Rilek1Corner

Tag: government

  • Commentary: All 4 Elected Presidents So Far Are Either Ex-PAP Ministers Or From Gov’s Ranks

    Commentary: All 4 Elected Presidents So Far Are Either Ex-PAP Ministers Or From Gov’s Ranks

    So it is a walkover. Singaporeans will not need to vote for their next President. True to form; a long, iniquitous history of rigging the system. From third world to first economically, and the reverse politically–the country’s lurched from minimalist electoral democracy to illiberal democracy to sham democracy. As Andrew Loh has detailed.:

    “After JB Jeyaretnam won Anson in 1981’s by-election, they introduced the Non-constituency MP (NCMP) scheme in 1984.

    After both JB Jeyaretnam and Chiam See Tong won seats in 1984, they introduced the GRC system in 1988.

    After Low Thia Khiang won Hougang in 1991 and the SDP won 3 constituencies, they increased the size of GRCs from 3-4 to 5-6 in the 1997 GE.

    After the WP won Aljunied in 2011, they announced changes to the Town Council Act.

    After President Ong Teng Cheong became president in 1993 and questioned them about the reserves, they went back and changed the Constitutional powers of the Elected President in 1994, which allowed the govt to bypass the president’s scrutiny when statutory boards and Government companies transfer their reserves to the Government.

    And now, after Tan Cheng Bock almost won the last presidential election, they have – once again – gone back to change the Constitution, to introduce the “Reserved Election” which allows them to bar all Chinese from such an election, including someone like Dr Tan.

    And finally, while the Elected President is said to be a check on the (PAP) Government of the day, all 4 Elected Presidents so far are either ex-PAP ministers (Ong Teng Cheong, Tony Tan, Halimah Yacob, presuming she wins in September), or from the Government’s ranks (SR Nathan).

    Coincidence? Or #OwnselfCheckOwnself taken to its shameless extreme?”

    And to that I add: #reservedforPAP

     

    Source: Alfian Sa’at

  • 2 Islamophobic Foreign Christian Preachers Barred From Speaking In Singapore For Inflammatory Comments

    2 Islamophobic Foreign Christian Preachers Barred From Speaking In Singapore For Inflammatory Comments

    Two foreign Christian preachers recently had their applications to speak in Singapore rejected, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Friday (Sep 8), as the preachers had made “denigrating and inflammatory comments of other religions”.

    They are required to have a Miscellaneous Work Pass (MWP) to preach in Singapore. In its media release, MHA said that the decision to reject the applications was made by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), in consultation with MHA.

    Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam cited the two cases at an Institute of Policy Studies forum earlier on Friday, when he spoke of how Singapore’s approach to terrorism should not be seen as a “knee-jerk reaction” to the global terrorist movement.

    Mr Shanmugam stated that he did not usually combine the words “Islam” and “terrorism”, as terrorism can exist in any religion.

    “Just as I have banned Muslim scholars or preachers from coming into Singapore, the most recent banning has been as regards to Christian preachers. They were very Islamophobic in their statements outside of Singapore and we decided that we will ban them,” he said.

    One of the preachers had described Allah as “a false god”, asked for prayers for those “held captive in the darkness of Islam”, and referred to Buddhists as “Tohuw people” (a Hebrew word for “lost, lifeless, confused and spiritually barren” individuals) who can be saved only by converting to Christianity, MHA said in its subsequent media release.

    The other preacher had variously referred to “the evils of Islam” and “the malevolent nature of Islam and Mohammed”, and called Islam “not a religion of peace”, “an incredibly confused religion”, interested in “world domination” and “a religion based on … adhering to uncompromising and cruel laws often focused on warfare and virtual slavery”, MHA added.

    “Such teachings are unacceptable in Singapore’s multi-racial, multi-religious society, and the Government will not allow religious preachers of any faith to run down other religions or spread ill-will among the religions,” MHA said.

    “This is to safeguard the social harmony and cohesion that have been painstakingly built up since Singapore’s independence.”

    A foreigner who wishes to deliver a talk in Singapore that is related to religion, race or politics, is required to obtain an MWP.

    In its media release, MHA said that the granting of an MWP was a privilege accorded to a foreigner and not an entitlement.

    It added that MOM consults relevant agencies in its assessments of MWP applications and that each application is considered on its own merits.

    POSSIBLE CHANGES TO LEGISLATION

    During the forum, Mr Shanmugam also said that Singapore was looking to strengthen the Maintenance of the Religious Harmony Act (MRHA).

    The minister said Singapore’s approach to social inclusion was “fundamental and central to the DNA and the thinking and workings of the Government for the last 50 years”.

    “We know that if we don’t get this right, nothing else will go right,” Mr Shanmugam said.

    Part of this was a legal framework that enacted strict laws on hate speech, which he said he was prepared to defend at “any forum anywhere in the world” and had done so.

    The MRHA, targeted specifically at clerics, would be strengthened in the context of “the experiences that we have seen in the region”, Mr Shanmugam said.

    “We have now seen what can happen with clerics all over the world and how, when they move in the political sphere wearing their robes, it becomes very dangerous of any religion. We don’t allow that in Singapore … You stick to religion, you don’t get involved in the sphere of politics.”

    In response to queries, MHA said that it was reviewing the need to enhance Singapore’s legislative provisions to safeguard racial and religious harmony in the country.

    The ministry added that it would give details when the review is completed.

     

    Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Damanhuri Abas: Reserved PE Is A PAP’s Ploy, Sadly A Compliant Malay Community Will Only Served Their Plan To The Tee

    Damanhuri Abas: Reserved PE Is A PAP’s Ploy, Sadly A Compliant Malay Community Will Only Served Their Plan To The Tee

    Today we are sadly living in times when values are mere rhetorical slogans thrown around with no sense of truth that it becomes meaningless.

