Dear Dr Balakrishnan,
First off, thank you for entering the blogosphere and deciding to open your eyes to the reality on the ground.
In a recent response to a blogpost, you said:
“I wish the cynics would just focus their negative energy on me, and let the athletes and volunteers have the time of their lives”.
The unfortunate implication of your statement is that the negativity surrounding the YOG so far has been directed at volunteers and athletes.
Let’s be clear: not a single article we’ve read online so far that has been critical of the YOG has dishonored the work of genuine volunteers or even those who have been “volunteered”. Neither has it been directed against our athletes, of whom every Singaporean hopes will do us proud.
In fact, all criticism has been directed at the shoddy work of the main organizing committee, which seem to think it can treat the youths of Singapore like conscripts and organize a world-class event with minimal preparation. This is what Singaporeans are outraged about.
Even people scathingly critical of the YOG’s organization have said that they feel embarrassed for the stage performers and other entertainers lining Marina Bay, singing to rows of empty chairs.
The root of this problem is your lack of consultation before deciding to bid for the games, and your callous approach to cost overruns only further adds salt to the wound.
But now that the games have begun, ordinary Singaporeans don’t want the YOG to fail. No Singaporean can be happy that so far we haven’t put our best foot forward for the rest of the world.
But if you are really interested in the welfare of volunteers and athletes, you need to take some responsibility and address the criticisms that have been leveled at the way yourself and the YOG committee have organized the games.
It is not too late to make the games a genuine success: Singaporeans are fair minded and will surely give credit where it is due if you own up to your faults. A little bit of humility might go a long way in making Singaporeans want to be a part of the YOG.
Otherwise, it will be perverse for you to not accept any fault or directly address criticisms from student volunteers and ordinary citizens, while at the same time claiming: “The real stars and primary motivation for the YOG are…our own volunteers”.
The Online Citizen will be happy to publish your reply in full.
Best regards,
Choo Zheng Xi
Andrew Loh
———
The above open letter has also been sent to the minister via email.
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So VB is the brainless cruel guy who gave instruction to cull cats during SARS.
If he does not know civet cats are not cats and that civets are only rumor to spread SARS, no wonder he make such a terrible Minister.
I hope to see the end of him by the next election.
What we have here is a bunch of brianless scholars!!! Here goes the down fall of PAP…
an article in the front page of Straits Times mention that some venues have been instructed to resell tickets if seats are still unoccupied once a session has started.
meaning that there may be cases where there are 2 ticket holders to a seat.
can anyone shed light if its legal? what if other for profit organisers start doing the same? isn’t then a kind of profiteering?
“So VB is the brainless cruel guy who gave instruction to cull cats during SARS.
If he does not know civet cats are not cats and that civets are only rumor to spread SARS, no wonder he make such a terrible Minister.”
That’s even worse than YOG – for a medical doctor!!!
Between a dying snake and a politician and the likes of this unethical, unprincipled one – better the snake then this ugly one!
Dimplex
They are not brainless. To be able to collect millions, you need the brain. Beside millions also loss , but not theirs why bothers. Would anyone here dare to say they are willing to waste 400millions if those money are theirs. One businessman in sg just loss 26m , now he wants to sue casino. So, Sg you be the judge.
If there is any conscience left..VB should jus resign “like a man” instead of defending his mistake n incapability.
It is as clear as the sky..he had failed miserably..and all this coming from a “3 meal comment guy”..GEE ! What has PAP become of today????..shameless bunch of craps…time to oust them out ..totally..lot stock and barrel.
Same goes to all “Pap Bootlickers -Locals and Foreigner alike”–all should be “Burn to HELL”
what did i tell u
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1076021/1/.html
Sori..who is this clown ?…Ng Ser..what???You mean ser,as in “snake”
what did i tell u
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1076021/1/.html
Is the book “The day PAP boomzed the world and killed the heart of sports and Singaporeans” out yet?
This is how backward they are… Still do not understand that in this internet age ppl are not so gullible as to believe every BS they dish out anymore. Perhaps if they do not surround themselves with YES men and do some internet surfing themselves they’d get the picture.. But i suspect they think singaporeans are stupid and gullible… how else can u explain the 66% support.
they are so high and mighty they don’t have to be nice to us .they don’t care how we feel- they just whack us -from words to deeds.come on peasants ,fear no more, lets vote the bunch of drs and profs and whatnots OUT
It would be good if our local media can take a more critical view on matters (not just YOG alone), rather than just re-print press releases from the government. If not, the politicians and civil servants will simply get complacent, thinking that they can do no wrong, since the media will not point out their errors.
