All men are equal... but some are more equal.

Different political parties are starting to introduce their candidates now.

For PAP, it is interesting that you can tell how “close you are to the emperor” by judging to which constituency they send you to.

Tier 1: I called them the “BLUE EYES” these are the super elites and Minister Calibre. The one of us. The crème of the crème of the crème.

Tier 2: The loyal dogs or the one that willing to do the works so the Tier 1 can look good. They mostly can be MPs or Minister of States.

Tier 3: Good to have around. Easily replaced.

Also note, Interesting fact, No Tier 1 personnel will be at a SMC.

Look at EAST COST GRC and newly calved out FENGSHAN SMC candidate (Cheryl Chan):

Mr Lim Swee Say, 61, Minister for Manpower

Mr Lee Yi Shyan, 53, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and National Development

Dr Maliki Osman, 50, Minister of State for Defence and National Development

Ms Jessica Tan, 49, managing director of Microsoft Singapore

Ms Cheryl Chan, 39, First-timer, head of secondary industries at chemicals firm Linde Gas.

Its obvious Cheryl is the Tier 3. Not one of the incumbent Tier 1 dare to go to the SMC. Better get an easily replaceable Tier 3 to defend the FENGSHAN seat man.

Its obvious Ng Chee Meng is a Tier 1. 

Well don’t expect he to give up his million dollars career for a merger $16K a month MP job. He will be safe running in a GRC. Hmm…. Just thinking, what happened if he lose? He already quitted as the Chief of Defence so he will be jobless? 

Nah no worry… the whites will definitely take care of him, but I seriously think will there be any written contract to lure him to join politic? Food for thought.

Next we have the Tier 2! 

Must thanks them for their contribution by letting them into parliament!But wait they will still lose if the stayed at their SMCs. So let’s parachute them into parliament ex hougang Desmond Choo and new Son of Ang Mo Kio Dr ex Son of Punggol Koh Poh Koon.

Finally Tier 3 Charles Chong won 51% at the extinct Joo Chiat will be teleported to SMC to “defend” the PAP seat. Guess PAP think its ok if he losses. PAP can afford to let the old man retired with his pension.

The Clown is at it again!

S'poreans think govt is "not poor", expect more from govt: PM Lee

CNA Sep 30, 2012

SINGAPORE - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singaporeans think their government is "not poor" and as such, expect the government to do more for them.

He said this in a wide-ranging interview with "The Australian" newspaper, ahead of his second official visit to Australia next week.

Mr Lee was asked if there were any lessons Singapore could learn from the Western world, which is suffering from a crisis of entitlement spending.

He said Singaporeans are not poor, but feel less well-off relative to others in society, and therefore have a relative sense that they should get an entitlement.

Mr Lee also said that Singapore's system starts with giving very minimal welfare, and goes on the basis of growth, high employment and low unemployment, so that those who are out of a job can find a new job.

He said Singaporeans will get help, but the help is not something they are absolutely entitled to.

Using Europe as an example, Mr Lee said besides entitlement spending, the idea of state welfare is also entrenched among the Europeans.

He said Singapore needs to adjust accordingly "without going overboard". 




Holy shit this Hsien Loong should be given a price for sprouting rubbish and shows, yet again, how out of touch and idiotic he is. Think he is catching up to George Bush.

First I do not think our government is “Not poor”, in fact I think they are bloody rich. If not how to have pay the world most expensive cabinet, if not how to pay our top civil servant super high salaries to prevent them from corruption?

What Singaporean want for the government to do for them is to have an affordable life, we want to have a simple quite life in Singapore where medical and housing is not a problem for us, where basics like public transports are not run by some greedy F who saved on maintenance to drive up profit.

We want to be able to express ourselves freely, no more Chao Wayang ball suckers to the PAP and no more ISA.

We want a good quality of life, a slower pace if economic growth has to be scarified then so be it.

We also want a fair and just society and a proper General Election and please get rid of the President if he is doing nothing important.
If Singaporean are not poor then why we see old aunties and uncle working as cleaners or picking up scrapped to support themselves?

