Tag: The Workers’ Party

Former WP NCMP Concerned That Singaporeans Lack Ability To Cope In New Economy

In telling the story his daughter had with a cleaner former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Yee Jenn Jong pointed out that the government’s aim to create many pathways to success beyond exam grades remains challenging.

The cleaner at a preschool lamented that her son who is a student at a polytechnic was working part-time and hence not concentrating properly in his studies. Mr Yee’s daughter had to convince the cleaner that her son was picking up valuable skills which a classroom education will not be able to give him. Mr Yee said that the cleaner’s concern is typical of the average Singaporean parents.

“We have been conditioned that the pathway to success in life is to score in exams. When you are studying, do not waste time on other things, even if these are useful skills to have or can help one to develop their character. If you are a student, just study. In many parents’ minds, grades are what matters.”

The ex-NCMP also recounted the conversation he had with a “former high-flying government servant turned entrepreneur”, about Singaporeans being exams-smart but lacking the ability to cope in the new economy – an economy which requires innovation, creativity, resilience and many skills that one cannot train through the books.

“When I mentioned about us consistently scoring tops in PISA assessments, he remarked that our education advantage like those measured through PISA often disappear in tertiary studies when one has to go beyond knowledge.”

Mr Yee said that his former civil servant friend also shared his concern about high-flyers taking very safe paths. His friend worries that if Singapore continues to head this way, it will end up doing very safe things to meet short term KPIs, and not do things that are necessary for essential disruptive changes.

Source: www.theindependent.sg

December 28, 2016
Pritam Singh: Stronger Sense Of National Identity Bulwark For Singapore In Spats With Big Countries

Numbers, sometimes, tell the best stories – whether they are about foreign policy, trade or the economy in general. These latest tables published by the Singapore Department of Statistics reveal that the United States and Japan are the biggest foreign investors in Singapore, their $250b accounting for almost 25% of all our foreign investments (Table 1). These countries have a vested stake to defend in Singapore and their investments – to a varying extent – create opportunities here. Table 1 also tells us why the Trans-Pacific Partnership, in principle, is of strategic importance to the Government. Countries like Norway, the Netherlands, and a host of tax havens make the list. But China is conspicuously missing.

Flip things around however (Table 2), and one sees that the overwhelming bulk of Singapore’s foreign investments are in China – about $110b to be exact. The US comes in at number 14. India and our immediate neighbours feature, but this table emphasizes how important China is to Singapore as a destination for our investments.

Broadly speaking, both tables are indicative of Singapore’s overall foreign policy posture, the imperatives behind our relationship with China and the US, the Government’s perspective on protectionism and global trade in general, amongst many other things.

While numbers are helpful in personifying foreign policy, big powers and bigger countries usually have a wider scope and spectrum for action. For a major power like China, the ongoing diplomatic spat with Singapore over the impounded Terrex fighting vehicles (and before that, over allegations of diplomatic impropriety by Singapore in China’s Global Times), is but one manifestation of statecraft insofar as China’s national interests are concerned, and how it wishes to express and exercise those interests. It knows what is at stake for itself (and for Singapore). Compound this with Singapore’s small size and our near total reliance on our neighbours and countries further afield like China for our economic well-being, it should not surprise anyone how delicate things can be for a small country in Singapore’s position. Add our racial demographics and population imperatives, and the conflagration becomes even more complex, something our neighbours, competitors and friends know all too well.

There must always be space to question our foreign policy or to find our more about its roots and imperatives, and to even disagree with it. But these tables tell us that one-dimensional conclusions about the Government’s strategy, whether one opines them to be right or wrong, are of limited utility, for an underlying question remains central – how differently would it be done, if someone else was in charge?

When Singapore is pushed around in the international realm, or belittled unceremoniously usually as a result of our size, our opponents do so with their interests in mind, and for those with more nefarious intentions – to drive a wedge among Singaporeans. Rather than to curse our misfortune or those seemingly in charge of our fate, a stronger sense of nation and identity should be the only take-away for Singapore and all Singaporeans as a result of this drawn-out diplomatic spat with China. For it is in our destiny as a small state that similar spats will inevitably come to fore again in future. But is far from inevitable that Singaporeans are destined to be divided.

Source: Pritam Singh

November 30, 2016
Bernard Chen: Lee Kuan Yew Would Not Have Approved Of Malay President Through Affirmative Action

The PAP turns 62 today. A week ago, they spoke up for and stood by affirmative action, the very principle that its founding members fought against, every tooth and every nail. The irony passes them by as they legitimises it with an overwhelming vote in Parliament.

Unlike affirmative action apologists, the late Lee Kuan Yew would never rush into positions for appearance sake. He would have turned in his grave, literally and metaphorically. He took what he saw as a Malaysian Malaysian, put everything on the line and took us out of a merger that he had so vehemently believed in. The conviction in their spirits then, soulless today. The PAP of 2016 turned their back on what the pioneer generation believed, the same generation whom they had so profusely thanked in 2015. We the younger ones were asked to learn from our pioneers. They have clearly forgotten all of that today.