    Few years ago they said to attract good leaders in government, peg ministers pay to top private salary bracket. The assumption is that this would bring the so-called talent from private to the public sector. What it failed to explain is the logic of correlating two different positions and roles with two different objectives and responsibilities. Yet we seemed to swallow it. A dismal flow of ‘quality’ people from private to public since they up the salary is a damning exposé on its illogical logic.

    Actually all this strange logic is only possible because the whole process only went to a parliamentary route which is already a biased one as the overwhelming power of one party would simply allow them to use it to push through their preferred decisions. The fair route would have been to allow thorough public debate which would have prevented this and other changes from seeing the light of day but alas we killed that possibility by allowing such a lopsided parliament to exist in the first place.

    And the rest is history.

    This PE being reserved is but another similar episode of the PAP simply using their power to get away with what they want. The full machinery of control is then used to validate a clearly unjustified ruling. A compliant Malay community do not help as they simply served the PAP plan to the tee.

    This will not end and more crazy changes will take place so long as we the people continue to allow them to do so by our own failure to act according to our conscience.

    Today the PAP has set the ground rules to ensure that the chance or possibility of a political breakthrough for the opposition to be minuscule if not impossible. With the GRC and the gerrymandering, they effectively already won even before election is called. If we factor in the exclusive access to public broadcast where they no longer even bother to hide their utter blatantness in utilizing the public media to propagandized and even bring disrepute to oppositions, the outlook and prospect gets only worst for the opposition.

    This is the state of the nation today.

    The fundamental role of check and balance, fairness and justice no longer exist in so far as political space and reality are in Singapore. We collectively are responsible for this situation. History has shown how this is unsustainable and will lead to abuse and suppression or even oppression on any segment of society that dare to challenge their dominance.

    We had a window of hope in 2011 but 2015 showed how we chose to follow our emotions rather than our rational mind and logic. By the way things are, and the slew of changes to strengthen their almost absolute control, 2020 may be worst.

    Without unhindered political space, unlike most other regional nations, we remained sadly behind the political maturity curve. This stagnation or even regression is taking place amidst a changing economic reality that are driven primarily by freedom and space accorded for dynamic social growth in which political freedom is key.

    Therefore it do not augur well for our future that today we remained stuck in this clearly debilitating discourse over the highest office in the land not over the critical role and function that it meant but the secondary or even minor issue of racial equality totally misplaced and clouded with so much questions, half-truths to even strange redefinitions. It is really painful to see the acting by all parties to this national charade.

    To think that with all the intelligent minds that we have produced as a nation and to see such outright dumbing down of the people for vested political interest of the PAP is a damning indictment on our ownself. No one else is to blame really.

     

    Source: Damanhuri Bin Abas

  • Commentary: Don’t Always Look Down On Our Neighbours And Keep Thinking That Our System Is The Best

    Commentary: Don’t Always Look Down On Our Neighbours And Keep Thinking That Our System Is The Best

    A Singaporean friend who moved to Kuala Lumpur and sent his children to a Malaysian government school once asked me “Am I doing the right thing? Is it ok for my children to be educated in Malaysia?”

    My answer to him then was “Do you know that almost half of our pilots are from Malaysia? Why do they trust Malaysians who have been educated in Malaysia to fly our multi-million dollar planes, if their education system is so bad? And do you realise that many in our Singapore civil service, including some ministers are, or used to be Malaysians, who had their primary education in Malaysian schools?”

    Think about it…don’t always look down on our neighbours and keep thinking that our system is the best. Mainstream media carry fake news too, especially for political propaganda.

     

    Source: Facebook

  • Khan Osman Sulaiman: Singapore Is Multiracial, Multi-religious Society Yet Debate On Racial Issues @ Speaker’s Corner Not Allowed

    Khan Osman Sulaiman: Singapore Is Multiracial, Multi-religious Society Yet Debate On Racial Issues @ Speaker’s Corner Not Allowed

    Writ for the Reserved Presidential Election has been issued by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday and preparations had been made to carry out our speech at Hong Lim Park this coming Saturday to voice our concerns over the racialised Presidential Election.

    However, we are informed last minute by the National Park that we will require police permits to speak because the topic touch on racial issues.

    It is absurd that the government doesnt allow citizens to discuss/speak/debate on race issues at the speaker’s corner but at the same time, passing a bill that has created much distress on the populace.

    In reserving a Malay candidate for the presidential election, it is inevitable that race will be part of the subject matter should we want to openly call out on the government’s policy. Hence, it can never get debated publicly by citizens due to existing regulations.

    Even when matters are brought up in parliament, we have seen how it will be swiftly shot down as playing racial politics.

    In an open societies, the government is expected to be responsive and tolerant. Its political mechanisms are said to be transparent and flexible.

    To the international community, Singapore is a multiracial and multi-religious society which has enjoyed many years of relative peace. A facade that has been perpetuated by the government.

    In reality, our freedom of speech, freedom of association, are curbed by an invisible hand that are always ready to put us away should we cross the line.

    Such community will never be able to achieve its full potential and will lose it cognitive development over time.

    At the present moment, we have incompetent leaders that are preoccupied with a single cause. Economic satisfaction for its people. They are incapable of solving a nation’s hunger for a multi fold development. We already retard our progression by reserving a Malay candidate for high office.

    My hope is that Singapore will elect a leader that will advocate for change and truly work for the betterment of its people holistically.

     

    Source: Khan Osman Sulaiman