Do you think they enjoy doing that Hsien Loong?

You have to remember most Singaporean are not earning millions and we do not have free unlimited medical cares at our disposal.

Yes Singapore has minimum welfare but that is only to the poor, where you and your cabinets are enjoying life to the maximum.

Now who voted for this clown? I hope you ends up as a cleaner when you are old and you only have yourself to thanks.

Wrong priority in Singapore.

'Greater accountability needed from SAF'

Today online Sep 18, 2012

SINGAPORE - Her son, Lee Rui Feng Dominique Sarron had died in April in a military training exercise. Last week, Madam Felicia Seah wrote an open letter - which was posted on a Facebook page set up in memory of her 21-year-old son - urging "all parents of Singaporean sons to stand with me, to advocate for greater accountability" from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) "for the safety of our sons".

Recalling how her world "collapsed" when she learnt of her son's death, Mdm Seah claimed it would have been averted if his superiors had paid heed to his condition.

"It is clear to my family and me that my son's death was preventable. He was asthmatic. The incident that cost him his life was an urban training exercise involving smoke bombs in a confined area," said Mdm Seah.

As of yesterday, the impassioned letter was shared on the social networking site more than 280 times and was "liked" by more than 900 users.

Among other things, it called for "more thorough screening" of the medical history of enlistees and "more stringent monitoring of staff who oversee (full-time national servicemen), to weed out abuse of power at all levels".

Mdm Seah wrote: "We cannot allow for our sons to be at the mercy of the training officers ... who are very often little older and none the wiser than the boys they are tasked to oversee, boys whose lives often depend on the decisions that they make."

The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) is awaiting the findings of its investigations. In response to TODAY's queries, MINDEF Director Public Affairs, Colonel Kenneth Liow, said that the ministry and the SAF "would like to again express our deepest condolences to Mdm Seah and her family" on Mr Lee's death.

MINDEF's Family Liaison Officer "has been in regular contact" with Mdm Seah and her family, and the SAF "remains committed to assisting the family and providing them the necessary support during this difficult time", Col Liow said.

Stressing that safety is a top priority for MINDEF and the SAF, he added: "Every incident resulting in injury or death is painful to us and gets top management attention. We will learn from every incident to continually improve our safety system to ensure high standards of training safety."

Last month, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen announced that MINDEF is conducting a broad review of its medical support system, including its Medical Classification and Screening System.

Cardiologist Leslie Lam told TODAY that the screening should involve ultrasound scanning of the hearts of enlistees. This would identify underlying conditions which a normal electro-cardiogram (ECG) - currently a part of the screening system - would not pick up.

However, each ultrasound scanner costs about S$250,000 and Dr Clarence Yeo, a general practitioner, pointed out that cost could be an issue.

Still, he agreed that more needs to be done in screening certain parts of the body, such as the respiratory system and muscular-skeletal structure.




It is unfortunate for any NS boys to die during his service, more so if it is due the MINDEF trying to cut proper screening of Singaporean boys because of cost.

What is $250,000 is to MINDEF? For God’s sake a bloody missile cost more then this and I think lot of its senior officers earn more then this annually.

The least MINDEF could do for its soldiers is to provide a proper screening for its soldiers so to reduce the risk of death or serious injury to the minimum.

Saving life should be the top priority, not saving cost.

If Hsien Loong is to be enlisted today, do you think MINDEF will casually put him through the normal health screening?

A life is a life, don’t think one is worth more then the other.

The Elites will always be Elites.

Govt 'will manage social impact of immigration'
PM Lee urges newcomers to the Republic to play their part in adapting to society
Jul 11, 2012

SINGAPORE - Hong Kong and Singapore, which have seen an influx of Chinese immigrants in recent years, have had to adjust to the social impact of a rising China, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.

Speaking at the closing dialogue of the FutureChina Global Forum, Mr Lee said Singapore deals with this issue by managing the inflow of immigrants and getting them to adapt to the local way of life.

He felt it was "completely understandable" that Singaporeans may feel uncomfortable with the recent influx of mainland Chinese immigrants, who may look the same as Singaporean Chinese but sound and behave differently.

