If MAS can wash their hands off the minibonds fiasco – watch this next magic!
It is truly the workers’ fault form coming to Singapore – no one else.
There are snake heads and there are snakeheads authority of Singapore. Always protecting the employers.

let’s stop talking about ‘cost’ and talk about humanity, justice and compassion instead!

Halimah ought to take a step further back, open her eyes bigger, and see that the workers should not have been here in the first place if there is no work.

This is why there is a thing call penalty’ and ‘punishment’. Now that the workers were brought in with blatant lies that there are work when there is none, and the exhorbitant fees collected from them based on these lies, does it not seem appropriate to her that these lies and liars be brought to justice and that the penalty and punishment to include the full restitution of all monetary transactions to the workers, with accrued interests and monthly salaries owed to them? And; we have yet to even look into compensation for the sufferings and abuses they suffered.

Is she speaking for MOM that this is quite unexpected? Why don’t check MOM’s records because there are reports that the employer, Tipper, had been guilty of the same crime before?

american style is hire and fire at will .

wow, i must sign up to be NTUC member liao.

got people like Halimah and Lim S S , sure good good wan.

how much the membership fee anyone knows? anyone here a member of NTUC union?

look at all the things they done for workers who i assume pay for membership?

6) TrueBlood Singaporean

Opposition is not a dirty word.
Job of an opposition member is not dirty.
they exist in many vibrant democratic countries.

why this situation?
I feel that it is due to the current batch of singaporeans are 99.9% not experienced in truely multi-party system although singapore did proved it could have multi-party system. Look at history and we can know.
Last time, when police wear khakis, the population is tiny.
Now, it is less tiny. and eventual population could shoot up to 6 million.

This means Change. Things will change.

But as long as the people continue to deny Opposition the chance to contribute to nation building in a big significant way , even when population reaches 6 million, it might still be status quo. But I question would that be good?

Would new citizens be used to 1 party system that current citizens are used to?

Many uncles and aunties praise the pap for giving them money and all things are done by them. But then, which opposition is a minister? how can they do things at national level when they are not a minister? If opposition has the power to give out money, could they?

i am not sure. So, lets hear some comments from the rest.

It is true that modern day Singaporeans have not tasted multi-party rule and therefore have no benchmark to compare whether it will be a good thing or not.

All we have are models of multi-party rule in other countries. The issue here is that this PAP govt has been so successful in getting the people to believe that such a system of governance is no good; and with good and valid reasons thrown in. It has been able to direct our attention toward all the negative aspects of having a two-party system.

Most are taken in, like they always do, with everything being fed to them. How do we then get these people to unlearn and to at least have a mind to think for themselves, whether the picture painted by the PAP is a factual one or a figment of their imagination.

We have the capacity and the power, which the PAP knows we have and possess, but we are allowing the PAP to threaten us, and to allow them to tell us how to use them, the way they want us to use them. Why are we so threatened?

I can understand if the people feel threatened in good times but now that every thing around us is such a complete mess, thanks to the policies of the PAP, what better time than now to give the alternatives the break they so deserved.

Yes, they deserved it, if not for anything, then, for just sticking around and plodding on, GE after GE. If this is not seen as sincerity to their cause, in working toward a better Singapore, then I do not know what is.

Look at the opposition camps. Do we not see the same faces come every GE? Do we think they are there for the fun and fame of it? What fun when they are exposing themselves to huge and hefty defamation suits? What fame except for those that completely destroys your family name?

Let us realise for once, and think hard for ourselves, instead of having the PAP tell us what to believe in, that these are true blue fighters of our home, fighting against all odds, and I mean ALL ODDS!, so that we and our children can have a voice in this, our home.

The question we must ask ourselves is this:
“Do we want a voice of our own, or, do we want to continuing hearing the voice of a group of people who dress in whites, and, who call themselves, Elites of the land, where the rest of us must pay obeisance to?”

Over to you.

gemami, you think the workers want to be here if there is no work.
there need to be some insurgency to blast these snakeheads out of their cowardly caves – clearly, there are middlemen profiteering in good days and leaving the mess in the hands of the the principal parties when things go south

you can fill in real estate, fund manager or any other ‘agent’
there needs be some regulation in place since the human ‘honour’ system is non-existent for the people in these rich fields

can TOC forum people not make everything political
even a 100-party system could not solve a problem at its very roots
you need to look towards a good lawmaking system
not constant policy debate
there are good people (few… but good) in the PAP too

this type of unlearned rowdy anger doesn’t help things
be constructive – if MAS is not doing the right thing, what is?
propose an alternative
there’s always a flaw to pick on

Hi #9) Han Boon Kiat,

Let us put one and one together and see what we get, shall we?

Allow me to draw your attention to the quote by Halimah Yacob.
She said: “This is quite unexpected but they cannot keep the workers with no work at cost to them.”

