~by: Ravi Philemon~
“The New Paper had become aware of the investigation after Mr Ng was picked up in late December.” – The New Paper dated 25 January 2012
This comment from The New Paper seems to suggest that the mainstream media (msm) were well aware that Singapore Civil Defence Force’s Commissioner, Peter Lim Sin Pang, and Director of the Central Narcotics Bureau, Ng Boon Gay, have been relieved of their positions and were being probed by CPIB over 'allegations of serious personal misconduct', about a month ago.
Why then did the msm choose to publish this, almost sneakily, during the Chinese New Year holidays when most people pay scant attention to news?
Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Law and Home Affairs, Hri Kumar Nair, responding to the news reportedly said, 'The authorities are doing what they are expected to do. Let's not jump to conclusions and start making judgments before the authorities have finished investigations.'
Were the msm delaying the release of this news because they were concerned that the general public would jump to conclusions? I certainly hope not.
It is right for the Government (and related agencies) to worry about the implications such news would create, especially when it's so close to the Ministerial Salary debate in Parliament. The release of this news before the debate would have surely undermined the ruling Party’s longstanding argument that top salaries for top people would weed out corruption.
But such concerns should not be that of the media, unless they have been co-opted by the establishment (also read Ng E-Jay article 'Time to free up Singapore's media' HERE).
And no, the msm need not sensationalise the issue, that the duo and some others are under investigation in a case concerning ‘money and women’; but report it factually, naming the senior officers from the Ministry of Home Affairs, that they are being investigated by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), and that they are now out on bail assisting CPIB in their investigations.
TREmeritus said in their report on the issue that they received a tip-off about the arrest about 10 days ago. Did the msm release the news when it did, only because the socio-political blogs were getting wind of the investigations and were concerned that they (msm) would look very bad if the alternative media released the news first – and worse, if it is confirmed to be true?
More important than asking, "Why were the investigations and suspensions only revealed after a newspaper broke the story?", is the question, "Why was the story of the investigations and suspensions broken by the newspapers almost a month after they had the lead?"
One certainly doesn't get a prize for guessing that all governments everywhere try to cover-up their shortcomings, or where they cannot, delay relaying the information till a more convenient time. And the Government of Singapore is no exception.
But the difference in most other countries is, the press which is free, keeps the government on their toes, to ensure that such serious personal misconducts by people holding senior positions in the establishment are exposed in the shortest possible time.
Yes, the Government of Singapore must surely be appreciated for its zero tolerance approach towards corruption, for they certainly did not spare the duo (and the rest under them) because they were senior officials. And you can't really call them tardy for not releasing the news of the investigations in a more timely manner; because they were only acting in their own self-interest, like any other government in the world would have.
But the mainstream media? What excuse do they have? Especially when besides the two senior government officers, a staff of a Government Linked Corporation, ST Electronics, is also seemingly implicated in this case (see HERE).
Mr P N Balji, former-editorial director of Mediacorp, said (in 2008), “Ideally, the public should be putting the pressure on the media, but do we have a perceptive and sophisticated community generally who can tell the difference between good and not-so-good journalism?”
Mr Balji may have implied that as a community, we are not as perceptive or sophisticated, and so deserve the kind of media we have here.
Is that also the reason why we are placed at 135/179 countries in the press freedom index 2011/2012 (see HERE)?
More than the government, this issue casts a spotlight on the sad state of the mainstream media in Singapore. And we surely cannot be wrong when we demand higher standards from them.
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I always find it strange when people blame the MSM itself for Singapore’s low press freedom ranking.
Imagine if the government issued licences to MNCs for their operation in Singapore. The licence can be revoked if the government wants. The government then demands that MNCs do unpopular things, e.g. hire foreign workers instead of Singaporeans. Singaporeans get upset. But who should they be blaming? The MNCs – who will be forced to leave if they don’t comply – or the government?
I think both the public and the MSM are victims of Singapore’s low press freedom ranking, and it is not helpful to pit the former against the latter.
That’s seem to be the norm in Singapore when comes to government related matters (especially un-welcome matters) the press some how dig it out. Then the government got no choice but to either dispelled it or confirmed it. We all also know that our anti-corruption agency don’t make any arrest unless they are sure of making the offence stick. Irony !!!!