Mr Lee said the Government will continue to manage the social impact of immigration and urged newcomers to play their part.

"We have to encourage the non-Singaporeans who are living here to adapt to the circumstances in Singapore and understand that this is a different society with different values and cultures, and (a society that is) multi-racial and religious," he said.

"(They) have to make those adaptations which the Singaporean Chinese have adapted and learnt over several generations.

"Of course, we also have to manage the numbers and the flow and make sure we're not overwhelmed. We have to make sure there is effort on both sides to make this a working, adapted and well-adjusted relationship."

The forum brought together more than 60 speakers to share insights on China's evolving society and culture.

On the issue of attracting and retaining talent in the Republic - a problem faced by cities around the world - Mr Lee said: "We must expect that people will go and, at the same time, we must attract people who can make a contribution to Singapore to come to Singapore."

Singapore is an attractive choice because there are opportunities here and it is an exciting and good place to live, he added.

"We try to make it such that if you come (to Singapore) and make a contribution, you can do well and fulfil your potential. I think we have to be like that if Singapore is to prosper."

On the business front, Mr Lee said Singapore companies can benefit from the continued cooperation between the two countries. The key to success is to ensure that companies continue to deliver and that the Singapore brand does not get tarnished, he said.

It took a lost of a GRC for the PAP to realise the seriousness of the situation on how ordinary Singaporean are sick to the neck of the open immigration policy of the government.

Hsieng Loong used to tell Singaporean on how much we need to rely on foreigner and Singapore will be collapse and lose it competitive edge if we don’t have them.

Now after losing the record number of seats in the parliament the PAP is stating to sing a different tune.

 They are now finally putting a filter on the open flood gate and is now telling the immigrant to changed instead of asking the Singaporean to change.

Frankly I think it is too little too late and I foresee the PAP will lost more seats in parliament in the next GE. Why? Because the changes PAP promised in the last GE is taking too long and till now I don’t see any concrete improvement of Singaporean lives since.

What we need now is to send stronger signals the incumbent that your Elite pro policy is obsolete and we demand changes. Give me back the Singapore we want!

 These policy makers are sitting comfortably in their ivory towers, they don’t sit and eat at the same table with the immigrants, they don’t fight for seats with them on the MRT and buses, they don’t queue up at the supermarket with them and they don’t wait in line at the polyclinic with them so how can the Elites know the Peasants problems?

Till now I cannot see how serious the PAP is to make life in Singapore better for the ordinary folks.

 So I guess the people will not take you seriously too dear Hsien Loong.

Who they trying to kid this time.

No one will be denied medical treatment: Gan
He pledges to keep costs manageable
ST Online 19 Mar 2012

The Government intends to keep health-care costs manageable and nobody in need will be denied medical treatment, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Sunday.

His pledge, coming after his ministry announced plans recently to double its yearly health-care spending to $8 billion over the next five years, was made at a dialogue in which participants continued to express worries about health care.

Among other things, they cited their concerns over rising subsidised consultation fees at public hospitals and the prices of quality medicine.

Mr Gan said that Singaporeans can expect health-care costs to keep rising, especially if patients want better outcomes from newer technology.



No one will be denied, yes but Kim Yong did not say how much will there charge you? Nor what kind of service they are going to give you.

Also he did not mention how long will you have to wait for your treatment at public hospital? In fact I think they hope you will die first so they don’t have to treat you but hey they DID NOT deny you treatment you just die while waiting for it.

To me this is just another story the Elites came up to pacify the peasants.

For years we are facing with rising medical cost and shortage of class C hospital beds. Why? Because our medical system has turns into a profit making one.

Yes Kim Yong may be right that no one will be denied medical treatment but he did not mention what kind of treatment you will be receiving and how long you need to wait to be treated and what is the cost.

In Singapore the more you pay the faster and better service you get and if you are the Elite you can jolly well afford to go to a private hospital and get your heart by-pass done the next day while the men on the street has to wait 4 hours at the polyclinics just to get to see a doctor.