Now allow me to draw your attention to what I said: “…the workers should not have been here in the first place if there is no work.”

What is wrong with my comment? Here we have, a PAP representative of the biggest labour movement in SG, telling us that:
a. this was unexpected, when MOM has full of details and cases on these sort of treatments dished out to FWs.
b. the employers cannot keep the workers with no work offered to them, therefore implying that this is a case of labour exploitation.
c. at cost to the company, suggesting to us that her primary consideration is toward the welfare of the company and not the workers.

As someone pointed out, what is the cost value to the company when the worker are not paid because there is no work?

You are right to question whether these workers would be here if there is no work. Won’t you direct your question to our dear Halimah instead and make her see your point of view, which is the same as mine?

So please save your salvo for the right people, and; oh, did I say there are no good people in the PAP? If I did, please show me where I said that.

looks like the cost must have been very high :)

what is quite unexpected Halimah? That the MOM is allowing companies to bring into Spore tonnes of foreign workers without jobs?
Then these sub-cons or whatever bogus companies who bring them in to trade to other companies innocently proclaimed they have no work for them.
Why would the union then side with these unscrupulous people and agree that they cannot keep these workers with no jobs at cost to them?
Why is Ms Halimah so concerned about cost to these employers and not the welfare and immense costs to these exploited poor foreign workers?
These people are all coming out to say the most inappropriate remarks – e.g. we should be lucky in the Town Council million dollars saga or more insensitive remarks when doling out $30 more to public assistance Sporeans.

Wow.. that statement should not be made by a NTUC representative. It ought to be made by a representative from the Singapore Employer Federation (SEF) or the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME). Is Madam Halimah Yacob representing SEF/ASME or NTUC? In a situation like this, she should either be condemning bad labour practices or simply shut up.

i don’t know but it all seems like near-slave trading and those that are unwanted are dumped into the drains. is it human compassion? is this right?

Halimah Yacob is conveniently ignoring the fact that these workers paid a lot of money to middlemen in order to get here, with their employers probably getting some commission as well.

If the employers don’t have jobs here, they should return the fees back to the workers. Otherwise isn’t it a clear cut “promise jobs for a fee” scam?

Let’s step back in time and look at how these incompetent employers, knowing there aren’t any jobs, can bring this workers into Singapore.

this is what pro-business and hostile towards employees is all about.

but they can keep the MPs with no work at cost to them?

14) JohnnyKid on January 14th, 2009 6.43 pm
Halimah Yacob is conveniently ignoring the fact that these workers paid a lot of money to middlemen in order to get here, with their employers probably getting some commission as well.

I came to know some years back, this casual friend of mine was also in the business of bringing in construction workers and he even said that its a very profitable business to go into, and one can easily make $1K out of every head count they brought into singapore. And later on, another source I heard that there are more and more people starting this business and make quite alot of $$$ in very short time. I wonder how many such companies are being set up to this day.

Hi does anyone know what is the role of our MP’s are they paid to

1) Prevent issues that impact Singaporeans ?

2) Provide a solution that will benefit Singaporeans ?

3) Give a statement or slogan that as no benefit to Singaporeans ?

Also does anyone know why Singapore is in a recession ? I could not figure this out as I thought I read somewhere that we have the China and India mountains to protect us …….

where was halimah yacob
when the burmese PRs was cancelled and send home to a death row?
ain’t the burmese a foreign workers themselves?
what did they do
to deserve a dead sentence awaitin them?

I think she was misquotted bah. I don’t think she is that heartless lor. I think just misquotted.

#21) what!,

I do not believe for one moment that she was misquoted. There are three parts to that statement alone. Which part is misquoted; “unexpected, no work or cost?”

The first part is to soften the blow, “oh, it was unforeseen, you guys know the reason that took us by surprise and by storm, blah, blah, blah…”

The second part is to reason why they are in such a situation, “oh, if the company could help it, you would have jobs and will get paid. Unfortunately, times are bad and busines has slowed down … blah…blah…blah”

The third part is to give warning that they will have to return home with personal losses to their investments on seeking a better life; “oh, the company cannot be made to incur cost for a situation that is not of their doing … blah … blah … blah”

Why is there such a dire need to measure everything in monetary costs? What about the cost of human despair, of broken families, of fatalities? Why must businesses always take precedent over the person, the human being?

There is no misquote. There is stupidity, which is a result of heartlessness and insensitivity

to gemani and the rest,

got read not the forum on straits time the other day, she said she was misquoted by the reporter. she wrote the full interview to the reporter but the reporter did not fully publish it. so it’s the reporters fault not hers. when i read the exact exert of the interview with the reporter, it was not in anyway like this. the reporter did not fully publish it. so just get on with it.