I grew up being told by my PAP leaders that affirmative action is not what Singapore believes in. Look at Malaysia, affirmative action. Singapore wants none of that. Now we have affirmative action delivered on a plate by that parliamentary majority. Sad, none of the sitting MPs thought that this was so so wrong. None. And they say they have the interests of Singapore at heart. The temerity, the audacity, the tragedy of it all.

Today, we have nothing but this obscurantist doctrine, reinforced by the sitting Minister for Malay-Muslim affairs. Simply to get a ceremonial position for a Malay and their problem as a community will be resolved. This is no different as how easily a bill gets passed in a parliament heavily skewed in the favour of these new apologists. The whole clan [and parliament] celebrates. It was not too long ago they call members on the other side of the spectrum chauvinists and discredit them with the might of the machinery.

They clutched at straws but wielded the stick with the blank cheque they were given. The recent amendments to the Constitution is an indictment of how far the PAP had deviated from their beliefs and founding principles. Just cut the rhetoric. This is a totally different party today, from what it was in 1954.

With you, for you, for Singapore. The hypocrisy. The PAP of 2016. Happy 62nd Birthday, the leviathan that is the PAP. Barely recognisable from the one that ushered in independent Singapore in 1965.

The next time, when you say you believe in the PAP, remember to opt yourself out from that affirmative action that is now a part of the PAP’s DNA. Guilt by association, as they say.

Source: Chen Jiaxi Bernard

November 23, 2016
TOC Chief Editor: Halimah Yacob Biased Against WP MPs In Parliament

<Facebook post by Terry Xu>

My bet is Halimah Yaccob. Then you have the claim that Singapore is progressive with a female President and a Malay one somemore.

I have seen for my eyes how biased is Halimah Yaccob towards the PAP ministers and MP against WP’s in Parliament as the Speaker of Parliament, what more to say if she is the President.

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

November 14, 2016
WP Chief Low Thia Khiang: KPMG Report On Past Payments & Transactions ‘Inconclusive’

The audit report on the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council’s (AHTC) past payments and transactions remains “inconclusive” despite the manpower and resources spent, said Workers’ Party (WP) chief Low Thia Khiang on Wednesday (Nov 2).

Mr Low was making his first comments on audit firm KPMG’s finding that flawed governance in the WP-run AHTC had exposed millions in public funds to improper use, to the extent there could be criminal conduct if lapses were deliberate.

“The report seems to have a lot of answering (to do) despite the fact that they had deployed a lot of manpower, public monies (were) used, and eight months spent,” said Mr Low, who was speaking to reporters before the start of his fortnightly Meet-the-People Session at the void deck of Block 522 Hougang Avenue 6. “The town council also spent a lot of manpower responding to their queries. The MPs were also being interviewed to satisfy their questions, but unfortunately the report seems to be inconclusive in that sense. So that’s it.”

KPMG’s 68-page report, which was made public by AHTC on its website on Tuesday, flagged “serious conflicts of interest” and a “failed control environment” which exposed millions of dollars in public funds to improper use, including in payments to its former managing agent FM Solutions & Services and service provider FM Solutions and Integrated Services.

The owners of these two companies concurrently held key management and financial control positions in the town council and approved 132 payment vouchers amounting to more than S$23 million from the town council to the company.

KPMG also said improper payments to FMSS and FMSI alone amounted to over S$1.5 million, of which at least S$600,000 ought to be recovered by the town council.

The improper payments to FMSS and FMSI included overpayments for project management fees, overpayments to FMSS for purported overtime and CPF contributions payments to FMSS without certification that work had been performed, as well as payments made without the requisite co-signature of members of the town council.

AHTC also overpaid when it appointed FMSS as its managing agent by more than S$1.2 million.

Responding to these issues, Mr Low reiterated the points in a statement issued by his party on Tuesday, saying KPMG had found “no fictitious, fraudulent, nor duplicate payments”.

“So that is what is important for the public to know,” he added.

Mr Low also said the report “has not said anything” about conflicts of interest among the WP Members of Parliament, the town councillors, FMSS, and other contractors it appointed.

“To me, the report is simply more detailed than AGO’s report, in terms of the framework, and the kind of lapses they found are basically as the AGO’s but in more detail, yes, because they had spent a lot of time going through the records. It is a forensic audit,” he added.

Mr Low was referring to a special audit by the Auditor-General’s Office that found major lapses in compliance and governance in AHTC. The finding led to a High Court ordering AHTC to appoint auditors to fix these lapses.

After fielding questions for five minutes, Mr Low ended the doorstop interview, saying the town council was still studying KPMG’s report and would issue media releases on the matter, if necessary.

Meanwhile, Nanyang Technological University accounting professor El’fred Boo said the proposed amendments to the Town Councils Act would help strengthen governance in a few ways, such as how to avoid conflict of interest situations. But he felt that there could be other changes, such as a requirement to set clear objectives and performance milestones to make it easier to assess them and hold them accountable.

More regular compliance audits could also be made a requirement to boost the Ministry of National Development’s ability to monitor the situation at individual town councils, said Associate Professor Boo. At the same time, there should be a channel for people to report matters of concern to the town council chairman and/or MND, he added.

Source: www.todayonline.com

November 3, 2016