In fact Kim Young is telling you directly that you have to pay more to get good service in the above articles

Don’t give me crap that this cannot be done, I personally experience cheap, good, efficient treatment in Taiwan and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised.

More stupid Elites

Smaller flats have not lowered quality of life: HDB CEO
Nov 11, 2011

SINGAPORE - The shrinking size of public flats here has not lowered Singaporeans' quality of living, according to Housing and Development Board's (HDB) CEO Cheong Koon Hean.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a housing forum yesterday, Dr Cheong noted that there are now fewer people living in one flat which works out to increased living space per person.

"Our families are smaller. In the old days, we have very large families living in a flat. Today, the family is two, three, four (people)," she said.

As a result of rising land costs and the need to keep flats affordable, the size of HDB flats has shrunk by 5 to 10 per cent over the last two to three decades. For example, a five-room flat in Bukit Batok Central built in 1989 has a floor area of 121 sq m, compared to 110 sq m for a similar unit built in 2003.

Based on official surveys, the average household size was 3.5 last year. In 1980, it was 4.9.

This means an occupant of a 110 sq m five-room flat today will have 31 sq m of space, while a resident of a 121 sq m five-room flat in the '80s had about 25 sq m of space. Dr Cheong added that interior design also plays a part in creating good living space.

"In many global cities of the world or big cities, people do pay attention to how they do the inside of the flat as well as optimising the use of furniture and storage. It can be a very comfortable living environment," she said.

PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail concurred with Dr Cheong: "The modern Singapore family is much smaller and living in a bigger place compared to previous generations, and with amenities. The quality of life is not affected."

Mr Ismail added: "And people have a choice to buy three, four or five-room flats."

Still, Mr Ismail noted that with the high property prices, the lower income with many children will be most affected as they have "no choice but to buy within their means, and that means a smaller flat".

Size matters

Suntec Chesterton International head of research and consultancy Colin Tan disagreed with the suggestion that the smaller flat sizes have not compromised the quality of living.

Mr Tan pointed out that today's modern family needs "at least" a three-bedroom flat with one room for the domestic help or the in-laws.

"And when the children grow up, families will want separate rooms for daughters and sons," Mr Tan said.
Mr Tan noted that unlike the private sector, the HDB does not reduce the size of the kitchen. Instead, it builds smaller bedrooms and this is where Mr Tan believes has the "biggest impact" on the quality of life.

He also argued that Singaporeans, who have become more affluent, have a greater number of possessions which require space. Said Mr Tan: "People who have lived in bigger flats will feel that their quality of life has gone down."

Some flat owners pointed out that it is the size of the unit that affects a couple's decision on the number of children to have. Ms Priscilla Raj, 28, who lives in a five-room Build-To-Order flat, said she was not satisfied with the size of her flat, which might deter her from having more children.

The mother of one said: "(The size) will affect your quality of life - there's no space to have your in-laws or friends to stay over. The cramp makes you feel that you're living in a cell."



Bravo Cheong Koon Hean, you made yourself sound like an idiot on public media trying to justify your organisation greed by building smaller flats while selling them at record prices.

First of all I bet this Koon Hean doesn’t even live in HDB nor she has many friends living in one of her product.

Here is like having someone who eat shark fin everyday telling the person who drink tap water it is good enough to have water as long time ago people dink from the drains.

This again highlighted the poor quality of leadership in government stats boards who are appointed without knowing the needs and hardships of average Singaporean. (Remember the SMRT CEO?)

How will you expect these Elites to do a good job providing the needs of the peasants?

They do not use the product the sell and they are out to maximise profit for their company.

Now we know they are quite stupid as well as they try to tell us how good HDB flats and SMRT are.

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

Easy solution that don't deserve million dollars pay checks.

Low fertility rate, no in-migration will lead to S'pore's population decline
07 September 2011

SINGAPORE: Singapore's resident population will decline and become extremely aged if the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is extremely low and if there is no in-migration.

This is according to a landmark study on future population growth and change for Singapore published on Wednesday by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).

The IPS study started in 2007 worked with different scenarios - of constant low fertility with no immigrants, with 30,000 immigrants and 60,000 immigrants.