In functioning democracy, the government comprises the executive branch (made up of the ministers and PM) who ensure that the laws and statutes passed by the law-makers (namely, the MPs from all parties) are implemented. The role of the judicial (comprising the judges and the Chief Justice) is to uphold the laws of the land with fear nor favour and the Police is to maintain law and order while the Army is to defend the country against external aggression that may change our system of governance.
In a first world democracy, the free press(there is a reason it is called “free press”) is independent and its job is to objectively report what happens as long at it deem it news-worthy for its readers…..again without fear nor favour.
If the above are not working the way it should be, we can draw our conclusions and arrive at the common denominator.
CEO of ST Electronics is a ex-Army general, gahmen scholar.
SAD. They can never be trusted. Fortunately, we have the on-line media. Cheers.
For any reasonable person to analyse this case, the govt is not very forthcoming about the crimes committed by the top two officials from govt sector.
On the onset, investigation has started in mid Dec 11 on one of the duo but the MSM has kept silent over the investigation. In addition, the govt would have known n failed to make a public announcement. Why?? Any hidden agenda??? Do not want to stir the emotives of Singaporeans? Dr Teo dares tell the media recently that he would not want to announce until such time that concrete evidence is obtained against the duo. The fact that one of the duo has been called up by CPIB in mid Dec11 shows that sufficient evidence has been gathered to call a person up for interrogation. Dont tell Singaporeans that CPIB is incapable! It is least of all n we know that CPIB is capable n when they call someone up, they have already gathered sufficient evidence to put a person under arrest.
In the paper on 26 Jan 12, more info started to surface. Such info as tender process in the govt sector. This shows that the duo will be charged along corruption in the tender n procurement inadequacy in MHA. How many times such corruptiob matters had arisen?? Had not the govt learned from the SLA case?? How much if taxpayers monies are lost by the govt inadequacies?? It is very sad to know that this corruption case is related to weak internal control on the tender n procurement processes in the govt sector. We can have processes in place but we have no adequate n frequents checks n rely heavily on the trusted officials to discharge their duties. Who is to be blamed??
One has to first grapple with this reality? Who appoints the chief judge, who appoints top position in many ministries?
Common sense is enough to know that in any nation, when there is this lack of an independent ombudsman or where it is governed by a one-party rule, the system is inherently flawed.
Hence this fear of two-party or anything that bears the semblance of checking and balancing!
@Fugazzi
Well said! Totally agree with you!
How much trust can we place in the Ultimate party who claimed to be capable of putting checks on themselves?! It’s as good as letting a hungry and greedy monkey guard the peanuts!!
PAP is reaping what it sowed.
Over the past decades, PAP has put in much efforts to create an environment where money is everything & all PAP-chosen top talents in singapore should get & must get the most.
What do singaporeans expect when the PAP ministers themselves are always asking for more monies for themselves.
It’s only natural that those people working for PAP will want the same.
This current corruption cases also demonstrate that PAP is not managing the systems & their chosen people well.
It shows that people-who-passed-examinations-well do not equal people-who-can-work nor people-with-integrity.
Expect more cases in the near future.
Watch the auditor-general annual report closely!!
They were probably not paid enough. That is, if we are to believe that warped logic concocted by the PAP…
These two top men from our most venerated civil service, who were nurtured and groomed by the MIW with government scholarships, generous allowances and high salaries, are being accused for corrupt practices.
My questions are, can our high flying top civil service servants are worthy of our trust, is it just the tip of the iceberg, what are other dirts that are hidden under the carpet.
One thing is for sure, money alone cant buy loyalty, honesty and patriotism.
True that one cannot check on oneself.
Do we need more evidence?
Proof already that high pay can never guarantee good characters or very high morals. On the contrary the gov’s high pay theory actually encourage the feelings of being worth more than they deserve. Excellent EXCUSE for corruption to breed!
all this while singtech/temasick inc has been givin undertable money to clinch any deals from bataam to south africa
who do not know that..please raised your toes………..
do you all know why china been brinin so many governments’ kids to singapoor?
to study english?
from ere its transfer dirty money thru atm machines and atm cash transfers got eyes to see mey?
