Andrew Loh

A recent public forum about youth concerns raised the issue of lowering the voting age to 18.

———

Perhaps a post-1965 Member of Parliament might initiate the debate to enfranchise these trustees of our posterity.

- Andy Ho, Senior Writer, Straits Times, May 8, 2008, “If old enough for NS, why not the vote?”

The above are quotes from Ho’s article. The first one is the very first line of his piece, and the second one the very last sentence from it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dear everyone,

We are featuring four articles and a video this weekend. To allow our readers easy access to them, here is a summary:

Singaporean activists mark World Press Freedom Day 2008

To mark World Press Freedom Day 2008, a group of Singaporean independent activists held a demonstration outside the Singapore Press Holdings’ News Centre building on May 3.

Youths call for right to vote at Youthquake forum

The Workers’ Party Youth Wing (YPYW) launched its inaugural YouthQuake forum series today on the topic “Should Singaporean Youths be Allowed to Vote at 18?” The public forum, targeted at youths, took place at the party’s headquarters in Syed Alwi Road.

James Gomez gives TOC exclusive update

James Gomez, an opposition candidate in the general elections in 2006, is in Singapore currently. TOC met up with him and asked him what he’s been up to. (Video) We apologise for the slight noise in the background in the video.

Homophobia Part 1: MDA censors the family

Writer Ng Yi Sheng gives his take on the Media Development Authority’s fine on Mediacorp for broadcasting a programme on Channel Five which Showed “an episode of a home and décor programme named Find and Design that happened to feature two men in a loving relationship, converting their game room into a nursery for their new adopted baby.”

Homophobia Part 2: Under attack from the police

Yi Sheng relates how the police raided a “gay sauna”, named One Seven, last Friday. “Though none of the clients were arrested, the 74 year-old owner, Sam was injured by the supervising officer and arrested and jailed overnight for allegedly having assaulted the officer, a charge that he denies.”

——————

TOC will also be featuring a write up by Gerald Giam on Viswa Sadasivan’s speech which included the issues of leadership in government and the local media.

Also, coming soon on TOC will be well-known psychotherapist Anthony Yeo’s article on the Mas Selamat issue and what needs to be done before Singaporeans can “move on”.

It’s an interesting week for TOC and hopefully also for you, our readers. Some of the articles contain, undoubtedly, controversial issues. It is our hope that everyone here will engage in civil and respectful discourse and avoid name-calling or profanities.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who have responded to our call to join us. It is indeed very heartening and encouraging to see fellow Singaporeans offering to give us a hand.

We also thank those of you who have written in to us with words of support.

Lastly, TOC will be moving to a new site with a new layout soon - as we approach our 1,000,000th hit in the stats count. We’re looking at perhaps end of this week. So if you visit our site and find it looking different, don’t worry.

It’s just the new TOC.

Thanks, everyone!

Regards,

Andrew Loh

On behalf of the editorial team.

—————–

TOC spends 5 minutes with Leong Sze Hian and asks him for his views on the issue of NTUC FairPrice’s discount vouchers for needy Singaporeans.

(Reference: Straits Times report – “FairPrice extends 5% discount to end-July”.)

TOC: In the Straits Times report – referenced above - NTUC Chief Lim Swee Say announced that NTUC Fairprice will be extending the discounts on NTUC housebrand products till the end of July this year. He said that “the discounts cost the supermarket chain $4.5 million in all” and that “it was a ‘big stretch’ on FairPrice’s bottom line.”

Is it true that the $4.5m it costs FairPrice is a “big stretch on FairPrice’s bottom line”? What was Fairprice’s profits last year?

Sze Hian: NTUC FairPrice’s profits increased by 89 per cent from $53 million in 2006 to $100 million in 2007. (Fairprice.com – pdf file)

Read the rest of this entry »

Breaking News: PM Lee says ministers shouldn’t be automatically removed for lapses down the line. More from Channel NewsAsia.

The following is an aggregation of reactions from the Internet to the Committee Of Inquiry’s report and DPM Wong’s statement on Mas Selamat’s escape.

Diary of A Singaporean Mind – Mas Selamat: 3 steps to freedom

“Shame on you conspiracy theorists - Mas Selamat did not die, Mas Selamat did not have insider help, Mas Selamat did not go through the toilet bowl. He simply climb out of the toilet window and jumped over the fence. That’s it! Nothing to it - simple….THE END…THAT’S ALL FOLKS….”

Read the rest of this entry »

Video of Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng giving an account in Parliament of the events leading up to Mas Selamat Kastari’s escape.