The study says with TFR at 1.24 births per woman and zero net migration, Singapore's population will decline to 3.03 million in 2050.

With 30,000 migrants added annually, the population projection is 4.89 million in 2050.

And with 60,000 migrants added annually, population projection is 6.76 million in 2050.

The study also looked at a situation where TFR can be raised to 1.85 births per woman by 2025 with no new immigration.

With such a scenario, the study says population size can still only hit 3.37 million in 2050.

If fertility rate remains low, the study also projected that there will be fewer young people in Singapore.

The number of young people under 14 years of age will go down by more than half from 699,000 in 2005 to 274,400 by 2050.




This report has no value. It is just another piece of propaganda by the incumbent to strike fear by announcing our population will be extremely aged if there is no migrants.

So what if its so?

Economy slowing down? Less progress?

I would gladly give these up for a better quality of life.

We were at 2 millions before and we did quite well.

So who is getting the benefit from the influx of migrant? The government no doubt.

Wealth is not equally distributed in this country. The government and elites only want you and me to work long hours, squeeze into smaller buses and train so to generate more profit for them.

If we are facing ageing problem, the government should look into the root cause.

They should ask themselves why we are not producing but instead they choose to do the easy way by letting in migrant. Don’t forget they age as well and will contribute to the ageing population in the future. So what to do then? Let in more migrants?

This is a good example of overpaid idiots doing a crab job and they still dare to talk about unity.

Smoke screen by PAP

Lee Kuan Yew cautions against turning political divide into national divide
05 September 2011

SINGAPORE: Singapore's former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has cautioned Singaporeans against turning the current political divide into a national divide.

He said Singapore could achieve high income growth as compared with its neighbours because during its independence, it had an undivided society that was solidly behind a meritocratic system.

Mr Lee was speaking to 1,800 students at a dialogue session at the Nanyang Technological University on Monday evening. The dialogue - also attended by Education Minister Heng Swee Keat - is part of the annual ministerial forum series organised by the NTU Students' Union.

During the dialogue, Mr Lee acknowledged that the one thing which will change in Singapore and which has already happened is the political divide.

He said as long as the political divide does not degenerate into a national divide, it will not have much impact on the growth of the country.

But Mr Lee warned that if the political divide turned into constant bickering, like what is happening between the Democrats and Republicans in the United States, then Singapore will become just "another ordinary country".

Mr Lee also explained that as Singapore grows more segmented with more diverse educational levels, the country will not have the same homogeneous mass of people to rally behind a single policy.

He said: "What's good for the middle income will be seen by the lower income as unfavourable to them. What is good for the higher income will be resisted by the middle income.

"It is a different society that we face and, therefore, the political leaders will have a much more complicated job of getting the society as a whole to accept a programme which is segmented to meet the needs of various stratas of society."

Another subject of concern during the dialogue was Singapore's immigration policy.

Mr Lee emphasised that a major worry for Singapore's leaders is the fast ageing population, coupled with a drop in fertility rates. Last year, the total fertility rate was at an all-time low of 1.15.

He said: "The birth rate today, the fertility rate, is 1.01. In other words, for every couple, you have 1.01 babies.

"Having said that, the Institute of Policy Studies have the grim statistics of 60,000 migrants a year to keep our economy young. We can't digest that. 20,000 maybe, 25,000 - that's a stretch - but certainly not 60,000."
Mr Lee said the answer is to get couples to have a fertility rate of 1.8 babies or better still, 2.1 babies. Then the population can replace itself.

Mr Lee was also asked about the impact of the recent handing over of the KTM Railway land to Singapore. He said it will benefit ties between the Republic and Malaysia.

Turning to the future, the founding father of modern Singapore stressed that his worry is whether Singaporeans will have the best people in the best jobs.

He said: "My worry about the future is whether we'll have the same national solidarity, the same desire to increase education levels and increase performance and having the best people in the best jobs or holding the most important jobs. Once we veer away from that meritocratic system, our performance will drop."

Political divide will turn into National divide if the incumbent political party are attracting only the ELITES which policies does not benefit the poor and middle income of the nation population.