A Useless good for nothing,splineless Dr.Quack !
Quote:”I wish the cynics would just focus their negative energy on me, and let the athletes and volunteers have the time of their lives”.
This is a comment by one who attempts to elevate himself , and yet lacks Integrity.
If YOG is a FLOP, like the Mas Selamat case, they will terminate everyone except themselves.
Vivien B, your reply is awaited with
overwhelming anticipation.
I hope he is run over by a lorry tomorrow.
I would like to appeal to Mr Bala to fully understand and comprehend the ticketing situation and consult his advisors or committee beforehand before he make any wild statements. Reselling tickets? I am involved slightly in part of the ticket sales and from my understanding his statement to the press about the resale tickets are not backed up by actions. There are no such instructions in our ticketing operation and everyone was clueless as of today. He does not even understand the ground operation and the ticketing system and he confidently tell the public there would be resale. I am not too sure about other venues maybe they have but even if there are resale, there would not be as many as he claimed there would. Report say currently 320,000 tickets available for the 26 sports but the most i saw the tickets still availavle was only 3 digits while many are already sold out, i don’t know how it would add up to 300k.
When told there were really no more tickets available, the customers refuse to believe and leave, claiming the newspaper said there would be resale but there isn’t really any instructions to do reselling. So it seems like the ticketing operation were the one at fault for not issuing any tickets. I would appeal to Mr balakrishnan to stop making wild statements and give the public false hope and causing commotion and confusion. While making himself a hero, claiming what officials like himself would give up the seats if there is really a situation of 2 people to one seat, he is shifting the blame for all the screw-ups to innocent volunteers, helpers and staffs who deserve no such treatment. Mr Bala, you want to talk you better make sure you do what you talk. I heard some people cant get tickets to today’s soccer and the ministers came to watch the match. Did you see them give up their seats?! Nope. Don’t come bullshit with me and the public with all these empty talks. Assess and really understand the situation first before u start talking.
First, culling poor innocent cats for no reasons. Then vicious sarcasm and veto on the less fortunate to bicker over a mere extra $10 for 3 meals. Now unapologetic over the criminal disastrous over budget of almost $400m on a children’s sports meet on steroids? Is this Diva for real? Can call himself “dog-the” some more. Pui!
Spin, be it fast or be it slowly, but surely. Spin, Wheels of Karma and Retribution, do your deeds on these WRETCHED digits. Your WILL must and is done!
dear dr balekampong
yesterday there was some food poisonin amon the volunteers..in your socalled special ^immunity^ department..you seem to get away with it..if this were to happen in a normal peasant’s eatery..the ministry of envoirment/health would had issued a few thousand$ dollar$ summon$..
cared to explain why your YOG so special?
To :balaepicfail
Thank you for your info.
Like we say,we have a ‘Dr Bala’ who lack Integrity, uttering stupid things like
‘reselling tickets’ .
This goes to show the Fluidity of the present government isnt it?
@YOG Flop 20 August 2010
“…This goes to show the Fluidity of the present government isnt it?…”
.
I thought that is called Meritocracy.
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Fluidity is last nite news suddenly cut halfway to show soccer match between S’pore and Montenegro. No announcement, explanation, nothing. Viewers got no choice but to watch. Slick move MediaCorpse. Guess making us watch 2 countries which has absolutely no chance of even qualifying for the world cup is more important than informing us what else is happening in the world besides YOG. Our media is ranked what — 134th, 155th? Yup, about that standard.
Gentle reminder:
Please note the so called 66% who supported the “PAP” in the last GE (General Election) are actually out of the 43% Singaporeans who actually got the chance to vote. The other 67% fellow Singaporeans did NOT get the chance to work due to the GRC Bullshit crap and walk over wards which the OPPOSITION either could not challenge due to resources or some other leegalized gimmick get up.
So folks, when u mentioned 66% support the PAP…please remember it is actually 66% of the actual 43% of the citizen population of Singapore that manage to vote in the last GE.
Frankly…even if every citizen [dreaming] voted down the PAP…don’t you think some of the so called MIW might “rigged” it so that the PAP will win…since the next GE is planned within the PAP PM Office.