For more videos of today’s Parliamentary proceedings, visit Channel NewsAsia.

International news reports
Reuters: Militant escaped without trousers, remains in Singapore
Associated Press: Singapore details terror suspect escape
Forbes: Investor confidence in Singapore unshaken despite terrorist’s escape - minister

International Herald Tribune: Singapore says terrorism suspect escaped through bathroom

———–

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is scheduled to make a ministerial statement in Parliament tomorrow about “government responsibility” with regards to Mas Selamat Kastari’s escape from detention.

PM Lee had taken 11 days after the escape to make his first comments on the matter in March.

Below is a brief recap of what the PM, DPM and MM have said so far.

What will the prime minister say tomorrow in Parliament?

February 28

DPM Wong Kan Seng

“This should have never have happened. I am sorry that it has.” (Link)

March 9

PM Lee:

“This was a lapse, what to do, it’s happened.” (Link)

April 5

MM Lee:

“Complacency sets in when a people have not suffered any shock or setback for a long time, as in Singapore without jihadist terror attacks, although we have ceaselessly talked about it and prepared out (sic) defence.”

“Most people believe that bad things will happen to others, not to themselves.” (Link)

————-

TOC speaks to filmmaker Martyn See about the Media Development Authority (MDA) granting a NC16 rating for his film “Speakers Cornered”.

Martyn gives his views in this email interview with theonlinecitizen (TOC).

TOC: Did you expect the MDA to give your film a rating instead of disapproving it altogether?

Martyn See: I was pretty confident that it wouldn’t be banned as the film was a straighforward recording of an event. There are equal amount of screen time for the police and the protesters so it would be a stretch to call it a biased party political film. I put MDA between a rock and hard place with my submission. To ban it would certainly attract more bad press, especially after four films were already barred from SIFF last week, so I reckon they decided to relent this time around although it took them more than four months to make that call.

Read the rest of this entry »

For latest update – please see below

The YoungPAP has removed its “Night Cycling Event” item from its “Event Calendar” (sic) page on its website.

The item was previously listed in the folder “Event Calendar – YoungPAP”, under the month of July, as the event was reported to have taken place on the 28^th of July, 2007.

Theonlinecitizen had previously published an article titled “In Parliament: government’s reply poorly reasoned, insulting”. (link) The article had questioned why The Workers’ Party was not allowed to conduct a cycling event while the YoungPAP was allowed to.

In the article, we had also provided a screenshot of the page which carried the item “Night Cycling”. (Picture below, click to enlarge) MrBrown.com also has a screenshot of the page here.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Loh

It’s been a week since the media reported that transport operators have applied to the Public Transport Council (PTC) to increase transport fares.

If one has been reading the forum page of the main broadsheet, The Straits Times, one might be thinking that the announcement – or the fare hike itself - is such a non-event that no Singaporean is complaining about it to the press.

PTC Chairman Gerard Ee had confirmed with the media on August 1^st that the transport companies had applied to increase fares.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Lau Kee Wee

1. General tone: putting on a brave front

Patting each other on the back would seem to be the gist of his economic front. After all, Singapore did emerged stronger from SARS; terrorism; recessions; bird-flu into this current boom. Expect PM to remind us that much of the credit is due to our government’s foresight of structural changes, diversification of economy and the opening up of our economy.

2. STI Index

With the global credit market in a flunk, and with the STI losing about 10% over the past 2 weeks, I personally feel that there won’t be too much tough talk. It’s also a good bet that there will be some soothing words regarding the credit markets and how Singapore will sail over this patch.

Read the rest of this entry »

A blog post by Young PAP member, Nicholas Lazarus, has generated reactions from bloggers. Below is a listing of some of the bloggers who have written responses to his blog article.

The article – titled “The Alternative Vision For Singapore (and I mean Alternative!)” – can be found here (Young PAP blog).

Below is a screenshot of the article and Lazarus’ subsequent comment, (click to enlarge):

Read the rest of this entry »

Word on the street is that one senior cabinet minister is rumored to be leaving his post. 

Some forum participants on the internet describe him as a compassionate person and a man of high morals. 

He is also known as a thinker. In the past, he had often delivered in-depth and thought-provoking speeches and analyses of Singapore society and world events, some of which were published in full in the mainstream media.  Of late, however, such discourses and publications seem to have ebbed somewhat.

His rumored departure, if true, will probably be one of the moves in the government’s cabinet reshuffle that we can expect with the forthcoming post-National Day cabinet changes.

If you know more and have some confirmation, TOC would love to hear it and carry it. 

For now, however, this is just a rumour and TOC has not and is not able to confirm any of it.