If you look at PAP, their initial policy in the 60s are good, they generally improve the life of most Singaporean then. However it has since lost it main focus and is working for the benefit of it own rather then for Singapore.

Look at the recent People Association saga. PAP is using tax payer money to champion the party goal rather then the goal of Singaporean.

Look at how PAP treats the Singaporean living in opposition wards.

For many years the PAP itself is splitting the Nation by the way they work in Hougang and Potong Pasir.

I totally disagreed with the old man’s statement:

"What's good for the middle income will be seen by the lower income as unfavourable to them. What is good for the higher income will be resisted by the middle income.”

Bullshit!

Lower the standard of living, lower medical cost, shorten working hours and have a pro-family national policy.

This will benefit all Singaporean and even solve your ageing population problem altogether.
And we are not a true meritocratic society my friend.

May I remind you of Tin Pei Ling. I am sure Tan Chee Say can do a better job then her in parliament.

Father's life is good, it will too be for son.

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim's son will serve NS
His press secretary confirmed on Monday that the minister's son will serve NS.
Tue, Sep 06, 2011

SINGAPORE - Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, the Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts, has refuted online speculation that his son will not serve National Service (NS).

Dr Yaacob's 16-year-old son carries dual citizenship in Singapore and the United States. He was issued US citizenship as his mother is an American citizen by birth.

The issue of his son's citizenship was made public when a leaked US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks identified the minister's two children as US citizens.

It then made its way into online forums where some netizens speculated that Dr Yaacob's son will not serve NS. Other netizens called for Dr Yaacob to clarify the matter.

Dr Yaacob's press secretary confirmed yesterday that the minister's son will serve NS just as his father did.

Seem like Yaacob is fast becoming the Minister of the month after Vivian in May.

Well I agreed with him this time that people should leave his private life out of the picture as “innocent” teenager has been targeted because daddy is not very popular.

However we should also asked ourselves why there are so much critics and why are Singaporean has so much dissent towards the Elites and PAP?

It is because the Elites has been abusing their power, pulling string and get their relative into favourable positions.

I believe Yaccob’s son will serve his NS and take up Singapore citizenship in the first place.

Hey why not since Daddy is a demi-god in this country and your place in university and the government sectors are all secured!

Lift is good here! While back in US where you are just a nobody.

Then again I am sure Yaccob’s son name is already on MINDEF white horse list.

I bet he will have a great time serving his nation, becoming either an officer, clerk with a 9-5 job or maybe a sergeant working as a defence scientist!

PAP newbies Parrots

Labour candidates criticise opposition

TWO new People's Action Party (PAP) candidates from the labour movement on Wednesday criticised opposition parties for introducing candidates only now, after the announcement of Nomination Day, and for using the elections as training ground for young suicide squads they are sending to GRCs helmed by senior ministers.

NTUC assistant secretary-general and PAP candidate for Aljunied GRC Ong Ye Kung said Singaporeans will have less time to get to know opposition candidates, as a result. By contrast, the PAP introduced its new faces earlier and let the public 'scrutinise us upside down', he said.

Mr Ang Hin Kee, chairman of NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute and a PAP candidate for Ang Mo Kio GRC, responded to a Singapore People's Party idea to send a suicide squad to Ang Mo Kio GRC, to take on a PAP team helmed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Mr Ang said the opposition should consider if their aim in contesting was to serve residents or to use Ang Mo Kio as a training ground.

He added that response to the PAP manifesto has been good as residents are happy that the PAP wants to build a future for their children.
ST 20 Apr



I was waiting for the PAP newbies to talk rubbish and presto. These two started the ball rolling after Tin Pei Ling.

Firstly there is seriously wrong with the Union being so close to PAP. Union represent the Singapore workers and their leader work for PAP?

Does not make sense at all. What about conflict of interest my friends?

This 2 parrots are saying that the opposition should name their candidates sooner so the PAP can “scrutinise them upside down”.

Hello does it matter?

It is still a week to nomination day and so what when PAP introduced their candidates earlier? Many people still don’t know who the hell are these newbies and what have they done to make them the special one.