When you look at parliament now…it is a joke…since so called 66% of the actual citizen voters voted PAP out of the 43% of the general citizen population of singapore get to vote in previous GE…i wonder why out the 84 MPs in parliament…we get 82 PAP MPs…and ONLY 2 Opposition MPs…NO WONDER Laws and Policies can be change suka suka or for “personal” agendas at the whim of the over majority controlled Parliament.
Folks, a single party is not the way to go for Singapore…especially when there is no independent true audits or any tranparency by the incumbent PAP government.
Can the people and singapore still continue with the way things are going with a single party calling all the shots…and many of these shots are either going astray or “killing” innocent bystanders just because they are there to be used and throw away like rubbish once “useless” to the PAP government.
It seems ONLY OLD PAP folks get to continue to “enjoy” life and all that blood money till their dying day.
It is not a joke…it is a tragedy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo4SblJ_SnU
@sturmtruppen, 20 August 2010
.
Allow this correction. The results of the 2006 elections were: 34% PAP, 17% Opposition, 44% WALKOVERS, 5% spoilt/no-show/MIA/misc. Sorry I can’t remember the decimals. So, actually about 51% made it to the ballot boxes. The 66% is then from 34% actual, which somehow translated into 98% parliament.
.
I feel ashamed everytime ppl like you & myself have to remind everyone of such basics. One would think the opposition would have educated Singaporeans to such facts since 2006. The result is that once rumours are repeated long enough they become ‘facts’, and if ‘facts’ are repeated enough, they become mandates. Perhaps the opposition also happy to say they got 33+% of votes instead of actually 17%. Regardless, they seems OK whether 17% or 33+%, it got translated into only 2% parliament.
.
Too bad VB/TSL must have believed this system themselves – that the majority of S’poreans are solidly behind the YOG, when a simple poll would show probably less than 20%.
.
Yea, “Confusion”.. it’s such a terrible thing… But MUCH, MUCH better than the O yeah, O yeah… ****.
can the YOG organisers use the excuse that this is the 1st time they organise an event on such scale? for goodness’s sake is this a $300+++ million guinea pig?
if so i see S’pore heading for 3rd world status every time a new minister take over.
“i am still new”
“its my 1st time. be realistic, problems are unavoidable.”
people who are not up to the task of organising big scale events should not be given a cent to squander.
it irks me that they do not feel the least bit responsible for the money spent. yet, can still blame the people for the lack of support…
If only he had not ignored the plight of many poor and needy and had been generous and forthcoming and most of all caring – believe me lah, he would have been given lots of support despite the mishaps/accidents and blunders.
Of course, he is one of the many amongst the incumbents who are actually self-serving type(s) lah. Greed for power and SSS are the driving force lah.
Utterly disappointing and ugly lot but then again they are where they are cos Singaporeans are sleep-walking. Hope they are waking up and can undo these oversights and indiscretions esp with votes.
To theforgottongeneration,
Thank you very much for the clarification and critical factual information which i somewhat know roughly via other alternative web sites thus making the information more complete to the benefit of fellow netizens who are in the know roughly like me and/or want to secure full factual information on-hand to leverage on to get the critical and salient information to all fellow citizens of singapore.
This will enable fellow citizens in the know to walk the ground clearly and factually as it allows one to point out critical facts to those either kept in ignorance or are just like me do not have have the complete facts in hand to fully understand the why, hows and where singapore and its peoples are going.
Hope netizens will spread the truth of previous GE….and make those living in ignorance to understand how important the next GE is for their children and the kind of singapore they want.
And yes…no more ‘confusion’ for me too, and way better then that “Oh Yeah Oh Yeah” song…lol all rite of ‘YOG’ supposed song…is it for Singapore or is it for YOG actually….songs like that are just too similar to North Korea [Norks] minding bending/must follow what i say/manipulation gimmicks…
Good day everyone and keep the fire burning for the people, singapore herself and the true self-sacrificing YOG “volunteers”.
Doktor Vivian is off course not numbered amongst them as so far i don’t see any real self sacrifice from him…it is not like the 400 million spent is his own money or what lei or he is rite up there doing his part by doing real hands on work and be seen doing it to help the YOG officials and the young YOG sportsmen/women. All i see from this Doktor is a lot of words and precious real action. Action has to be seen and believe and be spoken off by the many who are there to see it being done liao.
