theonlinecitizen

Andrew Loh

A recent public forum about youth concerns raised the issue of lowering the voting age to 18.

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Perhaps a post-1965 Member of Parliament might initiate the debate to enfranchise these trustees of our posterity.

- Andy Ho, Senior Writer, Straits Times, May 8, 2008, “If old enough for NS, why not the vote?”

The above are quotes from Ho’s article. The first one is the very first line of his piece, and the second one the very last sentence from it.

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Leong Sze Hian & Choo Zheng Xi

Let the people eat…detergent?

Does the media’s reporting of detergent prices reveal a deeper conflict of interest that may harm the country?

Once in awhile pearls of wisdom are found in The New Paper. Larry Havekamp a.k.a. Dr Money, in his financial column in The New Paper, likened statistics to bikinis: what they reveal is suggestive, what they conceal is vital (New Paper, May 5).

We refer to the article in the Straits Times headlined “Rice and cooking oil lead price rise: New Case survey of prices across retailers points out cheaper options for buyers” (Straits Times, May 3).

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Leong Sze Hian & Andrew Loh

All 14 town councils run by the People’s Action Party (PAP) will not be increasing their Service and Conservancy (S&C) charges this year.

- Channel NewsAsia, “PAP town councils to freeze S&C charges this year” (February 28, 2008)

Barely two and a half months later, on May 5 2008, this is what ‘officials’ at the PAP-run Aljunied Town Council (TC) said:

Officials also said they will consider raising the conservancy charges for the dirtiest precincts to cover the extra work that goes into maintaining them …

- “Aljunied trash index aims to wipe out litterbugs.” (Straits Times, May 5, 2008)

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Tan Kin Lian

Many people buy life insurance to provide financial security to their family. If premature death occurs, the policy provides a cash sum to take care of the future financial needs of the family.

Insurance agents are drilled into thinking that they play a “noble” role in safeguarding the future of many families. This is half the truth.

Here is the other half: Many families are being grossly overcharged for the modest financial protection offered by the life insurance policy. After deducting the high expenses, their net savings do not earn a sufficient yield for them to live on during their retirement.

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Farquhar

Waiting for Godot

Farquhar comes earlier this week and takes a look at the state of the opposition parties on the second anniversary of Polling Day – May 6 2006.

The Opposition is in danger of missing the chance to build on its gains of 2006

Both Acts of Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot” end in the same lamentable fashion. The two protagonists, having wasted an entire day in a series of pointless diversions (one of which was a laughable attempt to commit suicide) while waiting for an acquaintance that never shows, finally agree to depart the scene. But then they put that off as well and remain where they are at the close of the Act, consigned to repeating the same routine in perpetuity.

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The editors and writers of theonlinecitizen would like to extend our condolences to the families of those who have perished as a result of the devastating cylone which has hit Burma.

We would also like to extend an offer of help to our Burmese friends in Singapore. Please do let us know if TOC can be of any assistance. We can be reached at theonlinecitizen@gmail.com

TOC also urges the Singapore government to do all it can to help the people of Burma in this time of need.

TOC editorial team.

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Former Chief Executive of NTUC Income, Mr Tan Kin Lian, is calling for a “collective protest” against Income’s “bonus cut”.

In his blog posting, Tan says that he “will be asking a lawyer to organise policyholders who wish to submit a collective protest against the bonus cut. This will be sent to the board of directors and to MAS.”

Here are two excerpts from Tan’s blog posting.

We have bought many life insurance polices with NTUC Income that are affected by the recent cut in annual bonus. The reduction in bonus is about 45%. We understand that this large cut will apply not just for one year but for every year into the future.

When we bought the policies, we were given a benefit illustration showing how the future bonuses would be distributed. While the actual bonuses were not guaranteed, we expect that NTUC Income would honour the underlying promise to distribute the bonuses in the manner that was illustrated.

You can read the entire blog posting here: Tan Kin Lian.

To participate in the protest, click here.

Read also: “Tan Kin Lian, an upset Income customer” by TODAY.

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Dear everyone,

We are featuring four articles and a video this weekend. To allow our readers easy access to them, here is a summary:

Singaporean activists mark World Press Freedom Day 2008

To mark World Press Freedom Day 2008, a group of Singaporean independent activists held a demonstration outside the Singapore Press Holdings’ News Centre building on May 3.