Think Tin Pei Ling is the most famous among the PAP newbies. The rest does not ring a bell to me.

In fact we don’t even know much about some of the existing PAP MPs nor what have they contributed to our nation.

I only know who is Ex Ang Mo Kio’s MP Wee Siew Kim after his famous Elite daughter Wee Shu Min incident.

Christopher De Souza? Hawazi Dapi? Heng Chee How? Hri Kuma Nair? Lam Pin Min? Ong Ah Heng? Zaqy Mohamad?

Who the hell are these people?

These 2 jokers even criticised the opposition for sending “young suicide squads” to GRC helm by Senior Ministers.

So? What is wrong with this?

If the people decided they prefer Sweet Young Things then some Old Farts to represent them in parliament then who are you to say anything? You two have not even win a single vote yet and already you talk like a MP.

Moreover some of these GRC are not tested and until recently we only know only 66% of the people in Ang Mo Kio love the Secretary General of PAP.

Singaporean deserve to have the right to vote and for this I have to thanks all Opposition parties.

Another Idiot Wee Shue Min?

ST Forum
Dec 14, 2006
'Hua Yu cool'? No, boorish Mandarin-speaking youths spoil the image

I can attest that Mr Peter Donkin's observations of young Singaporeans are true.

I have many negative opinions of young Singaporeans too, despite being a youth myself.

My observations of inconsiderate behaviour among young Singaporeans almost always involve the Mandarin-speakers.

While not implying that all Mandarin-speaking youths are rotten (nor are all English-speaking youth angels), an overwhelmingly large group of offenders are observed to be from this group.

This seems to stem from the Chinese school of thought which advocates 'If I don't take, I lose out' and 'If others can do it, so can I, otherwise I lose out', among other factors.

Before anyone takes offence at my discrimination, go on a MRT ride across the island first, and my theory will come to life.

On a train ride from Jurong East to City Hall last month, I saw three groups of Mandarin-speaking youths huddled with their handphones playing Chinese songs at full blast.
The three groups were in the same cabin. It was terrible. One couple left the cabin for another because they couldn't take the racket.

Many people glared at the youths. A girl from one of the groups declared in Mandarin and English 'Wa, wo men hen attract attention leh!', which translates to 'Wow, we are attracting a lot of attention!'.

Was she thinking that people saw her group as 'cool' just because her handphone played MP3 music and they were the latest Mandopop hits? I was outraged at the inconsiderate behavior.

The Mandarin-speaking Singaporean youths also seem to ignore rules that make the world an orderly place. For example, they ignore repeated reminders to keep to the left on escalators. They also ignore the markings that serve to allow passengers on trains to alight first.

A Malaysian classmate who recently visited Thailand spoke of how gracious the people there were, and their good etiquette on the train.

Step into a shop and you will notice that the Mandarin-speakers are rude to service staff and they never say 'please' or 'thank you'.

Based on their interactions with my peers, they take offence easily,
yet they have no qualms about being sarcastic and rude to foreign teachers.

Many young litterbugs are also Mandarin-speaking youths.

When I visited Melbourne some months back, I was greatly impressed at the clean streets. I saw everyone putting their litter into bins, and there were no cleaners around.

While many Mandarin-speaking youths are nice on a personal level, their mentality can manifest the antisocial behaviour that I have mentioned.

My friends and I belong to the minority English-speaking group and we are ashamed to speak in Mandarin in public. No, we are not elites, just normal teenagers.

Unless the association of bad behaviour with Mandarin-speaking youths can be negated, 'Hua Yu Cool' isn't going to work on us anytime soon.

Ang Lixing


Gosh another clown!

Personally I am quite surprised that The Straits Time published this letter. I wonder if the letter will be published if the writer is commenting on English speaking youths or other races.

Ang Lixing’s view of society is so so stereotypical.

There are ALWAYS rude, inconsiderate idiots from ALL race, religion, education background and nationalities.

Lixing, you just proved to Singapore that you are one of them.

Also Lixing commented how clean and beautiful Melbourne is. So does this mean English speaking countries is better off then Mandarin speaking countries?

