A charitable cause

Tan Kin Lian / Senior Writer

During the past two years, several high profile charities in Singapore have come under the spotlight. They were involved in financial and administrative irregularities. These notable cases are the National Kidney Foundation, Youth Challenge and the Ren Ci Hospital.

People wonder, “What is happening here? Why are we facing these irregularities in a clean, corruption-free place like Singapore?”

Perhaps, it suggests some major weaknesses in the Singapore system.

Welfare

The problem starts with the Government’s view that welfare is bad and can be abused. The Government restricts the funds that can be used for welfare. There is a belief that the voluntary and charitable sector can take better care of the needy and poor and provide the assistance in a more efficient manner. Read more

$1.5m to help needy cope with inflation

The following is a media release by NTUC Fairprice which was received by The Online Citizen.

NTUC FairPrice Foundation Contributes S$1.5 million to Help Needy Cope with Rising Cost of Living

Contribution is part of the FairPrice Million Dollar Food Voucher Scheme

Today (20 July, 2008), NTUC FairPrice Foundation, a registered charity 100 percent funded by NTUC FairPrice, presented S$1.5 million worth of FairPrice vouchers, under the FairPrice Million Dollar Food Voucher Scheme, to help needy families all across Singapore cope with the impact of rising cost of living.

To mark the occasion, NTUC FairPrice Chairman Mr Ng Ser Miang, who is also Chairman of NTUC FairPrice Foundation, presented a cheque representing S$1.5 million worth of FairPrice vouchers to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Racial Harmony Fiesta@Jalan Kayu. Prime Minister Lee was present to grace the event as the Guest-of-Honour. Read more

Why so silent, PAP Town Councils?

Andrew Loh / Deputy Editor

In this time of record inflation, rising costs and record fuel prices, why aren’t the Town Councils, especially the PAP-run ones, doing anything to help residents cope?

The PAP town councils together have more than $1 billion in their sinking funds, with millions invested in shares and corporate bonds, as reported in the media recently.

The Hong Kah Town Council, for example, “has about $150 million in its sinking fund, with one-third invested in government bonds returning 2 to 3 per cent. Another third is in short-term fixed deposits with returns of 1.5 to 3 per cent, with the rest handled by fund managers.” (Straits Times, Dec 2, 2007)

According to Creative Technology’s (CT) annual report, Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council (HBPTC) was listed as one of the majority shareholders with 530,000 shares currently valued at about $3.2 million. (The Online Citizen).

One then would have to ask: What are these investments and their returns or yields used for, if not to help residents in time of need? In all the reports that I have read, none have clarified what these returns are for. Read more

Fighting inflation - suggestions for the Govt

Leong Sze Hian / Senior Writer

I refer to the article “Tharman: Pay rises no cure for inflation” (ST, Jul 10).

It states that “Singapore must guard against a second round of inflation, which could happen if wages are raised to keep pace with price increases”.

Employers have been urged by the National Wages Council to make one-off lump sum payments to tide their workers through this period of economic difficulty.

Civil servants were paid an extra bonus recently to help them cope with inflation.

The private sector is also being encouraged now to pay an extra month’s bonus to help their employees.

So, what should employers do now? Read more

A day in the life

Signs of life in the usually moribund political landscape

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a week is a long time in politics, though this rule of thumb isn’t uniform everywhere. Judging by the intense drama across the Causeway, for instance, twenty-four hours in Malaysia seems like nothing short of an entire epoch.

On the other hand, Singapore’s unit of political time is probably much longer. Politics in Singapore tends to unfold at a glacial pace under the hegemony of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), which has left little room for the kind of competitive politics that features in other countries in the region. That’s probably spared Singapore from the worst excesses of politicking, but the upshot is the curious spectacle of political debate being confined to the forum pages of a newspaper or to the nether regions of the Internet.

Yet since this column last examined the prospects of the Opposition some months ago, there have been signs of the political scene in Singapore stirring from its usual hibernation in between elections. Notably, there has been a visible increase in media coverage and debate over issues such as free speech, human rights and democracy. Read more

Navigating Singapore’s new media environment

Below is Gerald Giam’s speech at the Reel Revolution learning talk, organised by The Substation, on 12 July 2008.

Gerald Giam | Deputy Editor

Singapore was ranked 153^rd out of 195 countries by Freedom House, in its 2008 report on media freedom. A similar report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Singapore 141^st out of 169 countries. RSF said that Singapore’s low ranking stemmed from “the complete absence” of independent print and broadcast media and the opposition’s lack of access to those media.

My view is that while Singapore certainly does not have the freest local media in the world, there are plenty of alternative sources of news that Singaporeans can choose from.

Instead of despairing about how “unfree” our media is, I’d like to share with you how much more we, ordinary Singaporeans, can do with the freedoms we have, to carve out a more desirable media environment for Singapore. Read more

Anwar Ibrahim’s press statement

From the office of Anwar Ibrahim.

On Saturday, 12-07-2008, the police came to my house to serve a Section 111 Criminal Procedure Code notice, harassing my family and demanding my presence at the IPK Kuala Lumpur (Federal Territories Police headquarters) at 2pm on Monday, 14-07-2008 despite an earlier agreement with my lawyers for me to come to the IPK on Monday 14-07-2008. On the next day, Sunday, the police also served an ex-parte court order, prohibiting me from physically being within 5 km from the Parliament on Monday 14-07-2008. As you can see, my house and the IPK KL are within 5 km radius from the parliament building. The court order effectively put me under house arrest on Monday and at the same time prevented me from going to the IPK.On Monday,

14-07-2008, the presence of police personnel outside the compound of my house strengthened our suspicions that they would be prepared to arrest me as soon as I left the compound of my residence, on the pretext of me violating the court order. The issue here, is which order should I comply with, the ex-parte court order or the Section 111 notice from the police? Read more

An express alternative

Tan Kin Lian / Senior Writer

The Ministry of Transport is introducing a new fare system for public transport that is based on distance rather than the number of transfers. This will reduce one obstacle in the use of public transport, namely the high cost when several transfers are involved.

I hope that the change in system does not cost a large sum of money, as this will eventually be borne by the commuters through higher fares.

A simpler way is to increase the current rebate on transfers. This does not require a massive change to the fare computation system that needs to be installed on all the buses and train stations. Read more

Even if these men fail…

Andrew Loh

Reading about the Venerable Shi Ming Yi being charged for 10 counts of impropriety in handling funds collected through the Ren Ci charity organisation makes me very sad indeed. (Yahoo News)(CNA)

Venerable Ming Yi’s case follows that of Catholic priest Joachim Kang and the National Kidney Foundation’s (NKF) Chief Executive TT Durai. All three were trusted by members of the public and had collected millions in donations. Ren Ci and the NKF are two of the biggest and well-known charity organisations in Singapore.

While the monk’s guilt is yet to be ascertained, Durai and Kang were found guilty and were given prison sentences.

What is happening to our society, when even such men fail? Read more

Letters to TOC

Freedom of expression

Letter to The Economist by K. Bhavani, Press Secretary to the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts (Mica).

SIR – Contrary to your article about politics on the web, no bloggers have been jailed in Singapore for “posting materials that those in power dislike” (”Blog standard“, June 28th). There is no such offence under Singaporean law and many websites post highly critical views of the government. However, two bloggers have been jailed and another put on probation for posting virulently racist remarks that could damage racial harmony. Singapore is a multiracial, multireligious society, yet its threshold as to what is objectionable in such matters is higher than in some European countries, which make it an offence to deny the Holocaust. Read more

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