Youths call for right to vote at Youthquake forum

The Workers’ Party Youth Wing (YPYW) launched its inaugural YouthQuake forum series today on the topic “Should Singaporean Youths be Allowed to Vote at 18?” The public forum, targeted at youths, took place at the party’s headquarters in Syed Alwi Road.

James Gomez gives TOC exclusive update

James Gomez, an opposition candidate in the general elections in 2006, is in Singapore currently. TOC met up with him and asked him what he’s been up to. (Video) We apologise for the slight noise in the background in the video.

Homophobia Part 1: MDA censors the family

Writer Ng Yi Sheng gives his take on the Media Development Authority’s fine on Mediacorp for broadcasting a programme on Channel Five which Showed “an episode of a home and décor programme named Find and Design that happened to feature two men in a loving relationship, converting their game room into a nursery for their new adopted baby.”

Homophobia Part 2: Under attack from the police

Yi Sheng relates how the police raided a “gay sauna”, named One Seven, last Friday. “Though none of the clients were arrested, the 74 year-old owner, Sam was injured by the supervising officer and arrested and jailed overnight for allegedly having assaulted the officer, a charge that he denies.”

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TOC will also be featuring a write up by Gerald Giam on Viswa Sadasivan’s speech which included the issues of leadership in government and the local media.

Also, coming soon on TOC will be well-known psychotherapist Anthony Yeo’s article on the Mas Selamat issue and what needs to be done before Singaporeans can “move on”.

It’s an interesting week for TOC and hopefully also for you, our readers. Some of the articles contain, undoubtedly, controversial issues. It is our hope that everyone here will engage in civil and respectful discourse and avoid name-calling or profanities.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who have responded to our call to join us. It is indeed very heartening and encouraging to see fellow Singaporeans offering to give us a hand.

We also thank those of you who have written in to us with words of support.

Lastly, TOC will be moving to a new site with a new layout soon - as we approach our 1,000,000th hit in the stats count. We’re looking at perhaps end of this week. So if you visit our site and find it looking different, don’t worry.

It’s just the new TOC.

Thanks, everyone!

Regards,

Andrew Loh

On behalf of the editorial team.

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To mark World Press Freedom Day 2008, a group of Singaporean independent activists held a demonstration outside the Singapore Press Holdings’ News Centre building on May 3.

Below is the group’s message explaining the purpose of their demonstration.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY 2008
Today is World Press Freedom Day: an opportunity to reflect upon the principles of press freedom. Press freedom must be championed and protected as it comprises the fundamental Freedom of Expression (Article 19, Universal Declaration of Human Rights). UNESCO’s 2008 themes for this day are Access to Information and Empowerment.

In resonance with this, we as independent activists marked World Press Freedom Day 2008 this morning, with a series of messages to share our thoughts on the state of press freedom in Singapore.

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Selene Cheng

“The power of Parliament comes from the people, and the power of the people comes from our right to vote.”

The Workers’ Party Youth Wing (YPYW) launched its inaugural YouthQuake forum series today on the topic “Should Singaporean Youths be Allowed to Vote at 18?”

The public forum, targeted at youths, took place at the party’s headquarters in Syed Alwi Road.

WPYW executive committee member and chairperson of today’s forum Bernard Chen said that the YouthQuake forums aim to “promote greater awareness of youth-centric issues, to promote debate and discussion on issues that affect [youths]”.

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James Gomez, an opposition candidate in the general elections in 2006, is in Singapore currently. TOC met up with him and asked him what he’s been up to.

Here is a short video.

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Ng Yi-Sheng

In my last article, I mentioned that two things had happened recently that made me shocked and angry at the Singapore government. The first was MDA’s imposition of a fine on Mediacorp for showing a wholesome gay family on TV, a case credibly reported by official news sources. The second is a rather more sordid affair, receiving only underground coverage thus far.

Last Friday, 25 April 2008, there was a police raid at a gay sauna named One Seven. Though none of the clients were arrested, the 74 year-old owner, Sam was injured by the supervising officer and arrested and jailed overnight for allegedly having assaulted the officer, a charge that he denies. No explanation was given for the raid – on being asked, the officers refused to produce a warrant and simply repeated over and over again that they were conducting a “spot check”.

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