I was in Melbourne before too and there are streets that are clean and there are streets that are dirty. Perhaps Lixing was walking behind a street cleaner while she was in Melbourne.

With China's expected dominance in the next decade and with the European countries' economies slowing down, it would be ironic that Lixing finds it a shame to speak Mandarin and choose instead to speak in English. Doesnt she keep herself updated on what is happening to the world now? You may just end up working for a chinese boss when you start working and that will be the real irony.

If she think she belong to the minority youth who speaks English and is embarassed by the so-called chinese speaking youths, then by all means migrate overseas. I am sure her departure will not be a loss to the nation.

And may I add that I do come across irritating English speaking youths who added an american accent in their conversation which is so fake and I swore they had their education in Singapore. Who is she to comment that Chinese speaking youths are boorish, rude and all the negative comments. I do seriously think that Lixing needs to see a counseller over her obsure opinions.

I am expecting a public outrage on this matter…. Time to sit back and enjoy another WSM saga unfolding… hehe…

Fatherhood in Singapore

CNA
'Back to School with Dad' hopes to build bonds between father and child
12 December 2006

Sending a child to school may be a simple act but it can go a long way in bonding a parent and a child.

That is the hope of the Centre for Fathering as it embarks on a campaign to get dads to do just that when it is time to head back to school in January.

15-year-old Matthew Han is old enough to go to school on his own but his father, Paul, would rather accompany his son.

The boy himself wouldn't have it any other way. "Because he's like my alternative to coming to school later. So I won't need to wake up so early to catch the bus!"

For Paul, it is more than just giving his son more sleep time and a ride. This simple act has been a tradition with the Han family from the days when Paul was brought to school by his own parents.

"It is quality and valuable time for me. It's about 20 minutes. He has a chance to ask me, (tells me) what he likes, what his problem is. I'm not always home because I'm travelling quite substantially. So I have a good chance to talk to him."

"When we are in the car, we talk about his work, what he's doing currently, when he'll be off, when he'll be flying off, when he'll return and all his future plans to go overseas and come back since he goes overseas quite often," Matthew says.

It is this sort of bonding that the Centre for Fathering hopes other families will be able to do as well.

Seah Kian Peng, Board Member of the Centre for Fathering, says: "I think the current lifestyles are very different. All of us face a lot of demands on our time at work, and at the same time, the statistics show that indeed there are a lot of stresses a lot of families are going through."

The centre says with the conventional view of fathers as breadwinners, mothers tend to take on the parenting role. But it wants to elevate the role of fathers as it feels parenting is a shared responsibility.

"Even if it's five minutes, you have five full minutes with your child, just the two of you. Those five minutes is in the absence of TV - no distractions. You're not competing against TV, the video game, some other people in the household but it is you and your child.

I think those precious moments are to me, quality time. "Make use of the time you have with them. When they are in their teens, it's hard to recapture those moments. Honestly, it's hard to get their attention for half-an-hour one-on-one. It's very simple - the opportunity is there every day of the week," Mr Seah says.

The centre has roped in more than 30 companies to give employees time off to send their children to school. And with the response it has had so far, several thousand fathers could very well be doing that come January.

I applauded the Center of Fathering effort to elevate the role of fatherhood but this seem to be not a very logical method to start with.

Encouraging fathers to drive their kids to school?

Yes fathers and child can indeed spend quality time with in the cars but how many fathers really own a car?

Base on statistic.

In 2005, 71,042 of 778, 568 student travel to schools in cars and throwing in the 19,151 which classified as others to give a benefit of doubt to the figure.

This will bring the figure to 90,193 which is only 11.58% of the student population.

I believe the Center is heading toward the right direction but is getting it all wrong or do they wan to see some result fast and make a publicized it as quickly as possible to gain some airtime.

I feel that Singapore’s working environment is not a pro family as all.

The Center should push the government to impose flexible working hours, paternal leaves etc etc. to improve fatherhood bonding. There are so many thing they can do and I admit it is difficult but I guess this will benefit the other 88.42% of the students.

Or maybe we are looking at the Elites only?