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Author Archive
Press Muse – Boilerplate Nationalism
Apr. 5 | Spiegel Staying or quitting? Somehow then-prime minister Goh Chok Tong’s hypocritical comments in 2002 has endured as a dialectical signpost of Singapore’s fledging nationhood. Immigration may claim the lion’s share of headlines in an...
Press Muse – Grafting numbers
Dec. 11 | Spiegel - Channel NewsAsia on Friday (10 December) ran a story on its website about Transparency International’s 2010 Global Corruption Barometer. Refreshingly, this time the story didn’t bear all good tidings, as the headline suggests: Singapore...
Press Muse – Friends with benefits
Dec. 3 | Spiegel - Don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed many an itchy back recently. It’s an endemic and mostly mild condition, but occasionally it flares up and a kindred spirit has to swoop in to offer a comforting scratch. Singapore’s...
Press Muse – K Shanmugam, literary gymnast
Nov. 11 | Spiegel - So newly minted Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam (who is concurrently Law Minister) has been hitting the lecture circuit again, sharing with the world finer intricacies of running Singapore Inc. You may recall his earlier venture in October...
Press Muse – The Numbers Tell No Story
Nov. 3 | Spiegel - UPDATE – 3 November, 2040hrs Wednesday’s (3 November) print edition of the Straits Times’ story provides some basic details on the survey that was missing from the online version published Tuesday evening. In a infobox placed...
Press Muse – Servility to higher powers
Sep. 10 | Spiegel - The Christian Post Singapore published on its website Tuesday (7 September) an intriguing article titled “NCCS Workshop Prepares Churches to Engage Press“. It covered an event organised by the National Council of Churches of Singapore...
Press Muse – Ivory tower irony in last-gasp YOG pitch
Jul. 27 | Spiegel - The Straits Times yesterday (26 July) ran a curious little piece on its review pages. Tucked into a bottom left, quarter-page slot, an NUS academic asked in an op-ed, with discomfiting earnestness: “The YOG is coming. Are you excited...
Don’t focus solely on GDP growth, NMP says
Jul. 24 | Wong Chun Han - Used under Creative Commons licence Singapore should cut its focus on economic growth and measure its progress with socio-economic indicators apart from the gross domestic product, a nominated member of parliament said Monday. “The changed...
Press Muse – Oh what a tangled Web
Jul. 23 | Spiegel - Eons ago, an Invisible Magic Friend raised some luscious, fertile trees yet thought it inappropriate to share their goodness. So he told his young ‘uns to lay off, or risk death. But seriously, who could turn down something so expressedly...
Swiss train vandal given 5mths jail and 3 strokes of cane
Jun. 25 | Swiss national Oliver Fricker has been sentenced to five months in jail and three strokes of the cane, after pleading guilty to spray-painting two train carriages and for trespassing into Changi train depot. A third charge for cutting the fence at the...
6,700 S’poreans’ foreign spouses denied long-term visit pass or PR each year
May. 25 | The TODAY newspaper article headlined “Longer wait, harder to get PR or citizenship” (Today, 19 May) was amended on 19 May at 1615hrs. The second last paragraph of the story originally stated: “As for foreign spouses of Singaporeans, the ICA...
CPF: can’t withdraw more at 55 even with property pledge?
May. 23 | The CPF Minimum Sum (MS) is the amount a member has to set aside in his or her Retirement Account (RA) for retirement needs. The RA is set up when a member reaches 55 years of age, drawing from savings in the Ordinary and Special accounts (OA and SA respectively)....
Singaporeans’ rights to social security and public housing
May. 14 | Social security Singaporean workers have to make mandatory contributions of up to 34.5 per cent of their wages to their own individual pension accounts (the Central Provident Fund accounts). The government issues non-marketable government bonds at 2.5...
Good news about jobs almost everyday, really?
May. 5 | Counter offers of higher pay for the “best workers” or “workers”? I refer to the report “3 out of 5 firms in Singapore will make counter offers when employee resigns” (Channel News Asia, 4 May). Almost everyday, there is news of a booming...
Workers’ Party Labour Day Message
May. 1 | The Workers’ Party is pleased to note that the sub-prime crisis affecting Singapore is behind us and the economy appears to be on track to a healthy recovery. The Workers’ Party is of the view that it is time for employers to reward workers for the...
PAYM forum: Now I know why flats are “affordable”? (Part 2)
Apr. 14 | This is the second part of my report on the People’s Association Youth Movement (PAYM) policy forum @ Jurong GRC, which took place on Sunday (11 April). The discussion, entitled “HDB Flats: Towering Pinnacles, sky-high prices?”, was attended by...
PAYM policy forum: now I know why flats are “affordable”? (Part 1)
Apr. 12 | I attended the People’s Association Youth Movement (PAYM) policy forum @ Jurong GRC on Sunday (11 April). The discussion, entitled “HDB Flats: Towering Pinnacles, sky-high prices?”, was attended by about 50 people. The three speakers...
Press Muse – Calling STOMP’s bluff
Apr. 4 | By Spiegel Once upon a time, when laypersons chance upon information they deem of relevance to a wider audience, they’d be inclined to pay deference to the professionals – they couldn’t disseminate the information themselves anyway. So they...
Judges reserve judgement in Yong’s mandatory death penalty appeal
Mar. 15 | By Wong Chun Han The Court of Appeal reserved judgement today in the case of convicted Malaysian drug mule Yong Vui Kong, who has challenged the constitutionality of the mandatory death sentence he received. Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong told a packed...
Press Muse – Singaporeans dreaming
Mar. 13 | By Spiegel Writer and historian James Truslow Adams once imagined a meritocratic wonderland. A society defined by the noble aspiration he called the American Dream. Drawing from the United States Declaration of Independence and its recognition of “inalienable...
The story of a boy
Mar. 13 | Yong Vui Kong’s appeal hearing takes place at 10am on Monday, 15 March 2010. By Andrew Loh Yong Vui Kong was 12 when he left his grandfather’s palm oil estate “deep in the forests of Sabah” in Malaysia to strike it out on his own. He had had...
Budget should be more inclusive, change workplace culture to boost productivity, NMP says
Mar. 5 | By Wong Chun Han Singapore’s Budget 2010 fails to address concerns of lower-income Singaporeans, while cultural and societal attitudes need to be adjusted for the productivity drive to work, Nominated Member of Parliament Viswa Sadasivan said Tuesday. “The...
Not all foreign workers are counted?
Mar. 2 | By Leong Sze Hian I refer to media reports (“Resorts World Sentosa say 70% of its over 8,000 staff are S’poreans, PRs”, Channel News Asia, 17 February) that Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) said that 70 per cent of its staff strength of over...
Press Muse – Love thyself, ignore thy neighbour
Mar. 2 | By Spiegel “He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals,” said ‘leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, soldier, and diplomat’ (so claims Wikipedia) Benjamin...
HDB: 95 per cent happy with their flats – really, or just half the story?
Feb. 22 | By Leong Sze Hian I refer to the article “HDB residents happy where they live – over 95% surveyed satisfied with their flats and neighbourhood” (Asiaone, 18 February). I believe the statistic for the number of foreigners staying in HDB flats...