Don’t worry PM will appoint another Committee of Enquiry for this incident.
He is VERY GOOD at this , this I am very,very sure ! At least !
I oso not that Daft !
1) When ‘competitive’ private sector salary is the underlying principle for rewarding those in power, what do you get? More money + power = greed.
2) When there is no equivalent of a ‘freedom of information’ legislation/right, what do you get? Stonewalled/lack of transparency/lack of accountability.
3) when there is no culture of strong corporate governance, no whistle-blower mechanisms in place, corruption is inevitable. If structural detection mechanisms are not in place, can we just leave it to ‘trust’ that the system the powers that be puts in place, works’?
3) The govt will now SPIN these incidents into:
– our system efficiently & without
fear or favor, weed out corruption;
– these incidents are ‘isolated’ incidents, and civil servants are generally ‘incorruptible’.
– It would have been worst if we didn’t pay ministers & civil servants a ‘competitive’ salary.
So these are the Talent PAP is talking about. Thanks to these two gentlemen, hopefully Singaporean could finally wake up to the reality what PAP is doing. Their concept of high paying civil servant is nothing but legalized corruption. And the so called talent are nothing but a bunch of yes men(and women) recruited to fill up the empty space in the Parliament. Do they really want to serve the people and their country? will any of them willing to give up their pay and stay to serve?(like the government in Italy), the news today reported that the two were out on bails, but the amount of the bails are not to reveal, WHY? where is the transparency? these are civil servant, they serve the public, the public has the right to know the details, has the government forgotten that the people are the boss of the government, it is our tax money that pay them their salaries. From SMRT to the two civil servant, we see how in-efficient PAP had run out country. They couldn’t solve the economic problem and all they could think of is casino. We need people like Goh Keng Swee, not a bunch of hand picked yes men and women.
The 60.1% SG easy to forget.Can someone compile & upload to TOC or TR in 2015-2016 GE campaign.
Should include the increase of taxi fare,bus fare,PUB bills.Also train breakdown,minisister’s salary debate,two top Govt official had been arrested & many more yet to come.
Where is the accountability? What is going on? Mind-boggling that top civil servants are now in ‘hot soup”. Recent cases of misapprioprating large sums of monies by civil servants are puzzling indeed. Surely there s something fundamentally wrong in our country’s infrastrature.
What can we expect?
After 20 years of PAP type of scholars; Scholars when ask to write policy papers; the 1st thing that cross their minds is “What is the position of the Minister and the Party?”
So we have a generation of Yes men.
And in last 20 years, some of these Yes men became ministers unlike their predecessors who were not brought up in a Yes men system 40 to 50 years ago.
Now becoming a big time PAP scholar come with big money, special privileges, power, etc.
How not to fall?
How not to focus on self & Party interests at the expenses of Singaporeans & long-term interests of the nation?
More and more bootlickers are/will be running Singapore.
In the recent news today, it was announced that Mr Edwin Tong will raise this issue with the minister in charge on why he feels that it is not an appropriate time to announce this case to public earlier ie mid Dec 11. I hope this is not a case of ‘role play’ amongst the PAPies. Why dont the minister be forthright with the Singaporeans by telling us that it was his mistake that this serious case was not made public earlier. I believe Singaporeans had enough of such acts that the ruling party had put up to Singaporeans. It is time that they should eat the humble pie. Once trust is lost, it will take time to regain!!
If Systems n Processes can fail in the public sectors, has the govt thought about the govt-linked companies under Temasek Holdings?? Will they suffer the same fate? Did anyone look into their systems n processes?
Just 1 Question.
What is the sg MSM ranked in the world?
Ranked well or badly?
I rest my case.
Bonus.
Around the corner.
Humanity.
By the way, no one should be so stupid as to fall into a trap by assuming these 2 will eventually be found guilty.
