Lim

* Ng Kok Lim is a regular TRE contributor who specialises in rebuttal.

Source: www.tremeritus.com

May 25, 2015
Zulfikar Shariff: Benarkah Pemerintahan Lee Kuan Yew Berasaskan KeIslaman?

Dulu ada MP Melayu yang cakap…Lee Kuan Yew ada ciri-ciri Rasulullah.

Sekarang ada event yang meraikan Nabi Muhammad….Lee Kuan Yew pun turut diraikan.

Dah angkat si Firaun.

Semasa dia hidup, dia kutuk islam, dia paksa orang Islam tinggalkan keIslaman. Dia zalimi muslimah.

Bila dia mati, kita puji dan puja.

Macam mana lah Islam tak kena abuse. Orang Islam puji orang yang benci Islam.

Source: Zulfikar Shariff

May 25, 2015
Akhirnya Diterima Fakulti Perubatan NUS Setelah Cuba Tiga Kali

Bukan sekali tetapi dua kali permohonan Encik Muhammad Mirza Syafiq Rahmad untuk memasuki sekolah perubatan di universiti setempat ditolak.

Namun, tidak sesekali terlintas dalam fikiran bekas pelajar Maktab Rendah Nanyang (NYJC) itu mahu melupakan impian menjadi doktor yang membara dalam dirinya sejak lapan tahun lalu.

Akhirnya berkat azam kuat itu, yang termasuk usaha cuba lebih memahami tugas seorang doktor, Encik Mirza, 21 tahun, diterima Sekolah Perubatan Yong Loo Lin Universiti Nasional Singapura (NUS) tahun ini setelah tiga kali mencuba.

Beliau akan memulakan pengajian lima tahun itu Ogos ini.

Selain NUS, beliau juga memohon untuk mempelajari bidang perubatan di lima lagi universiti luar negara, termasuk di Britain dan Australia – namun permohonannya turut ditolak.

Impian tunggal menjadi doktor berputik dalam hati Encik Mirza apabila beliau melangkah ke sekolah menengah, setelah melihat neneknya bertarung nyawa di Unit Rawatan Rapi (ICU).

Selepas mendapat keputusan peperiksaan GCE peringkat ‘A’ dua tahun lalu, beliau memohon ke sekolah perubatan NUS dan Universiti Teknologi Nanyang (NTU). Beliau dipanggil bagi temu duga oleh kededua universiti tetapi ditolak.

Namun, anak muda itu tidak sekadar goyang kaki sementara menunggu permohonannya diterima.

Semasa menjalani Perkhidmatan Negara (NS) bersama Pasukan Pertahanan Awam Singapura (SCDF), Encik Muhammad Mirza memohon ditugaskan sebagai medik ambulans agar dapat lebih memahami tanggungjawab pegawai perubatan dalam situasi kecemasan.

Beliau turut meluangkan beberapa hari bersama pakar jantung di Hospital Raffles, Dr Abdul Razakjr Omar, dan Dr Zuraimi Mohamed Dahlan di kliniknya, Banyan Clinic, untuk lebih memahami tugas dan peranan seorang doktor.

Selain itu, beliau dan beberapa kawan memulakan projek memantau kesihatan warga emas di Ang Mo Kio yang dipanggil Our Health, Our Elderly (Kesihatan Kita, Warga Tua Kita).

“Saya melakukan itu semua setelah semua permohonan saya memasuki sekolah perubatan ditolak kerana saya mahu meyakinkan diri saya bahawa menjadi doktor benar-benar sesuatu yang ingin saya lakukan,” kata anak pasangan ejen hartanah dan kakitangan sokongan perkhidmatan di sebuah hospital itu.

Mac lalu, beliau sekali lagi memohon kepada NUS – dan menerima berita gembira itu awal bulan ini. NUS sebelum ini menyatakan dalam menerima permohonan memasuki sekolah perubatannya, ia turut menilai ciri-ciri seperti keihsanan, empati dan kebolehan berhubung dengan orang ramai daripada pelbagai latar belakang.

Kali ini, beliau turut diterima Universiti Perubatan Antarabangsa di Malaysia dan sebuah sekolah perubatan di Ireland.

“Pengalaman yang saya raih semasa menunggu diterima membuat saya yakin saya boleh membuat perubahan pada kehidupan pesakit. Ia membawa saya lebih dekat kepada dunia perubatan,” kata Encik Mirza.

Source: http://beritaharian.sg

May 25, 2015
Roy Ngerng: Don’t Let The PAP Change The Law On Lee Kuan Yew’s Image Rights To Protect Their Own Interests

Now is the time to make fun of Lee Kuan Yew before they make it illegal. For goodness sake, he is not my founding father.

“We’ve built a nation with our hands, the toil of people from a dozen lands” – this was what the National Day Song in 1990, One People, One Nation, One Singapore, started with.

So before we go all crazy over one man, let’s not forget that it is the hard work of each and every Singaporean that made Singapore happen. And unless we are going to protect each and every Singaporean, there is no need to change the law to protect one single individual, especially not a dead one.

Do you know what this means? This means that in future, if anyone wants to write a book or make a movie to talk about Lee Kuan Yew and the atrocities that he had done, they wouldn’t be able to do so and the PAP can criminalise them if the PAP wants. This law would allow the PAP to whitewash the truth about what Lee Kuan Yew did.

Don’t let the PAP pass or change the law to cover their own ass.

If the PAP so believe in self-reliance, then let’s stop relying on the over-glorification of one man and please start running the country.

There are more important things to do, like reducing poverty and income inequality, and increasing wages for Singaporeans, rather than spend meaningless time evangelising over one man. It’s mortifying.

The man is dead. Dead. For crying out loud.

Source: Roy Ngerng Yi Ling

May 25, 2015