Haiz.
this topic of burning papers for ghost months or any months is not publish due to race issue but here we seek understanding:
this is not to against any religion or races. this is mere a topic to discuss. hope all singaporeans chinese understand.
i saw alot of HDB flat and companies burning a very huge amount of papers.stag of them in thousands. some HDB flat the grass area was really burn badly that any grass could grows on that soil. after the burn the ashes fly all over the places and smoke all over, it enters inside the house of residents and even a asthma child got to accept it. all over singapore more damage to the environment and dirty the places. my question is thousands of trees being chop down to create this papers and thereafter being burn down to ashes.a tree takes years to grow and every year thousand of papers need to be burn down. this could result in lose in the nature and having too much air pollutions.
cleaners have a hard time cleaning. i understand they pray for the ghost but what about the one cleaning the mess? what about the thousand of papers create from a chop down trees? is there any alternative way of praying and causing less damage to the environment. do anyone care for the health of the nature and singaporeans from other races that have to face inhaling the smoke and ashes? seeing their country being burn down every year? this is just isn’t right there are sure a way to do things. ghost never ask us to burn down the country of environment for them. they just ask for papers,drinks and snacks i guess. so there got to be a way. hope this will be look upon as alot places have damage and the health of others are affected.
just a discussion and not sure why this been going on but getting worst. should the government find a way to provide a place to let them pray and burn those papers? rather then letting them burn on the grasses, road side, under the void deck, along the drains and more.
maybe build a small building for everyone to do so in it and with chimney to let them smoke go higher and the ashes to be secure inside the place to be collect and clear and dispose.
But it may also worsen if more “joss-paper burners” are imported.
so it mean wait till more to be imported and wait till something happen then this issue to be raise? i’m not against religion, for those who view it that way guess is narrow minded. what my concern is. why not build a place for them to do so and clear for disposal on later part once it ends? this would be great and they don’t have to struggle to find places to burn and end up burning anyway it is possible.
YOG bus accident and here we go singaporeans all put the blame on drivers and government. this tactic is the same government use, anything happen push the blame to singaporeans and god.
haiz.. whatever la..up to singaporeans.
Can we pray harder for each and every cronies in the parliament will be punished heavily and speedily by God!!!!
And pray harder that LSL cancer will get a relapse and it will be a no cure for him and he will died speedily as a useless and worthless PM in singapore. And LKY will be down the way cursed by all singaporeans and also the international countries of his evil wicked doings of his past and present!!!!
@ shutup 20 August 2010
true. the government just not concern over singaporeans chinese about their prayer and providing them a place to do so and some celebration and maybe join in to support them.
i mean alot of things can be done. when chinese temples can be build why not the places in every town to be build for the sole purpose of burning the papers?
they don’t care and let them burn everywhere and anywhere they like and if something get into fire and burst out government will blame on ghost this time round.
burn down this vivian bala please. he is burning down our real money!! while his money are kept in the safe deposit in the bank and inside the valve and inside the lock box!!
VOTE out PAP and burn down their cronies
These million dollar ministers don’t even understand something as basic as this. If you take millions for yourself claiming to be the best and the most brilliant, then PROVE IT! If you want room for mistakes and understanding from the Citizens, then admit that you’re not the best, but are only trying. Take a reasonable pay and take care of the Citizens instead of squeezing every cent you can at every turn from us and you can guarantee people will stand behind you and be willing to accept mistakes!
We have the highest paid ministers in the world, yet our standard of living is too high, our pay is stifled, we have no job security and live with mountain of debt.
Since Singapore’s ministers are by far the highest paid in the world for years now, why hasn’t the term, “The Singapore standard of living”, replaced “The Swiss Standard of living”?
After all their talk and manipulation of the law to legalize their corruption, the bottomline is this – If you don’t give people the service you charge them for, then you are cheating them and you are in FACT corrupt!!!
theforgottongeneration
Its the same trend with all other Govt statistics. Thats why everything is rosy in the PAP’s book. They’re happy with Garbage-in-Garbage-out. Thats the PAP standard.
You probably mean cost of living not standard of living.
I agree whole heartedly anyway.
@GIGO, 20 August 2010
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There’s why I think it is important that ppl share information with counterchecks or alternate views – be open. To be fair, I don’t think the stats figures are tampered as yet, but the interpretation & presentation to the public to form a skewed opinion is really getting very hairy when one digs into the raw data. This YOG is a classic example.
It’s pointless to waste one’s breath on this guy..just let him burn out like a Lard Candle.
The Pro Alien Party should have imported the entire Beijing Olympic Organising Committee – then perhaps VB could have sat back, relax, and quietly enjoy his two million dollar annual wage.