There is no money involved.
regards
Mr Yaw Kimochi Des Neh
The speeches by the PAP over the ministerial salaries shows how determined they are to get as much as possible within the framework of the Law.Unfortunately these two top officials have no legal way to get the money they feel they deserve. So they simply put their hands into the till. In a money culture anything goes, just get the money. I recall there were a previous case of two top officials of the LTA similarly stealing big money just a few months ago.Maybe an epidemic has struck the top brass in S. Following the call of the piper? Money seems so easy to get if you are in a position of authority. The PM knows that his cohorts will not be able to control themselves over the opportunities to steal big money, that’s why he pays them over the moon. And in the process he gets to the moon too.
Thirty years ago LKY closed down a half dozen newspapers and bought over SPH which runs the mainstream media. What is so surprising about the mainstream media’s silence over this latest case of stealing big time?
Of course they would release it late. Do you think they are dumb enough to release it during the debate on ministerial salaries?????
“Thirty years ago LKY closed down a half dozen newspapers and bought over SPH which runs the mainstream media. What is so surprising about the mainstream media’s silence over this latest case of stealing big time?”
……..writes Son of S
HEAR HEAR. The gahmen has the lap dog ST in its pocket. And ST Editors have no b***s..but to do nothing else but follow.
So whats new then!!
Where does the buck stop this time ? I guess not the minister in charge fault again. “What to do if the people in my ministry do this what can I do, right ? “They supposed to be scholars you know and we paid them very well.” “What to do not my fault okay !” “More money means no corruption.”
The ‘main stream media’ nicely put, (or The Shit Times they called it) will soon die a natural death, killed by none other than their own goodself.
We really do not need the printed paper anymore with the internet,The Shit Times will be redundant soon.
This time round it is not about ‘money no enough’, but more likely ‘sex no engouh’, so PAP is not totally at fault.
To our top civl servants, money does not equate to sex directly as they need to behave as a public figure. Understandably, most of them will not be visiting places of entertainment, and, will be starved of sex (outside their normal marriage).
In fact, PAP can start looking into providing ‘sex incentives’ peg to GDP growth to our top local cival servants, so that they will not be tempted by sexual offers in their course of work!
this delaying tactic is quite like the tainted milk scandal in China. after they won big during Olyumpics then the news went full scale.
so much for demanding accountability on WP. mere-”sin”-naries. somemore got people can say WP’s CSM gave MIWs his approval.
is this just the tip of the iceberg? since S’pore’s civil service culture is ingrained over decades.
i would hazard a guess, like making people pay hefty fines for littering. its selective enforcement at best, otherwise why would S’poreans be blamed for choking the culverts when Ochard Rd flooded? the fines would be more than enough to clear the culverts up.
Now the whole world knows why our first Chief Minister, David Marshall, called the MSM prostitutes; but most of us think that is an insult on prostitutes.
Great write-up!
@notalone
I agree with you that sex is a whole new dimension left un-monitored and unsatisfied by the pay schemes of the ruling party and its top civil servants. From the point of view of evolutionary biology, the fittest in the species are those who earn the most and have the most access to sex. On their own our staid officials have a hard time fulfilling the void in this dimension. They may yet dream that along with the handsome paycheck is a discreet ticket to the ultimate pleasure crafted by evolutionary forces.
Even doctors like surgeons in govt hospital
Like ttsh,sgh…gets sponsorship for overseas trips with business class air tickets to America or brazil.
This is common and approved by the hospital and department.
The surgeon on paper is not expected to give the company who sponsor him any business but why would they sponsor you if there is no business…
You use the company product you get sponsorship.. You want sponsorship you have to carry on using the company product to let them earn money…
Same everywhere
mY Company used to sent Lecturer overseas to “inspect” goods & educational tour.
Sori, 2 day ardy “folded up” & “disbanded”.
To those Pte Companies doing same, please cover your own “ass” by insisting that “they” (your client, Pte or Public )provide you a Black & White letter that “permission & Clearance” had ardy been Sort from Management & relevant Authorities for such trips.
What & How “they” do it is entirely their own Business.
Excellent write-up, Ravi. Thanks
This case may be just the tip of the iceberg which there may have other similar unknown cases in the public sector involving greed and others such as extra-martial affair between a supervisor and a subordinate.
Hope that the govt mete out seriously on this case so as to send a strong message to other public officers that they should behave themselves professionally and ethically and stop immediately if they are involved in any immoral or inappropriate acts.