This would have given him the opportunity to have someone to ‘Tai Chi’ for all the bungling mistakes up to now.
Atobe, 21 August 2010
good idea, i guess they the organisers would have kept within budget as well.
^.^
burning down singapore
20 August 2010
Flats are getting smaller and smaller and blocks are getting closer and closer in order to squeeze in as many people as possible. Any pollutants are going to get trapped from smaller open areas and pollutants are going to also come from more cars on the road & diseases are also to spread to more people in more closer proximity.
It is going to get worst not better unless something is done, and done fast. More rules to prevent tension will also mean less room to move about in terms of creative mind and space to exercise freer movement like play as every bit of resource has to be fought for (or paid for).
Hell King is NOT ready to receive the pinkie LHL yet or his daddy. Over the generations, the HELL King has amassed gazillion dollars of hell money through kind burning. These are monies for all ghostly inhabitants in the nether world. If pinkie and his daddy were to cross over, they both will spend all the hell’s reserves in less than a week. Then all the hungry ghost will really be hungry and we humans will be in grave trouble because;
The Father and Son will OPEN all the FLOODGATES ! :)
he open the flood gate now india and china foreigners come here show big head!!
i saw a india foreigners threatening singaporean worker that if he does not do his work properly the india man will complain to the boss. then the india man himself go missing hiding here and there and pretend to be busy. what this india man up to in our country? trying to get as much singaporeans kick out from their jobs?? so that their relative from india can come and work here and take over the post?
gahmen give them the support and keep bringing in them so they step on us lor…thanks to gahmen
india man you must ask vivian bala he very kamcheng with them.china man you must ask LHL he carrying their balls so high
This government knows that the people are sick of their crap. With their lack of transparency and accountability, what’s to stop them from using YOG as a cover to put the bulk of that $385 million in oversea accounts in preperation of the upcoming GE? Just in case…
I mean, $385million is a sh*t load of money you know? I don’t see where it all went though. They’re using existing facilities here as is. So really, where did $385million go to?
100million for yog then balance 285millions divide equally among the puppies la..,
you know mentor itself has his assets oversea, hotel, restaurants, private company. this is being tag into his familees…and relative names..which media can’t nail him directly. so smart old fart.
he has more then trillion but not solely under his name.
if they gonna use our money in something else they know well it won’t work. that is why they put a indian clown to hold a YOG in singapore and during that process they squeeze the money as little as possible for yog but declaring they spend 385 and more millions.
just one word.
if they really spend millions of dollars would the yog volunteer food be that bad and on top of that a food poison hit some of this volunteers?
this shows that they squeeze and provide a cheap catering service for yog volunteers.
need i say more?
VOTE OUT PAP! all of them got to be voted out then they will beg the knees of singaporeans and learn to listen to us.
but again in my mind it ask. does singaporeans really stand as one and fight to make the change? till now i don’t see any singaporeans who want and brave enough to make that change apart from forums and online citizen that they brag about and telling this and that and even some here are very professional in giving details and knows what the calculation and what the government have and what is their pay and so so. but when come to reality debate. this singaporeans pants just went down. and when ask if they dare to vote for opposition, they will whisper and say. “” hey don’t talk about that. later we get into problems.
Already said they are now bankrupting the nation and creating chaos to distract everyone. Be vigilant. These MIW are very ruthless snakes like the trashy indian snakes. These foreign indian labour loves Singapore becos they love being themselves here-howlian, yayapapaya curry, elitist & act high crass but NO substance.
familess already build their foundations. their own private companies, their own source of income. they invest singaporeans money from the beginning to build their empire for their generation. why?
coz if one day they lost the stand as a mentor and minister in singapore they still have their own business and source of money to keep going, have their own hotels, restaurant, investment private companies,land all over the world unlike singaporeans we will just be down the drain and start from scratch.
that is why you see they are arrogant and ignorant to whatever singaporeans says. they do as they wish. even they know they are losing it. they make sure they scrap off how many billions they can from singaporeans before they lost their stand as ministers and presidents.
this is like: now or never!
the lees will bankrupt singapore before they step down. make sure all the billions transferred to their personal bank for invisible retirement in long island with lime juice, wearing shades by the soft sand beach. how the PAP supporters????
PAP supporters can wear PAP shirt and clean the island for the rest of their life while lees throw peanut and they catch it. lees throw banana and they catch it and go on with their work. work harder and harder ok.