The main stream Media is a Tool for the PAP…Everyone knows It.
I think it’s naive for toc to think that bloggers were the ones pressuring govt. It was wanbao who wanted to publish the story and they pressured the official channels. It was only when wanbao got credible independent sources that they told govt to give them more details or they would let fly their version, which might be inaccurate. So govt gave in and gave them stories to run.
@naive: You seem to be more naive to think that Wanbao pressured the government. When the sanctioned press gets leads on the government, they can write in to the related government agencies to verify and the related ministry or agency must reply to the them. The press can say that if they don’t get a response by XX number of days, they will run the story and say that the related government agencies have not responded. There are many ways to break a story without running afoul of the law. And the press failed badly in this area. I mean one month to publish the story?
There were some rumours in late 2010 that a top CID officer was under investigation by CPIB. It was at this time that Ng Boon Gay was shifted to CNB (Feb 2011). Was that transfer due to the current news?
The discerning public, including many who are civil servants and GLC employees, are fully aware of the role the MSM plays in Singapore. The problem is we are not a critical mass yet to really be impacting outcomes, though social media is recognised by the ruling regime to be a potent force. The 60% of the voting public are still hoodwinked by the MSM. Hopefully 2016 will be a watershed time when MSM will no longer hold sway over the voting public.
This episode again reinforces what is already an open secret….that all the local mainstream media (MSM) are just lap dogs of MIW.
This is likely what transpired…..MSM seek permission from MIW to publish the arrests and MIW said NO. Obviously, MIW wants the ministerial salary parliamentary debate to be over before allowing MSM to publish.
Ironically, PAP Vikram Nair recently accused TOC, TRE and bloggers of deliberately “mis-quoting” PAP cadre in an attempt to discredit them. Vikram Nair should check his own party’s public relations department (i.e. SPH)
1. The hiding, cover up of the MSM is truly more despicable than the actual act of corruption.
2. Do we want the MDA to issue another license to another operator to free up the monopoly which is The Straits Times ?
I met Peter Lim, ex Editor in Chief (1978) of The Straits Times at the signing of the Singapore Chronicles back in Apr 2011. I asked him point blank if he can envision another parallel print media allowed by the side of The Straits Times.
His response was telling – the powers that is will NOT allow this happen.
If PAP is in power, the chairman of SPH will be a Cabinet Minister and there will be only 1 Print Media.
You will hear what they want you to hear…the truth is what they say it is and even if not, repeated enough times, it becomes the truth.
Who is next?
The media had no qualms about reporting Martyn See kena lim kopi even though investigations were still ongoing…so why the double standards when it’s one of theirs?
SDCF and CNB heads sure have alot of talented civil servants . ha ha Give them high pay they still steal. The real problem is who pick them in the first place. Someone in high place sure know how to judge characters or they are damn good actors(two-faced cheat) The ROT HAVE BEGAN ! WE ARE GOING DOWN A SLOPPY ROAD ! everything is falling apart under the great leader!
Name (required)27 January 2012
Who is next?
…………….
so simple yet sound so difficult mey?
all CPIB/CSI/SBI/ICAC hav to do is to do a backtrace on the SAME singtech IT supplier who supplied IT hardwares to the government ministries…if Civil defence/CNB department is guilty as charged..other government ministries clean bill of health mey?
imagined this scenerio.. i as head buy from singtech million$ of dollar$ hardwares…a 1% markedup/undertable money seem obvious mey?
i come across numerous dealin/purchasin in other country who buy by the million$ get a minimum kickbacks of $10,000 is siap siap suey small small water
It is good that this ‘controlled’ media and ‘free press’ is surfaced. Clearly it is not right to withold facts to advance a party’s agenda in passing the ministerial salary proposal. Let this be discussed in parliament, dear MPs.
Balji should have known what happened the last time with the Minister of Home Affairs when the press get scolded upside down for reporting facts.
Or was Balji not in the room at that time?
Balji, you didn’t mention about that old incident. How about mentioning it now?
This is a diversionary tactic to distract us from the ministerial debate. The heat would be too great for them otherwise.